On January 16, Spokane city officials and about 100 representatives from 30 community organizations conducted their annual one-day “Point-in-Time” census of homeless people. The census is required by the state. The canvassers made contact with 1,090 people. That number is up about a hundred from the year before.
Despite the increase, Dawn Kinder believes Spokane is making progress in helping people, especially families, find places to live and stabilize their lives. Kinder directs the city of Spokane’s Department of Community, Housing and Human Services.
Dawn Kinder: “In the past seven-to-10 years or so, we have reduced family homelessness by about 60-percent. We’ve built, on average, 50 new permanent supportive housing units a year through new construction and with Catholic Charities, Volunteers of America, SNAP and others. The housing authority is at the table with creative ways they we can connect homeless families and individuals with housing vouchers for long-term stability. And we’ve got some incredible pilots with Priority Spokane around preventing homelessness for school-aged children and their families. So I think we’re seeing a ton of success. It’s not always as highlighted or as visible as the people who are still in crisis but we’re moving the needle.”
She says the city-funded Family Promise shelter in the Perry District has helped to move about two dozen families off the streets into permanent housing so far this year.
Looking ahead, the city is watching closely the debate over the new federal budget, with an eye on proposed cuts to social service programs.
“But I think our biggest push right now is to really make sure that we’re targeting those subpopulations we know can be less visible," Kinder said.
"That includes a lot of young people, families, women, who don’t have as much shelter capacity in our community as men do. And then really getting out into the schools and other places where homeless families and individuals might present that are not going to be in the homeless system," Kinder said.
"We know we have a large population that does things like couch surfing," she said. "They’re certainly people who utilize the system. So how do we get better at counting those folks who have a safe place to be tonight, but not tomorrow. And so our committees and our Continuum of Care board are working really hard to process how do we continue to improve this. The Point-in-Time count is an ever-evolving effort.”
Dawn Kinder directs the city of Spokane’s Department of Community, Housing and Human Services. The next Point-in-Time count will be done next January.