Remember, your government works for you! Thanks to an update to Spokane City Council procedure passed unanimously on Dec. 9, starting in January, community members will be able to give verbal or written testimony during City Council committee meetings, which will be held on Mondays at noon. Committee meetings are usually where council members introduce or learn about new legislation. Then, they make final decisions at an evening legislative meeting a few weeks later. Historically, public comment has been limited to evening meetings. This update allows the City Council to incorporate feedback from the community earlier in the decision-making process.
HOMELESS DASHBOARD
Good decisions are based on good data. With that in mind, Spokane County and the cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley partnered with the Spokane Regional Health District's Data Center to build a public dashboard with in-depth data on homelessness. The data is pulled from Spokane's Homeless Management Information System, which is mandated and regulated by the federal government. The dashboard will be updated quarterly, and includes information on the number of homeless people staying in shelters, their demographics, the average length of stay, and the number of people exiting homelessness. The data currently available was last updated in October. Explore for yourself at countyhealthinsights.org/county/spokane/dashboard/homeless-dashboard/
BABY BUST
Turns out, pandemic babies in Spokane weren't as much of a thing as it may have seemed. During the Dec. 16 Spokane City Council study session, Eastern Washington University researchers showed that net migration is nearly the only factor increasing Spokane County's population, and the "natural increase" from births has almost disappeared since 2020. In 2014, the county's population grew by 5,825 people, and about a third of that growth was thanks to more births than deaths. In 2022, births didn't account for any new growth over deaths, and in 2024, new babies accounted for only about 7% of growth. "[It's] a phenomenon that we're starting to see in other communities as well, that birth rates are dropping pretty clearly," said presenter Patrick Jones, the executive director of Eastern's Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis. "I definitely think there's a correlation with COVID. I don't know for sure, but births just kind of stopped during the pandemic." Chiming in virtually, City Council member Jonathan Bingle replied, "We did our part to counter that, FYI," referring to his young children and getting a laugh from the rest of the council.♦
