(The Center Square) – The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office wants to start enforcing illegal camping laws to mitigate the impact of homelessness in unincorporated communities.
Undersheriff Kevin Richey met with the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday and proposed amending the county’s public camping ordinance. If approved, deputies could break up homeless encampments without checking to see if any space is available at nearby shelters.
The move follows a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing municipalities to enforce anti-camping laws and others. Previously, a lower court ruling prohibited law enforcement from citing or arresting people if there weren’t enough shelter beds for the local homeless population.
“This isn’t a trespassing call inside a store where you show up, and the store doesn’t want an individual there,” Richey said. “This is a different situation; this is public property … the deputies take a more measured, kind of systematic approach to it.”
He said the update won’t result in deputies doing mass sweeps and making a bunch of arrests. Instead, it’s about making contact with individuals and trying to refer them to services. If someone is reluctant to accept help and leave the area, then a deputy may cite or arrest them.
The practice is already in effect to a certain degree in Spokane Valley, which contracts the SCSO for law enforcement under its jurisdiction. He said there’s one deputy in that area whose focus is homeless outreach in the community and facilitating those connections.
Richey said the county doesn’t share the same issues as the city of Spokane and the Valley in that most of the SCSO’s related calls for service are smaller groups. Typically, people call in when a group is setting up on the side of their neighborhood or a car is camping out along the street.
“Usually, if you get an email or a phone call from one person,” Commissioner Josh Kerns said, “you’ll get an email or a phone call from someone else whose address is one the same street, or they’ll reference the same location.”
The city of Spokane has similar laws that allow officers to cite for illegal camping and loitering under certain provisions; though, the business community and others criticize the Spokane Police Department and elected officials for what they perceive as an apparent lack of enforcement.
Spokane’s most recent Point-in-Time Count recorded 2,021 homeless individuals across the county in January. While the count was 15% less than in 2023, it was still 15% more than in 2022 and a 106% increase since the last recorded dip in 2016, which was only 5%.
The Spokane City Council’s Republican minority attempted to pass legislation emphasizing enforcement and good neighbor agreements; still, most of the council usually opts to defer the measures or send them back to the committee of origin.
Commissioner Chris Jordan pointed out the lack of jail capacity in the county’s facilities and questioned whether this amendment could exacerbate the issue. While he understands that issuing citations and making arrests isn’t the goal, it could be the unintended reality.
“It has worked really well in the Valley with the way that they’ve tackled it … I piloted the program; I know what they do,” Richey said. “They helped address the issue; I think they want to expand the program, to be honest with you.”
The Board of Commissioners will vote on whether to approve the amendment during an upcoming legislative meeting.
