Lisa Brown: Don’t look away, look to those ready to act now on homelessness

By Lisa Brown

A young woman sleeps curled up on a foam pad, covered by a blanket on the edge of a bike path in Olympia. In Seattle, a middle-age man struggling with PTSD paces in front of a tent, shouting at someone or something in the sky. A couple rise before dawn in Spokane, heading one at a time to a nearby gas station to wash; the other staying behind to guard their few belongings.

Roughly 53,200 people, including an estimated 6,300 children, are homeless in Washington state. When we dare to look closely, we see their stories are varied, complicated and very often heartbreaking. The pandemic only made things worse, growing numbers of those desperately in need and shrinking local resources and service providers.

Tackling homelessness is difficult work.

The root and systemic causes of the homeless crisis before us today have been decades in the making. They are complex and contentious. Communities across Washington state are divided on what to do. It has too often been too easy for many in positions of influence to look away, point fingers or pass the buck.

But the one thing we should all be able to agree on is that homelessness is an all society problem. And it will take all of us to begin turning the tide. State and local government, advocates, businesses, philanthropy, nonprofits, service providers and communities coming together in good faith will create the space for viable solutions to emerge. There will be debates and compromises, but there can be no meaningful progress until we find ways to work together.

With bipartisan support for nearly $1 billion targeted to housing and homelessness, the Washington Legislature this year has given us the chance to do just that – collaborate on meaningful solutions.

In the first opportunity out of the gate, the Department of Commerce has offered $144 million available immediately to five counties, including Spokane County, to address the urgent need to move people living in state rights of way to safer housing. A comprehensive plan is required from each county, and the cities where the sites are located, to take advantage of the funds. The plan must include providing outreach and offers of better housing for those living outside. Temporary housing, such as shelters and tiny homes, can be part of the plan, but not the entire plan. The Legislature requires that significant investments go in to long-term, permanent housing solutions. Longer-term solutions can include new construction of affordable housing or conversion of existing hotels and apartment buildings. Several types of flexible and one-time funds allow communities to design what works best for them.

In some counties, there is progress. In King County, the Department of Commerce signed an agreement with the King County Regional Housing Authority and moved people living in two encampments on rights of way to safer housing, with more progress to come. Two additional groups of people living on right of way property in Thurston County were also moved to safer housing, thanks to a collaborative plan engaging the county, the cities of Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater and local community housing providers.

The agreements we are striking in other counties across the state make it clear that coordination of local, state and nonprofit investments can lead to solutions.

The city of Spokane has the same opportunity for collaboration. $24 million in state funding is available to address an encampment along I-90 near Freya Street, which has grown to more than 500 people. Those individuals and families deserve to have a chance at better, and safer, living conditions. Local nonprofits have already come up with a detailed and viable plan to add 1,000 new beds in the next two years. My hope is that Spokane city and county leaders will follow suit with their own proposal to take advantage of the funds Commerce has to offer.

We must not waste the opportunity before us. Every person in our communities deserves safe shelter and a pathway to affordable housing, and our local businesses and neighborhoods deserve to see progress.

Lisa Brown is an economist and educator serving as the director of the Washington State Department of Commerce. She served in both houses of the Washington state Legislature for 20 years, including eight years as the first Democratic female majority leader of the Washington State Senate, representing District 3. From 2013 to 2017, Brown was chancellor of Washington State University, Spokane, where she led the health science campus. She resides in Spokane.