SPOKANE, Wash. — Mayor Lisa Brown has a new plan to address homelessness in downtown Spokane, but business owners question whether it will work.
People camp on sidewalks, parking lots and under viaducts from Hamilton Street to Maple Street and beyond. Brown says she wants to help these people and help people feel safe downtown.
“We want those in the throw of addiction or mental health challenges to be connected,” Brown said.
Brown wants to end open drug use on the streets and get fentanyl off the streets.
Her plan puts more police officers downtown with a homeless outreach team. Officers could arrest people camping illegally or direct them to daytime shelters. The city council must approve the plan first.
Business owners want stronger enforcement. Gavin Cooley leads the Spokane Business Association.
“Enforcement is the foundation,” Cooley said.
Jacob Rosenberg owns Solitude Barbershop downtown. He sees overdoses and open drug use regularly outside his shop.
“It’s so second-nature for us to see an overdose, that we almost feel bad when we aren’t able to empathize with a client that just saw an overdose for the first time and they’re traumatized. They don’t want to come back,” Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg thinks the city is doing the bare minimum.
“What we’ve started to get comfortable with isn’t necessarily that they’re not doing anything. I think we’re getting frustrated that they’re doing the bare minimum,” Rosenberg said.
The business association wants the city to restore Proposition 1. That would ban camping within 1,000 feet of schools, parks and playgrounds. Voters passed it two years ago, but the state Supreme Court struck it down this year.
“The status quo has given us where we are, and if people are satisfied with that, then it really doesn’t matter. But I think a lot of us are saying no this isn’t working, and we want to return to a clean and safe downtown,” Cooley said.
The city council will discuss the mayor’s plan at its October 20th meeting.
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