A crisis in East Central Spokane,
a homeless encampment known as Camp Hope,
remains, despite efforts to find
solution drugs, crime and trash now
creeping into surrounding neighborhoods.
You're driving into Spokane,
WA, and what do you see?
That's what you see. Is that.
Does that represent Spokane?
I don't think so.
We're all tired of it.
It's got to be gone.
Frustration among neighbors
and conflicting plans between
the city and the state.
Now, a looming deadline is
putting pressure on the situation.
The city's not hostage.
The city needs to take care of its citizens.
We're digging deeper and asking
the hard questions about the
approach to this escalating crisis.
Why do you think we're still
having this conversation?
Then, almost ten months later?
That's a good question.
That's a good question. Tonight
in a Creme 2 plus special how we got
here and where we're headed next.
Hi everyone. Thank you
for joining us here on Creme 2 plus.
I'm Whitney ward.
All eyes lately have been on that
homeless encampment near I-90 and
Freya in the East Central neighborhood
of Spokane known as Camp Hope.
That camp was set up in what used to
be an empty lot that is owned by the
Washington Department of Transportation.
And even though the camp
is within city limits,
the city has no power to clear it
because it's not city property.
For the last 10 months, Spokane has watched.
Camp hope grow from 10s to
hundreds of people living there.
Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward says
keeping up with that camp has
fallen back to city responsibility.
We've stepped
up to do what I believe the
state should have been doing on
their own property from day one.
So in early September,
the city of Spokane requested that the
Department of Transportation figure
out a plan to remove the camp off of
that washed out land by mid-october.
Weeks later, the department responded
with a scathing letter saying the city
still doesn't have a solid plan to house
all of the people living at the camp,
and that it was irresponsible to
clear it without housing solutions.
Mayor Nadine Woodward addressed
that stall in plans,
saying something needs to be
done before winter.
Establishing
a clear, concise and efficient timeline
is critically important to move people
out of the elements and into a safe,
healthy and humane environment.
The mayor also said there is
a need for more conversation
before anyone moves forward.
And of course it has been a long
road and recently the continually
growing numbers coming out of that
encampment are prompting all sorts of
questions and some proposed solutions.
So we wanted to better understand
how did we get here and for that
we have to take a look back.
Until they open up shelters,
folks are going to be here.
We're going to continue
to take care of them.
It's hard to say exactly when Spokane's
homeless crisis became a crisis,
but it was back in 2018.
Homeless campers first set up
outside of City Hall in protest.
They were demanding more low barrier
shelter beds and a repeal of the
city's no camping and sitting lie
rules that prohibit sleeping on
sidewalks and other public spaces.
It was the first time we heard
the protest called Camp Hope.
They just wanted us to
pick up. Our stuff and go
the tents were later removed by
authorities and the campers scattered.
We're not Seattle, but we need to
get a handle on the situation.
In 2019, then candidate Nadine
Woodward campaigned for mayor with
the message that adding more shelter
bed space would not solve the problem.
But we need to get beyond just meeting
basic needs and just enabling people.
But the issue continued to grow.
The COVID pandemic then forced
the city to open temporary
shelters at the Convention Center,
Spokane Arena and the downtown.
Public Library then by mid 2021,
Spokane's way out shelter transitioned
into a bridge housing program,
ending access to more
than 100 low barrier beds.
Everyone just wants somewhere to sleep again.
In protest, campers set up outside of
City Hall under the name Camp Hope,
authorities again cracked down,
saying the camp was blocking access to the
building and posed a public health threat,
this time with help from advocates
at jewels helping hands,
homeless campers then migrated to
the Department of Transportation.
Property
that's located right off 2nd
Ave on the north side of the
freeway across from Fred Meyer.
This new version of Camp Hope continued
to grow, and this time outside of the
city's jurisdiction on state property.
By late 2021, now Mayor Woodward conceded,
proposing a new 250 bed low barrier
shelter in a warehouse on East Trent.
According to the city's point in time count,
the homeless population has
jumped dramatically since 2018.
Five years ago it was just over 1200.
Today, it's estimated there are
close to 800 campers just on this
dot land along I-90 and Freya
still being called Camp Hope.
Now, people living near that
Tent City in East Central are
also growing extremely
frustrated with increased crime,
noise and mess all coming from that camp.
I spoke with one woman who says the
homeless crisis in Spokane is becoming
a crisis for her neighborhood.
Early in the morning it is
pretty disgusting when.
The RV's go around the block before
daylight and have the valve to their
sewer open to let all that sewage
out as they drive around the block.
This woman lives less than a
block away from what is now
known as Camp Hope, she says.
From the day she moved in less than
a year ago, she's had problems.
First week I was there, I got
batteries stolen off of my vehicles.
Everything's getting broken into.
