SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane’s regional leaders are gearing up to make joint effort in reducing homelessness. Spokane’s city council and mayor, the City of Spokane Valley and Spokane County are making final touches to a joint statement that would initiate those efforts.
Once the joint statement is signed off by Spokane’s three largest jurisdictions, a 90-day due diligence period will begin.
During those 90 days, community leaders and stakeholder groups will identify what a regional system to address homelessness would look like. Based on the draft version of the joint statement, the system could be built on shared finances, data and other resources.
Gavin Cooley is helping coordinate this joint agreement. In a Spokane City Council meeting Thursday morning, he explained its significance once the agreement is finalized.
“Coming together and saying, 'yes, we’d like to have this conversation,' we haven’t made any decisions, but we are interested in a conversation about a regional, collaborative approach to addressing homelessness,” Cooley said.
He adds that once Spokane’s three largest jurisdictions sign off on the agreement, remaining jurisdictions like Cheney and Airway Heights will be asked to join the discussion. That also includes local providers, businesses and groups representing the homeless, which is something council member Michael Cathcart said is an important piece to the 90 days of due diligence.
“We need to think about those things too and how their participation and what they need to see happen through this process," Cathcart said.
For the most part, the statement has support from Spokane City Council members.
Spokane's Board of County Commissioners also discussed the statement in a meeting this week. While commissioners had several questions about what lies ahead during the 90 days of due diligence, the board appears supportive of this effort as well.
Commission Chair Mary Kuney told KREM 2 discussions of what a regional authority would look like began during COVID and was encouraged by a project manager at the time.
"It kind of got us thinking along that path of how do we take the politics out of this and really do the right thing for the people," Kuney said.
Some local leadership, including Kuney, visited Houston in October last year to see its success in reducing homelessness. Kuney hopes the Spokane region will have similar results by following Houston’s lead.
"It's really taking those silos away that are going on between nonprofits and the community services from the different government agencies, and really saying how do we bring that together?" Kuney said. "I think that's what Houston really did. That was the way they were able to be so successful was by breaking down those silos and bringing everybody together to really do what's best for the community."
The mayor is also on board with this joint statement. The City of Spokane Valley met last week to discuss the joint statement. It's expected to hold another discussion at a later date.
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