SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane city leaders held a press conference Wednesday about the shrinking homeless encampment on WSDOT property and how the Right-Of-Way initiative plan helped in these efforts.
Last summer, the city submitted a plan to the state on how it would get people out of the encampment and into housing. While city leaders admit the execution of that plan wasn't perfect, they applauded the significant progress seen at the homeless encampment by community partners so far.
Council President Breean Beggs specifically acknowledged Jewels Helping Hands, Empire Health, CHAS Health and several other groups for their role in the progress seen at the encampment.
"All these groups have come together in a coordinated fashion and that is what was new about this initiative," Beggs said. "And so we've made it pretty far, but we still have at least 124 people to go. And I'm just focused on encouraging people to follow the plan that we have."
The city's acknowledgement came as somewhat of a surprise to founder of Jewels Helping Hands, Julie Garcia.
"I'm unconcerned with who gets the credit," Garcia said. "I am more concerned with the people experiencing homelessness, getting the help. I am hopeful that everything that was said here will continue on into the future because we're going to need these folks to come up with the solutions."
The state's Right-Of-Way initiative gave the city $25 million in funding to execute its plans for moving people into housing. Part of that plan includes the Catalyst project, which is by operated Catholic Charities. The non-profit is now reporting 52 participants currently in the project. They expect to be ready to offer full capacity in the coming weeks. Meaning, a total of 100 participants will get support transitioning into permanent housing.
Looking to the immediate future, WSDOT is preparing to move the Second Avenue side of the camp's fence line inward. Spokesperson Ryan Overton says this is meant to visually show the community it's getting closer to decommissioning the camp.
"Julie's staff has worked really hard to continually move people shrink the footprint of the camp," Overton said. "So, we're planning to move the fence, tentatively on Monday of next week. And it'll come in about 50 feet or so."
During the press conference, KREM asked Council President Beggs if this gathering with stakeholders
meant they are now all on the same page with this issue. He said they are "mostly on the same page" and working on getting there.
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