9/3/2022
###########################################
The Spokesman-Review
Commerce stands firm on shelter funding
HABITAT TESTS INNOVATIVE HOUSE PROJECT
KXLY
Housing and Help (YouTube channel)
The second episode of this series, Gavin Cooley and Julie Garcia do an excellent job of laying out the issues.
###########################################
The Spokesman-Review
Commerce stands firm on shelter funding
By Greg Mason
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
The state Department of Commerce still plans to fund a Catholic Charities Eastern Washington project to purchase and transform the Quality Inn on Sunset Highway intoan emergency supportive housing facility.
Commerce officials indicated their commitment in a statement Thursday night, just days after a community meeting during which Catholic Charities and Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward met more than 100 Sunset Highway-area neighbors angered by the Quality Inn project and other homeless housing initiatives that could impact their neighborhoods.
The resulting controversy has prompted a war of words between the state and local governments over the handling of the relocation effort for people staying at the Camp Hope homeless encampment.
“Land use decisions are often contentious because of the difficulty balancing competing goals and interests. In general Commerce defers to local processes to determine if a project is appropriately sited,” Commerce spokesperson Penny Thomas said in a statement. “Although we are moving forward with funding this urgently needed housing, the Department recognizes the need to promote a fair distribution of well-managed housing as we make future funding decisions.”
The funding for Catholic Charities’ “Catalyst Project” is available through the Department of Commerce’s Rights of Way initiative. The state has offered Spokane up to $24.3 million in Rights of Way funding to help move the hundreds living in the homeless encampment on state Department of Transportation land near Interstate 90 into better living situations.
Thomas said members of the West Hills Neighborhood, which encompasses the Quality Inn, “have a legitimate point that their neighborhood should not have a disproportionate share of facilities serving people formerly homeless.”
“Commerce would be responsive to additional housing solutions in other parts of the county proposed by local governments in Spokane County,” she said.
The Catalyst Project was one of several proposals submitted to Commerce in July as part of a plan spearheaded by the city with input from other public and private entities. Commerce announced funding for the Catalyst Project a day after the plan was submitted.
Another project that could affect the West Hills Neighborhood is a concept from the Empire Health Foundation to build 75 tiny-homelike units for 125 residents on 3 acres of foundation- owned land along Sunset Highway.
That proposal is still up in the air, however, as “more detail and community conversation is needed before we can move forward with funding most of what was proposed” in the city’s Rights of Way plan, Thomas said.
To that end, Commerce is working with Empire Health not only to coordinate efforts to assess what services are needed for Camp Hope’s residents, but to convene local governments, service providers and other stakeholders to “seek broader agreement and further refine details regarding the housing and services that will bring the people now living at Camp Hope inside,” she said.
With the Rights of Way program, Commerce relied on local jurisdictions to properly vet elements of their proposals before they are submitted.
Commerce officials reiterated that sentiment Thursday, pushing back against Woodward on the notion that regional officials did not have enough time to solicit community input on a Rights of Way plan.
The Department of Commerce also claimed Spokane County officials have been hands-off with the planning process.
Thomas said Spokane’s homelessness problem “has been obvious for some time,” citing how the total number of homeless people counted in Spokane County during a recent census was up 13% from two years ago.
“It is notable that Spokane County has declined to participate in this process,” Thomas said.
County officials believe Commerce’s comment is a mischaracterization.
The city’s Rights of Way funding application was reportedly prepared with input from public and private partners, including the city, Spokane County, Spokane Valley and the Spokane Housing Authority.
County spokesman Jared Webley said county representatives attended five planning meetings and took part in numerous emails and phone calls between late June up until the application was submitted in July.
“The DOC’s accelerated grant application timeline consumed much of our staff’s time during the 30-day application window,” Webley said.
Spokane County commissioners also sent two letters to Commerce, including one with Spokane’s Rights of Way funding application from July.
With that letter, county commissioners – acknowledging the city of Spokane as the lead agency with any Rights of Way funding – outlined several concerns with the proposal process, such as the timeline and the prospect of future costs falling on local municipalities.
To Commerce, however, the county’s letter “does not read as an endorsement of the submitted plan and we have not received any alternate plans from them,” Thomas said.
On the city’s end, Woodward on Tuesday said neighbors should direct their ire at the Department of Commerce, describing the Rights of Way planning as “a sloppy, messy deal.”
Her assertions were based on how Commerce issued a callout for Rights of Way proposals in June with what started as a 10-day submission deadline. It was eventually extended to 30 days.
Woodward said she was asked by West Hills neighbors to invite Department of Commerce representatives to a follow- up meeting with the neighborhood.
