Spokanites speak out against city council expanding homeless camping restrictions

(The Center Square) - As Spokane’s elected officials struggle to find common ground over homelessness, their constituents testified during Monday's city council meeting over legislation expanding camping prohibitions.

Last November, nearly 75% of voters favored Proposition 1, a citizen initiative that made camping illegal within 1,000 feet of a park, school or daycare. However, Councilmember Michael Cathcart wants to expand the legislation that some argue criminalizes homelessness.

While Prop 1 passed last year, the Spokane Police Department held off on enforcing it until last week due to a prior court decision that prevented them from doing so. However, the U.S. Supreme Court recently overturned the ruling, which allowed SPD to begin enforcing.

Camping in certain areas was already illegal, which SPD was enforcing, but Prop. 1 expanded the restrictions, with Carthcart’s ordinance attempting to clarify them further. The measure would expand the language to within 1,000 feet of comprehensive support services, including shelters.

“I look at that, and I will still say it’s unconstitutional,” resident Rick Bocook, who was homeless at one point, told the council. “They camp at these places for their survival.”

Theft, predators and violence are among the reasons people stray away from the shelters, he claimed, based on his own lived experience. Bocook spoke out against a recent sweep that SPD carried out in a local park, noting it was a place to hide from the heat wave.

The Spokane Municipal Code already prohibited camping within three blocks of any congregate shelter and underneath or within 50 feet of any railroad viaduct in SPD’s Downtown Precinct boundary. Carthcart’s ordinance changes those three blocks to 1,000 feet while defining the services.

Comprehensive Support Services include addiction recovery services, resource distribution centers, congregate shelters and transitional or non-permanent housing, according to the ordinance.

Andrew Rolwes, vice president of the Downtown Spokane Partnership, testified in support of the legislation. He cited the city’s comprehensive plan, which notes that temporary housing should be dispersed evenly across the city, while adding the consequences of the current reality.

“As you’re well aware, south downtown bears the burden of providing social services, not just for the city, and not just for the county, but for the entire region,” Rolwes said.

The city is transitioning toward a scattered site model, but Rolwes said Spokane will likely have to deal with the consequences of concentrating services for decades to come.

Several other residents also spoke for and against the ordinance, with some questioning how SPD could even enforce it while being understaffed , while more denounced the effort altogether.

“They want everyone to see homeless people as a threat; they want everyone to continue to push towards criminalization,” said Justice Forral, director of operations for Spokane Community Against Racism, “People need somewhere to exist.”

Spokane’s city council will likely vote over Cathcart’s ordinance on Aug. 19 unless the majority opts to defer it instead.