8/1/2022
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The Spokesman-Review
City Council approves funding for Camp Hope cooling tent
Officials eye September for opening Trent homeless shelter
KHQ
KXLY
The Inlander
The Center Square
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The Spokesman-Review
City Council approves funding for Camp Hope cooling tent
By Greg Mason
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
The Spokane City Council moved Monday to earmark funding for the cooling tent operating at Camp Hope, the east Spokane homeless encampment to more than 600 people.
Meanwhile, the council may hold a special meeting Thursday to approve an arrangement to help clear the tent with the city’s fire marshal, who has deemed it an illegally constructed temporary structure.
The funding was included in the spending plan for the approximately $27.8 million of the roughly $81 million awarded to the city of Spokane through the American Rescue Plan, a federal stimulus program aimed at COVID-19 recovery efforts.
Council members adjusted the ordinance through an amendment brought forth by Council President Breean Beggs for $120,000 toward “providing shelter during extreme weather events, including but not limited to extra staffing hours at libraries during extended cooling center hours and operation of standalone cooling centers,” according to the legislation.
Council members voted unanimously to approve the $27.8 million package. Council members Michael Cathcart and Jonathan Bingle voted in favor of the legislation after pitching a different proposal for spending the American Rescue Plan funding that did not receive enough council support to move forward.
The city extended the hours at four libraries – Central, Shadle Park, Liberty Park and Hillyard – through Monday in response to last week’s heat wave when Spokane County was under an excessive heat warning.
Part of that $120,000 will go toward supporting extra library staffing in the event of extreme weather, as Beggs said the city has exhausted the budget for such activities.
While not specifically referenced in the ordinance, another part of that funding is intended to reimburse the Empire Health Foundation for funding operations at the Camp Hope cooling tent, he said.
Empire Health has provided funding to support staffing and operations for the tent, which is owned and overseen by the nonprofit Jewels Helping Hands specifically for people living at Camp Hope. Equipped with fans and swamp coolers, the tent was built to accommodate Camp Hope residents particularly with last week’s heat wave.
Both the camp and the tent are located on land owned by the state WashingtonDepartment of Transportation.
The tent was still up Monday afternoon past a 9 a.m. deadline set by Fire Marshal Lance Dahl for its removal.
The state transportation department was put on notice around Wednesday by the fire marshal and asked to remove the tent since the cooling tent is operating without a fire marshal’s permit. City officials have said Dahl cannot issue the permit since the state has not formally authorized the tent’s operations on the property.
Similar to how the state has approached Camp Hope, the state transportation department has allowed the tent to exist without giving formal approval. Both the state transportation department and the state Department of Commerce said Friday that state officials will not take action to remove the tent.
Beggs said the state is seeking an agreement, including an indemnification clause; otherwise, they are putting the state at risk. The arrangement could involve leasing the property to either Empire Health or the city.
Once that agreement is in place, the belief is the fire marshal will have the clearance to move forward with the permit process.
“They are hoping either Empire Health Foundation or the city would step up, sign that kind of hold harmless agreement and then their lawyers would be fine,” Beggs said. “That’s the rock in a hard place that the onthe- ground people at WSDOT here are facing.”
The City Council is expected to discuss the matter Thursday during a scheduled study session. Council members will have their next regularly scheduled meeting on Aug. 15.
Greg Mason can be reached at (509) 459-5047 or gregm@spokesman.com.
Officials eye September for opening Trent homeless shelter
By Greg Mason
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
After numerous delays, Spokane city officials are pushing to open the new homeless shelter on East Trent Avenue in September.
The development of the 4320 E. Trent Ave. building into a 150- to 250-bed shelter with support services has been in the works for several months. And while the city administration has recommended the Guardians Foundation to operate the shelter, the City Council has not approved a contract with the Guardians.
Meanwhile, the city on Monday issued a new request for proposals for an agency to provide services out of the shelter, such as inpatient-outpatient treatment, mental health services, procurement of identification and employment assistance. Responses are due by Aug. 14.
