According to a weekend count by Jewels Helping Hands, there are 443 people living at Camp Hope. That's lower than earlier in the summer, when a survey counted 601 people living at the East Central homeless encampment — a number that's been used in countless news statements and stories. In a text message, Julie Garcia, executive director of Jewels Helping Hands, the nonprofit overseeing the camp, said more campers are being moved into housing and that she hopes the number will be at 430 by Friday. Garcia describes it as a "steady decline." The new population figures come just a few days after Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl joined the sheriff, county commissioners and county prosecutor in calling for the camp to be cleared. In a letter sent to the state Transportation Department — which owns the land the camp is on — and Jewels Helping Hands, Meidl outlined allegations of criminal activity and declared the camp a chronic nuisance. The letter included a proposed agreement that would require all personal items be moved off the property by Nov. 15. (NATE SANFORD)
WATER, CONTAMINATED WATER
The city of Spokane will continue providing Airway Heights with water through June 2026, after the City Council approved an extension Monday night to an agreement first drawn up in 2018. The water-sharing agreement stems from the 2017 discovery of a family of chemicals known as PFAS in the West Plains municipality's water. Those chemicals were used in firefighting activities at Fairchild Air Force Base, which led to the contamination. Since the wells tested positive, Spokane has provided water on an emergency basis, and the new contract extension gives Airway Heights more time to find a permanent water solution. The extension also includes about $88,000 from Airway Heights to study a West Plains Booster Station that could improve water pressure for the emergency supply. (SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL)
DARK DAYS AHEAD
In her first in-person annual "statements of conditions and affairs" to the Spokane City Council on Monday night, Mayor Nadine Woodward declared that Spokane's "outlook is a bit mixed." While Woodward celebrated that businesses were recovering and conventions had returned, much of her speech was gloomier, and focused on the considerable problems Spokane continues to face. The labor shortage. Crime. Inflation. Fentanyl addiction. Police officers who are tired and burned out. Homelessness. Lagging incomes that made Washington's second-largest city only its 17th-richest city. About 8,000 city customers are behind on their utility bills. A housing shortage and a spike in rents that have forced multiple low-income families to share single living spaces. Then there's the ongoing multimillion-dollar budget deficit that Woodward anticipated spending onetime pandemic relief and reserves to help staunch. "Clearly we still have work to do as we enter another recession," Woodward said. (DANIEL WALTERS) ♦
