SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich met with law enforcement and local non-profits to develop his plan to clear out the homeless camp located near I-90 and Freya Street.
In an exclusive interview with KREM 2, Knezovich said he met with the Spokane Police Department (SPD), members of his staff and non-profits like the Guardians Foundation on Wednesday. Everyone willingly gathered to formulate an action plan to clear out the camp.
The meeting comes one week after Knezovich notified the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) of his intentions to clear out the I-90 homeless camp, which currently holds more than 600 campers.
"Quite frankly, the reason I did it, I really got tired of answering phone calls and attending meetings from people's houses and meeting with people and some of them get in church because what is happening to our city, to their neighbor," he said. "They felt as if they had no voice."
Knezovich made plans to meet with Spokane Police and other local resources to develop an action plan, which happened Wednesday.
"This was our first initial strategy meeting," he said.
During the meeting, the groups outlined assignments, including resources for people living at the camp, housing options and investigations involving Jewels Helping Hands, a Spokane organization actively involved in assisting those experiencing homelessness.
Knezovich wanted to make it clear he is not planning an immediate police response in the clean up efforts.
"The value statement for this group is this: to have that camp pulled out without ever having to use a law enforcement means," he said. "That means provide every ounce of resources we can to help anybody that wants out of that camp get out of that camp immediately."
SPD willingly came to the table to collaborate on this plan.
"SPD understands what we're dealing with," Knezovich said. "They're part of the planning, they are in an active planning phase with us."
Knezovich initially set a goal of clearing out the camp by Oct.14. On Wednesday, he laid out a new timeline that he claimed is at the request of Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward. He now expects to clear out people and property at the camp from Oct. 25- Nov. 10.
"We're going to inundate the camp with as much help as we can from all kinds of angles," Knezovich said. "Mental health, drug addictions you name it, and help people get out of there."
Sheriff Knezovich said the next planning meeting will be on Oct. 12, at which point he expects to get debriefed on action plans from each of the groups.
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