SPOKANE, Wash. — Some members of Spokane City Council are working to change the city’s sit and lie ordinance to expand beyond just downtown.
The current sit and lie ordinance bans sitting and lying on the sidewalk, sidewalk features, building entryways, parking lots and loading docks between 6 a.m. and midnight.
As of now, the ordinance only applies to Downtown Spokane, but Councilmember Jonathan Bingle is hoping to change that.
“That is not an unreasonable expectation for tax payers to say, ‘I pay for these sidewalks and I want to use them,'” said Councilmember Bingle.
Scott Harris lives in West Central neighborhood and said he is frustrated with people sleeping in front of his garage.
He painted it in WD40 to deter people from lying in front of hit.
“They occasionally will congregate or will find a camp spot back there. Some of my neighbors have gone to extremes to discourage them from that,” said Harris.
Bingle said the proposed change to the ordinance would make it city-wide and remove any reference to shelter bed availability and time restrictions.
“This is something that police need if there is a problem individual that they can’t remove and our current code makes it very difficult for people to move them,” he said.
Bingle said the updated ordinance would allow police to help people get off the streets by sending them to places such as shelters or drug and mental health court.
When asked about the number of available shelter beds, Councilmember Bingle told 4 News Now there would “never be enough shelter beds” and that asking taxpayers to pay enough would be “unreasonable.”
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