SPOKANE, Wash. — Newly-released data from Spokane police show a major increase in how many times officers are called to the new Trent Avenue homeless shelter since it opened. Now, neighbors and area businesses are seeing the impacts of those calls.
The data looks at the total SPD "calls for service" within a 1/4-mile radius of the shelter from the day it opened (Sept. 6, 2022) through February 6, 2023. That time frame shows SPD had 890 total calls for service. SPD said of that total, 79 calls turned into actual cases.
This is a significant jump from totals pulled from the same time frame in previous years.
Sept. 6 - Feb. 6
- 2022-23: 890
- 2021-22: 154
- 2020-21: 110
- 2019-20: 121
- 2018-19: 140
Colleen Gardner, former co-chair of Chief Garry's neighborhood council, fields several emails a day from her neighbors and businesses near the Trent shelter. All of which say they're concerned with the criminal activity in the area.
"There's loitering, there's businesses whose employees are being harassed," Garnder said. "What I'm trying to do is be that single point of contact."
Now serving as neighborhood liaison to the non-profits operating the Trent shelter, Gardner shares her neighbors' concerns in hopes of finding a way to mitigate this activity.
"The crime rates have gone off the charts, the number of calls to SPD is ridiculous," Gardner said.
The city of Spokane's spokesperson Brian Coddington told KREM it's working collaboratively with the Salvation Army, which operates the shelter, and SPD to address all this activity.
"First and foremost, it's about managing expectations to make sure that everybody that's using the resource center has those expectations in mind," Coddington said. "One of the things you'll see in the next month or so is the Salvation Army will have a van that's capable of going out into the neighborhood, stopping and talking to people who are camping or who are loitering on the sidewalk and encouraging them to get in and come to the navigation center."
He adds the city's new camping ordinance establishes a three-block radius around the Trent Shelter. It doesn't mean there will be a citation to enforce the camping ordinance every time, but it allows for officers to contact people on the street, ask them to move along or off the street and into the nearby shelter.
In the meantime, Coddington said the Salvation Army is beginning to build relationships within the neighborhood. That way they can help address any concerns more effectively.
"We've encouraged to report these things so that we are aware," Coddington said. "We need the data to be able to utilize that information to best direct resources."
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