Last Sunday’s Spokesman-Review front-page headline — “SPOKANE RE-CRIMINALIZING HOMELESSNESS HAS QUICK IMPACT ON THE STREET” — highlights how an attention-grabbing headline, even atop a well-reported story, can subtly erode confidence in a new approach that is clearly working.
When the City’s new and well-crafted public safety and outreach policies – designed to help those experiencing on-street homelessness – are misrepresented as “re-criminalizing homelessness,” it discourages critical progress and could undermine Spokane’s most effective response to the fentanyl crisis yet. A crisis that has already claimed thousands of lives and devastated our city.
Rather than falsely framing these efforts as punitive, we should be recognizing the results of these efforts that are already saving lives and revitalizing our city. We should also be thanking and encouraging the courageous work now being done by Mayor Lisa Brown, the City Council, our police and fire departments, and the entire homelessness-response system. Their coordinated effort, including the Mayor’s recent declaration of emergency to expedite shelter expansion, treatment access, and street-level outreach, is producing big results.
The H.O.M.E. Starts Here initiative is now reinforced by the updated Safe & Accessible Spaces Ordinance, which the Council enacted to thoughtfully balance services and enforcement at the time and place of an infraction. This ensures that even as order is restored, individuals who are willing can be connected to the resources that support recovery.
In the first week alone, more than 300 people were contacted, over 150 citations were issued, and many have accepted assistance through the city’s outreach and navigation services. This included the city’s day-use Navigation Center at 8th and Cannon, which is now seeing about 700 visits each week – proof that when help is offered alongside accountability, people take it.
For those who repeatedly refuse help or engage in serious harmful behavior, enforcement, remains an essential part of the plan. This includes targeted jail placement paired with services for chronic offenders.
This approach mirrors what successful cities from Denver, Portland, and Boise have learned: leaving people to die on sidewalks in the name of compassion is not humane — it’s neglect.
Spokane’s own data bear this out: a 39 percent rise in unsheltered street homelessness (2025 HUD Point-in-Time Count), together with some of the nation’s highest rates for overdose-deaths and infants born into addiction.
Now Spokane has pivoted from those painful realities toward a balanced, humane, and accountable approach that deserves broad public support.
As the Spokane Business Association, we’ve long argued that safety and compassion are not opposites but prerequisites for one another. Clear rules, consistent engagement, and accountability lay the foundation for a vibrant, healthy, and welcoming community where recovery and renewal can thrive.
Spokane isn’t criminalizing homelessness; it’s restoring order as the first step toward treatment, dignity, and recovery. We can’t allow misleading headlines or other false narratives to weaken the resolve and strong leadership that made this progress possible – leadership that will continue to be needed to keep it going in the months ahead.
