SPOKANE, Wash. — For months, the City of Spokane has been trying to move some homeless services off of the Division Corridor. However, finding a new home for Compassionate Addiction Treatment (CAT) is proving contentious.
A vacant building on East Springfield could become CAT's new home. A coalition of businesses and neighbors in the Chief Garry neighborhood are fighting to stop that from happening.
Junxtor owner Jim Schrock joined the coalition after concerns about what is moving in next door to his shop.
“We’ve lived through the trauma of having Jewels Helping Hands right next door," Schrock said.
An August 7 press release shows the City of Spokane entered a "formal agreement" with CAT to move its sobering center and behavioral health services to the Chief Garry neighborhood.
“Well, I think right there where you say sobering center, who would want to live next to a sobering center?” Schrock said.
CAT declined an interview but told KREM2 that after searching near downtown and Spokane Valley, the proposed new site at 1819 East Springfield fits its budget and need for space and privacy.
Erin Hut with Mayor Lisa Brown's office says the city council approved an allocation of American Rescue Plan dollars to reduce homelessness downtown on April 2.
“There’s 40 or more businesses, more every day are jumping on board to put up signs. We’re just trying whatever we can to stop them moving to our neighborhood or slow them down all we can," Schrock said about the coalition's goals.
Schrock looks at CAT's current location at Second and Division as a vision of what he fears his neighborhood could become if they moved in.
“They have a disaster on their own front porch," said Schrock. "They’ve got windows broken out they can’t even control their own facility let alone what’s going to happen to the neighborhood.”
The coalition is holding an emergency community meeting this Friday. For more details, click here.