Month: April 2022

A lot has happened

That homelessness is a major issue in our community is no surprise to anyone. Nadine Woodward, our mayor, was elected to “solve” homelessness—a task she now quietly admits is more daunting than she had imagined. After the debacle at the Convention Center last January made it clear that the number of those needing shelter from the cold far exceeded available shelter beds people and groups from across the political spectrum began talking with more urgency and sense of purpose. Part of that conversation took place on an email listserv organized and managed by Dan Simonson, a retired CRNA. I have watched with great interest as people with varying perspectives weighed in and actually seemed to listen to each others’ point of view. Julie Garcia of Julie’s Helping Hands (JHH), an organization with a lot of experience and perspective on this issue in Spokane, has been a major contributor. 

Mayor Woodward recently articulated a proposal (The Mayor’s Homelessness Plan) involving one large building on an as yet undisclosed site. It is a good faith effort, but putting everything in one large building (as you will read below) is a concept many providers who have been involved with this issue for years caution against. Julie’s Helping Hands produced a highly detailed proposal that does not involve a single larger building. JHH’s proposal was in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) put out by the city to which JHH’s was the only response. As I have watched the listserv I have come to highly respect Julie Garcia’s experience and perspective on the issue of homelessness, and also her ability to articulate her understanding.

There are indications that there is enough money available through the American Rescue Plan to fund both the Mayor’s Homelessness Plan and JHH’s proposal.

Tonight, Monday, April 11 at 6PM the Mayor’s Homelessness Plan is up for consideration at the City of Spokane’s City Council meeting. Please read Dan Simonson’s plea below for you to read up on the two plans and attend the City Council Meeting either in person or virtually. Meanwhile,

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

Today [Monday, April 11] at 6 pm may be our last best chance to make sure that our city has adequate emergency shelter in place for next winter – and allow us to once again hold up our heads as a city that will never turn our fellow citizens out into the frozen streets to fend for themselves.

Monday at 6 pm the Spokane City Council meets.  The Mayor’s Homelessness Plan is on the agenda.  We need to be in attendance to show solidarity – given that next winter is now only 7 months away, WE MUST ATTEND AND MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD.  Please forward this to as many friends and supporters you can.I am hoping we can all attend and support the Jewels Helping Hands (JHH) response to the City’s RFP that is currently being considered by the Mayor and the City Council.  You can review both the RFP and the JHH response HERE.The City Council makes the final decision on the submitted proposals (subject to possible veto by the Mayor).  While I applaud the Mayor’s new path and the positive energy she and the City are putting into finding a solution, I cannot accept the portion of her plan calling for attempting to house 400 – 500 people in a big building.  With even my limited knowledge as a newcomer to this issue, I just don’t see how that will work. It is just warehousing, and not a credible attempt to induct these folks back into a true community, which I think we all realize is the only long-term answer to the problem.  Just as quickly as people fall off the table, we need to pull them back into our community.  After we provide emergency shelter for all of our citizens who need it, we then have to move on to achieve Functional Zero – the sweet spot where the growing number of people falling into homelessness is balanced by a similar number, aided by their city, climb back out.  But before we get there, we need adequate emergency low-barrier shelter.  Here’s our chance! Here is a link to the meeting web page – https://my.spokanecity.org/citycouncil/meetings/2022/04/11/legislative-meeting/

You can either attend in person or by Webex.  I am doing my best to find out the correct Webex URL, and will post it as soon as I am sure it is correct.In addition, those wishing to give testimony virtually can sign up between 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. at 

https://forms.gle/Vd7n381x3seaL1NW6

Instructions for participation are provided on the form when you sign up.More to come, let’s do our best to prepare.  This is one of the most consequential decisions our city will make to assure we do not repeat last winter.  We must attend this meeting and support a solution.  No more studies, consultants, and platitudes.  No matter which proposal you support, we must demand action now so we are not kicking homeless people out into the streets in freezing weather next year.  We cannot let that happen again.

Dan — dsimonson@mac.com

https://sites.google.com/view/shelterspokane2022

Mission: my city will have adequate emergency shelter space available for Winter, 2022.  

What follows is from JHH posted on the listserv. It is worth your time to read as plea for working together:

Posted by Julie Garcia yesterday [April 8] at 6:39 pm:

I would like to share my vision. I would like to stop all the politics and focus on “solving” for lack of a better word, homelessness. 

