Brian Coddington, Communications Director, 509.625.6740
Tuesday, July 27, 2021 at 12:30 p.m.
Mayor Nadine Woodward issued the following statement regarding the City Council’s passage of Ordinance C36082, which changed the requirements for addressing homeless sheltering in the city:
“Addressing the homelessness needs in our community is a difficult task shaped by the many differing perspectives. Each must be carefully considered as part of an approach that is flexible enough to achieve the best outcomes for everyone involved. While there is much urgency for assisting the most vulnerable in our community, collaborative solutions require time to work through perspectives, ideas, and solutions. Much progress has been made over the past year during the height of a global pandemic that gave us all the opportunity to pause, step back, and take a new look at how we fill in gaps and improve a system that is now serving young adults, adding new space for women, implementing greater year-round service predictability, and introducing a resource-intensive Bridge Housing program to quickly transition people out of homelessness. Layering new prescriptive requirements that apply only to the City of Spokane slows that considerable progress just as it was gaining momentum and gathering new provider voices around the table. I remain committed to working with our provider and governmental partners on the best regional solutions to a truly regional challenge.”
