1. The Big Picture
For months, we have been ringing the alarm on the urgent need for a coordinated regional response to the homelessness, public health, and safety crises in Spokane. We have outlined the work already done, the leadership already engaged, and the regional framework that was within reach—until it wasn’t. Today, the Journal of Business has echoed that same call with a clear, unfiltered message: it’s time to revisit a regional approach and move beyond fragmented efforts. Their editorial underscores what we have been saying all along—this work was never abandoned because it lacked merit, strategy, or community backing. It stalled because of politics. Now, with overdose deaths rising, businesses closing, and public safety worsening, we no longer have the luxury of waiting. The time for action is now, and it starts with picking up where we left off.
The Journal’s View: Regional Approach to Addressing Homelessness, Crime Needs to Be Revisited
Published by the Journal of Business
Journal of Business Editorial Board | March 13, 2025
It’s time for the Spokane area’s elected leaders to revisit the idea of a regional approach to reducing homelessness, drug use, and crime. A sense of urgency for doing so is justified.
Despite some steps taken in the right direction, problems persist on a large scale, and data suggests some major problems have worsened. A new approach is necessary, and everybody should come to the table on a comprehensive plan to address the region’s woes.
As has been well documented, a small group of volunteers have laid the groundwork for such an approach. That work remains relevant and should serve as the foundation for a broad plan moving forward.
As a reminder, three former city of Spokane executives—Gavin Cooley, Rick Romero, and Theresa Sanders—led an initiative that brought together eight jurisdictions in the Spokane area: Spokane County, the city of Spokane, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, Millwood, Airway Heights, Cheney, and Medical Lake.
Together, representatives from those municipalities committed to a 90-day due-diligence process and began meeting regularly to navigate the complexities of such an approach. The effort extended well beyond that 90-day period, and after what some estimate to be thousands of hours of collective volunteer work, the bones of a plan were in place.
Then, the city of Spokane, under newly elected Mayor Lisa Brown, balked at continuing forward. The effort fizzled at that point.
That regional collaborative effort started precisely two years ago, in March of 2023. As has been widely reported, drug-overdose deaths in the Spokane area have increased since then, a trend that runs counter to national patterns in which overdose deaths have declined.
On the business front, one commercial real estate executive recently placed the downtown office vacancy rate at 28%, which is up from an already unprecedentedly high vacancy rate of 20% reported a year ago. A variety of factors contribute to that, including work-from-home trends, but concerns about public safety and vandalism contribute to organizations’ decisions to leave the core and prospective new tenants’ decisions to locate elsewhere.
Much of the ire and frustration is with the city of Spokane, which has stymied the regional approach while taking some of its own proactive steps, such as planning to create scattered-site shelters and expanding a relationship with Downtown Spokane Partnership for cleaning service in a broader swath of the core. Such steps are laudable to a degree, but they clearly aren’t solving problems quickly or quantifiably.
It’s time for the city’s leaders to put policy ahead of politics and personality and start working with their peers on practical solutions, similar to what Pierce County has started doing in western Washington and other communities have done with success in other parts of the country.
The devil is always in the details, and moving forward, nuanced conversations will be essential if this process is to be kickstarted. But such conversations, no matter how difficult or complex, are worth having to move our community forward, help the most vulnerable people among us, and hold accountable those who harm others.
Read the original article on the Journal of Business website here: https://www.spokanejournal.com/articles/16893-the-journals-view-regional-approach-to-addressing-homelessness-crime-needs-to-be-revisited
Background: SBA’s Previous Communications on the Regional Approach
2. Frustration Today and the Regional Plan That Almost Was – Part I
As I walk through our streets each morning, I continue to witness the devastation unfolding before us—people suffering in crisis, the collateral impact on our downtown community, and the strain on our local economy. With each step, I reflect with frustration on how close we were to addressing this situation over a year ago.
For months, we have been calling for a coordinated, regional emergency response to the crises of homelessness, public health, and safety. But what if I told you that this level of coordination was already within reach more than a year ago?
In March 2023, Spokane’s regional elected leaders—representing eight separate jurisdictions—came together to initiate a 90-day due diligence period to explore a regional and collaborative model for addressing homelessness. The effort included Spokane County, the City of Spokane, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, Millwood, Fairway Heights, Cheney, and Medical Lake.
