Today's headlines:
- New data shows the number of people using Spokane's housing services has modestly decreased.
- Parking in many—but not all—Spokane spaces and lots will get more expensive next month.
- The latest transgender bathroom ban clears the Idaho House.
- Immigration status and nationality would be recorded on all arrests under a bill advancing in the Idaho legislature.
- Could Seattle get an NBA team again?
Plus, state Senator Jeff Holy (R-Cheney) helped convince the Washington legislature to set aside $100 million last year for local law enforcement agencies.
So far, none of those dollars have been released. But local departments could start seeing those dollars soon. SPR's Doug Nadvornick gets the details from Holy himself.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Owen Henderson, James Dawson and Doug Nadvornick.
Owen Henderson hosts and produces the show.
Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
TRANSCRIPT
[THEME MUSIC]
OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Owen Henderson. It’s Tuesday, March 17, 2026.
On today’s show, the number of people using homelessness services in Spokane is down more than 10% from last year. We’ll dive into the latest batch of data from the city.
Plus, it could soon become a crime for a transgender person in Idaho to use a bathroom that doesn’t match their sex assigned at birth.
And, though the so-called “millionaires’ tax” got a lot of attention this legislative session in Washington, public safety issues had their own share of headlines. We’ll talk about some of them with the lead Republican on the Senate Law and Justice Committee, Spokane County’s Jeff Holy.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
The number of Spokanites using emergency shelters and other housing services is decreasing.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports on the city’s latest homelessness data.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: The number of people using Spokane’s homelessness services decreased by 11 percent last year compared to the year before.
That’s according to the most recent report the city created for the U-S Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The study analyzes data collected from October 2024 through the end of September 2025.
It counted 6,430 unique individuals using housing services. They averaged more than 100 days in the city’s homeless system.
Spokane’s lead information system analyst Amanda Martinez said 13 percent of people moved directly from emergency shelters to permanent housing—up from 7 percent the year before.
AMANDA MARTINEZ: “While we did see an increase in the access to permanent housing in shelter, we do continue to see that when you combine it with additional interventions, the likelihood that someone will go to permanent housing does increase significantly.”
EB: Permanent supportive housing had more than a 50 percent rate of getting people into long term, independent housing. Families with at least one adult and one child are the most likely to get into permanent housing.
The study did not include city services like eviction prevention, street outreach, or diversion efforts.
But Housing and Human Services director Dawn Kinder credits those for the decrease in people needing the housing services that HUD does track.
I’m Eliza Billingham reporting.
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OH: Starting next month, parking in many Spokane lots will get more expensive.
The city council last night approved the final version of a new 12% parking tax. It’s expected to bring in about 2 million dollars annually.
Not everyone will see an increased rate: City-owned on-street parking isn’t subject to the tax.
And drivers with disability placards, qualifying carpools and government workers are exempt, as are those parking in spots designated for students, residents or employees.
Surface lots will see the full 12% hike, while parking structures with at least two floors or underground lots would only be subject to half that.
Proponents say the revenue will fund a safer city for pedestrians and bikers and encourage denser redevelopment.
Opponents argue higher parking costs will drive customers away from downtown businesses.
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The Idaho House quickly passed a bill yesterday [MON] that would make it a crime for transgender people to use a restroom, locker room or shower facility that doesn’t match their sex at birth. James Dawson has more.
JAMES DAWSON: The measure would apply to both government and private businesses. Anyone caught knowingly violating the bill would be charged with a misdemeanor for the first offense and a felony for a second incident within five years.
Republican Rep. Barbara Ehardt says society never used to bat an eye at keeping bathrooms separated by sex.
BARBARA EHARDT: “I do not understand why we seem to all of a sudden have a problem with discerning who is who and where we each should be.”
JD: Rep. Clay Handy, one of the few Republicans to oppose the bill, says allowing transgender people to use the bathroom isn’t a problem.
CLAY HANDY: “I’ve seen people in every way shape or form all over the world going to the bathroom and, to tell you the truth, I don’t know if very many people are sexually aroused by watching someone go to the bathroom.”
House lawmakers easily passed the measure, which now goes to the Senate for consideration.
James Dawson, Boise State Public Radio News.
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OH: Anyone arrested in Idaho could have their immigration status and nationality checked and recorded by law enforcement under a bill advancing in Boise.
A committee voted narrowly yesterday to send the measure to the House floor.
Benewah County Republican Dale Hawkins says his bill will help address the issue of overcrowded jails by giving law enforcement more information about who is being held in detention that “doesn’t belong here.”
Hawkins’ bill would also require twice-a-year reporting of immigration status of every person arrested, as well as the number of undocumented people investigated, detained and transferred to federal officials.
Opponents like the Idaho Chiefs of Police Association say language in the bill could add to the burden on city police, impeding their other work—and likely cause redundant reporting by sheriff’s office deputies.
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Northwest professional basketball fans are getting another sign the NBA may return to Washington.