But she says nothing is worse than the
raw human waste that gets dumped in the
streets or sometimes even in front yards.
I had an RV parked alongside my house.
They just opened up the belts.
They let it go anywhere.
How often does that happen?
It's it's happening on like two to
three times a week, wow. Or more.
But then the city has to come
out and clean and and and spray
the streets down with bleach.
It's pretty disgusting.
I've had people that'll just cute
all over my lawn or my yard and they
don't care and I've reported it and
it doesn't do a damn bit of good.
She says police do regularly patrol
the area and officers have told her to
report problems as often as it takes.
But she tells me nothing has changed.
In fact, she says it's getting worse.
The city officers.
Babysitting from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM
is not enough because the minute that
those officers leave at 7:00 PM.
It is fire pits, loud music,
partying, a lot of traffic.
Every little bit of nuisance
that can go on does go on.
And she says it's time for the
city and the state to do more.
I'm tired of being treated like
I'm remedial or I'm a nuisance
because I call so much because
there's so much going on.
I don't like that I'm not going
to keep doing it.
I think that those people
just need to move on.
In an interview with KREM 2 News back
in September, Spokane Mayor Nadine
Woodward said the city has spent
more than $400,000 on trash removal,
private security and police overtime just
to keep track and monitor camp. Hope.
So, why can't the city clear that land
like it does with smaller camps that are
set up in other places around the city?
Again, it's because of where the camp sits.
The Washington Department of Transportation
owns lots all along the highways,
and that makes it state land. Therefore,
the city has no say in what happens.
There, when the camp first
appeared in December,
the city said it was washed out's
responsibility to clear it,
but washed out decided in January
to leave the camp in place because
there was not enough shelter
space for those people to go to.
Leaving them, they said,
with nowhere else to go.
So dot said it would not kick anyone out
until there were more housing solutions.
One of the solutions the city was
hoping would give them leverage
to clear the camp was the opening
of a new shelter on Trent Ave,
known as the Trent Shelter.
It took the city months to
finally get the doors open.
In September's Spokane City
Council approved A6 and a half,
$1,000,000 contract with the
goal of moving people out of
Camp hope so at full capacity,
the city expects that shelter to
grow to about 250 available beds.
Still though,
it is far less than the estimated 6 to
700 people currently living at the camp.
However,
many of the residents from Camp
Hope have made it clear they do not
want to relocate to any shelter.
I don't know if anybody's seen it,
but it it's just kind of a bunch of tents
and beds and it's looks like it's in a
big warehouse surrounded by a fence.
Nobody's going to go there.
So when the shelter opened its doors,
it also lacked air conditioning
and even indoor plumbing for
people who will stay there,
which I asked the mayor about
during a tour of the trench shelter
just before it opened. Do you have
indoor plumbing yet?
Inside plumbing for the offices?
For the office, yes. And so.
Not yet for showers or restrooms?
No. So you can see the
Porta potties right here.
There will be a dozen Porta Potties,
280A compliance,
and we will have shower trailers out here.
Is that going to be the permanent
solution or is this just a temporary?
Temporary OK?
We are hoping that commerce will
fund restrooms that would be
constructed inside along with laundry.
Facilities.
So as camp hope has grown
and changed with the seasons,
so have resources there at the camp.
During the summer months,
a cooling tent was set up
against city ordinances.
The Spokane Fire Marshall has asked
several times that it be taken down,
but as the temps have now cooled down,
the tent remains creme juice.
Janelle Finch talked with organizers
about what goes on inside that tent now.
The tent went up in July to provide
people living at the homeless
encampment across the street a
place to beat the extreme heat.
Now, two months later,
temperatures have cooled off,
but the tent is still here.
This has become an operational tent,
so all providers work out of this area.
Executive director of Jules helping Hands,
Julie Garcia, says the tent has grown
beyond being just a place to cool down.
What we're trying to replicate
is what service would look like.
Say they were downtown.
How do you get to the services that you need?
And so this has been that kind of tent.
They have to come across
the street to get help.
They have to come over here to get food.
They have to sign up and participate
to be able to access those services.
Garcia says classes like money
management and employment expectations
will soon be offered in the tent.
We would like
to create something that teaches
them how to maintain that housing
once they get it so we don't continue
these hamster wheel cycles of
getting housing, losing housing.
Garcia says service providers
have been caught in the middle
of city and state politics.
She says people are losing focus
of what's important for the overall
well-being of our community.
I want people
to stop losing focus of what
we're actually trying to do here.
With all this polarized politics,
the city and the state.
What service providers in our community
are trying to do is make it better
for our whole community and we're
contracted to provide a service,
so we're going to continue
providing that service, which is.
Helping them get housing
ready for whatever comes next.
What comes next for the people at the
homeless encampment may be uncertain,
but if the city doesn't get what it wants,
what could be next for Jules,
helping hands is a $536 fine each day.
