Cropped image of flyers Day 1 and 2. No specific date when Camp is “to be” or “set to be closed”.

 

Yesterday marked the second day of consecutive harassment from the Spokane Police, Spokane Valley Police, and the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. The Spokesman covered some of the errors on Day 1’s flyer including linking people to Matt Shea’s Church, “The address listed on the flyer for Compassionate Addiction Treatment, a peer-led day program for addiction recovery, was incorrect. While CAT is located at 168 S. Division St., the address provided was 112 E. First Ave., which is where Matt Shea’s church On Fire Ministries is located.” The Day 2 flyer is also confusing with the Trent shelter (TRAC) being newly named the Way-In Navigation Center. Both flyers are missing the vast amount of information the service tent at Camp Hope is able to provide.

 

 

The truth is, everyone living at Camp Hope is doing so with the legal consent of the landowner, and the dozens of service providers and community members who work there daily are innovatively helping the people there take steps towards healthier living conditions and lives.

While consistently portrayed by city and county government as a dangerous nuisance, it has actually been the site of innovative service provision, including mass ID drives, benefits assistance, continuous case management, family unification, and the on-site presence of organizations like Compassionate Addiction Treatment, Jewell’s Helping Hands, and Empire Health Foundation. In the absence of adequate shelter space, Camp Hope provides services and community. The critical work taking place there is a collaboration between the people who live there, service providers, the WA Department of Transportation, and the WA Commerce Department. The camp continues to reduce in size as people transition into better housing situations.

Spokane City Mayor Woodward and County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich should embrace the work of Camp Hope as a solution in progress instead of threatening a legal community and obstructing the process of relocation with political grandstanding.

 

How Can You Help?

Hear directly from people from camp hope and their testimonies. Check out the video series by My Road Leads Home. Check out the impressive articles from Range Media with their on-the-ground reporting.
Donate to Camp Hope, Compassionate Addiction Treatment (CAT), Mutual Aid Survival Squad (MASS), Yoyot Sp’q’n’i, and Burritos for the People, who donate goods directly to Camp Hope and our unhoused neighbors.

Testify at the Spokane City Council meetings. Your voice matters!

Range Article

Sign and share the petition

Videos

Range Articles

Testimonies

Petition

 

More Information from Maurice Smith Below:

“Flyers for the Homeless. For two days in a row, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, Spokane law enforcement (SPD and the Sheriff’s Department) sent a large contingent (2-dozen or more) of officers to Camp Hope for the ostensible purpose of handing out informational flyers about available services. Camp Staff offered to distribute the flyers but were told by the officers that they had to do it. Why some 2-dozen officers were needed to distribute flyers is a mystery until you understand that their true reason for gaining access to the camp was to engage in surveillance in preparation for something else. In my opinion, the flyers were an excuse, not a reason, for this exercise

…
We’re Already Doing That. At one point during Tuesday’s exercise, I confronted a group of officers and told them that all of the services offered on their flyer were things Camp staff and service providers had been working with the residents on for the past four months and that the very presence of Law Enforcement handing out the flyers represents an implicit declaration that no services have been offered to the residents prior to today. (Again, it’s important to remember that the purpose of the exercise was NOT to hand out flyers but to engage in surveillance of the camp).” – Maurice Smith

 

Day 2 video of officers enter Camp Hope:

WSDOT ARTICLE ON CAMP HOPE