The Trent shelter is a key element in the city’s response to providing more shelter beds to accommodate Spokane’s homeless population.
The facility’s development has taken place as the Camp Hope homeless encampment at East Second Avenue and South Ray Street has grown to more than 600 people on a plot of land owned by the state Department of Transportation. City officials have requested funding support for parts of the Trent shelter through the state Department of Commerce’s Rights of Way initiative, which has offered around $24.3 million for strategies to relocate people from Camp Hope into better living situations.
If the city is able to open the shelter around Sept. 1, it’s likely the services provider would not go online until later that month, Director of Neighborhood Housing and Human Services John Hall told council members Monday. A discussion about the proposed contract with the Guardians Foundation is expected during the Aug. 15 meeting of the council’s Finance and Administration Committee.
Hall said city officials are hopeful the certificate of occupancy will be turned over from the landlord to the shelter operator sometime later this month, possibly by the third or fourth week of August.
Aug. 1 was once offered by City Administrator Johnnie Perkins on when the Trent shelter might open if everything went according to plan. That was back when the City Council approved the lease.
The city has particularly struggled with finding an agency capable of providing the services sought with the facility.
Salvation Army Spokane, once the city administration’s recommended pick, backed out last month from participating in the Trent shelter, with Mayor Nadine Woodward at the time saying the Guardians and the Salvation Army have “different models” for providing services and “it just wasn’t a good fit.”
The City Council in late June approved a lease agreement with Lawrence B. Stone Properties No. 4320, a limited liability corporation owned by local developer Larry Stone. Part of the deal calls for Stone to make several improvements to the 33,000-plussquare- foot warehouse to get the building in shape for the shelter’s needs, such as lighting, exterior fencing repairs and dividing the facility with temporary wall sections.
Several council members expressed their disappointment Monday with how the shelter’s development has gone to date, however.
Describing the warehouse as “definitely not ready,” Councilman Zack Zappone said he learned on a tour Monday that only a few people are working on the facility improvements.
“When we approved the lease back in June, we were told it’d be operational today, Aug. 1, and this is the first time we’ve had an update about that,” Zappone said. “There’s a crisis right now. We’re under extreme heat. Seeing that we don’t have an alternative and not working towards having an alternative is pretty frustrating.”
Councilman Jonathan Bingle pushed back on Zappone’s assertion, citing the expanded hours at four city libraries to serve as cooling centers.
“To say we’re not moving quick enough on the Trent shelter, totally fair,” he said, “but to say we’re not doing anything is, I think, a bit misleading.” Greg Mason can be reached at (509) 459-5047 or gregm@spokesman.com.
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KHQ
SPOKANE, Wash. - Camp Hope organizers are clashing with the City of Spokane, this time over the massive cooling tent set up to offer safety from the heat, which organizers say isn’t coming down.
The City says it must come down, but Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) isn’t enforcing the City’s request at this time.
Organizers say without it, there wouldn’t be a way for people at Camp Hope to get out of the heat, and the risk of heat-related sicknesses and deaths is too great.
According to a press release sent out by the City, the cooling tent raises a lot of safety concerns, namely fire danger, despite a walkthrough inspection by fire marshals. However, the Camp and cooling tent are on land owned by WSDOT, and it says the tent can stay—for now.
“We have seen temperatures as high as 125 degrees, inside the tent. That is inhumane. Those folks need a place to be, and that’s what this cooling tent is. Its compassion at work,” said Maurice Smith, a Manager at Camp Hope.
In their release before the weekend, the City said it would start fining WSDOT $500 every day the tent isn’t taken down. However, a WSDOT spokesman said Monday they haven't been cited yet, and a spokesperson for the City tells KHQ there is no update at this time.
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KXLY
August 1, 2022 4:28 PM
Updated: August 1, 2022 6:21 PM
SPOKANE, Wash. — Monday marks the final day, for now, in a long stretch of sweltering weather.
The community has banded together to help each other out, and many have shifted those efforts towards helping those at Camp Hope, by putting up and operating a cooling center.
