Spokane City Council modifies, passes Mayor’s emergency homeless resources

Spokane City Council voted Monday 6-1 in favor of upholding a modified version of Mayor Lisa Brown’s Oct. 29 emergency order to provide resources for the homeless and at -risk residents of the city.

By declaring an emergency, Brown was able to circumvent the usual contracting process between the city and local outreach agencies and receive funds quickly. These funds can be used for 50 shelter beds, expedition of eviction prevention contracts and contracting homeless outreach teams.

The decision came in the wake of federal food assistance funding cuts, cooling weather and a new city law broadening police’s anti-camping enforcement tools.

Despite a modified version of the order passing in the council, not all members were fans of the mayor’s methodology.

Councilman Michael Cathcart said that the emergency declaration was unnecessary, with food stamp funding returned and the end of the federal shutdown in sight. Voting “yes” with the stipulation there is an endpoint and cost-cap to the emergency was the only tenable choice, he said.

“Unfortunately, this should be coming to an end or simply not being affirmed, but our option tonight is either we vote for some side ports to the declaration, which is what’s in the package and what the council has agreed to,” he said “Or, we vote this down and essentially give the mayor carte blanche ability to do whatever for the next six weeks.”

Emergency declarations are nothing new in city hall though, Councilman Paul Dillon said, and building longer contracts with homelessness response teams “is actually smart planning.”

While the language on the order could be less focused on food stamps, Councilwoman Shelby Lambdin said that she thinks “some of the things that we’ve seen happen over the weekend are really just a mirage.”

” … The basic tenants of why this emergency ordinance was put into place is really to complement the ordinance that we passed on council a few weeks ago to, again, have a place for folks to go as we’re ramping up enforcement,” she said.

Councilman Jonathan Bingle was the lone “nay” vote for the amended resolution, citing the necessity of the processes that Mayor Brown bypassed.

“We as a body, as the holders of the purse strings, we have the ability to say ‘OK, we need to get this money out sooner,’ ” he said. “This is just us ceding our authority to the mayor and there’s nothing else about it.”

The new order places the end of the emergency designation at Dec. 31, or when all city partnerships have been solidified. Those contracts cannot hold the city to more than a year of commitment or cost over $500,000 from the general fund and $1 million from the affordable housing pool, Heart.

At least $30,000 of the funding must go toward food relief.