SPOKANE, Wash. — Local business organizations are hoping the State Supreme Court will uphold the homeless camping ban passed last year.
In November 2023, 75% of Spokane voters voted to pass Proposition 1, which aims to restrict homeless encampments within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds, parks and other areas where children are likely to congregate.
Weeks before the 2023 election, local homeless outreach group, Jewels Helping Hands, along with former Spokane City Council president Ben Stuckart, filed a lawsuit against the proposal.
Just this week on August 5, Downtown Spokane Partnership and Greater Spokane Inc. wrote a brief to the State Supreme Court in support of Proposition 1 that they hope the court will consider as it reviews the lawsuit.
The organizations said they don’t want to outlaw homelessness, but they hope to create safe spaces for kids and provide people who are homeless with the resources they need.
“It was narrowly tailored to spaces where children are likely to congregate, and it’s important to us, as a business community, that when our community speaks about particularly important issues like that, that we’re preserving that power and that voice in the conversation,” said GSI Director of Public Policy, Jake Mayson.
Jewels Helping Hands released a statement via email in response to the brief, stating, in part:
“Prop 1 is not going to do what the community is hoping. They are being misinformed on its enforceability. We do not have the infrastructure to support it. It’s the same as all our other camping laws. They only work with infrastructure behind them. This one as well will be no help to reducing homelessness. It’s giving a false set of expectations and will be a sore disappointment when/if it makes it past the Supreme Court.”
The case is expected to be heard by the Supreme Court sometime in the next several weeks.
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