SPOKANE, Wash. — Mayor Nadine Woodward claimed her mayoral opponent, Lisa Brown, views safe parking as a potential solution to Spokane's homeless crisis.
Safe parking is when people are able to use parking lots as a place to stay in their cars overnight.
Brown said while she wants a safe place for people who sleep in their cars, she is not in favor of camping in parking lots. Woodward hosted a campaign press conference Wednesday afternoon to address to her mayoral opponent's approach to homelessness.
“She wants people to legally be able to set up camp in dozens of parking lots like this one across our city and live in them,” Woodward said at her press conference.
Woodward allowed time for a former non-profit leader whose building was near the I-90 homeless encampment site time to speak on his experience.
He said his employees had concerns around their safety while at work. He said multiple people would come up to the non-profit and harass his staff.
Woodward said Brown is hiding information from voters.
"When Lisa launched her campaign, she unveiled her homeless plan that included safe parking and tiny homes," Woodward said. "Since then, however, she has curiously deleted only that line from her website."
Brown said what the mayor may be referring to is a social media post she shared that explained safe parking and tiny homes as potential solutions to homelessness in other cities.
She said her campaign website will cycle through some of her social media posts and that's likely when the Woodward campaign saw the statement. She claims it was never posted on the website.
She said the mayor’s claims are false and attempts to scare voters.
“What the mayor is trying to scare people by saying that someone parking lots would be taken over by camping and I think most people think of that as living in tents,” Brown said.
She said she wants to be able to potentially provide a space where people could connect with resources.
“One way would be to come up with a location, non-profit, sector, agreed to in advanced, discussed with the community and city council.”
Brown said Woodward is trying to distract voters from the issues in her administration.
"The mayor is trying to distract from a poor record," Brown said. "The last four years have not been a success. The Trent shelter is a failure and there's a gap of 1,000 of how many people are unhoused and how many place we have to bring them inside. I can do better and we can do better together.”
Woodward said the city needs more attainable housing and residential services programs for those in crisis.
“We have emergency housing, transitional housing, but we need to do a better job of getting that attainable housing built. So once they’re in services and getting treatment, bettering their lives, then they do have a permanent place to go to,” Woodward said.
She said the city is discussing using money collected from taxes to accelerate building more accessible housing.
According to Shelter Me Spokane, all adult shelters, as of Wednesday, have less than 25% of beds available.
Hope House has a 32% availability, but is temporarily closed.
The City of Spokane's Housing and Human Services department shared data with KREM2 that on the night of the 2023 Point in Time Count, 146 people reported they were sleeping in their cars, RVs, boats and vehicles.
KREM 2 is hosting a debate between the two mayoral candidates on Oct. 26, 2023. Questions for the candidates? Text "DEBATE" to 509-448-2000 to get the conversation started.
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