“We look forward to answers from Commerce regarding the request from the neighborhood to meet and to our plan to connect people to much-needed services that will improve their current situation before too much more time slips away,” she said in a statement Friday.
Compounding the situation was how Catholic Charities agreed with the Quality Inn’s owner to withhold the location until the project went public, out of concern for what news of a sale could have on hotel operations.
The Department of Commerce challenged Woodward’s claim about the timeline, saying the mayor and City Council President Breean Beggs were made aware of the Rights of Way funding May 24.
“With these resources in mind, we urged them to meet and discuss their plan to help the unsheltered people of Camp Hope,” Thomas said. “Although our official Request for Proposal was issued in mid-June, and came with a 30-day deadline, our efforts to solicit a plan from the city had been going on for months.”
Commerce and WSDOT, which issued its own statement Friday, each pointed to how Camp Hope came together in the first place: as a protest outside of City Hall that ultimately relocated to the WSDOT site.
WSDOT Communications Director Kris Rietmann Abrudan said the department is asking the city and county to join the Rights of Way initiative “in a meaningful, productive way,” citing partnerships in Thurston and King counties as examples.
“As a DOT, we have experience working with local jurisdictions to address the challenges faced by people experiencing homelessness on public lands around the state,” Abrudan said in the statement. “We know that we can only find meaningful solutions through strong cooperation with willing partners. However, the city has yet to agree with partners on a plan to meet the housing needs at Camp Hope.”
Beggs was unavailable for comment.
Woodward said in a statement Friday “misstatements from Olympia about Spokane’s shelter system distract from the work that needs to get done quickly to move people from an unhealthy environment exposed to the elements into a sheltered opportunity.”
“The plan is focused on the health and safety of those living in the encampment on state property and those impacted by the activity the state has allowed for the past several months,” Woodward said. “The ideas are not all perfect, but they consider all perspectives and what is best for the community, including the lives of those in the camp.
“We are committed to doing what is best to get individuals connected to the services and supports they need to improve their current living conditions and take the next steps in their journeys,” she continued. “It is a journey and there are as many individual solutions as there are stories.” Greg Mason can be reached at (509) 459-5047 or gregm@ spokesman. com.
HABITAT TESTS INNOVATIVE HOUSE PROJECT
By Mathew Callaghan
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Kelsey McCarthy, a single mother of three, has felt myriad emotions during the year and a half it’s taken to become a homeowner through a new Habitat for Humanity project.
“It’s excited, it’s shocked, it’s being humbled and blessed. I don’t know, it’s like an out-of-body, out-of-world experience,” McCarthy said. In partnership with the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Habitat for Humanity-Spokane’s Build With Strength Coalition is behind two innovative new homes in Spokane’s East Central neighborhood about a block away from Liberty Park, including Mc-Carthy’s. The organizations on Friday hosted a tour of the new homes, featuring a signing ceremony and speeches from project leaders and even some local political figures.
Habitat Spokane Chief Executive Officer Michelle Giradot said the city came to Habitat a couple of years ago and asked if they could do anything with a plot of land in East Central. The house there had burned down and become an eyesore for the neighborhood. But an eyesore for some is a blank canvas to others.
Kelsey McCarthy and her three children, from left, Kahree Bowens, 15, Trinity McCarthy, 6, and Annabelle McCarthy, 8, tour the interior of their new Habitat for Humanity home on Friday in the East Central area of Spokane.
DAN PELLE/ THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
“In 2019, we received a contract from the City of Spokane to do rehab acquisition and revitalization,” Giradot said, “Typically, what we’ve done with those dollars is we purchase a blighted home that was either abandoned or stuck in probate, we work with the banks to try and kind of undo all the legal issues, and then we would rehab the home and sell it to a low- to moderate-income family earning below 80% of the area median income.”
The mortgage can’t be any more than 30% of residents’ monthly income.
Habitat and their partners then set to work to demo the existing house and set up two new ones on the same lot. However, these new houses are drastically different from normal stick-built homes.
“Think of it like a Lego block, and you’re filling in those crevices with concrete,” McCarthy said, “And then they do foam, and then they do the drywall. So it’s gonna be very cost-efficient. Yeah, I’m gonna save a lot of money.”
These “Lego” blocks that make up the walls of the house are known as Insulating Concrete Forms. Like Legos, they stack on top of each other, then concrete is poured in the cavities between the blocks.
Gregg Lewis is the Chief Communications Officer for the NMRCA. Lewis says that houses built with concrete and the forms can save homeowners 40% to 60% in “energy expenses associated with keeping their home comfortable.”
