9/7/2022
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The Spokesman-Review
HELPING OUT UNHOUSED WILL MAKE COMMUNITY SAFER FOR ALL OF US
KREM
The Center Square
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The Spokesman-Review
HELPING OUT UNHOUSED WILL MAKE COMMUNITY SAFER FOR ALL OF US
By Ellen Picken
Today I saw a three-legged porcupine. A few years ago, she had been caught in a jaw trap and the trap was caught in a fence. She was emaciated, afraid and difficult to approach. But enough people had the compassion to help her out and provide her a place to rehabilitate.
If you don’t start with some wealth, it is too easy to fall into the trap of poverty. A medical setback, an undiagnosed mental illness, a divorce, combat trauma or injury, job loss, a forest fire, an abusive home, elderly isolation, even debt which most Americans are weighed down by can force anyone onto the street. Veterans, who gave everything for our safety, make up a large percentage of people you see under downtown bridges.
The housing market is another trap.
Under current market norms, developers, corporations or individuals can build expensive housing in any neighborhood or inflate the cost of existing housing. This is driving the middle class itself out of home ownership.
For the middle class, fear of association with poverty is common. When people do not feel stable in their own home any cracking of the façade of security causes anxiety. The fear of property theft or property value declining reminds us of our precariousness. It is easier to scapegoat the poor than it is to recognize our instability. Most people can hardly afford their mortgage, car payments, utilities, and basic cost of upkeep. We may depend on our neighbor to borrow a cup of sugar but know they cannot pay our bills in a hard month. How many young working couples can afford a home? How many elderly live alone, surrounded by neighbors? How many people are in bad relationships with nowhere to turn? How close are we to losing our homes or ending up alone? “We” can too easily become “them.”
Every neighborhood in Spokane is vulnerable to market forces. An “affordable” $180,000 home has become an out of reach $400,000 real estate investment seemingly overnight. Preventing the underclass from living near you will not maintain your security. By shunning the poor and herding them into industrial zones, we risk solidifying their place in society. More and more people will be born into poverty and slip into poverty, our own families and neighbors not excluded.
It takes more effort to release our leg from the trap than it does to set it off. And we can not rely on the ones who set the trap to free the ones caught in it. We have to take responsibility for a situation we don’t feel responsible for. Thatrequires approaching the pain and facing our fear with love.
Changing our for-profit housing system into guaranteed homes for each other is a long and difficult process. In the meantime, people are really suffering on the streets. To create security in our communities, we can start by letting go of an every-man-for-himself perspective to embracing a sharing economy. I support converting hotels into transitional housing with counselors and health professionals. As a taxpayer, I am happy to put my resources toward building affordable communities. People need a safe place to sleep and wash their bodies. They need to feel like they are worth something to the rest of society to escape debilitating depression. They, we, need to feel loved in order to stay alive.
There are proposed transitional housing and palette housing units to be installed near my neighborhood. Some of our neighbors might say, “What about that time the guy living in the trailer ended up in the other neighbor’s backyard stoned out of his mind? Do you want more of that?” My response is that, yes I was afraid of this situation too, for his safety and the rest of ours. But he ended up unhoused because he had nowhere else to go. People will end up in our neighborhood in unhealthy ways if we don’t provide help for them. There may be risks, but doing nothing will guarantee the problem grows. These two housing options are not enough. We need more.
This particular location is a good start. It is on a bus line not far from resources, it is in a quiet, safe place, not in the middle of a neighborhood but not in an industrial zone, and the building is in good condition. The hotel will house around 100 people on their way to more permanent housing. It is a meager start, but we have to start with whatever resources we have available. Even if it is near my home.
When we are confronted with the pain of others our biological response is to recognize the pain in our own bodies. Avoidance and disgust are natural reactions. If we can’t see the cause of their torment we blame the person suffering for their situation. Yes, someone may turn to other forms of pain to mask the underlying problem. This is the only power they have left to wield. What is the larger reason why so many of our citizens are falling to the streets? What power do we have as neighbors and how will we use it? With love or fear?Ellen Picken is a lifelong resident of Spokane. She is a small business owner, artist and volunteers in the community in her free time.
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KREM
On the first day of the Trent Shelter opening, about 20 people moved in.
SPOKANE, Wash. — The new homeless shelter on Trent Avenue in Spokane is open. This has been anticipated for months as city officials and homeless advocates worked to secure the plan and the funding.
On the first day of the Trent Shelter opening, about 20 people moved in. The first shuttle left the homeless encampment near I-90 and Freya Street at approximately noon Tuesday.
Jewels Helping Hands, the non-profit at the camp, said they are getting the word out about the shelter and handing out flyers.
