SPOKANE, Wash. — The former mayor of Boise visited Spokane to talk with business leaders about how to address homelessness, sharing strategies that worked during his four terms in office.
Dave Bieter was the mayor of Boise from 2004 to 2020. The Democrat oversaw decreases in homelessness toward the end of his terms. He says he was surprised by the amount of people he saw camping on the streets in Spokane.
The Democrat says preventing people from camping in public spaces was the first step he took toward getting people off the streets. He says the city saw success by enforcing camping bans on public property.
“You have to combine as much services as you can bring to people. Mental health, addiction services, housing. You do need to combine that with an enforcement piece,” Bieter said.
“Allowing people to camp on public property is a very bad idea. It really amounts to appropriating public property for private use and we just can’t have that,” Bieter said.
Bieter told Spokane business leaders at a meeting last night that Boise focused on making sure mental health and addiction services were available, as well as affordable housing. He says they looked for funding from every source they could find.
They even presented to local hospitals, asking them to invest and showing how it could save them money in the long run. They used that money to build 45 affordable housing units for people that were chronically homeless.
“It does work if you bring them in and give them housing. It will save some real money and it’s just a much better way to go,” Bieter said.
The Spokane Business Association has been meeting with politicians from all over the country that have had success in addressing homelessness. The association hopes Spokane will look at some of the strategies Bieter used in Boise and apply them to Spokane.
“His comment in the speech last night was, it’s not services that attract this situation, it’s actually a lack of enforcement. Once you begin to enforce, it goes away very quickly,” said Gavin Cooley, CEO of the Spokane Business Association.
Bieter says Boise gets very little state funding for affordable housing and mental health and addiction services. He says being willing to partner and fundraise with any organization that wants to help made a huge difference during his time in office.
“Cities can’t do it themselves. They need everybody and we found that if everybody gives some, in the aggregate, that can amount to something really important,” Bieter said.
Bieter says he also got the opportunity to talk with Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown recently. He says they both agree on the scattered shelter model Spokane is currently using.
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