ESPN reports the league’s Board of Governors may vote next week to explore whether to add teams in Seattle and Las Vegas.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has previously mentioned Seattle as a possibility if the league decides to add two teams.
And Gov. Bob Ferguson voiced his support for the expansion in a social media post yesterday.
He also previously met with Silver to discuss bringing a team to Washington.
Seattle was home to the SuperSonics for 41 seasons, until the then-owner moved the team to Oklahoma City in 2008.
ESPN reports the new teams would begin play in the 2028-29 season.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
Washington state legislators are back home after wrapping up their 60-day session last week.
An income tax for millionaires received most of the media attention during the final days of the gathering. But public safety issues drew headlines too.
Spokane Republican Senator Jeff Holy is the lead minority member on his chamber’s Law and Justice Committee.
He spoke with SPR’s Doug Nadvornick.
DOUG NADVORNICK: Last year, Jeff Holy was one of the architects of a proposal to direct 100-million state dollars to local policing agencies so they could hire more cops and other public safety personnel.
It was quite an accomplishment considering the divide between legislators who believe police need more resources and legislators who are skeptical about policing. Holy’s bill was heavily amended to make it palatable to legislators on both sides.
The Criminal Justice Training Commission created a fund from which local agencies can draw, but the application process isn’t easy. It appears that, finally, some of that money is starting to make its way to police departments. That’s where I started my conversation with Holy.
I was just reading in the Washington State Standard today or yesterday regarding the 100 million dollars for policing agencies and that money finally starting to be freed. How do you view this just in terms of finally getting some of this money out to where it was you had intended it for it to be?
JEFF HOLY: Oh, man, you're asking complex questions. This is a lot of moving parts. It was a policy statement. There's money up available.
Here's a criteria that has to be met. CJTC was supposed to put together an administrative format that allowed people to have the access to apply. And I mean, for about 10 months, I mean, dead airspace, nobody out there could get everything together. CJTC didn't even have a process yet. It took them a period of time to develop that. And if I remember right, I think I heard that Kent and Black Diamond both just this week, I think, if I remember right, are the first two that actually have applied for the grant. And Kent was a couple million, I think, and Black Diamond was probably less than a half million on that.
But I mean, both of them actually met the criteria, figured out a way to navigate the process that CJTC put in place and got there. So we're actually seeing some movement on this, although I was getting pretty frustrated with a whole year's worth of, you know, non-action on this just because it occurred that the criteria was almost prohibitive. And the process had not been established. I know there's a bunch of other towns out there, too, that are, you know, kind of, they're looking at this.
DN: Are there any agencies in your district that are thinking about it or are you hearing that this is just too damn complicated?
JH: You know, it's not that I think the process is so new here. And I think it's the tenth-of-a-percent sales tax, that you actually have to be first money in. If you don't actually have something like that in place, you can divert the revenue stream to this specific purpose. I mean, I got close to me. I've got Colfax, if I remember right. Probably Wenatchee. Who else? One of the Tri Cities, I think, on that. So there's cities out that are, you know, they're looking at this. So, and there's I know other people out there.
There's a half dozen counties that have looked into this that have made inquiries into it. I know everybody's trying to figure out how to navigate this. I'm hoping to see since Kent and Black Diamond broke the ice that the process is viable. It can be accomplished. And, you know, the more people will start moving. You start to build that critical masses. Everybody follows when a path has been cut. I see that happening over the next year or so. And if not, maybe I'll try and revisit it and see if we can't get something going.
DN: So there's also the bill that was approved that requires sheriffs to become certified cops, essentially, over a period of time. And that drew a lot of ire from your side of the aisle, too. Can you explain that, the depth of feeling there, too?
JH: Oh, it's just these are the things that appear to be as much political messaging as other. The sheriff is one of the counties. Counties are creatures of state constitution. Cities are creatures of state statute. And the counties out there, there are specific county officers that are defined in the state constitution. They have to be there. Sheriffs are one of them. So it's a constitutionally protected elected position.
I think there's constitutional issues with this bill, and they've been brought up several times and they seem to be ignored. You know, I get a feeling that as soon as this is put in place, that this also will be litigated to determine if it's constitutional, state constitutional viability. And so there's just there's that kind of a, trying to do something before actually figuring out if it's appropriate. That's part of it.
And quite frankly, the other part is there's a couple of sheriffs that have been fairly vocal about their positions there and refuse to accommodate some of the policy issues, for example, of the prevailing party would put in place that they would they would like to see accomplished and just saying, no, ‘I'm an independent elected position, you know, you're not going to determine specifically outside what my duties are how I'm going to do my job.’
So, I mean, there's this kind of two schools of thought about this, and there appears to be not a lot of room for compromise in the middle. One is going to end up being right when the Supreme Court actually finally gets a hold of this, and the other [will] be wrong. And then we'll move from there.
DN: Jeff Holy is a Republican state senator in the Sixth Legislative District.
I’m Doug Nadvornick reporting.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, James Dawson and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also your host and producer. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
