9/28/2022
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KREM
The Center Square
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KREM
The Oak Crest mobile home community in Coeur d'Alene is making a stand to buy back the land their homes stand on.
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — A small community in North Idaho has seen its rent prices drastically increase over the last year.
In response to rising rent prices, people living at the Oak Crest Mobile Home Park in Kootenai County have formed a housing coalition. The goal of the coalition is to provide resources for the more than 500 people that live in the park.
Manufactured homes are one of the most affordable living options. Many of the homes at Oak Crest Mobile Home Park are manufactured homes, which means people own their home but not the land it is on.
That’s why people expressed concern when the park was bought by Utah-based investment company Havenpark Communities in June of last year.
One resident says that the rise in rent has made her find another job to support herself.
Many other residents expressed their displeasure about the rising rent.
“I feel it’s pretty sad. Not because they’re coming from Utah or any other state, it’s that they’re here. And they’re doing this to the seniors, and this place has a lot of seniors here,” said Gail Hughes, an Oak Crest resident. “We all depend on our little bit of social security. I find I have to work part-time just to pay the bills.”
A spokesperson from the Northwest Cooperative Development Center says there are over 4,000 manufactured homes in Kootenai county.
Many of those homes are facing a similar situation as Oak Crest, as companies buy these neighborhoods and increase rent, resulting in more displacement.
“Housing matters and it’s our home. It’s where we gather together and make memories in our home. And I think we often forget how much that matters and we often forget about the most vulnerable populations,” said Victoria O’Banion, the marketing acquisition specialist for the Northwest Cooperative Development Center
One resident hopes that the raise in rent doesn’t force her out of the neighborhood.
“I’ve been in this place for over 21 years and if I had to move I would be screwed. Cause they’re not going to move [my mobile home], it’s way too old. Hopefully, it’s not going to come to that,” said Terri Buffa, an Oak Crest resident.
O’Banion says some residents plan on using the coalition as a goal to buy the park and make it a resident-owned community.
“That would be a good idea to be able to when you’re paying so much money, be able to own something,” said Brock Wery, who lives in Oak Crest Mobile Home Park. “There’s got to be some sort of mechanism in place where they don’t just kick us out.”
A resident-owned community is where members own their homes and a share of the land.
However, this can only happen if Havenpark Communities decides to sell.
The coalition is planning on a resource fair in November for owners of manufactured homes around the region.
Residents who live at Oak Crest Mobile Homes say rent prices are expected to increase again before the end of the year.
The department has a total of 330 positions, including all personnel from cooks to corrections officers. There are currently 56 vacancies.
AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. — Staffing shortages at the Geiger Corrections Centerin Airway Heights may soon cause Spokane County to close the prison permanently, according to Detention Services Director Mike Sparber.
Sparber told Spokane County Commissioners about the prison's staffing shortages in mid-September. KREM 2 obtained a copy of that meeting to learn more about the shortage and its potential impacts.
As inmate populations increase to pre-COVID numbers, the prison needs more officers. However, Sparber said there are not enough in the pipeline to offset the number of officers leaving their jobs.
"It’s not a very rosy picture, but that’s what it would come down to. You’re just managing the bed space," he said. "Staffing levels have dropped to an all-time low of 35 officers, there are currently 12 in the hiring process. But, as you're well aware, it takes about nine months before they're eligible to be on solid duty.”
To accommodate more inmates and fewer officers, employees at the Geiger Corrections Center, which usually houses lower-level offenders, are being moved to cover shifts at the Spokane County Jail. The move is leaving the Geiger facility with an ominous future, according to Sparber.
“As the attrition grows, and the fill vacancies don't occur, we would have to limit services out at Geiger until the point that we'd actually have no Geiger staff on the floors out there," he said.
The department has a total of 330 positions, including all personnel from cooks to corrections officers. There are currently 56 vacancies.
Even with the county offering $7,500 sign-on bonuses for new hires, Sparber told county commissioners the jail is not seeing the interest they did in the past.
"I think what's really difficult right now is we're more of a feeder for law enforcement," said Ashley Cameron, the Spokane County Human Resources Director.
According to Cameron, the staffing issue extends beyond pay and bonuses. The prison is losing people to burn out and other law enforcement agencies competing for workers.
