Good Morning Homeless Coalition Contacts,

While this email specifically applies to homelessness and "Sit & Lie" and "No Camping" ordinances in Spokane, as leaders of various networks & coalitions in Washington State I thought this might interest you. PLEASE feel free to respond with your thoughts or suggestions, and to forward this email to your contacts that might be interested.

Background
As you may know, I’m a documentary filmmaker in Spokane. I have worked among the homeless of our community for over 15 years. I’ve spent the past 18 months building a series of documentaries on homelessness and related issues in Spokane. The series title is “My Road Leads Home.” We have made 3 full-length (i.e., 1-hour) documentaries, one of which was featured at the Spokane International Film Festival this past March. All have been broadcast by Community-Minded Television (Comcast 14), and are currently posted for viewing on our documentary website at MyRoadLeadsHome.org.

“And Justice For Some” Documentary
We are currently in “pre-production” for our fourth full-length documentary, “And Justice For Some,” which will examine the intersection of homelessness and the criminal justice system. It will examine such issues as “Sit & Lie” and “No Camping” ordinances, the criminalizing of homelessness, the role of Community Court, and other related legal issues that impact the homeless community. We touched on the subject of justice and homelessness in our first documentary, “The Spokane Homeless Connect,” in a segment title “Sometimes It Takes A Warrant Fest.” Our new documentary will develop these themes more fully.

Spokane Homeless Coalition October Meeting On Sit & Lie
As a current advisor and former Media Liaison to the Spokane Homeless Coalition, I am assisting with planning for the October Coalition Zoom meeting which will also focus on these issues. The Coalition Leadership Team wants to help our 1,100 (+) Coalition partners to better understand the City of Spokane’s enforcement of "No Camping" and "Sit & Lie" ordinances and the clearing out homeless camps when the City has only 648 shelter beds (up from 634, due to UGM recently opening an additional 14 beds) against a known-and-counted homeless population of 1,559 (2020 Point In Time Count). In the recent Blake v. City of Grants Pass [Case No. 1:18-cv-01823-CL (D. Or. Jul. 22, 2020)] a Federal Court ruled against the City of Grants Pass and its enforcement of "No Camping" ordinances, citing in part the discrepancy between their annual Point In Time Count of individual's experiencing homelessness versus the number of available and qualified emergency shelter beds in the City. A similar discrepancy exists here in Spokane as well. Based on a 2020 PIT Count of 1,559, Spokane only has beds for 42% of the known-and-counted homeless in greater Spokane.

Two (2) Requests
Interviews. As City Council Members, I am interested in talking with you, and any of your colleagues who are interested, about your professional encounters with the homeless, your perspectives on how our justice system treats people experiencing homelessness and poverty, what seems to be working and what doesn’t, and how we as a community could do better. PLEASE feel free to forward this email to your colleagues in City Government who you think would be interested in participating in this discussion. I would like to interview as many of you as possible, either in your office, or another appropriate location, or in the studios of Community-Minded Television (3rd & Browne downtown). Attached to this email you will see a working list of “Interview Questions For Consideration” that I would like you to reflect on and be prepared to discuss. I am also very interested in questions you might want to address which are not on this list. My goal for this documentary is to stimulate a genuine community discussion about a critical community issue that impacts not only our own community but communities all across America.

Access.  I am currently accompanying and filming outreach teams visiting homeless camps around Spokane. I plan to do more. As part of our documentary filming, in order to show viewers the reality of homelessness and homeless camping, I would like to accompany a PODs team on one or more outreaches to homeless camps. I want to get the perspective of the various participants. Yes, we would do appropriate filming and interviews with those interested in being part of this documentary project.

Thank you all for your service to our community. Please feel to reply to this email, or to call me directly at (509) 475-8797. Also, please feel free to circulate this email to your professional contacts in the Spokane City/County Law Enforcement and Justice Communities who you believe might have an interest in participating.