Over the course of months, mayors, city council members, and other key leaders engaged in extensive discussions, navigating complex governance structures, funding mechanisms, and regional decision-making models. This level of collaboration was unprecedented—something Spokane had never seen before.
By November 2023, after months of work, the group had reached broad consensus on the draft major elements of the plan. The next steps included essential public review and input, along with detailed review and consideration by the governing bodies of the participating jurisdictions.
The foundation for a regional approach was in place, and momentum was powerful. For the first time, our eight jurisdictions had come together in a strong push toward a unified approach to the #1 issue challenging our community.
Today, as we continue to face these challenges, the question remains: How do we reignite that momentum and take the next critical steps toward lasting solutions?
3. Frustration Today and the Regional Plan That Almost Was – Part II
Organized by three volunteers, the initiative brought together eight jurisdictions, numerous elected officials from across the political spectrum, and a broad coalition of community organizations. Working together for months, the group aligned on a unified approach to strategically and collaboratively address the region’s homelessness, public health, and safety crisis.
However, this collaborative effort unexpectedly unraveled the very next month due to a unilateral decision by Spokane’s newly elected mayor, Lisa Brown. (Notably, I had briefed her many times on the initiative’s progress leading up to her election, and she never expressed any doubts or concerns.) Explaining to me her reasons for not moving forward with the initiative, the mayor initially cited concerns about other regional partnerships (SREC, STA, SRHD) that she felt were not functioning properly. Subsequently, she also questioned the finances and structure of the approach.
This perspective was particularly disappointing because the plan was still in its preliminary stages and was never rigid in its funding or structure—its strength lay in its path toward strategic regional collaboration. The specific framework was entirely flexible and anticipated numerous amendments through pending public and jurisdictional reviews of the proposal.
Rather than debating the validity of the mayor’s concerns, the more important question is: why abandon the thousands of hours of regional work and effort instead of refining and improving the original draft through public, legislative, and other collaborative processes? After all, the underlying crisis has only worsened in the 14 months since the decision to abandon the approach. Accordingly, we invite all participating jurisdictions to revisit this framework, make the necessary adjustments to optimize it, and move forward—this was always the intent.
An Important Distinction – A True Regional Approach vs. Isolated Regional Projects
There is a current political drive to introduce individual collaborative projects and label them as a “regional approach.” However, this is a critical misunderstanding. A collection of one-off projects, no matter how well-intended or effective, cannot replace a comprehensive, strategic regional governance structure. A true regional approach aligns all the silos strategically to carry out a shared vision for meaningfully addressing these issues.
It is important to bear in mind that this approach does not require any jurisdiction to give up its flow of funds (the mayor has expressed concern about the city’s potential loss of control over its HUD dollar allocations). Nor does the approach necessitate adopting the proposed PDA model—for instance, a nonprofit structure could be utilized, as certain regions have done. However, key elements of shared strategic collaboration must be present, including shared data and coordinated efforts across the full spectrum of issues driving the crisis.
In other words, a true regional approach requires alignment—a unified governing structure in which all key players work together under a shared strategic vision. The distinct initiatives we’ve seen over the past year (e.g., scattered shelter rollouts), while effective in their own right, will never achieve the broader goal of resolving the crisis.
The reality speaks for itself. Despite new projects and ongoing efforts, a simple walk-through downtown reveals that conditions on the ground are not improving. Moreover, overdose deaths continue to rise at an alarming rate. Compared to similar counties across the country, Spokane’s overdose crisis stands out as one of the worst. (Spokane is also the only city I can find where the death rate is still trending higher.) In other words, our current fragmented efforts—masquerading as a regional approach—are not working.
No More Waiting
As we call for immediate emergency action, we must emphasize that the extreme impatience we feel today is not new—it is the same urgency we felt a year ago when our large group sat through a long series of two-hour meetings, hammering out the details of a coordinated plan.
Now, as overdose deaths continue to rise and our downtown economy faces increasing challenges, it is imperative to act decisively and execute on the regional groundwork already laid by our regional leaders.
The time for debate has passed. The time for action is now!