Spokane Valley City Council poised to enact new punishments related to homelessness

Homelessness in Spokane Valley parks and public spaces is about to come with more stringent penalties.

The Spokane Valley City Council is set to enact new policies Tuesday that would make it a misdemeanor to be in a park after hours, while also making it easier for law enforcement to write tickets for camping in public spaces.

Being in a Spokane Valley park outside of the summer operating hours of 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., or 7 p.m. in the winter, is considered an infraction. The same law, first adopted in 2003, already considered it a misdemeanor to camp in a park or city-owned property. The proposed changes to come before the council Tuesday would broaden the definition of camping, which presently requires camping equipment to be used to be enforced.

The vote follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning the landmark Martin v. Boise case, which prevented cities from enforcing camping bans against the homeless if there were not enough shelter beds available.

Now that those laws are no longer considered cruel and unusual punishment, cities across the country are passing new camping and homelessness statutes, or revising those on the books.

The majority of the line edits to the existing code remove safeguards Spokane Valley put in place after the 2018 Boise decision, which included ensuring they were connected with local resources and support services, according to a draft of the ordinance.

If the council approves the ordinance, as it has indicated it’s likely to do, camping will be defined as sleeping in a park or public space after hours, or after sunset, regardless of the use of tents, sleeping bags or lawn chairs.

The proposed changes also include expressly allowing law enforcement officers to drive their vehicles on park lands, and a tightening of the rules around metal detecting in parks to ensure minimal excavation occurs, according to the draft.

City Attorney Kelly Konkright told the council in a public meeting last week that the ordinance is intended to provide another tool for law enforcement “dealing with individuals who are in parks after hours and are using city property in a way that the city has identified as inappropriate.”

At the same meeting, Councilwoman Jessica Yaeger asked Konkright to confirm her interpretation that the ordinance does not just target the homeless.

“It’s not necessarily targeting homelessness, it applies to anybody who would be sleeping in parks after hours,” Konkright said. “Now it also does apply to individuals who are camping on public property, whether it be a city park or not. So for the parking lot here at City Hall, if somebody is camping in the parking lot at City Hall, that is a misdemeanor.”

Councilman Al Merkel said he supports the ordinance, but would like to see the council take more action to address homelessness in the city now that the Supreme Court ruling “took the gloves off.”

One of his proposals would be to have homeless individuals prove residency to receive city services, Merkel said in a news release.

Another would be to have the city set up a mobile enforcement and adjudication team to go around the city to issue violations and hear cases on the spot.

“I don’t know what’s restricting us anymore,” Merkel said. “At this point, we don’t have a Supreme Court or a court of appeals case hanging over us that limits our ability to solve the situation.”

City Manager John Hohman took umbrage with Merkel’s rhetoric, responding that the councilman as the city’s representative on the regional opioid abatement council should be aware how multifaceted homelessness is and how difficult it can be to address given that the city does not have infinite resources .

“We do not want to be seen as a jurisdiction that is outlawing homelessness, what we want is to be seen as one that enforces our regulations but yet helps people move into treatment and options, move into different sources for housing and to get off the street,” Hohman said. “That’s really what we want, is these individuals to be functioning members of society, and it is a multilayered problem.”

The city council will vote on enshrining the ordinance into law at the regular 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday.