All Spokane citizens deserve a safe, affordable home. The lack of affordable housing exacerbates the homelessness challenge in Spokane. As your city council representative, I will employ a number of approaches to increase housing for families and individuals, while decreasing the number of unhoused within our city.
First, I will team with others in government to provide incentives such as tax breaks, and reduced building permit fees, while streamlining project development processes for developers who build affordable housing. I will help to carefully plan the placement of new affordable housing where it will benefit those in need while protecting public safety, and commercial development community interests.
Second, I will work with local agencies to provide assistance pathways for families struggling to pay rent due to temporary, and often unforeseen financial setbacks, such as medical bills, death of the primary wage earner, or job loss. I plan to enable a team approach with local agencies to better support Spokane families threatened with homelessness by increasing rental assistance availability, and expanding eligibility criteria ensuring more families access to programs that fill case-by-case gaps in housing stability.
Finally, Spokane’s economically vibrant, sustainable and diverse neighborhoods result from stable family and individual housing. Some individuals are unable to access permanent housing due to a lack of income or other factors. I will work with Spokane government and private organizations to develop and maintain outcome driven “wraparound” mental health, and job training services that help individuals transition out of homelessness and toward self-sustainability.
As your city council representative, I will support the several projects already in motion to assist Spokane’s homeless obtain housing. This includes ensuring that assistance programs that receive government funding for programs associated with housing and services for persons struggling with mental health issues and drug dependency, undertake extensive public engagement regarding plans that may impact the community.