“The Build With Strength program, in partnership with Habitat International, we are delivering concrete and ICF homes for Habitat families all over the United States. By the end of 2022, we will have at least started 45 Habitat homes in 27 states.” Lewis said.
Not only are utilities expenses less with ICFS and concrete, the build time is considerably less.
“The typical Habitat build, the exterior walls, framing the walls for the house will take about three months. So with this system, we’re going from a threemonth build to like a two day build,” Lewis said.
“For a skilled framing crew, that’s not that big of a deal,” said Eric Lyons, the Chief Operations Officer for Habitat for Human-ity Spokane, “But for Habitat, when we work with volunteers, most of the people coming up to our job sites, they’ve never seen a nail gun. ... They’re here with the heart and passion to serve their community. And we’re teaching.”
Lyons also pointed out the obvious discrepancies when it comes to affordable housing.
“If a house is $435,000, and you need to make $104,000 to qualify. But if you only make $51,000, you’re literally renting forever. You’re living paycheck to paycheck. If I could build an affordable house, base the house payment on the percentage of your income, not the price of the house, now you have 75% of your paycheck to go do other things,” Lyons said.
Spokane City Council member Michael Cathcart reiterated the importance of affordable housing, and being better stewards of the land available.
“Getting somebody housed is such an important thing in our community, because so many folks are just struggling to find something that they can afford, and that meets their needs,” Cathcart said.
Cathcart believes the most effective way for anyone to build wealth is owning a home and building equity in that home.
“I just think it’s incredible what they’re doing with, you know, this different construction technique and materials, you know, creating such an energy-efficient home at a relatively low cost,” Cathcart said.
Seven years after becoming CEO, Giradot is excited about the pilot project’s potential.
“We take the cost of the land out of the equation, so it stays affordable. We layer it with down payment assistance, so the family can buy down their mortgage. … We want to make sure that it’s affordable for the family in the short term and in the long term as well,” Giradot said.
For Lyons, the work Habitat and the concrete association have done is good, but not good enough.
“I need more funding, we have to change codes, we need to work with people to adopt certain codes to where I can make a bigger impact,” Lyons said, “We are making an impact, don’t get me wrong, we are doing good things. But, more could happen. We have to educate the people or make understanding the laws easier, bring them to the areas and show them what we’re doing.”
While it seems there always is work that can be done, McCarthy and her family are thrilled to move into their brand new home. McCarthy says they hope to move in by late December.
“Everybody that works with Habitat has been amazing,” Mc-Carthy said, “And just they feel like family, because they educate me and they tell me how to push my way through this little journey I’m going through with them.”
Mathew Callaghan is a member of The Spokesman-Review’s Teen Journalism Institute, a paid high school summer internship program funded by Bank of America and Innovia Foundation. As the only paid high school newspaper internship in the nation, it is for local students between the ages of 16 and 18 who work directly with senior editors and reporters in the newsroom. All stories written by these interns can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license.
###########################################
KXLY
September 2, 2022 9:36 AM
Updated: September 2, 2022 6:49 PM
SPOKANE, Wash. — Neighbors in the West Hills are unhappy with the Catholic Charities Catalyst project being established near them.
The organization plans to use the Quality Inn near the Finch Arboretum as housing for people currently living at Camp Hope. Many neighbors living in the area expressed concerns over safety, property value, and how the facility will be run.
Mayor Nadine Woodward explained the Catalyst project was rushed because of the deadline set by the Department of Commerce, which would provide $6.5 million for the transitional housing project.
The Washington State Department of Commerce recently responded to these claims and the public’s concerns in a statement:
“Commerce is aware of the questions raised by nearby residents about converting the Quality Inn on Sunset Boulevard to transitional housing for people living unsheltered at Camp Hope. Commerce acted in good faith when responding to a plan, which included the Quality Inn, submitted and signed by Mayor Woodward and Council President Beggs. We rely on local jurisdictions to properly vet elements of their proposals before they are submitted.
Spokane’s homeless problem has been obvious for some time. A point in time count in 2020 found that 1,559 people were without permanent housing. That number rose by 13% in 2022 to 1,757.
In June of 2021, the Way Out shelter closed. It had 102 low barrier beds for people experiencing homelessness, which the city never fully replaced. In December of 2021, nearly 100 people experiencing homelessness set up tents at city hall to protest the city’s lack of shelter beds. This protest was the beginning of what we now know as Camp Hope. Once the tent protestors were removed from city hall, they eventually moved to the WSDOT property near I-90.