It’s become a contested topic between the city (who says the cooling center wasn’t put up with correct authorizations) and the Washington State Department of Transportation (who says its paramount concern is the health and wellbeing of the people utilizing it).
Fire Marshal Lance Dahl sent a request to WSDOT last week, asking that the structure be taken down by Monday, August 1 at 9:00 a.m. WSDOT says they’re keeping it up through the excessive heat, with no specific date mentioned, and that there are discussions happening about what the next steps will be.
Maurice Smith, with the Spokane Homeless Coalition, is a Camp Hope Manager. He says the cooling tent is there for humane reasons. They’ve measured the heat in some of those tents mid-day and they can be up to 120 degrees. As a community, he says, they’re showing compassion and humanity.
In response to the excessive heat, the city has encouraged people to take advantage of the AC in public libraries around the area.
“It’s 98 degrees outside and you want them to walk a mile.. with all of their stuff… because they won’t leave their stuff…. for fear they’ll lose it. The city plan makes no sense for homeless people. It makes sense for middle-class folks who don’t have the issues that homeless folks have,” Smith explained.
He says decisions aren’t being made with these people in mind. Those who are without housing, and live in abject poverty.
“The news at times, especially from the city is oh, we’re going to shut this camp down and move everybody. That scares the bejeebers out of folks who are here for a very specific reason,” Smith added.
He explained that for those who live at Camp Hope, it’s stability. They don’t have to worry about where they’re going to sleep, eat, or use the bathroom.
However now, they are concerned about the heat too.
The cooling center has gotten them through over the past few days. The city says that given the continued heat, there will be no fines today, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future. They hoping to come to a resolution with WSDOT soon.
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The Inlander
Nate Sanford photo
The cooling center at Camp Hope has fans, water misters and space for 150 people.
A cooling shelter erected to protect more than 600 homeless people from a heatwave was up and running on Monday — despite the city's order that the shelter come down by 9 that morning.
The order to remove the shelter came last week, when the city told the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) that the agency had a "legal responsibility to secure the property from illegal construction activity." In a notice of violation sent on July 28, the Spokane Fire Marshal said the shelter — which is on WSDOT land — had to come down by 9 am Monday or else the agency could face a daily fine of $536.
On Friday, WSDOT said they would not be complying with the city's order.
Their response came in a strongly-worded joint statement with the Washington State Department of Commerce.
"Ultimately, the safety and well-being of people is our paramount concern," the statement said. "In response to the city administration's notice of violation, the state will not take action during this extreme weather to remove the cooling shelter."
The statement goes on to say that the state has repeatedly asked city administrators to engage and find constructive solutions to ensure basic public safety and health standards are met, and to find safer shelter and long-term housing options for those camped on WSDOT property.
On Monday afternoon, a spokesperson for WSDOT said that, to their knowledge, the agency had not received any fine from the city. The Mayor's Office did not respond to a request for comment on Friday and Monday afternoon. In a statement to KHQ, Mayor Nadine Woodward pushed back on the idea that the city hasn't helped the camp.
"We are required to follow the law and that may conflict with the actions of organizations providing assistance, but we are open and willing to find viable, legal solutions that meet the needs of individuals at the encampment," the statement said.
There were about 10 people using the cooling shelter on Monday morning. The excessive heat warning was originally supposed to end on Sunday, but over the weekend the National Weather Service extended it to Monday evening. Temperatures peaked around 105 degrees over the weekend, and are expected to reach a high of 99 degrees on Monday.
A man named Rick, who is homeless and asked that his last name not be included, was using the cooling shelter for the first time on Monday morning. He had heard the news about the order for the tent to come down, and wanted to come check it out for himself. It provides welcome relief from the heat, he says.
"It helps out," Rick says, "I don't know why they would want to take it down."
The cooling shelter was built last Wednesday by volunteers with Jewels Helping Hands, a nonprofit that has been organizing food and other assistance for the camp. Like Camp Hope itself, the tent isn't authorized and is technically illegal. But when the shelter was under construction earlier this week, WSDOT said they wouldn't do anything to stop it because they did not want people to suffer or risk death.
