Just a few days after a tent city popped up near an east Spokane elementary school, two sex offenders showed up at the site.

Principal Mike Crabtree quickly sent out warning letters to the parents of Stevens Elementary School’s 500 students. Since then, homeless organizers have assured Crabtree they’re banning sex offenders, but both school staff and parents are keeping a close eye on the campers.

The tent city, which appears largely a political statement that will disband when temperatures dip lower, stands as a visual symbol that Spokane’s low-income housing crisis has not disappeared.

Last January an annual homeless count showed 1,187 people were living on the city’s streets and in its shelters and transitional housing. That group counted as 897 households, and 167 of them had slept on the streets the night before.

Since then, additional residents of downtown hotels and apartments have been evicted as their buildings have been prepared for redevelopment. Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession appointed a task force to address the issue, and the City Council set aside money to help with relocation costs.

But at the same time, Spokane’s House of Charity has been full most nights.

Clearly, there are no simple solutions for the homeless. Few shelters will allow couples to spend the night together. And the House of Charity is one of the few that will open its beds to those using drugs or alcohol.

Realtor Robert Gilles owns the land where the tent city sits. In a press release he said that he hopes the “short time afforded by this location” will help the various groups reach a solution.

“I see a problem that needs to be addressed,” he wrote. “Last summer friends of mine tried to help a downtown homeless man who was burned to death. There was a man who slept under the freeway where I parked my car, and he was beaten to death. In both cases, there were prosecutions, but isn’t that a little late? Can all parties come together and arrive at a solution?”

In the meantime, Crabtree and a group of worried parents are hovering over the crosswalk at Sinto and Napa where 40 to 50 children must walk past the camp on their way home from school each weekday afternoon. Police are keeping a close eye on the camp. And neighbors nervously watch out their windows.

This little cluster of tents won’t be a lasting solution to the problem of homelessness. Surely citizens and government can devise far better answers to this plight of the poor.