JHH believes that two RFP’s should get funded. Because both are needed. This is a huge investment in our community. It is a chance and opportunity that can not and should not be missed. 

As a low barrier service provider who is “boots on the ground” just as all the providers in these RFP’s, we are asking for unification of providers. JHH’s RFP includes Truth, City Gate, Family Promise, Consistent Care, Compassion Addiction Treatment, Revive and overseen by someone with a lifetime of service to the low income, marginalized and homeless populations, Ben Stuckart. 

The Guardians also are proposing to run a low barrier shelter. The numbers in our population continue to grow and increase year after year. The optic and division in our community towards homelessness continues to divide our city. This is a perfect storm to highlight the need. What happened at the Convention Center can not be unseen. 400ish people were kept alive and that is a win. If we expect the community to become stakeholders and help our neighbors experiencing homelessness, we as providers need to do the same. Help each other. 

One organization can not and does not have all the answers but together we can build a system that actually benefits all members of our community. Businesses and housed population have valid concerns, people experiencing homelessness have valid concerns and service providers and non profits have have valid concerns. All these concerns can be considered and addressed simply by creating enough space, transparency and accountability. Not just on the part of people experiencing homelessness but those that serve them as well. 

If we support each other, we can all be successful in supporting the most vulnerable in our community. And perhaps decrease the rising numbers of people experiencing homelessness. The only way to truly solve homelessness is houses. But until those things come available providing safe, humane and dignified “waiting” spaces is needed. 

We have to first admit that the numbers are wrong and significantly underestimated. We need to also accept that “tough love” is not working. It’s time we use data and evidence based practices to meaningfully and intentionally address the issues. I personally will be a city council on Monday to speak on the investment in my community. We need to stop being reactive and become pro active. 

It costs less money and trauma that way. Wouldn’t it be amazing to enter a winter with adequate space and options instead of what we have and currently do. Wouldn’t it be amazing to not address the space instead focus on how to get these folks supported, helped and out of homelessness. 

I would encourage all to attend the city council meeting and support both RFP’s and the investment in our community. We are only as strong as our weakest member. Right now people experiencing homelessness are asking for help. Lets do our part to help them be successful. 

Yours for the Shalom of the community, 
Julie Garcia
Executive Director 
Jewels Helping Hands 
509-263-5502

Chris Cargill is casting doubt on EVs from a position of ignorance and ideology

The Washington Policy Center in eastern Washington now seems to have an open propaganda platform in the Spokesman Review. About every two weeks Chris Cargill of WPC gets a Guest Opinion slot in which to propound Republican talking points. He was recently elected in November 2021 to the City of Liberty Lake City Council. Mr. Cargill is also the Eastern Washington director of the Washington Policy Center and seems to be WPC’s primary representation in eastern Washington. Mr. Cargill credentials are ideally suited to a career in politics and communicating a political agenda. He holds a B.A. in broadcast communication studies and political science from Gonzaga University. His experience is in broadcast journalism and marketing campaigns. 

Working for WPC, it is not surprising that Mr. Cargill should find himself called upon to cast doubt on anything that might reduce oil company profits, so, on April 1 he weighed in electric vehicles with a Guest Opinion entitled “Political push for electric vehicles might not make sense, or cents”. Notice, first off, that he frames conversion to EVs as “political”. He carefully avoids any mention of climate change, the primary reason for EV advocacy. Instead, he dives into his version of economics, whining in his first paragraph:

Maybe you’re one of the millions of Americans fed up with high gas prices. You might be thinking about buying an electric vehicle but are concerned about the price. Would an EV pay for itself and save you money?

Mr. Cargill then offers a hodgepodge of claims, brands, and occasional cherry-picked numbers in a rambling effort to cast doubt. His source, his proof? “The state has a spreadsheet” that “proves” the costs “might not make sense.” [The italics are mine.] He pretends to have dived into the weeds for his proof (without offering a link so one could see the methodology), and the best he can come up with is a “proof” of a “might”. He must be trying really hard…

Let’s do a little back-of-the-envelope math as a rough fact check. Gasoline right now is hovering around four dollars a gallon. For argument let’s assume (generously) that most police vehicles (the EVs Mr. Cargill seems most anxious to criticize) get around 25 miles to the gallon. To go 100,000 miles, that’s 4,000 gallons or $16,000 at $4/gal. Unlike Mr. Cargill, I’ve actually driven a dual motor Model 3 Tesla for the last three years. Plugged in at home in Spokane a kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity costs just about 8 cents. The stats on my onboard computer tell me that I have averaged 4 miles per kWh since I’ve owned the car. To go 100,000 miles, that’s 25,000 kWh or $2,000 at 8 cents/kWh. Two thousand dollars per 100,000 with a powerful EV vs. $16,000 per 100,000 miles for a gas vehicle, a saving of $14,000 per 100,000 miles. Hmmm.