On May 24, Commerce made Mayor Woodward and Council President Beggs aware of available funding from the Legislature to help relocate Camp Hope residents to safer, supportive housing. With these resources in mind, we urged them to meet and discuss their plan to help the unsheltered people of Camp Hope. Although our official Request for Proposal was issued in mid-June, and came with a 30 day deadline, our efforts to solicit a plan from the city had been going on for months.
Commerce will continue to work with the City of Spokane, Catholic Charities and Empire Health Foundation to find alternative living solutions for the hundreds of unsheltered people at Camp Hope. The project is part of a statewide effort, funded by a historic investment by the Legislature, to move people living in unsafe conditions on state rights of way to more appropriate housing.
West Hills neighborhood members have a legitimate point that their neighborhood should not have a disproportionate share of facilities serving people formerly homeless.
Commerce would be responsive to additional housing solutions in other parts of the county proposed by local governments in Spokane County.
It is notable that Spokane County has declined to participate in this process. “
Mayor Woodward issued the following statement in response to the Department of Commerce’s comments:
“First, and most importantly, the discussion we are having as a community is about public health and safety. The City-led plan brought together Spokane County and Spokane Valley with many other community partners to develop a plan in 30 days to move 650 people out of a state-owned field and into a safe, healthy, and humane environment. That includes recommendations on turnkey projects that will be ready within weeks to move people who are assessed to be ready into a space other than emergency drop-in options.
The plan is focused on the health and safety of those living in the encampment on state property and those impacted by the activity the state has allowed for the past several months. The ideas are not all perfect, but they consider all perspectives and what is best for the community, including the lives of those in the camp.
We are committed to doing what is best to get individuals connected to the services and supports they need to improve their current living conditions and take the next steps in their journeys. It is a journey and there are as many individual solutions as there are stories.
Misstatements from Olympia about Spokane’s shelter system distract from the work that needs to get done quickly to move people from an unhealthy environment exposed to the elements into a sheltered opportunity. On Tuesday, we will open the Trent Resource and Assistance Center. It is another example of the many additions the City has made to the regional system while working with the community.
The City made a strategic decision during the early days of the pandemic to continue meeting the needs of those who were homeless in our community, which was a departure from what others around the state were doing. That decision to put the health of everyone in our community first required a series of moves to accommodate physical distancing culminating with The Way Out Center. The Way Out Center took in individuals from the City-owned Cannon Street shelter and another nonprofit shelter when the need arose to create additional footprint, not individual capacity. Those individuals eventually returned to spots that were vacated during the pandemic due to distancing requirements and previously planned construction.
The City never removed the protest in front of City Hall. Organizers made the decision to move to state property after the City noticed a cleaning to removed debris and human waste from the sidewalks. That process, which occurs regularly throughout the city, involves water and cleaning solutions and needs to be completed outside of the immediate presence of humans.
Engagement is ongoing about how best to meet the ongoing needs of everyone in our community with public health and safety at the center of those conversations. At the request of the West Hills neighborhood, I was asked to invite Commerce to join us in a follow-up meeting with the neighborhood. While the neighbors indicated a willingness to do their part, we heard passionate concerns and questions about how much of the burden they would potentially carry.
Enhancements to our system to meet the needs of those camping on state property and beyond is a continuous process that requires local and state partnership, and we are committed to working together to implement the region’s collective plan. We look forward to answers from Commerce regarding the request from the neighborhood to meet and to our plan to connect people to much-needed services that will improve their current situation before too much more time slips away.”
The Washington Department of Transportation also issued a statement regarding Camp Hope:
“While the Mayor blames WSDOT for Camp Hope’s continued existence, it’s important to note that the encampment exists because of the city. Camp Hope began in December 2021 at Spokane City Hall as a protest of the city administration’s inaction to provide beds/housing and social and health services for people experiencing homelessness in the city. To address the protest, Spokane city officials removed people living in tents around City Hall without providing any options for housing or emergency shelters. The protest group –already totaling more than 80 people – moved en masse onto empty WSDOT property, previously acquired and under construction for the North Spokane Corridor project.
As a DOT we have experience working with local jurisdictions to address the challenges faced by people experiencing homeless on public lands around the state. We know that we can only find meaningful solutions through strong cooperation with willing partners. However, the city has yet to agree with partners on a plan to meet the housing needs at Camp Hope.
Rather than pointing fingers or mischaracterizing the events that lead to the current situation, what is needed now is agreement to come together to address this challenge. As a transportation agency, WSDOT must rely on the expertise and collaboration of local and nonprofit partners who are able to provide the necessary services that are essential to successfully address the needs of people experiencing homelessness. WSDOT continues to ask the city and county to join in the Right of Way Safety Initiative in a meaningful, productive way, like recently formed right of way partnerships in Thurston and King counties.”