"That's where people want to be, and because so many jobs are opening right now, we're just not seeing the level of interest in a corrections facility when there are so many law enforcement officer positions open," Cameron explained.
If the staffing shortage continues, Sparber said the prison would have to start cutting things like work crews at Geiger, then move to different floors, eventually leading to the closure of the facility.
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The Center Square
Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich is leaving for his home state of Wyoming at the end of the year. He plans to continue wearing the badge -- and maybe one day run for an executive or legislative office.
Photo courtesy of Spokane County Sheriff's Office
(The Center Square) – Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich believes the scramble to install a fence around a large homeless camp near Interstate 90 and Freya Street is “optics to win over the neighborhood.”
He said having one way in and out of Camp Hope violates the state fire code, but that doesn’t seem to be of concern to Jewels Helping Hands and the Washington State Department of Transportation as they erect the fence.
“We can’t get a fence built at our southern border, but one’s going up in Spokane,” Knezovich told The Center Square on Tuesday.
With lawlessness and public health problems plaguing the camp and surrounding area, he said the fence might do some good.
“I never envisioned the next jail would be Camp Hope,” he quipped. “They are doing my job for me.”
Knezovich said the fence is not going to deter him from moving people out of Camp Hope, although he has set back the timeline to get that work done from Oct. 14 to Nov. 10.
“The mayor asked for more time so I granted that - but this ends Nov. 10,” he said.
Last week, Knezovich posted an open letter to Rich Millar, director of WSDOT, which owns the land where the camp is sited. The sheriff gave the state agency notice that he intended to utilize his constitutional and legal authority to disband the camp.
He decided it was time to address the situation after watching city officials try to get WSDOT to deal with the situation for the past nine months. The camp formed in December after a protest at city hall about the lack of shelters and affordable housing.
The last straw, said Knezovich, was having Millar join with Lisa Brown, director of the Department of Commerce, and John Batiste, director of the Washington State Patrol, to send a “snarky” letter to Woodward in response to her administration’s demands for removal of the camp, plus reimbursement of $350,000 in service costs.
“These state agencies fail to take care of the problem and then they criticize the efforts being made by the city," he said.
Knezovich is working to obtain an abatement warrant from the local court that will allow him to deal with violations of nuisance laws. Then he plans to move ahead with plans to shut down the camp.
He said surveying the situation has led him to believe the number of campers has been inflated. He said there are probably about 200 instead of more than 650 as has been reported by service providers.
That will make it doable, he said, to get residents of the camp into shelters or other temporary housing in the area. Or to buy them a bus ticket to go to a place where they have a support system available to help stabilize their lives.
Jewels announced in its weekly newsletter that preparation work for the fence is underway. The nonprofit that provides services to the homeless is helping to clean up the border of the camp where the fence will be located and to rearrange RVs inside that might be in the way.
Knezovich said it is his understanding that, once the fence goes up, there will be an 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. curfew in place. Those who miss being inside by the evening curfew will be taken somewhere else for the night.
Meanwhile, the city has extended its private security contract with Crowd Management Services to provide security in the neighborhood outside the camp until the end of October.
Empire Health and the Department of Commerce are reportedly working with three service providers, including Jewels, to build an assessment tool to gather data about camp inhabitants. This information will be used, said officials, to determine what resources people need to turn things around.
Commerce, WSDOT and the Washington State Patrol, which has been asked to provide law enforcement services to the camp, have released a joint statement about Knezovich’s plans to relocate Camp Hope residents.
“Our agencies know all too well from past experience that clearing the encampment will simply make things worse for the entire city," the statement said. "Hundreds of people will spread across county, city, state and private property and the issues connected with unsanctioned encampments – from safety to litter – will be dispersed as well. This action will not make anyone’s life better or safer.”
Knezovich is unconcerned with the opinion of agencies that have allowed the problem on state land to grow until it threatens the viability of local businesses and the safety of residents.
“It’s not my responsibility to figure out how to fix your mess,” the sheriff told the three agencies. “It is my responsibility to clean it up.”
Under his watch, Knezovich said law-abiding citizens of Spokane County will be able to go about their daily business without fear of being victimized by someone from the camp with a mental illness or high on drugs.
“I just never dreamed there would be such a lack of leadership in this state and country,” he summarized about the situation. “Nobody seems to want to make the tough calls and that is why I am doing it.”