George Critchlow: City must prioritize the needs of the homeless

By George Critchlow

I drove by the new homeless encampment off the freeway near the Thor Street exit last week and was overcome by sadness and embarrassment. So, I got off the freeway and visited the site to get a closer look and investigate how the city of Spokane is responding to the situation.

It was raining and miserable. The wind chill at 35 degrees was bad enough, but the campers were talking about the deaths expected this week and thereafter when the temperature drops into single digits. The communal kitchen was busy with volunteers preparing donated food. Residents focused on shoring up their tents and bodies against the winter and hardship.

Unlike the recent encampment at Spokane City Hall, or any venue close to downtown, the people in tents who require human services (health care, addiction recovery, Department of Social and Health Services programs, probation, food donations, plasma donations, employment counseling, etc.) were now several miles away from where most services are located near the downtown core. They now face the challenge of finding transportation or walking for miles in winter weather.

I asked Jewels (Julie Garcia), a local activist who supports and advocates for the homeless, what the city’s position is on tolerating the new encampment off the freeway. She said that the city didn’t care, so long as the homeless were gone from downtown. Out of sight, out of mind.

The new encampment is on vacant Department of Transportation land and the DOT seems to be tacitly and tentatively resigned to the arrangement. According to Jewels, the city’s goal has never been to find lasting, meaningful solutions to homelessness in Spokane. The goal is to rid the city of the problem by making homeless people disappear. I asked why the city, even if it did not have more resources for shelters, could not at least dedicate a vacant piece of conveniently located city-controlled land to a homeless encampment. “Good question,” answered Jewels. Again, the goal seems to banish visible evidence of the problem, not the problem itself.

As citizens of Spokane, we are in a relationship with homeless people whether we like it or not. The relationship can be active and helpful or passive and indifferent. We can pretend our elected municipal officials have a handle on this or we can face the obvious and indisputable truth by witnessing the current encampment off Interstate 90, east of downtown. This issue might be particularly compelling for people of the Christian faith at a time when we celebrate the birth of a homeless child in an unwelcoming community. For those not raised in a religious tradition, the plight of our homeless compels us to focus on our moral imperatives and the question of what healthy communities do for the marginalized.

Jewels told me to write letters to our city officials and to encourage more people to do the same. I will also drop off some food to the encampment’s community kitchen. There are those who will argue the issue of homelessness is complicated – as though that absolves us of further obligation or moral complicity. But it is not complicated for those of us who live privileged lives and pay taxes to expect our city leaders to prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable among us.

George Critchlow is a Spokane Valley resident.