Spokane mayor declares emergency following federal shutdown, increased need for homeless resources from new ordinance

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown declared a city emergency Wednesday to speed up the process for local residents and homeless people to access more resources following colder weather, a change in city law and instability within the federal government.

The emergency allows the mayor to circumvent lengthy contract processes with local outreach agencies to receive funding more quickly. Ultimately, Brown says the action will result in 50 extra shelter beds, help prevent evictions and fund mobile medical treatment so police can connect more people to mental health or housing services. All are in conjunction with the Home Starts Here Initiative, the city’s new method to expand its homelessness response efforts.

“Although there’s not a hurricane hitting our shore right now like there is for the folks in Jamaica and Cuba, this is a different kind of quiet hurricane that’s happening as funds go away and supplemental food benefits go away,” Brown said during a Wednesday news conference. “So I encourage everybody to see it for what it is. It is, in fact, a disaster.”

Federal employees across the United States are going unpaid due to a government shutdown, with Congress at an impasse as how to proceed with the federal budget. About 1.4 million people across the nation are going without pay as a result of the shutdown, the second-longest since Trump’s previous term. That shutdown lasted 34 days.

At the same time, the Trump Administration declared the government also will stop funding food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as “SNAP” beginning Saturday.

The break in SNAP will affect 40 million Americans, including 83,000 people in Spokane County who use the program to help them afford food. Brown says those pinching pennies in Spokane may have to choose between food and rent, making more people at risk for becoming homeless.

“The broader downstream economic impacts of SNAP recipients not accessing their benefits at our local stores will result in a cascade of negative impacts to our local grocers, to local farmers and even truck drivers as well,” Spokane City Councilmember Shelly Lambdin said Wednesday. “As we enter the holiday season, our food banks are going to be challenged … Remember to check in on your neighbors and be kind to each other.”

As more people face instability in Spokane due to the shutdown, other areas of Spokane also are facing a similar crisis. It’s likely that more homeless people will turn to shelters or services after the City Council approved a new ordinance on Monday night significantly toughening its restrictions on where and when unhoused people can sit, sleep or loiter. It also expands the exemptions that allow for immediate removal and allows officers to issue citations and still requires that a notice be posted before removing an encampment.

The grace period between a notice and a removal is meant to allow a newly formed homeless outreach team to contact a homeless camp’s occupants and determine what services they need and what they’re willing to accept. But it’s not all about police enforcement, Brown said, it’s about a coordinated outreach. Between police action, the newly-formed housing navigation center, a central facility that homeless people can start at before they are sent to a shelter or housing service and the formation of homeless outreach street-based teams, the goal is to offer more pathways out of homelessness.

The street-based teams were created in September as part of the HOME initiative. The outreach teams are made up of social workers from Catholic Charities and operate in Spokane’s police precincts.

More prioritization on homeless outreach will inevitably lead to more people utilizing the resources they’re given, Brown said, but she “also wants to go upstream” and prevent more people from facing homelessness from the start. Brown said eviction resolution programs, meant to help people who are at risk of being evicted due to a missed paycheck, can do that.

“We are just adding the pressure on families with the government shutdown and with this staggering statistic of one in five families, that have been receiving supplemental food benefits – that going away,” Brown said. “We want to try to get ahead of that.”

Another problem the city is facing during shutdown is housing contracts. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded Spokane housing contracts that the city picks up the tab for and is later reimbursed. But with the government being shutdown, there is no one to reimburse the city for footing those costs.

“The city is in a situation where we have to decide whether or not to tell them, ‘We don’t know if we’re going to be able to reimburse you’ and that is a decision we’re having almost daily, trying to figure out how to navigate that,” Brown said.

Spokane 311 is now taking reports from the public who see people in need of assistance that will prompt a real-time dispatch of the outreach teams. People can also file reports online. Members of the public and business community can donate directly to housing and other resources for those who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless during this period. Donations can be made through online payments, utility bills or also by calling 311.

Lambdin and Councilmember Paul Dillon are poised to bring forth a resolution next week to urge lawmakers to try and end the federal shutdown so people can retain their SNAP benefits, she said.

“This program provides food assistance to working families, veterans and disabled individuals in our community during a time when our grocery store bills continue to rise. These benefits are more crucial than ever. These benefits can be the determinant between a working parent putting gas in their car to drive their kids to school … Or putting food on the table for their family,” Lambdin said. “This is something that is completely solvable by federal action.”