Brown touts decrease in use of city homeless service, saying Spokane is ‘moving in the right direction’

Use of the city’s homeless services decreased by 11% last year, according to a new report published by the City of Spokane.

The annual 2025 Longitudinal Systems Analysis shows more homeless people in Spokane moving to temporary housing and fewer individuals relying on the city’s services.

Mayor Lisa Brown said the report shows Spokane “moving in the right direction.”

“From the navigation center to our scattered sites to our eviction programs, we are investing in solutions that work and that is being demonstrated in the positive outcomes we are seeing,” she said in a statement.

The report is annually submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and tracks how homeless individuals interact with municipalities’ services over time.

Between October 2024 and 2025, the City of Spokane saw an 11% decrease in the number of people using city homeless services. The city served 6,430 people in 2025 compared to 7,221 in 2024. City officials argued this decrease was related to more individuals being connected to permanent housing.

The report also found that there was a 31.8% increase in the number of individuals exiting services because they found permanent housing. The number of individuals returning to city services within 130 days of exit decreased by 42.9%.

Overall, those accessing city services spent an average of 107 days homeless, 29% exited to permanent housing and 4% returned to services within 130 days.

City Housing and Human Services Director Dawn Kinder said she expects continued improvement in next year’s report because the data does not track changes made to city policy late last year.

“The visible changes that we’ve seen are really not yet reflected in the data. So to me, it sends a message that we are on a trajectory here that we should see continued improvement next year,” Kinder said. “I would hope that the report next year we would be seeing the real, full picture of the strategy we’ve implemented.”

At the end of October, the city approved a “Safe and Accessible Public Spaces” ordinance, which prohibited people from sleeping in public or sitting on the sidewalk.

Kinder said the 2025 Longitudinal Systems Analysis report was representative of 50% of the changes the Brown administration has made.

Since being elected, Brown has moved the city away from large congregate shelters to a scattered-site model, which she cites as a driver of the changes.

The mayor said the changes seen in the report were not because of increased funding but of more strategic investment.

“There is not more funding than there was, and if anything, there’s less, because the COVID funding went away,” she said.