Spokane considers comprehensive housing strategy, Prop 1 codification
The Spokane City Council on Monday began consideration of a package of five ordinances that address the city’s homelessness problem.
One, sponsored by Councilmember Michael Cathcart, seeks to revise provisions of Proposition 1, approved by voters by a three-to-one margin in 2023.
The measure banned camping within a thousand feet of schools, parks and licensed daycare facilities.
The Washington Supreme Court in April ruled it was beyond what’s allowed in a local initiative but didn’t rule the policy itself illegal.
Brad Barnett from the Spokane Business Association urged the council to be bold in trying to reduce the city’s illegal drug problem by declaring a 90-day state of emergency in partnership with the county and state.
"This will allow resources to be brought to bear and allow us to truly make changes in Spokane," he said during public commentary at Monday night's meeting. "When Portland used this same strategy, the 90-day state of emergency, the overdose rate of deaths dropped by over 40% after that state of emergency."
The other four ordinances spell out city administrators’ comprehensive strategy to address issues related to housing and homelessness.
Mayor Lisa Brown's office dubbed the plan "HOME Starts Here." It includes an ordinance that would codify the best practices for siting emergency shelters and transitional housing.
The bill would also change the requirements to activate inclement weather shelters from specific temperatures to measures of heat index and wind chill.
Another of the ordinances deals with enforcement of existing camping and public obstruction bans.
The measures received their first reading Monday night and will be voted on during a future meeting.
Judge renews block on Idaho law banning public funds paying for transgender care
A federal judge is extending a preliminary injunction blocking an Idaho law that forbids public money going to pay for gender-affirming care.
The law, introduced as House Bill 668, has been halted by the federal court system since it was supposed to take effect last July.
It bans taxpayer funds from paying for gender-affirming surgeries and treatments, like hormone therapy. The law does not apply to intersex people or those with chromosomal abnormalities.
Three transgender Idaho inmates who were receiving hormone therapy sued to halt the law, saying it violates their 8th Amendment rights to avoid cruel and unusual punishment.
Shortly after President Trump took office in January, he signed an executive order that blocked gender-affirming care for federal transgender inmates. A federal judge has since blocked that order’s enforcement.
The Idaho case is scheduled to stretch into 2026, with some legal deadlines set for February.
Education officials explore methods of better supporting Indigenous students in the INW
Washington state and Spokane community college leaders are exploring how they can improve the way they serve Native American students.
Yesterday, they held a full-day summit in Airway Heights to focus on students who pursue careers in natural resource fields.
Kayce Palmer, the college administrator for the Colville Confederated Tribes.
She says Native students in rural areas would be more attracted to college if they don’t have to drive to the city every day for classes.
"Not only does that mean looking at the curriculum to see how we can shift what the focus is on within the curriculum to be more relevant to where we are physically, but also bringing the education opportunity to our students on the reservation," she said during the summit.
Some current and recent students said they struggled with the transition from small reservation towns to large campuses that offer little or no cultural support.
Payton Brower, a recent graduate who works for the Spokane Tribe’s natural resources division, said there are academic obstacles that stymie students in fisheries and wildlife management programs.
"If I’m being honest, classes like calculus and organic chemistry, I don’t use those on a daily basis, and they were really hard to take. And I feel like that discourages some people," she said. "So if you have a way to not have them take such a hard class that they’re not going to use, maybe you’d have more people who are successful in getting these degrees."
Students also endorsed ways that make it easier for them to transfer credits from two-year to four-year colleges.
Head Start budget cuts could ripple out into other education organizations
The future of Head Start programs in the Northwest is not clear because of the uncertainty surrounding their federal funding.
Uncertainty also extends to the Washington state-funded program known as ECEAP — Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program.
Jeanette Hauck, chief executive of the Spokane chapter of the YWCA, said state and federal budget cuts to things like Head Start may trickle down to her agency’s five ECEAP locations in Spokane County.
"We'll have more people coming to us to access services for their children," she told SPR News. "And right now, with the state budget being so tight, the amount of funding that came through with this past biennium for ECEAP is really minimal.”
She said her agency will learn within the next few weeks the level of that state funding.
That will determine whether it can continue to operate at the same level or whether it will have to reduce services.
She said the YWCA is also waiting to hear about state funding for its emergency shelter for women.
SCOTUS to consider challenge to late acceptance of mail-in ballot
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that may affect how residents vote in Washington state.
The high court announced yesterday it would hear U.S. Rep. Mike Bost’s (R-IL12) case against his own state’s board of elections.
Bost argues that Illinois’ law that allows mail-in ballots to be counted up to two weeks after an election violates laws creating an Election Day.
The two federal courts that previously heard Bost’s case dismissed it, saying the U.S. Representative could not show he’d been injured by the law and therefore lacked the standing to sue.
Depending on how the court rules, Washington voters could see changes in which ballots are accepted.
Under current state law, ballots that are postmarked by Election Day can be accepted 10, 14 and sometimes up to 21 days after, depending on the election.
"If we're not allowed to accept or process ballots after Election Day, it puts the burden on the voter to outguess the delivery system that they're going to use," Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton told SPR News. "They're going to have to vote probably much, much earlier and then put their ballot into the delivery system and hope that it arrives at the designated time."
The Supreme Court is set to hear the case over Bost's standing during its coming term starting this October.
If the court finds that he does have the right to sue, the representative’s lawsuit challenging vote tabulation will likely return to lower federal courts.
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Reporting by Doug Nadvornick, Owen Henderson and James Dawson.