Mr. Cargill’s “proof” that EVs “might” not make sense has to contend with maintenance as well. The only fluids one has to watch and maintain on an electric car are for the windshield washer and the hydraulic brake system. No messy engine oil changes and disposal, no oil filter, no air cleaner, no radiator fluid, and none the leaks of those fluids to which fossil fuel vehicles are prone. Furthermore, the brakes on an EV get far less wear than on an fossil fuel vehicle on account of regenerative braking—a technology that partly reclaims the energy from deceleration and puts it back in the battery rather than wasting that energy heating up and wearing down brake pads and rotors.

Of course, Mr. Cargill cannot leave out McMorris Rodger’s, WPC’s, and national Republican major, must-be-repeated talking points that come out whenever climate change is mentioned:

The additional [unproven] cost [of EVs], …is so large that it would be far more environmentally friendly to purchase gas-powered vehicles and invest the thousands of dollars saved in projects that reduce CO2 emissions or other environmental priorities.

Just what “projects to reduce CO2 emissions” does he endorse? You guessed it. The next two paragraphs go right to keeping the Snake River Dams and promoting nuclear power. 

Mr. Cargill’s Guest Opinion reeks of fossil fuel industry efforts to slow walk dealing with climate change. He may truly believe that burning fossil fuels does not cause climate change, or that climate change is myth, but he certainly believes that spending even an extra penny to avoid the worst results of climate change cannot be justified. He will use every bit of rhetoric in the Republican-fossil-fuel-industry playbook to slow down conversion away from fossil fuels. After all, there are still profits to be made, and some of those profits eventually pay part of Mr. Cargill’s salary at WPC. Why does this man even have a platform for his hand-waving? Perhaps the answer is in the words at the end of Mr. Cargill’s article:

Members of the Cowles family, owners of The Spokesman-Review, have previously hosted fundraisers for the Washington Policy Center and sit on the organization’s board.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. I acknowledge there is likely some resistance to change in the law enforcement community. Hardly anyone welcomes change with open arms, no matter the importance to the planet. Change is even less welcome when the argument for change comes from someone else, especially from a government containing a majority of Democrats. Mr. Cargill is following a long Republican tradition undermining climate urgency and fostering doubts of its importance.

The Settlement over Ethan Murray’s Death

On Wednesday, March 30, “Spokane County to pay $1 million to family of mentally ill man shot and killed by deputy” written by Emma Epperly appeared on the front page of the Spokesman Review. I urge you to click that link and read. 

Eleven days after Ethan Murray’s life was extinguished by five shots from Deputy Joseph Wallace’s service pistol on May 4, 2019, I wrote a post entitled “A Humane World” in which I lamented the social circumstances, the fear, and the training (or lack thereof) that led to a Sheriff’s Deputy gunning down an unarmed, mentally ill young man. 

After reading Ms. Epperly’s article, mulling over the knife (dropped by another Deputy by accident? by intent?), the delayed writing of the incident report (a full month later), Spokane Prosecutor Larry Haskel’s office’s finding the “use of force” justified, and the subsequent promotion of Deputy Wallace to detective it is hard not to see a closing of ranks and wonder about a coverup. As to how it all looks, I’m inclined to agree with this statement from the article:

“A million-dollar settlement speaks louder than any denial of wrongdoing,” wrote Braden Pence, an attorney for Murray’s mother, in an email Tuesday.

To date the only good thing that may have come in part from this miscarriage is that Sheriff’s Deputies (as of this year, two and half years after Ethan was killed) now wear body cameras. Had a body camera recorded this tragic encounter, certainly there would be much less to dispute.

I expect that in the coming weeks I will be able to write something more coherent.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry