COLVILLE – With the city’s former homeless camp now officially empty as an ongoing housing shortage persists, the Stevens County Homeless Housing Taskforce is working on an updated plan aimed at addressing homelessness across the county’s rural communities.
During a meeting on Thursday, Cruze Thompson, housing director for the nonprofit Rural Resources and leader of the task force, said the goal is to complete the plan for 2025 to 2030 by the end of August.
“We plan to create more opportunities to serve the homeless in Stevens County,” Thompson said.
Before the meeting, Shiloh Reynolds, director at Bridges of Hope Men’s Recovery Center – a program run by the Hope Street Project, a nonprofit that provides services to homeless individuals in Colville –said one of the key gaps he sees is how the plan will directly address the housing shortage.
“We’re averaging three or four people a night sleeping out in this parking lot that we have to come and ask to leave, because if we don’t, obviously it creates a disruption for the neighbors,” Reynolds said. “... The need hasn’t been met.”
Barry Bacon, co-founder of Hope Street Restoration who couldn’t attend the meeting, previously shared those concerns with Thompson. Thompson then brought them forward to the task force during the meeting.
Stevens County Commissioner Greg Young agreed that the concerns raised should be reflected in the five-year plan.
“We all know housing is one of our issues,” Young said during the meeting.
One of the new items discussed was the importance of coordination with law enforcement and city officials when addressing homelessness.
Before the meeting, Reynolds emphasized the need for this coordination, pointing out that counties like Spokane, Thurston, Pierce and Cowlitz have built similar strategies into their five-year homeless plans.
“We need permanent housing. We need recovery programs. We need recovery housing. We need facilities that people can transition out of prison and jail and have a re-entry plan with that support,” Reynolds said.
“They’re partnering with the Department of Corrections; they’re partnering with the jails – they’re not playing around,” he said.
Mayor Jack Smith, who was not at the meeting, also submitted suggested changes to the plan’s guiding principles. Among them was a recommendation to align with aspects of the Trump Administration’s recent executive order on ending crime and disorder on the streets.
The order, signed July 24, is intended to make it easier for states and cities to clear outdoor encampments and connect people with mental health or drug addiction treatment services.
“Endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks have made our cities unsafe,” the order states.
Discussion of the order’s relevance to the plan is expected to be addressed in the next task force meeting.
Thompson said Rural Resources has been trying to tackle the housing shortage through local partnerships.
The organization recently partnered with Catholic Charities on an apartment complex with 72 units – half of which have been reserved for unhoused people.
“We’re working on filling all of those units. Once those units are filled, all leased up, then we’ll be reassessing the need for additional housing,” Thompson said.
He noted that in their last five-year plan, there wasn’t a homeless camp in Colville. Once the city established one, it became easier to find and serve people throughout the rural county.
“Now, without the camp, there is going to be more difficulties locating them and to be able to work with them,” Thompson said.
After the meeting, Young said he encourages more community involvement in the planning process. Their next meeting is set for 10 a.m. Aug. 12 at the Stevens County Commissioners Office.
“I appreciate some of these people’s comments, as far as the federal government, how to save funding and how a lot of these things work,” Young said.
