8/1/2022
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Range Media
The Spokesman-Review
Thor-Freya road construction beset by crime, contractor claims
Spokane City Council considers $27.8M in federal COVID-19 relief funds
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Range Media
Carl Segerstrom
Tammy McCray sits with her dog Jonah Happy McCray in the shade near her car and tent. Tammy stated she is on the Spokane Housing Authority's waiting list for a home of her own and hopes to move in this week. - At Camp Hope in Spokane, Wash. on Tuesday, July 26, 2022 (Erick Doxey for RANGE Media)
HEAT WAVE DAY 7 | The biggest needs are ice, Gatorade, large bottles of water, pet food, gauze, and pre-packaged food.
We've been checking in with our unhoused neighbors at Camp Hope every day during this heat wave to see how they’re faring and what they need. Read Day 1 here, Day 2 here, Day 3 here, Day 4 here, Day 5 here and Day 6 here.
To conclude our week-long coverage of the Camp Hope community through this heat wave, RANGE asked Camp Hope residents what is bringing them hope. Here’s what they shared about what is bringing them hope right now:
Melissa B.: “In each other, in Jewels (Julie Garcia) in the people that are actually willing to come out here and get to know us and get to know us not just as ‘oh just the homeless,’ because we’re not ‘oh just the homeless,’ we all have a backstory. Everyone of us has a story to why we are homeless and why we are out here. And it’s no different than any other person.”
“We find hope through the resources that do come up through Jewels (Garcia). Jewels is number one at coming through the camp and being like ‘come on guys, let’s do this’ when our hopes are down, when we’re all bummed out and we’re giving up.”
“What they want is for us to be hidden. Right now, if this cooling center wasn’t here, we’d have people who couldn’t make it.”
“The hope comes from each other, if it wasn’t for our neighbors building us up, our friends, then there wouldn’t be hope.”
Camp Hope residents Melissa B. (left) and Karen Potter cool down in front of the swamp coolers inside the cooling tent at Camp Hope in Spokane, Wash. on Friday, July 29, 2022 (Erick Doxey for RANGE Media)
Patricia Stokes: “You got to have patience and I know it will happen soon. But just for something better, it’s not going to be too long, but I know something better will come along. But, definitely my kids give me hope.”
Chris Senn: “Seeing the good in some people. There's people in the community that just come out of nowhere and drop off like ice cream or cold drinks. I met a guy yesterday. He's a retired nurse, came through here and handed out bottles of water and washcloths.”
It's getting hard to keep hope, but you just can't give up.”
Chris Senn speaks with RANGE Media reporter Carl Segerstrom at Camp Hope in Spokane, Wash. on Thursday, July 28, 2022 (Erick Doxey for RANGE Media)
David Stephens: “What gives me hope is seeing these people at Camp Hope sticking together through the summer, being with each other, opening up to the community and just having fun – just caring.”
Bee Xiong Xtoyed: “I don’t know. I have no idea. It’s kind of tough for me right now. I’m at a loss for words.”
Kristen Gerloff: “Me and my husband are moving and I just got a job. We’re going to be moving soon to his home state – Arkansas. I put in applications and everything and they said when I get there just contact them – at the Waffle House. So, moving and having a job.”
Secily Dawnelle: “Different vendors giving really generous donations. Popsicles. The good bottles of water – the Life ones. I’ve seen people take one drink and the whole water bottle would be gone. If we could get more of those, maybe people wouldn’t be passing out in the street and stuff. And any good nutrition.
Izzy: “Look around you,” Izzy said, motioning to people gathered in the cooling shelter to take refuge from the 100-degree heat. “You have people who have nothing helping other people who have nothing. People who give without the expectation of anything in return, while still putting a smile on someone else’s face in the worst days of their lives. It can’t get better than that.”
To get involved in mutual aid and help out, go here.
—Additional reporting by Erick Doxey, edited by Valerie Osier
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The Spokesman-Review
Thor-Freya road construction beset by crime, contractor claims
By Greg Mason
Vandalism. Thefts. Threats with knives or other tools.
Cameron-Reilly LLC, the general contractor in charge of completing the ongoing reconstruction of Thor and Freya streets, claims those and other issues have plagued crews since the roadwork started in mid-March, with company ownership placing the blame on the Camp Hope homeless encampment at East Second Avenue and Ray Street.
Mike Reilly, an owner of Cameron- Reilly LLC, outlined his concerns in a July 19 letter to Mayor Nadine Woodward and the Spokane City Council. He did not return calls for comment.
