SPOKANE, Wash. — Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee wants to put $100 million toward shrinking homeless encampments and making more housing available.
Inslee says the state has cleared out 30 homeless encampments in just over a year. Many of these are along interstates, just like the former "Camp Hope" in Spokane.
"Thirty encampments that aren't there anymore. In their place is beautiful Washington scenery," Inslee said.
The governor announced he will budget an additional $100 million to maintain the Rapid Capital Housing Acquisition fund. This fund has helped close down homeless encampments by opening new emergency housing options, such as the Catholic Charities Catalyst housing in West Hills.
"We're making big progress, and I'm proud of the state of Washington," Inslee said.
Inslee said it's one of his top priorities to open emergency housing for people out on the street.
"We know we can succeed when we do this, but we're essentially out of money," Inslee said. "So, we need to continue to appropriate the dollars necessary to get this job done."
The fund has already helped local non-profits in Spokane, like Volunteers of America and their women's shelter, Hope House.
CEO of Volunteers of America Fawn Schott said, "The rapid capital housing acquisition program really did help build that and women are and and many others in our community are seeing great success with that program."
Schott says the RCHA fund is needed more than ever. Even with the closure of 'Camp Hope' Schott still sees hundreds of people on the streets in Spokane.
"This money was needed three years ago with continues to be needed today. It can't come fast enough. People are dying on the street," Schott said.
And Inslee said even with 30 encampments closed in the past year, the job is not done.
"We got to keep this progress going. We got more homeless encampments," Inslee said.
RCHA funding may become available if it is approved by the Washington State Legislature next year.
DOWNLOAD THE KREM SMARTPHONE APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE KREM+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
Fire TV: search for "KREM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com.