This week homeless individuals will check in at shelters or the bus plaza to be included in Spokane’s homeless count. City staffers plan to use this year’s count to launch an ambitious project with homeless veterans.
Last year the city counted about 11-hundred homeless people in Spokane, 85 of them veterans. Sheila Morley with the city’s human services department says the federal government is pushing for an end to veteran homelessness, and Spokane is on board.
Morley: “The community has the resources to do that, which is rare for us to say in this world, we really do. There is a lot of permanent housing funding that’s available…”
She says the city may have an announcement Monday about efforts to end veteran homelessness. Collaboration is likely between the city, Veterans Association, and Goodwill’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families program.
Morley says in 2014 there was a decrease in the number of homeless families and veterans in Spokane. The numbers are determined from shelter sites, trekking out to homeless camps, and asking people to report their status.
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