More than 100 tenants of the Commercial Building and the New Madison Apartments in downtown Spokane must vacate by mid-July. Another 100 residents of the Otis Hotel will likely be required to vacate their units by Aug. 1.

Nonprofit organizations, the city of Spokane and the local business sector have been meeting to strategize how to help these people relocate after being displaced by redevelopment of their buildings. With a 2 percent vacancy rate among low-income rental units, and an overall area vacancy rate of 5 percent, it’s been extremely challenging to identify available, affordable homes for these 200-plus residents.

Challenging, yes, but we – the Spokane community – must make it happen. The alternative is to have displaced residents living on the streets, and that is not acceptable. Here are actions that have been taken to date:

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development converted unit-based rental subsidies that were tied to the Commercial Building to tenant-based vouchers, which the 45 affected residents can use to help pay the rent in market-rate – or non-subsidized – rental units. Northeast Washington Housing Solutions reports that 25 of the 45 have leased new rentals.

To ease the search for available housing, the Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium has asked all landlords to list their vacant units on our free, centralized, Web-based housing locater: www.onestophousing.org.

Several nonprofits met with most of the 60 New Madison residents on June 14 and 28 to collect their demographic information and to identify their specific housing barriers and needs. Most reported a monthly income of approximately $600 or less. Most need help in physically moving and help to pay for application fees and deposits. Most said that they have mental and/or physical disabilities. About 10 have found other homes.

Nonprofit agencies and others have met a number of times to brainstorm about immediate, albeit temporary, homes, such as FEMA trailers, motel rooms, a tent city, the Costco warehouse on Third and church gymnasiums. Realtors could be enlisted to look for appropriate properties, and a 30-room housing complex just north of downtown may be available.

Spokane Mental Health and several service agencies have created a “housing crisis team” that will work with displaced residents to ensure that they are connected to appropriate housing and support services.

Our consortium and the Spokane Homeless Coalition have met with City Council President Joe Shogan. The two groups requested $270,000 of city funds to pay for immediate relocation expenses and emergency housing for displaced residents – only 2.7 percent of the city’s $10 million surplus.

Looking to the future, the city of Spokane has created a task force comprised of representatives from government, service agencies and the private sector to develop policies that will help ensure smoother relocations of displaced residents and an adequate supply of affordable housing options. That task force should undertake the following long-term actions:

“Establish a balance between redevelopment and providing an adequate number of homes for people with limited incomes. Redevelopment is good. At the same time, Spokane City and County are required by our federal and state governments to reduce homelessness by half in the next six to eight years, so low-cost housing must be available.

“Adopt relocation policies and procedures for people with limited incomes, such as defining the responsibilities of the owner and the local jurisdiction and determining adequate vacate notice periods.

“Establish better systems for tracking vulnerable populations and anticipated changes in property use.

“Create a broad range of housing options, including incentives to landlords who now offer low-cost housing; increasing development of low-rent housing, possibly through a local housing levy; requiring developers to include a percentage of affordable housing in their developments; amending the Downtown Neighborhood Plan to ensure a healthy mixed-income housing environment; making sure that current housing resources are coordinated to achieve the most effective use of funds; and using local housing funds to provide vouchers for housing assistance.

The current housing crisis actually presents opportunities for nonprofits, businesses and the city and county to work together to assist displaced residents to find housing, and to develop policies and procedures that – in the long run – will help ensure adequate homes for all.