Council votes to operate local homeless housing program

SPOKANE VALLEY — The City Council unanimously approved a motion to pass Resolution No. 23-009 declaring their intention to operate a local homeless housing program at their regular meeting on July 25.

The motion also included authorization to allow the City Manager to take such action necessary to begin operation of such homeless housing program, and hiring a new accountant.

If the city assumed control over local recording fee funds, it would receive a share of the budgeted funds from the state.

From 2019-22, the recording fee funds the City would have received ranged from $658,000 to $1,060,000, with 2022 at $700,000.

Expenditures are unknown, according to a staff report, but the city would be required to assume responsibility for managing the numbers within city limits.

This would include creating a taskforce and a homeless housing plan. The next step would be to implement the plan, reports said.

“I feel like the homeless we have here are not a night-by-night type, but rather those who need more transitional care and help. This would not be a zero-barrier shelter, it’s more of a middle-ground goal for us,” Councilman Ben Wick said.

“It seems like to me that these people would rather get on welfare or whatever, and we end up helping them,” resident Barb Howard said.

“No one has said what percentage of people who are homeless in the Valley who actually live here. I’d like to know that,” resident Linda Clash said.

“We are in the midst of developing a homeless action plan, and we have been working extensively to get data on the number of homeless. The estimate is between 120-150 homeless in the Valley,” Administrator Erik Lamb said.

Councilman Ben Wick expressed his support of the idea, saying that he feels the city has a lot of elements that would be brought into focus by this program.

“I think this is the best step forward for us,” Wick said.

Currently, the state portion of recording fees is not available for the city to directly access. If the city elects to operate its own local homeless housing program, the city will receive a percentage of the surcharge collected by the county, documents show.

The city can use these funds for programs that directly contribute to the goals of the city’s homeless housing plan.

The city may use up to ten percent of the funds received for administrative costs.

If a resolution is adopted in the future, the city shall be responsible for complying with all the requirements of the county and adopt a local homeless housing plan, city documents state.