Council votes to stop evictions, rent increases by unregistered landlords
Spokane landlords who haven’t registered with the city will soon be unable to raise rents or evict tenants in most cases.
At their meeting last night, the city council voted five to two to impose those tougher penalties on rental property owners who aren’t registered — and therefore aren’t complying with the law.
Councilmembers Michael Cathcart and Jonathan Bingle both voiced their dissent, with Bingle suggesting the city should use a series of fines or other escalating punishments instead of jumping straight to what he called “draconian” penalties. Both did say they support the rental registry itself.
Proponents of the ordinance pointed out that every other profit-garnering endeavor in Spokane requires a business license and that it’s just as important for landlords to comply with the law as it is for tenants.
September was second-warmest on record in Spokane
September’s average temperature was 66.7 degrees. That was 5.5 degrees hotter than the 30-year average. It nay not sound like much, but to a meteorologist, it's a big deal. Lifting a whole month’s average temperature by more than five degrees requires a lot of consistent heat energy.
"That's significant. We don't see that a lot around here, that much above average," National Weather Service meteorologist Laurie Nisbet told SPR News. "You know, maybe a degree, maybe two degrees above average or below, but five…it's not something very common around here.”
The only time Spokane had a hotter September was in 1938 — and that beat out this year only by one degree, Nisbet said.
The culprit was a stubborn weather pattern called a ridge, which tends to produce hot, dry weather. Ours stuck around much longer than usual, keeping the Inland Northwest warm last month and the first half of this month.
Change is expected this week, with cooler, rainier weather starting midweek. But for the month to date, October's average is also warmer than normal: 55.4 degrees, three degrees above the 30-year average.
While it is difficult to pin the weather in any given single month on a global phenomenon like climate change, Nisbet said benchmark temperature averages which are updated every ten years are rising. That means the last six weeks have been warmer than a baseline that itself is getting hotter.
As Trent shelter winds down, Spokane plans for winter
Four homeless service providers in Spokane have agreed to provide additional capacity when needed this winter.
The city’s goal is to utilize existing shelters and staffing this winter, partly to save money and partly to take advantage of experience that’s already available.
Family Promise, Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army, and Revive say they could temporarily take on more people during extreme winter weather. Their contracts begin November 1 and run through December 2025, according to a press release.
The organizations collectively identified about 350 additional beds. But Dawn Kinder, Spokane’s housing and human services director, said the city doesn’t have enough money to pay for using all 350.
“I think the provider community has identified enough beds to meet our inclement weather need," Kinder told SPR News. "The next question is, can we get additional resources to actually fund the number necessary? The funds we have right now will not fund enough beds, I think, to meet what I would consider an ideal situation, but certainly better than funding no beds.”
Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown said Monday she plans to ask for more emergency shelter funding in the city's next biennial budget.
"I think the one thing that always sticks out to me is that we receive $250,000 a year for inclement weather," Kinder said. "And so we know that we are underfunded, and we look forward to having additional conversations about how to more appropriately fund that resource so we can keep beds available year-round due to inclement weather, whether it's heat, cold, or smoke."
One piece of the city’s shelter system that won’t be available this winter is the Trent Resource and Assistance Center. Kinder said it will close at the end of the month, and service providers are working to get the people who stay at Trent into other arrangements.
Closing the shelter doesn't mean the city is off the hook for paying lease to Trent's private owner, Larry Stone. Kinder said the $26,000-a-month lease signed by former mayor Nadine Woodward's administration is still in place. But Kinder said Monday the city is out of funds to keep it open as a shelter facility.
CCA author, opponent debate I-2117
The person who helped write Washington’s landmark environmental law clashed with the person trying to repeal it during a recent debate at Seattle University.
Reuven Carlyle is a former Democratic state Senator.
He was the main author of the Climate Commitment Act, which passed in 2021 and created a cap and invest program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The law’s carbon auctions have raised more than $2 billion for the state budget.
"This policy works because it asks 110 large emitters to contribute their proportional share of their own emissions and reinvest those dollars into more decarbonization,” Carlyle said during the debate.
Carlyle’s law is at risk of being repealed this year because of Initiative 2117, which will appear on the November ballot.
The initiative is bankrolled by hedge fund manager Brian Heywood. He argued that the climate law has burdened Washington residents with higher gas and food costs.
"If you’re a student and you’re barely making it, you should vote yes on 2117, get rid of this," Heywood said in the debate. "And if you really care about the environment, become part of the conversation of what could really work that doesn’t destroy the economy in the meantime.”
Carlyle argued that Heywood’s initiative doesn’t actually guarantee lower prices.
Spokane tribal member to join WA RCO
A member of the Spokane Tribe will be the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office’s first tribal affairs director.
Dawn Pullin comes to the agency from the Washington State Patrol, where she worked to address the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people as the agency's tribal liaison.
"Much of our work requires close consultation with tribes around the state and her expertise and knowledge will help us work more efficiently and communicate better with our tribal partners," RCO director Megan Duffy said in a statement.
Pullin said she's excited to join the agency.
"The funding the agency distributes helps ensure that Washington takes care of its rich natural legacy and remains a great place for the people and animals that live here," she said in a statement. "Those all are important values in tribal communities, and I look forward to strengthening those ties."
The Recreation and Conservation Office is a small state agency that administers state and federal grants to create recreational opportunities, recover salmon and orca from near extinction and conserve wildlife habitat and working farms and forests.
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Reporting was contributed by Owen Henderson, Brandon Hollingsworth and Nate Sanford.