Spokane agencies unite on plan to disband homeless camp | Washington

(The Center Square) – Government agencies in Spokane have activated an Emergency Operations Center to get occupants of a large homeless encampment into shelter before the onset of winter.

“Communities that are most successful at decommissioning camps use an organized, indoor navigation system approach to identifying housing and connecting people to supportive services,” Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward explained in a statement Tuesday.

“Moving out of the elements is a safer, healthier, and more humane way to connect to services and relieves the pressure on the neighborhood around the camp.”

She said the partnership of agencies demonstrates a united regional commitment to improving the situation for campers and the surrounding neighborhood alike.

The hub of emergency operations will be the Trent Resource and Assistance Center that opened in August. People will be placed at the facility leased by the city while long-term housing arrangements are made, said Woodward.

Under the new plan, the Trent shelter will be the hub for assessment, service supports, and housing connections. The facility will offer a 24-hour climate-controlled environment with overnight sleeping capacity up to 400 individuals. Additional sites will be used to add overnight space as needed.

About five dozen individuals have already moved from the camp to the Trent shelter, according to city officials.

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich declared several weeks ago that he planned to decommission Camp Hope by mid-November. The camp is sited on Washington Department of Transportation land in East Central.

“Expecting better than enduring life in a field through harsh winter weather is an investment in the individuals struggling with homelessness,” he stated in joint city/county release Tuesday.

The new plan addresses the four basic benchmarks identified in legislation that authorizes funding for local communities with encampments on state right-of-way. Toward that end, Spokane will offer shelter space and services to displaced individuals, provide secure storage for their personal belongings, provide safety and security for people providing assessments and services to displaced individuals, and support restoration and cleanup of the camp site.

Officials said that their coordinated efforts will provide imminent relief to the surrounding neighborhood.

Calls for police service in the area have gone up 75.7% from when the camp opened last December while fire services have gone from 7 last year to 161 so far this year. Violent crime in the quarter-mile radius from the encampment have risen 114% and property crime has increased 81% in 2022 when compared to the average of the three previous years during the same period.

“Spokane has places to go to get out of the elements and the resources available to meet individual underlying needs associated with homelessness,” said Spokane County Commissioner Mary Kuney in the news release.

Arrangements are now being made to bring temporary portable office space and large storage containers to the Trent shelter. The additional office space is intended to provide privacy during conversations about what services people need and allow for some administrative functions to move out of the sleeping areas.

Large storage containers, which have been used successfully in previous operations, will keep individual overflow items that exceed the size of bedside storage.

Additional beds will be assembled at the shelter within the next couple of weeks to accommodate an influx of new guests. Supplies will also be inventoried and ordered to accommodate the needs of people moving in.

Arrangements are also being finalized to provide transportation from the camp to indoor locations.

According to the news release, the group of government leaders will meet multiple times per week to manage resource needs, evaluate progress, and troubleshoot challenges that arise.

The separate city and county chronic nuisance processes sought by Knezovich, Police Chief Craig Meidl and the county commissioners to disband the camp are still in the pipeline.