MEDICAL LAKE, Wash. – Medical Lake Mayor Terri Cooper drew disagreement Saturday when announcing her opposition to an idea for a homeless shelter at the former Pine Lodge Corrections Center that Spokane leaders say was not planned to begin with.
Cooper said that she will deliver remarks in opposition to Medical Lake sheltering homeless people from Spokane at Medical Lake City Hall Sunday. and are also slated to attend the conference.
“During the news conference Mayor Cooper and Commissioner French will explain their opposition to the city’s plan and the negative impacts such a move would have on the community of Medical Lake,” Cooper’s office told media outlets Saturday.
Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown visited the facility alongside other policymakers this week. Her office said that Cooper had irresponsibly portrayed the situation and made it clear that it is unlikely the old correctional facility will be purchased by Spokane.
“Mayor Cooper and Commissioner French are misinformed and could have simply picked up the phone if they wanted clarification about my visit to Pine Lodge…It was quickly apparent that the facility is in an extreme state of disrepair…Comments that our visit was about using the site for a homeless shelter are not only disingenuous, they are false,” Brown said.
Cooper told NonStop Local that she reached out Governor Jay Inslee’s office Saturday and was told that the City of Spokane had asked about purchasing Pine Lodge. She also said that the press conference is still planned for Sunday.
At an Aug. 1 Spokane Homeless Coalition meeting, Spokane City Council Member Jonathan Bingle explained an idea for Spokane’s municipal government to acquire the Pine Lodge facility, , to expand housing offerings for people experiencing homelessness.
On Saturday, Bingle said that while the idea of acquiring the former prison in Medical Lake had been explored by his office as part of his work addressing housing issues in Spokane, it is not a concrete proposal.
“I have looked at a number of facilities including Pine Lodge. Pine Lodge looked to be a potentially good fit. As a part of our due diligence, we asked the state about availability. There are a lot of issues that would need to be addressed before we ever seriously planned on siting a facility there,” Bingle said.
Homelessness in Spokane is currently in the midst of a complicated tangle of policy discussions. The number of unhoused people while Spokane is currently in the midst of a legal battle as to whether a allows police to enforce an
According to a June 2022 YouGov digital poll of 1,000 people, 85% of Americans support addressing homelessness nationally, but they are 21% less likely to approve of funding for housing if it impacts their local community.
Bingle emphasized that the Pine Lodge idea is one of many, and that he always consults community members before voicing his approval of new facilities.
“I would not vote for any plan unless the community in which it was being sited was in favor,” Bingle said.
