Spokane unveils ‘Home Starts Here’ package to expand shelters, change camping rules and target opioid-related services

Mayor Lisa Brown announced a package of ordinances and programs called “Home Starts Here,” a citywide plan aimed at preventing homelessness, expanding shelter options and improving outreach and treatment for people living on Spokane’s streets.

The package includes three principal elements: updated rules for siting and neighborhood notice for shelters, a requirement for “good neighbor” agreements with shelter providers, and a consolidated citywide ordinance on unauthorized camping and obstruction of public access. The plan also adds investments in outreach, sobering beds and treatment through opioid settlement dollars and sets measurable metrics to track outcomes.

Home Starts Here is intended as “a unified strategy that meaningfully addresses the complex factors that contribute to housing instability,” Mayor Lisa Brown said. “Today, we're announcing a package of proposals to truly address homelessness and root causes contributing to people who are suffering in our community or barely hanging on.”

Why it matters: City leaders said the measures aim to reduce visible encampments while increasing the chance that people who are unsheltered are connected to services and housing rather than moved from block to block. Officials also said the plan ties shelter siting and outreach to data and performance metrics to measure outcomes such as reductions in renter cost burdens and increases in housing access.

Key provisions and details

- Inclement-weather activation: Councilman Zac Zapone said the proposal would change activation for inclement-weather shelters from a simple temperature threshold to a heat-index standard that accounts for humidity and wind chill: “This is a much better measure and indicator of inclement weather than a simple temperature activation measure.”

- Shelter siting and neighborhood engagement: The ordinance would codify existing city practices for siting new city-funded shelters, including community engagement and neighborhood notice requirements for any new shelter with more than 20 beds, and would establish a process for “good neighbor” agreements between the city and shelter providers.

- Unauthorized camping and obstruction: Assistant Police Chief Steve Wold described a consolidated ordinance on obstructing public ways and camping on public property that applies citywide rather than only downtown. He said the proposal “provides up to 7 days to allow our outreach providers the opportunity to go and and navigate these individuals into housing or into treatment,” while noting exceptions apply if there is a public-health or public-safety concern that requires a quicker response.

Services, funding and partnerships

Officials said the plan bundles enforcement and engagement with service investments. The mayor listed recent and planned actions that feed into Home Starts Here, including expanded co-responder teams in police and fire, a high-utilizer initiative focused on individuals generating heavy emergency costs, and expanded sobering beds funded in partnership with Spokane County. The mayor said Assistant City Administrator Maggie Yates is preparing proposals to allocate a new round of opioid-settlement dollars to expand navigation services, mobile treatment options and investments in programs such as Maddie’s Place for infants and families affected by opioid use disorder.

The plan also centers a navigation center and small-scale shelters: the mayor described the navigation center as “referral only” and able to take up to 30 people, who can then be referred to small shelters, treatment, transitional housing or permanent supportive housing where appropriate. Officials said the city will measure outcomes including exits to housing and returns to homelessness; Brown said an early review found that exits to housing from one shelter (the transcript identified it as the Trent Track Shelter) had been “a very low number, under 10%,” and that newer initiatives are producing higher percentages of successful navigation into housing.

Data and oversight

Brown said the city will use a combination of data sources rather than collecting all data itself: partners include the regional Continuum of Care, the county and regional health district’s Homelessness Management Information System dashboard, and Greater Spokane Incorporated’s economic-development data (SEDS). She said the ordinances will “establish metrics, indicators of success” to track measurable reductions in cost-burdened households and increases in housing units and health-care access.

Next steps and council review

Officials said the ordinances are a joint administration–council effort but still require council committee hearings, public input and final council action. “That doesn't mean they're finished,” Brown said. “Now the job goes to the city council who will have hearings in committee on these ordinances, take further public input, and ultimately, it will be up to them on the timing and, when and exactly what, to pass into law.”

What officials emphasized and what remains unsettled

City leaders emphasized that the approach combines enforcement with services and ongoing measurement; at the same time, no final council votes or ordinance texts were adopted at the announced presentation. Assistant Police Chief Steve Wold and city staff described operational details—such as the 7-day encampment period, immediate removal for obstruction of pedestrian traffic, and coordination among outreach teams, police and code enforcement—but city council hearings and implementation plans, including precise funding allocations from opioid-settlement dollars, were described as forthcoming rather than completed.

Brown closed the presentation by noting community partner engagement, including more than 90 faith leaders who recently discussed small-scale shelters and use of faith properties for housing, and said the city would continue refining the package based on evidence and community input.