Lerria Schuh: Give credit where it’s due for Camp Hope closure
By Lerria Schuh
Camp Hope has now closed. To be clear, closure is not because of any effort by the Spokane mayor, City Council, county or countless others who demanded closure. What happened at Camp Hope, effectively lowering the houseless population by several hundred persons, is historic. Make no mistake, however, on how the historic measures were accomplished and who is responsible.
Initially Camp Hope was ignored by city and county officials. It was a protest against the lack of services and support for those needing housing. And when the city had enough of its presence, but still without answers, the camp moved to state Department of Transportation land where it grew to a peak of over 600 persons.
Officials declared the opening of the Trent shelter as the answer, and then found out that the beds filled there easily without closing Camp Hope, and not enough beds were available to meet demand.
Washington State Department of Commerce provided $24 million to support the closure of Camp Hope by providing services and locating housing for each individual. The response by city administration and sheriff’s office? Demands for closure. They preferred to deny the state’s money and instead force campers off the land with hopes they would go to a shelter, but no way to ensure they wouldn’t end up back on the streets, in neighborhoods and city parks. They provided zero on-site individualized support to meet the needs of those who were arguably the most vulnerable in our community.
The city of Spokane denied access to water and electricity at the camp, despite a guarantee from the state to pay the bills. Instead of ensuring taxpayer money was used in the most efficient way possible to meet basic human needs, the city forced the cost of expensive generators and the transport of water to the site to keep humans alive.
Meanwhile, Commerce contracted with Empire Health Foundation to oversee the rehousing and on-site services for campers. Empire contracted with Compassionate Addiction Treatment, Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium, Jewels Helping Hands, Revive Counseling and others to make housing assessments and tackle the task of finding each person housing (during a region wide housing crisis and vacancy rate of less than 1%) that would not only meet the individual’s immediate needs, but provide a foundation to stay housed and build a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. Some folks needed employment preparation, identification cards or re-licensing, medical respite care, substance use treatment, mental health counseling, some needed ADA accessible housing, and the list goes on.
Security, fencing, medical care, counseling, housing specialists, peer navigators and more descended upon camp meeting folks where they were and found out what they needed. A third party was hired to track an accurate count of campers to assess progress of the camp lowering in population. Meals, clothing, supplies, and most of all, compassionate care was in full force, thanks to funding from Commerce and the work local service providers.
The camp population decreased weekly thanks to the service provider’s work on-site. Regardless, the city and sheriff were relentless in demands for closure based on arbitrary dates and no assistance to the process. To protect the rights of campers, and to allow the hard work of relocating them into housing to continue, a lawsuit was filed. The lawsuit was won in late January when a federal judge forbade the city and sheriff from closing the camp. By then, the population had dropped dramatically from it’s peak, and service providers remained steadfast in their efforts to find more housing.
Instead of assisting the process, the city sued to declare the camp a nuisance and once again demanded it be closed. More taxpayer dollars were being spent to fight the process, not help in a solution. Sadly, following each of the threats to close the camp, hundreds of campers left and are currently unaccounted for.
Camp Hope has now closed. More than 200 former campers are now housed, and more than 150 are employed thanks to the hard work of Commerce, WSDOT and on-site service providers. They said from the beginning the goal was to close the camp by providing services and housing and asked for patience. They have achieved that goal. Success stories of former campers are abundant. Not only are they no longer homeless – they are working, getting medical treatment they need, reuniting with families, participating in recovery and moving forward to a healthy and sustainable life – despite the Mayor’s demands for closure, not because of it.