The shelter will provide three meals a day and an overnight sleeping area for people who want to stay long-term. There are currently 40 beds, but that number is expected to grow to 250.
“Everything seems like a good idea, honestly. I mean food and shelter everything, just to have a place. Keep people off the streets and stuff and away from here,” said Luis Moreno, a homeless encampment resident.
The city hopes the shelter gives people at the homeless encampment on I-90 and Freya a safe and healthy living option.
Andy James Kreig, a resident at that camp, was one of the first people on the bus to the shelter.
“I’ll have a bed and shower and all three meals and a place I can call home for now," Kreig said. "An address, and get me a phone, and people won’t be stealing me blind in sin city or downtown. I’m looking forward to it.”
While some encampment residents are excited for the shelter, many of the residents at the camp did not want to leave.
“It looks like a concentration camp. I don’t know if anyone’s seen it but it just like a bunch of tents and beds and looks like it’s in a big warehouse surrounded by a fence,” said Jonah Michael Johnson, a homeless encampment resident. “Nobody’s going to go there.”
The shelter currently does not have indoor plumbing, but Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward told KREM 2 she is hoping that funds from the Department of Commerce will pay for indoor plumbing and laundry facilities.
“What does this shelter consist of, change?" said Jason Staples, a resident at the homeless encampment. "Does it consist of empathy? Compassion for the people here?”
The mayor said that the shelter will be a new option for the campers, but is not a solution to fully clear out the camp.
Jewels Helping Hands said they hope as the weather gets colder and through word of mouth, more people will want to move into the shelter.
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The Center Square
Spokane mayor rebukes state agency for comments about homeless planning
Camp Hope is located on Washington State Department of Transportation off Interstate 90 in Spokane and has grown in the last seven months to a homeless population of more than 600. City and county officials are now scrambling to figure out how to get the people in the camp into shelters and other protected living spaces.
Photo courtesy of Sheldon Jackson
(The Center Square) – Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward has sharply rebuked the state Department of Commerce for critical comments made about local planning efforts to relocate hundreds from a homeless encampment next to the freeway.
"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," Woodward said in a written statement.
Commerce issued a statement after Woodward told West Hills residents on Aug. 30 to direct their ire to the agency about the plan to move some residents of Camp Hope into a Sunset Highway motel.
Camp Hope is the name given to the area where about 650 people live on a Washington Department of Transportation right-of-way along Interstate 90 near Freya St.
Commerce is providing $6.5 million for Catholic Charities to buy the former Quality Inn from Surmohin Hotel, LLC, to house some of these people. The building will be turned into apartments for 100 to 120 homeless men and women.
Last week's meeting in West Hills drew about 100 residents, many opposed to the motel conversion. Homeowners, renters and business owners expressed fears that crime would go up around the motel as it did around Camp Hope and that their properties would be devalued.
Woodward described the planning process for shelter projects as a "sloppy, messy deal" due to Commerce deadlines.
The agency offered entities in Spokane County $24.3 million to develop relocation plans for Camp Hope. The initial deadline to submit plans for the use of the funding was initially 10 days but was eventually extended to 30 days.
Commerce challenged Woodward's claim about the planning timeline being too short, saying the mayor and City Council President Breean Beggs were aware of the funding to relocate Camp Hope in late May.
"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," said Commerce spokesperson Penny Thomas in a statement.
Woodward has invited Commerce representatives to meet with West Hills neighbors to discuss their concerns about the Catholic Charities project and other homeless initiatives.
"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.
She is also refuting Commerce claims that Spokane County officials have not been actively involved in the planning process for the use of state funds.
"First, and most importantly, the discussion we are having as a community is about public health and safety," said Woodward. "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."
County officials have also objected to Commerce's comments as a "mischaracterization" of what has transpired.
Jared Webley, county spokesperson, pointed out last week that county representatives attended five planning meetings and took part in a flurry of email and phone discussions between late June and the submission of the proposal for the use of Commerce funds in July.
"The DOC's accelerated grant application timeline consumed much of our staff's time during the 30-day application window," Webley said.
Also drawing criticism from Woodward was Commerce and WSDOT, each pointing out in statements that Camp Hope came together as a protest outside of city hall about the lack of shelter space. About 100 people set up tents that were later moved to the camp on state land.
"The city never removed the protest in front of city hall," said Woodward. "Organizers made the decision to move to state property after the city [posted a notice of] a cleaning to remove 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."
She said the ideas being fielded by the city and its partners are "not all perfect," but all perspectives are considered about what is best for the community, including the lives of those in the camp.
The key to resolving conflicts and differences about where shelters should be located is community engagement, said Woodward. She said that is why it is important for Commerce to listen to voices within the community and take a proactive role in finding solutions.