Spokane CM Bingle addresses concerns over potential West Hills tiny home village

(The Center Square) – Spokane City Councilmember Jonathan Bingle criticized the Housing First model on Friday as a nonprofit plans to build a tiny home village next to a sober-living facility.

Bingle held a press conference outside his own district after his peers’ constituents had reached out asking him to elevate their concerns. He highlighted a break in trust between the community and nonprofit service providers, citing another back-room deal in his district from last year.

According to reporting by The Spokesman-Review, state grant funding recently helped purchase 30 tiny homes for a housing project in the West Hills Neighborhood. The units will sit on property owned by Empire Health Foundation, which facilitates Mayor Lisa Brown’s scattered-site model.

EHF recently rebranded under a new name: Water’s Meet Foundation, as did its other nonprofit, which donated money to help oppose a proposal that would have funded a new detention facility.

“Housing First has failed because it’s become housing only,” Bingle said. “We know that we need serious investment in mental health and addiction treatment centers, absolutely, and those are things that we should be spending our money on, and I don’t see us doing that as a city.”

The tiny home village will house individuals transitioning out of low-barrier shelters right next to Ascenda, which has operated in the neighborhood for over 20 years. Unlike low-barrier shelters, Ascenda requires its residents to maintain sobriety, raising concerns with the new facility nearby.

Some residents are worried about the triggers they may encounter with the tiny homes nearby after years of working on their sobriety. One spoke at the press conference and said she had lived at Ascenda for five years because she “thought it was going to be a safe place.”

Ascenda is located away from downtown, where much of the homeless population congregates.

“We’re just left to fend for ourselves in this neighborhood,” another West Hills resident said at the press conference. “You need to invest in our neighborhood instead of being a detractor, too."

Some are concerned that the tiny home village could turn into another Camp Hope. According to the Spokesman-Review, WMF purchased the units without picking an organization to operate the housing project; the nonprofit believed the city would view it as a worthwhile investment.

Brown’s scattered-site shelters house about 30 people each, but some are becoming skeptical.

“When we start talking about ‘It’s only 30, it’s only 30, don’t worry, we’re going to be vetting people at some point,’ the neighborhoods, based on what has been told to them over the years, just don’t believe it anymore,” Bingle said. “You can be telling me the God’s honest truth, but there’s that break in trust in the community, and that’s something that we really need to be working much harder on, is building that trust with the community.”

Bingle called on nonprofit providers to rebuild that trust and meet with the neighborhoods before proceeding with projects that could impact public safety and the quality of life of everyone else.