Last year on Presidents Day, February 17, a small group of us started meeting at 5 AM in front of City Hall and walking downtown together. What began as a simple idea to draw attention to Spokane’s addiction and safety crisis, quickly turned into 100 straight 5AM walks.

Those walks rapidly changed how we saw our city.

We saw the depth of suffering up close. We saw a new and more dangerous phase of addiction take hold: fentanyl, industrial-chemical based methamphetamine, and other substances driving a very real health and safety crisis. But in the middle of that, we also had intense conversations imagining how our community could come together to make change.

Over time, we also began to see a clear shift away from a ‘hands-off’ approach toward what Chief Kevin Hall and others have begun describing as “compassionate enforcement.” As Chief Hall has said, “we cannot simply arrest our way out of this, we have to connect people to the help they need,” and that shift has become visible on our streets.

The result is that many of our frontline responders who were once in what felt like only an enforcement role are now doing something much more comprehensive and humane: they are engaging people, building trust, and helping move individuals toward shelter, treatment, and stability. It is a different model, pairing accountability with real pathways to help.

Spokane is not alone, as cities like San Francisco, through efforts such as Break the Cycle, Portland, and others are also adopting this same approach with increasing success.

Conditions are continuing to improve: for the first time in years, overdose deaths in Spokane have begun to decline. The chart I’m sharing here tells part of that story. It is not the whole picture, but it is an important one. Fewer deaths means more people are being reached, stabilized, and given another chance.

That progress belongs to many people. The frontline professionals who show up every single day, police, firefighters, outreach workers, medical teams, and service providers doing the hard, often unseen work. It also reflects the leadership and support of our elected officials who have been willing to take steps, make changes, and stand behind a more engaged approach to helping people move off the streets and into the help they need.

To mark one year since those walks began, we are gathering again – an anniversary walk of continued hope and progress: on February 17 at 5:00 AM, we will meet in front of City Hall for a reunion walk.

If you walked with us last year, I hope you will come back. If you never joined, you are welcome. There is something powerful about seeing our city wake up together and being reminded why this work matters in a city we all love and call home.

If interested, following is a link to a chart that compares overdose rates across counties...we've got a ways to go but it's finally headed the right direction:

https://spokanebusinessassociation.com/spokane-health-safety-update/