The tent is left up past Thursday.
As the city and the state worked toward a
joint plan to find solutions for Camp Hope,
state officials also expressed concern
about the Spokane County Sheriff's
Office stepping in to clear the camp,
and those concerns were later
confirmed by the sheriff himself.
Sheriff Ozzie Janezic says he blames
state and area officials for the growing
situation at that homeless camp along I-90.
He now says he plans to clear
the camp himself by mid-october,
and the sheriff says clearing out
the camp would involve arrests
for those who do not want to go.
On the other hand,
his plan also includes giving each person
staying at the camp a bus ticket to
a different location of their choice.
When asked how those bus tickets
would be funded,
the sheriff said he will send the
bill to the Department of Commerce.
Well, there's $25 million at least
Browns has had her disposal.
I'm going to ask Lisa for the 25
million to help resolve her mess. The
sheriff says they will be clearing out
the homeless camp under abatement laws,
and that means when there is a
property that becomes a nuisance,
law enforcement has the
authority to clear it out.
So to do that, Sheriff Knezovich says
he plans to call on the Spokane Police
Department for additional manpower.
But again, since the homeless camp sits on
state property within the city of Spokane,
does the sheriff has have jurisdiction
to even clear the camp?
Crime 2's Mark Hanrahan verifies.
Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich's
claimed that he'll clear out the
homeless camp in Spokane has raised
some questions about jurisdiction.
The camp near I-90 and Freya is on
state owned land within the boundaries
of the city of Spokane, so we verified.
Does the Spokane County sheriff have
jurisdiction in the City of Spokane?
Our sources are Washington state law,
the City of Seattle,
and the Spokane Police Department RCW 47.
52200 addresses the question of
law enforcement jurisdiction
within a city or town.
The law states in incorporated cities
or towns, municipal police officers,
the sheriff of the county,
and the Washington State Patrol have
independent and concurrent jurisdiction.
The City of Seattle explains
how this works on its website,
the city writes.
Since Seattle is located in King County,
the King County Sheriff's Office
has jurisdictional authority
within the city limits as well,
while adding that Seattle police
are considered the primary.
Agency within the city.
We also reached out to the Spokane Police
Department and Corporal Nick Briggs told us,
quote,
does Sheriff Knezovich have law enforcement
authority within the City of Spokane?
The answer is yes,
so we can verify yes.
Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie
Knezovich does have jurisdiction
within the city of Spokane.
The sheriff initially set a goal of
clearing out the camp by October 14th.
He has now revised that timeline.
He claims at the request of the mayor,
he says he now expects to clear out.
People and property at the camp sometime
between October 25th and November 10th,
and as the city of Spokane works
to tackle this homeless crisis,
other cities are also sharing their
experiences in hopes that we might
learn what has worked and what has not,
and then be able to apply it here in Spokane.
Camp Hope is beginning to make
our city feel a lot more like
other places like LA or Seattle,
where their homeless crisis
has been going on for years.
Just a few months ago,
I traveled to Seattle to see how
they are tackling their ongoing.
Homelessness Crisis Seattle
University professor Sarah Rankin,
who has studied this subject in
Washington now for almost a decade.
She discussed some of the solutions
that Spokane will continue to seek.
She says it lines up with her recent studies.
You've said in the past that
shelters the big, you know,
hundred 200 bed shelters are
one of the least effective tools
available to cities. Yeah.
Do you still agree with that?
Yes, absolutely.
Congregate shelters have been
studied repeatedly.
They have very poor performance
rates in terms of making
sure that people are exiting
to some something positive.
Right.
So she says Spokane is going
to have to do more when it
comes to affordable housing and
mental health interventions if
they truly want to solve.
This problem long term.
Emergency shelters.
Those are not long term solutions.
You can invest money in that,
but don't be surprised
when the problem doesn't,
you know, resolve itself.
Don't be surprised when homelessness
doesn't go down because you don't
have exits for people who are in
emergency interventions to go to.
And CRIM, 2, also sat down with an
LA City Councilwoman to find out
how LA is finding success managing
their homeless crisis and what other
cities like Spokane can do moving
forward to help people transition
out of places like Camp Hope.
But there are
a number of smaller and medium sized
cities that have been able to take real
steps towards addressing homelessness.
And what we didn't do is something
that cities who are new to the
crisis of homelessness can do,
which is to invest in housing
and shelter early. Make sure that
you're building the kinds of beds and
units that can really help people move
off the streets. If
you are able to
get more people indoors, you will see
a difference on your city streets,
and I think your your city can see
that same difference.
As camp hope continues to
grow and impact our community,
KREM 2 is committed to bringing
you the very latest developments.
As we look for solutions for
the most up-to-date reporting,
remember, you can always go
to our website, cream.com.