The city has extended the hours of city libraries and directed people to use them as cooling centers, but the closest one to Camp Hope is nearly a mile away. Julie Garcia, executive director of Jewels Helping Hands, has said the library shelters are inadequate because many residents are afraid to leave their tents unattended, and others have pets or mobility issues that prevent them from making the trip.
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The Center Square
Workers walk past a person sleeping under a blanket as they begin to remove tents used by people experiencing homelessness in downtown Seattle last March. Increasingly, liberal cities across the country — where people living in tents in public spaces have long been tolerated — are removing encampments and pushing other strict measures to address homelessness that would have been unheard of a few years ago.
Ted S. Warren/AP Images
(The Center Square) — Spokane City Councilor Jonathan Bingle said the proposal he and Councilor Michael Cathcart submitted to regulate urban camping is essentially “dead” after being “deferred indefinitely” by the majority.
“It will not come up again unless they decide to revisit it,” he told The Center Square.
However, Bingle believes residents and business owners in areas “besieged” by crime tied to homeless encampments support the tougher rules endorsed by Mayor Nadine Woodward.
“I’m not done with this issue yet,” Bingle said on Monday. “I think our proposal deserves to be brought to the table and discussed and the public needs to be allowed to weigh in.”
Under Spokane’s current code, camping is not allowed on public property and a person cannot sit or lie on the sidewalk between 6 a.m. and midnight.
Bingle and Cathcart want those rules enforced and camping bans in some places, notably parks, along the river or with 100 feet of railroad viaducts. They also wanted greater enforcement of "sit and lie" activities during regulated hours.
Last month, Council President Beggs told The Center Square in an email that the Bingle-Cathcart camping ordinance does not appear to be legal based on his 30 years of experience as an attorney practicing and teaching constitutional law.
He warned that, if approved, the regulations could put the city in “serious legal jeopardy.”
Beggs was referencing a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in the Martin v. City of Boise case. Four years ago, the federal court found that prohibiting sleeping or camping on public property is unconstitutional when individuals do not have a meaningful alternative, such as shelter space or a legal place, to camp.
In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the case, which let the Ninth Circuit ruling stand.
Bingle said a report commissioned by the Downtown Spokane Partnership earlier this year clears up confusion that has kept many cities from taking action to restore public health and safety.
The law firm of Tonkon and Torp, based in Portland, Oregon, performed a study of legal cases emanating from Martin v. Boise and submitted findings to the Partnership in February.
The report said it is inaccurate that cities cannot act unless they have shelter beds for the entirety of the unhoused population. In all but two of the 13 studied court cases, cities prevailed for enforcing rules even if shelter space was limited.
The two cities that lost to challenges sought to exclude all homeless individuals from within their borders or enacted only superficial measures to adhere to the Ninth Circuit’s instructions, according to the report.
Judges have ruled that, if cities are actively working to comfort and care to the homeless, they can clear encampments that pose health and safety threats, the report stated. They can also implement restrictions on where and when people can camp, as well as laws on littering, urination, defecation, obstruction of roadways, possession and distribution of drugs, harassment.
“Spokane has undertaken extensive efforts to ensure that its ordinances comply with constitutional requirements. These not only comport with the letter of the law, but also the overarching principle that cities cannot punish their residents due to a lack of means,” stated the report.
Tonkon and Torp warned that the city allowing encampments to spread carries its own legal risks. These include exposure to lawsuits by businesses and residents stemming from economic harms, property damage, constitutional violations, among others.
Aside from legal risks, the report stated that Spokane’s non-enforcement of homeless activities results in a substantial interference with intended uses of public facilities. In addition, the city bears added costs to respond to emergency situations, damage to infrastructure and landscaping, as well as the loss of tax revenue when people no longer work or shop in a business corridor.
“Thoughtful enforcement of Spokane’s existing ordinances and policies addresses community needs,” the report stated.