Tent city upsets neighbors

Some east Spokane residents are demanding City Hall do something about a tent city that has moved into their neighborhood on a vacant lot owned by a South Hill Realtor.

City officials are wondering just what can be done to remove the camp in the absence of a clear-cut ordinance about camping on private property or violations of public health laws.

Managers of homeless shelters, meanwhile, say the tent city – touted by its organizer as a demonstration against a lack of accommodations – isn’t necessary when there are plenty of beds available in the city’s homeless shelters. On Wednesday, Stevens Elementary School Principal Mike Crabtree was informed by a Spokane police neighborhood resource officer that a Level 3 sex offender had been identified at the camp on the southeast corner of Napa Street and Sinto Avenue.

After he was identified, the offender, along with another lower-level offender, and their pit bull terriers, were asked to leave the camp by tent city organizer Dave Bilsland.

“He’s gone,” Bilsland said. “His probation officer came and got him.”

The camp – 18 tents, a tarp-covered communal area around a propane stove, and another tarp-covered storage area – has been erected on nearly bare ground at 1414 N. Napa, about a block from Stevens Elementary.

The campers moved onto the property, owned by Realtor Robert Gilles, after vacating their previous campsite on the grassy Monroe Street median in front of the Spokane Club on Oct. 25.

Crabtree sent a note home with students Thursday informing parents about security concerns regarding the camp and has started accompanying students through the nearby crosswalk at Sinto and Napa.

Crabtree said he also is consulting school district security personnel about altering the students’ route home, after heated words were exchanged between someone associated with the camp and a parent waiting for a student after school.

Gilles, the owner of the property, declined to be interviewed but issued a news release Friday afternoon saying he allowed the tent city onto his property in “the hope that this is a better location than Riverside and Monroe.”

The owner of Gilles Realty, 921 S. Monroe St., expressed concern for the safety of the homeless and urged the city, the camp organizers, neighbors and citizens of Spokane County to come to “satisfactory solutions.”

A satisfactory solution, as far as Spokane City Councilman Bob Apple is concerned, would be for Gilles to take responsibility for his new guests.

“I advised him that it is not appropriate,” Apple said, citing health concerns such as inadequate bathroom facilities and garbage collection and no running water. The councilman also suggested the Spokane Regional Health District had failed to take action against the camp.

A Health District spokeswoman said inspectors had visited the camp on several occasions and found no actionable violations of public health law.

“If they are following the law, we have to give them the same treatment as anyone else,” said public information manager Julie Graham. “We have to enforce law the way it is written even if some people prefer that they were not there.”

Graham said it was the city’s responsibility to enforce its codes.

A spokeswoman for the city said the situation is being monitored for code violations and that officials were concerned about the health and safety of both camp residents and neighbors.

“We don’t have a rule in place to deal with this very effectively,” said public information officer Marlene Feist. “We have laws about how long you can live in an RV outside your house (four weeks). You’re not supposed to be living in your RV or car, but tents are not on the list.”

The city outlawed camping on public property in 2004, the year Bilsland established his first protest camp at Monroe and Riverside, but private property is another matter. City Council President Joe Shogan said this week that no new ordinances are in the works.

“We are trying to work within existing ordinances,” Feist said, suggesting chronic nuisance laws may be the key to getting rid of the tent city. “Often the responsibility lies with the property owner.”

She said the city has found housing for nearly every resident of recently closed low-income downtown apartments, and a city task force is working on a long-term affordable housing solution. Most advocates for the homeless disagree with Bilsland, she said.

“They’ll tell you that a tent city in any form is a substandard solution,” Feist said. “The goal is to put people into sustainable, affordable housing.”

Feist and homeless advocates question Bilsand’s message, as well as his tactics. They say the situation is only perpetuated by gifts of food and other items to the tent city by well-meaning, but misguided, churches and businesses.

“The city has bent over backwards to help the homeless,” said Marty McKinney, director of the Truth Ministries homeless shelter on East Sprague Avenue. “Bilsland’s taking advantage of people’s generosity. I don’t think he speaks for the homeless, and the homeless here don’t think he speaks for them.”

Bilsland, who was formerly homeless and now lives in transitional housing, said he has been getting such criticism for years.

“You think I’m out here for my health?” he asked. “I’m here because it’s needed.”

But McKinney and other shelter directors question the need when there are beds available in shelters. House of Charity director Ed McCarron said a few of his residents actually gave up their beds to move into the tent city.

David Wall, operations manager for the Union Gospel Mission, where 50 beds for men are currently available, said he would put people on the floor of the mission’s day room if there were a need.

“With people who want to stay homeless, you’re not really helping them because they are not trying to move ahead with their lives,” Wall said. “The guys that choose to live in tents are, in most cases, looking to sustain their addictions, and they don’t want to change.”

Wall said the mission offers everything they could need – including meals, medical services, mental health counseling, dental referrals, even a barber shop.

He said those who choose to stay outside prefer to live in a situation where there is no accountability.

“For a guy who chooses to stay outside rather than coming to a shelter, you got to wonder whether he wants to better himself.”