“While we fully intend to finish this project on time, I can foresee issues if something is not done by the city in a timely manner,” he wrote.
The $8.9 million reconstruction of the Thor-Freya corridor, between Sprague and Hartson avenues, is scheduled to take place over seven phases into the fall, with the first three having taken place along Thor Street before flipping over to Freya.
The Camp Hope homeless encampment is just off Thor Street along a plot of land owned by the state Department of Transportation. The camp, now reportedly home to more than 600 people, wasn’t established when Cameron-Reilly placed a bid on the project in October, as it emerged in December out of a protest that was disbanded outside Spokane City Hall.
“We made our Proposal based upon the conditions that were in place at the time,” Reilly wrote. “Unfortunately, when we started the project in mid-March, we could not imagine the conditions in which we would be putting our employees and other subcontractors and their workers.”
The company leases WSDOT property for a locked storage yard, Reilly wrote in his letter.
Crews have since had issues “from day one,” with breakins that have resulted in either stolen or damaged construction materials and equipment, including solar panels, traffic signals, rebar and batteries, he said. He also reported instances of damaged portable toilets as well as thefts from work trucks and personal vehicles during the workday.
“Our team spends each morning accounting for lost items and cleaning up the many messes that were made the previous night,” wrote Reilly, who estimated the company spends an estimated $2,800 per week “on vandalism alone.”
Reilly wrote Camp Hope residents “are creating a very unsafe environment, especially for our female employees.”
He claims workers have been subjected to “vulgar and suggestive comments,” while needles found on the worksite have caused stoppages.
“While I sympathize with these homeless people and the unfortunate situation that they are in, I have to take steps to protect my business, employees, and subcontractors,” Reilly wrote in his letter to the city. “I hope you are continuing to look for solutions for this city issue.”
In May, the Spokane Police Department reported a marked increase in the number of calls for service in the area within a quarter-mile radius of the encampment, with police at the time saying the calls have ranged from medical to criminal.
Councilwoman Lori Kinnear acknowledged while crime has spiked in that area, “not everyone living at Camp Hope is a criminal.”
“Council and The City have prioritized finding solutions for the encampment and providing options to the 600+ homeless,” Kinnear said in a statement. “Council is patiently waiting for the opening of the Trent Shelter, and the sooner it opens, we anticipate it will reduce vandalism to local businesses and city construction equipment. I would also ask as SPD resources are available, they are used to mitigate the crime.”
The city’s plans for a new 150- to 250-bed homeless shelter on East Trent Avenue are an element of Spokane’s proposal for $24.3 million in funding offered by the state Department of Commerce through the Rights of Way initiative, a program aimed at relocating homeless individuals living at encampments along state rights of way into better living situations.
Public Works spokesperson Kirstin Davis said the city doesn’t have reason to doubt Reilly’s concerns.
Davis described Reilly’s issues as unusual, saying the staging areas and storage yards used in these sorts of projects aren’t typically disturbed. Davis said she is not aware of any change orders to the contract to accommodate the reported vandalism.
“We are doing everything we can to mitigate and to see where there’s ways that can be better,” Davis said. “At the end of the day, it’s just a tough situation. We’re trying to get the project done and it’s hard to navigate those kinds of situations, especially (since) it’s not something we’re used to.”
Work to watch for
Freya Street has been closed from Sprague to Hartson avenues as part of the reconstruction project. Two-way traffic has now been detoured to Thor Street.
The Wellesley Avenue eastbound turn lane at Wall Street in north Spokane will be closed on Tuesday.
The southbound and northbound curb lanes of Nevada Street between Princeton and Longfellow avenues near NorthTown Mall will be closed Tuesday.
The southbound curb lane of Crestline Street between Hoffman and Longfellow avenues will be closed Tuesday.
East Riverside Avenue between Sherman and Grant streets near the University District Gateway Bridge will close Monday through next month for installation of a sidewalk.
The National Night Out Against Crime is Tuesday, which will close Wall Street between Spokane Falls Boulevard and Main Avenue downtown from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.
City crews will be performing crack sealing on North Foothills Drive between Division and Hamilton streets. Greg Mason can be reached at (509) 459-5047 or gregm@spokesman.com.
Spokane City Council considers $27.8M in federal COVID-19 relief funds
By Greg Mason
The Spokane City Council is expected to vote Monday on how to spend another $27.75 million of the city’s share of federal COVID-19 relief funding.
