SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward will be hosting a public discussion on a City ordinance that addresses temporary supplemental hazard sheltering for extreme weather conditions, unhealthy air quality, and other environmental hazards.
The public discussion will be held on Wednesday from 3:30-4:30 p.m. at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena Board Room.
City Council members, shelter providers, members of the human services board, city staff, and others are all welcome to attend the discussion.
City staff prepared a cooling center plan last week during the extreme heat. It included a central location in Riverfront Park and in-neighborhood library locations. The plan was based on experience and user feedback from the safer air center back in September.
A total of 731 sheltered and unsheltered people used multi-purpose rooms at the Looff Carrousel from June 26 through July 4.
Peak usage hit 33 people between 2 and 3 pm on July 3, which was also the greatest one-day usage at 171 total people. Library locations experienced longer stays but reported no capacity issues.
Low-barrier shelter capacity ranged between 46 and 86 available spaces during the same period.
Previously, the City of Spokane doubled the amount of cooling centers and extend public library hours in Spokane during a record-breaking heatwave.
The expansion was made possible by orders from Gov. Jay Inslee. He issued an order on June 25 to remove pandemic limitations on the number of people served at publicly owned or operated and nonprofit cooling centers.
Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward asked that all city partner shelters follow the order to increase their capacity for guests.
