Spokane councilmembers solicit community feedback on draft of illegal camping ordinance | Straight From The Source

From City of Spokane:

Council President Breean Beggs and Council Member Lori Kinnear have collaborated with City Legal for several months on draft updates to the City of Spokane’s illegal camping code. The ordinance updates reinforce the city’s overall need for shelter space to continue to abide by the Spokane Municipal Code of illegal camping in public areas.

“Since Martin v. City of Boise, which was the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in 2019 that has prohibited enforcement of the camping prohibition on City-owned property subject to the availability of shelter beds, the City of Spokane has not updated its illegal camping ordinance,” said Council President Beggs. “This updated draft language is meant to be a starting point for discussions among Council Members and is being released publicly to get community feedback on the best way to move forward to bring City code into better alignment with the Martin v. City of Boise ruling.”

This current draft articulates three levels of enforcement, as follows:

1. Camping is prohibited on all City-owned property, but may be subject to the availability of shelter beds to the extent required by Martin v. City of Boise.
2. Camping is prohibited at all times regardless of shelter availability in the following locations:

   • Under any Downtown railroad viaduct and within 100 feet of one;

   • Any City-owned park or park facility; and,

   • Any portion of land within 35 feet of the Spokane River or Latah Creek; and

3. Camping is prohibited at all times, regardless of the availability of shelter beds, where such activity creates an unreasonable risk of harm or poses a substantial danger to the community, such as on the right of way where there is congested foot traffic adjacent to streets; or due to the potential for fires, damage to infrastructure or any other safety hazard; or where such activity poses a substantial health or safety risk to any person for any reason.

The City of Spokane has the responsibility of regulating public property and ensuring that properties are generally intended for the safe and sanitary use by the broader public to gather, move freely and safely about, and engage in diverse activities all of which are inconsistent with a campground and camping activity. 

“Our ultimate goal in this draft ordinance is to not move the problem of illegal camping from place to place, but to actually get people referred to a safer location, which could include a designated area for campers who do not utilize shelters for a variety of reasons, or when sufficient shelter space is not available,” said Council Member Lori Kinnear. “I look forward to hearing community feedback on this draft so we can work to improve our attempt to identify community priorities for illegal camping enforcement.”

City Park space is preserved and maintained to help benefit the public’s physical and mental health and enjoyment with freely accessible sanitary and safe outdoor spaces. Camping interferes with park preservation, maintenance, and fair public use of these protected general properties. The same applies to public Right of Way (ROW), sidewalks, and railroad/highway underpass walls adjacent to sidewalks.  The ordinance intends to prohibit camping within the City while encouraging persons experiencing homelessness to utilize available low-barrier shelters and access community services open at Spokane Community Court. Except for those who do not meet the criteria for acceptance into community court, individuals subject to enforcement under this ordinance will be directed to community court by officer referral.