The council has already allocated roughly $39.7 million of the approximately $81 million awarded to Spokane through the American Rescue Plan, the federal stimulus program passed by Congress last year to help the country recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The City Council’s allocations to date include $13.7 million approved in January, with much of that toward affordable housing, and $12.1 million passed in March for causes including homelessness services support, behavioral health programs and mobile medical clinics.
Here’s the list up for a vote Monday:
• $1.5 million split three ways to community centers on city-owned property: the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, the Northeast Community Center and the West Central Community Center.
• $2.4 million to cover one-time payments to each member of Local 270, the union that represents around 1,100 city workers in areas including street maintenance, trash collection and water
utility operations, as part of their contract approved by the City Council earlier this month; negotiated by the city administration and approved by the council, union members are each in line for $2,000 payments in lieu of higher pay raises, said Council President Breean Beggs.
• $5 million for scholarship assistance to all high school students in the city who graduate and attend an institution of secondary learning.
• $10 million, $5 million each, for grant programs supporting nonprofits and small businesses affected by COVID-19.
• $5 million for the capital cost of a new municipal justice center.
• $2.5 million for grants to neighborhood business district associations and other independent business associations for capital improvements, business improvement, procurement enhancement, marketing and branding services.
• $1 million for grants to organizations seeking to remodel, purchase or build multicultural centers in the city.
• $350,000 for administrative support related to distributing ARPA funds.
It’s possible Monday’s ordinance could also be adjusted to help cover cooling tent operations at the Camp Hope homeless encampment at Second Avenue and Ray Street. The tent, owned by Jewels Helping Hands, is operating through a grant provided by the Empire Health Foundation.
The latest list was decided by narrowing down priority projects compiled by each member of the City Council as well as Mayor Nadine Woodward’s administration. At a June study session, the City Council conducted a scoring exercise to help decide which requests should have the highest priority.
Here’s a breakdown of how some of that funding would be spent if approved:Community centers
The $1.5 million allocated to the three community centers for capital investments comes with something of a caveat. In exchange for the funds, the centers would agree to grant at least 100 square feet of office space and access to common areas to grassroots organizations at no cost to those groups.
The arrangement would last for the remainder of the community center’s lease agreement with the city or five years, whichever is longer.
“This is one-time money. Once it’s gone, it’s gone; it’s not going to reoccur and magically reappear,” Councilwoman Lori Kinnear said Thursday. “So I’m hoping that the community centers don’t have an expectation that if they use it to start a program or to pay
staff or whatever, there’s not more money coming. This is it.”
Specifically related to the Northeast Community Center, the $500,000 is meant to fund a new behavioral health clinic at the former Hillyard library building on North Cook Street.
As proposed, MultiCare would operate the Northeast Spokane Community Behavioral Health Clinic at 4005 N. Cook St., with referrals from the Northeast Community Center, which neighbors the former library.
The City Council committed the $500,000 in funding in March, though an exact source wasn’t identified at that time.
Higher education
The third batch of proposed funding also includes $5 million to support a $150 million program launched by Innovia to help all students in the Inland Northwest pay for college or vocational training. The Spokane-based community foundation announced the LaunchNW initiative in May, with goals of raising the funds through public and private sources to support scholarships and workforce training.
The $5 million would also support high school and college success services for city residents and administrative costs of the program from September 2022 through August 2026, according to City Council documents.
Municipal justice center
The City Council in May passed a resolution urging the city administration to negotiate a deal to buy the 252,000-square-foot campus use by Premera Blue Cross at 3900 E. Sprague Ave.
The council is interested in using the property as a municipal criminal justice center to house municipal court, court personnel, public defenders, prosecutors and criminal justice services. The initial plan was to also move the Spokane Police Department there, but police Chief Craig Meidl has since expressed his preference for a new police facility, Beggs said.
The $5 million included in Monday’s legislation would go toward the purchase of the campus.
The campus appeared off-the-market until recently, when a deal fell through and the property returned at a lower price, Beggs said. The deal would include a request for Premera to lease the property for 18 months to two years as they build a new campus in the Kendall Yards neighborhood.
“I think right now, it’s in the $10 million range,” Beggs said. “To replicate that building and the furniture for what we need for criminal justice would be something like $30 million or $40 million, so it’s a really good opportunity. It frees up a lot of money for us going forward for other criminal justice things.” Greg Mason can be reached at (509) 459-5047 or gregm@spokesman.com.
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