SPOKANE, Wash. – Housing leaders met Thursday to discuss plans to keep Spokane’s homeless population safe during extreme cold weather this upcoming winter.
Each year, thousands of dollars go toward keeping homeless individuals safe during extreme weather, including summer, wildfire season and winter.
Members of the City’s Community, Housing & Services (CHHS) board said that in the last few years, COVID-19 funding was used to increase shelter beds. But now, those COVID-19 funds are drying up, and CHHS reports a steady decline in emergency shelter beds over the past several months. Their current budget of $250,000 per year would cover about ten nights if all the beds were full.
“The limits on our funding are pretty severe. Council Member Paul Dillon talked about his effort, as a state legislative priority, to get the [Spokane City] Council to increase or give some priority attention to this under-funded need to help people when we have extreme weather events stay safe,” Karen Ssabanakitta, the Interim Chair for CHHS, said.
One person in attendance commented on how the City claimed an inclement weather plan was supposed to be published on Sept. 30. The board said their plan will be provided to the Council and is expected to be published soon.
Other concerns raised by those attending the meeting included the lack of warming shelters. They voiced worries that more people could lead to encampments similar to Camp Hope due to the lack of physical shelters. The board acknowledged that there is no easy solution to the housing problems Spokane is facing, with a large ongoing issue being a lack of funding.
