(The Center Square) – An effort to transition Spokane from “Housing First” to a “Treatment First” model to address homelessness ended on Monday, without the support of the region’s most powerful players.
A group of elected officials, business leaders and law enforcement professionals launched the initiative last August in response to an executive order from President Donald Trump condemning Housing First.
The goal was to ensure Spokane remains eligible for millions of dollars in homelessness funding, as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development prepares to issue new funding guidelines in June.
“When we saw this executive order, we believed that our prayers were answered and that we can now help those that need help,” according to a letter that commercial property developer Sheldon Jackson, former Spokane City Councilmember Jonathan Bingle and Spokane County Sheriff John Nowles sent to HUD Regional Administrator Christopher Patterson and Senior HUD Advisor Robert Marbut on Monday.
Shifts in federal funding guidelines
The Housing First model prioritizes taxpayer-subsidized housing for people living on the street, with no preconditions such as sobriety or treatment.
HUD attempted to shift federal funding rules last year to prioritize treatment services and abandon Housing First, but the courts ultimately blocked the change.
One of the issues was timing, given that HUD was in the middle of a funding cycle, so the agency may issue new guidelines next month similar to last year. The coalition in Spokane wanted to get ahead of that, so they drafted a regional agreement vowing to transition the county to a Treatment First model.
The Spokane Regional Continuum of Care received $6.3 million from HUD for the 2024-25 funding cycle, excluding other state and local funding the region spends to address homelessness.
Last fall, Nowles said they tried to draft a memorandum of understanding that was as politically neutral as possible to get every jurisdiction in the region to sign on. By this week, six jurisdictions had signed it, with the city of Spokane, Spokane Valley and Spokane County withholding support.
Nowles did not respond to The Center Square’s request for an interview before publishing on Tuesday.
“We have failed to get all the jurisdictions to approve the MOU,” Jackson wrote in an email on Monday to Patterson, with the group’s letter attached. “We feel that enough time has passed and that every day we wait, it does [a] disservice to the jurisdictions that voted and approved [the memorandum].”
Zeke Smith, president of Waters Meet Foundation, a local nonprofit in support of Housing First, wrote an opinion article for The Spokesman-Review last month pushing back on the idea of the MOU effort.
“This approach risks committing Spokane to one side of a complex issue before we have built the infrastructure to support it,” Smith wrote.
Bingle, who sat on the Spokane City Council until this year, told The Center Square that he is surprised that the Spokane Valley City Council and the Board of County Commissioners didn’t sign the MOU.
He was not surprised, however, that his own jurisdiction didn’t even hold a presentation on it.
“Basically, all of the jurisdictions are on record as to where they stand,” Bingle told The Center Square.
Spokane Communications Director Erin Hut, who acts as the mayor’s spokesperson, did not respond to a request for comment before publishing. Nor did Council President Betsy Wilkerson or Councilmember Kate Telis, who chairs the public safety committee and could’ve scheduled a presentation for the dais.
MOU faces setbacks from key jurisdictions
When asked about the MOU in January, Telis responded in an email that she believes it might violate contracts the city had signed with the state and that she asked Mayor Lisa Brown for a legal analysis.
“My understanding is that this MOU may violate current state contracts we have signed,” Telis wrote.
About two weeks later, Telis mentioned the MOU in a public meeting, noting that the city, county and Spokane Valley are already parties in a joint homelessness agreement. That agreement from last May coordinates regional homelessness projects, but doesn’t commit to transitioning to Treatment First.
Bingle questioned why that should prevent an MOU presentation and called Telis’s response “an excuse.”
The mayor of Spokane also mentioned the MOU at a Spokane Homeless Coalition meeting in February.
“If people tell you that we need some kind of regional MOU with the small cities that says ‘Treatment First’ or whatever, we are regionally coordinated to a much higher degree,” Brown said in February.
Communications Manager Jill Smith wrote in an email on Tuesday that the Spokane Valley City Council heard a presentation last month on the MOU from Chud Wendle, executive director of The Hutton Settlement, who helped launch the initiative, and that the council is now awaiting more data from him.
“Wendle discussed data presented by HUD regarding homelessness trends, and the Council requested to see this data as they consider the proposed MOU,” Smith wrote Tuesday. “The City is awaiting the information that was requested, and the item is still pending for further City Council consideration.”
Like Hut, Smith mentioned the other agreement that the Valley signed with Spokane and the county.
County Commission Chair Mary Brooks did not respond to a request for comment before publishing.
Wendle told The Center Square on Tuesday that he wasn’t aware that the Valley was waiting on data from him before voting on the MOU. He said that it’s not too late, despite the group’s letter to HUD.
He said that when it came to the Board of County Commissioners, the MOU stalled over one word.
“The word was ‘Foundation’, and they had heartburn over that,” Wendle told The Center Square. “We told them we would adjust it or change that word; and really, [there was] no response after that.”
Wendle was referring to the opening line of the MOU, which reads: “The Parties intend for this MOU to encourage cooperation and provide the foundation and structure for a coordinated regional response.”
“I think it was just … their way to either pause it, kick the can down the road, or, you know, think we’d go away,” Wendle told The Center Square, noting that this was just his opinion of how it went down.
Commissioner Mary Brooks, who chairs the county board, did not respond to a request for comment.
Bingle and Jackson both believe that the Spokane region is now at risk of losing some federal funding.
“Due to our failure to get all jurisdictions to sign the MOU, Spokane County is now at risk for loss of funding,” Jackson wrote in an email to elected officials and service providers throughout the region.
He suggested that the local jurisdictions may try to replace the federal funding by increasing taxes.
“If our CoC contracts are updated to match the executive order, we would be compliant for funding,” Hut wrote in a message to The Center Square last August in response to Trump’s executive order.
“I would imagine that the city of Spokane would have been in a much stronger position regionally, had the city of Spokane and the service providers been willing to accept the parameters,” Bingle told The Center Square when asked if he thinks the MOU will impact Spokane’s ability to secure funding.
However, he suggested there may be some benefits if the city loses funding for Housing First projects.
Bingle said that Idaho, Montana and the rest of central and eastern Washington aren’t providing the same level of service as Spokane, arguing that Housing First policies attract homelessness to a degree.
“Ask anybody who’s doing work,” he said. “They come [here] because that’s where the free stuff is.”
Smith pushed back on Tuesday, arguing, as Hut did last August, that the region could secure funding.
“HUD recently notified that it would release a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) in June 2026,” Smith wrote in an email to The Center Square on Tuesday. “It is anticipated that the Spokane Regional CoC will submit project applications that meet the funding eligibility specified in the NOFO.”
Whether the Spokane secures another round of federal funding will depend on the grant guidelines HUD issues next month and on how local officials and providers respond.
Bingle said that despite the MOU effort ending, he plans to continue fighting on behalf of Spokane in Olympia as he campaigns for a seat in the state House of Representatives. Election day is November 4.
Wendle is also involved in a separate task force that plans to release recommendations later this month to address public safety concerns.
Elected officials may use those recommendations to draft a tax proposal for the November ballot that could fund a new jail, behavioral health resources and treatment facilities.
“I think this road map is going to be really, really important for us to rally around,” Wendle said.
