SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown’s office insists that her visit to the former Pine Lodge Corrections Center had nothing to do with turning it into a homeless shelter.
Brown says local legislators organized the visit to see if it would meet the region’s public safety needs.
Mayor Brown was unavailable for interviews on Monday. Spokesperson Erin Hut said it was a fact-finding mission to see if it could be used as additional jail space.
Hut adds the Spokane Regional Emergency Communications center needs a new facility, and this site was a possibility.
But Hut says it was immediately apparent the building is just not usable.
“The takeaway was that it would take a lot of money to do anything to fix it up, basically do an overhaul of that building, Hut said. "We're not interested.”
Councilmember Jonathan Bingle originally pitched two ideas for repurposing the facility last week to the Spokane Regional Homeless Authority. He suggested using the former women’s prison as a homeless resource center or a site for low-level offenders. But he believed the idea died after a conversation with Medical Lake’s mayor a few weeks ago.
“Mayor Cooper expressed to me pretty quickly, 'Jonathan, this facility is in disrepair. It would not be good. This is not a good use for this facility or for the city of Medical Lake,'" Bingle said. "And so for me, that idea really died there after I talked to Terry, but I brought it up in the Homeless Coalition meeting to demonstrate the efforts that my office is taking to find a facility that would be good for us in the region.”
Bingle admits he probably caused some problems by mentioning his ideas to the regional homeless authority as a viable option. Still, he remains committed to finding a facility that can meet the needs of the region.
Hut with the city of Spokane says Medical Lake Mayor Terri Cooper was invited to the tour of the facility last week, but says she did not attend. KREM 2 asked Mayor Cooper for her response.
Cooper sent KREM 2 this message:
"Yes I and 22 people received an invitation from DSHS for a legislative tour. I had heard for a while that Spokane City was interested in the facility for homeless services. I had a conflict that day and didn't attend, I'm familiar with the facility. My city administrator was also unavailable. That same day, Thursday, August 1st, a video shared on the next door app of the homeless coalition meeting where Mr. Bingle stated Pine Lodge was the best fit for a homeless solution with plenty of space inside and with hundreds of acres for camping and Lisa Brown and Senator Billig had the clout to get it done. I was unaware. By Friday afternoon social media was blowing up and citizens were terrified and didn't know what to believe. What other conclusion could they draw from these two simultaneous events? Imaginations ran wild and I felt compelled to hold the press release to calm their fears. While the rumors all along were about homelessness, which is what I believed would be the reason for the tour, it was more alarming to find out jail services were being considered. That facility was a Dept of Corrections felony pre-release, a state facility. A Mayor from another city has no jurisdiction to open a municipal jail in another city? No discussions have happened in the region about a regional jail! Neither a Jail or Homeless facility has any place in a small city with no services. I put all I know to be true on my Facebook post to my city and then held a press conference to catch those who are not on social media. I fielded calls all evening Friday and all day Saturday. I have told the truth. Mayor Brown was working deals and came to my town and I have yet to receive any official communication from her office. I was waiting and watching. She and her council member caused my city to be in a panic, so I called the elected officials of my district for help and together we addressed my city to calm and reassure their fears."