SPOKANE, Wash. — The homeless encampment on WSDOT property next to I-90 and Freya continues to grow in people and amenities. The latest addition to the site is water tanks that collectively hold about 1,500 gallons of water.
Jewels Helping Hands brought the water tanks to the site on Monday. Co-Founder Julie Garcia said the water will be used by people camping on the property to stay hydrated during the hot summer months.
"We'll be able to fill them three times a week, and also some handwashing stations, because this means everything to them," Garcia said. "They have had no access to water since December."
The water tanks are the newest amenity, but they're not the only ones. There are makeshift showers and two birds eye view security cameras on site. Garcia said Jewels Helping Hands is also installing lights around the camp.
But the camp and all its amenities can’t be here forever. So what’s the plan?
“We don’t know what the plan is," Garcia said. "But, we’re working on getting funded for land.”
She also hopes to collect funding for tiny homes or pallet homes to set up at a new location provided by community partners.
WSDOT owns the land where an estimated 500 people are now staying. From the beginning, WSDOT said the camp is there illegally.
Spokesperson Ryan Overton said additional amenities are being brought onto the property without WSDOT's knowledge and are not permitted. He said once additional shelter space becomes available, WSDOT will begin to stop development on the site.
"The biggest thing that we continue to watch for is the shelter bed space availability," Overton said. "There's been the talk about the new shelter on Trent. As soon as that becomes available, we will take action to remove the encampment with our local partners."
City of Spokane Spokesperson Brian Coddington said this is why it is important for the city to get the new Trent Avenue shelter up and running.
"This shelter space, that allows for a combination of a large number of people," Coddington said. "It becomes much more possible to be able to move people off of that site into shelter space because there's a place for people to go."
The city wants to move quickly to get people moved into the new shelter, but it's still working on a plan for those who say they do not want to go to a shelter.