Mayor Lisa Brown outlines homelessness, public safety and housing priorities in State of the City

Mayor Lisa Brown delivered the City of Spokane's annual statement of conditions and affairs to the Spokane City Council, describing the city's demographics, public services and policy priorities and urging regional partners to expand behavioral-health capacity.

Brown opened by situating Spokane as a city of about 230,000 people across roughly 69 square miles and said the city employs about 2,200 staff who maintain water, wastewater, streets, parks and other services. She said city crews treat roughly 10,400,000,000 gallons of wastewater annually, plow about 2,100 miles of streets and handle large volumes of recycling and organics collection.

Why it matters: Brown framed the address around three cross-cutting pressures facing the city's operating budget and residents: a lingering structural general-fund deficit, a spike in overdose deaths and open drug-use in public spaces, and a persistent shortage of affordable housing. She linked those issues to a need for more regional behavioral-health capacity and continued local…