Erin Seller's reads their latest story on varying responses to downtown Spokane homelessness.

00 AM crisis walks will continue until conditions improve every morning.

2

Gavin Cooley of the Spokane Business

Association leads an hour long

3

walk as part of a campaign to end

visible homelessness downtown.

4

Is it effective?

5

Opinions vary.

6

At 5:00 AM every morning, Gavin Cooley

meets a group of concerned citizens

7

outside City Hall ready to lead them

through the dangers of downtown Spokane.

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He's somewhere between a college tour

guide and a Safari expedition leader.

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He's energetic and knowledgeable of

the history of the area, feeding his

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participants nuggets of lore about his

experience working with city government

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as they move through Riverfront Park.

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But when it comes time for the riskier

leg of the tour, braving the viaducts that

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pass under the elevated railroad tracks.

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Downtown Cooley confidently takes

the lead speed walking past the few

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unhoused, people sheltering under

the Bridges without Cooley's group.

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Some of the participants say they would

never feel safe enough to make the trek.

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I used to be able to go walk

around at lunch anywhere downtown.

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I won't, and I can't now.

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Said Julie DCUs, one of the regular

participants in Cooley's Walks.

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I have to have my husband with me

and he won't let me go by myself.

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The group only saw about a dozen homeless

people this Tuesday huddled around

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the viaduct for warmth or sleeping

on the stoops of closed businesses.

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Though sometimes there's more adrenaline.

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Usually it's from a safe distance.

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Last Friday, Cooley's Group saw an

assumed drug dealer with a giant

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gallon bag of Fentanyl pills.

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They say, though, once a

participant felt ill because

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they got too close to fentanyl.

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Smoke Cooley wrote in an email and

on this morning they saw evidence of

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more danger, an unregulated trash fire

under the viaduct and a broken car

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window outside the RID Path apartments.

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To his credit, Cooley always returns

the tour groups safely to city Hall

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where they circle up and share how

they're processing the experience and

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how their perspective has changed.

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This is part of action and seeing

firsthand because everyone says,

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oh, there's open drug use, or,

oh, there's people buying drugs.

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Derek, tis another frequent walker said

at the end of Tuesday's, walk until

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you're out here and you see it, you don't

actually really see what the crisis is.

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Okay.

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Afterwards, Cooley marks their

tour with a postcard home, an email

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blast to the audience following

along from their computers.

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Each email includes a smiling selfie

of the group and sometimes photos

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of people in distress sleeping

outside in the cold, sheltering

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under bridges with their belongings

piled next to them smoking fentanyl.

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The experience is eyeopening for Cooley

and a lot of the people who join him, I

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didn't know what I know this week because

we're seeing new things all the time.

47

He said.

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But for the unhoused people,

the walkers encounter, they

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might see something different.

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A group of warmly dressed people bundled

safely in their winter layers, speed

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walking past and looking straight

ahead or at the ground while talking

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in hushed voices about the homeless,

the drug addicts the problem, and

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they're gone off to finish their

loop and head back to their lives.

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But to Cooley, the walk isn't

about sightseeing at all.

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It's about exerting pressure.

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Cooley works for the Spokane Business

Association, a business interest advocacy

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group formed in 2024 by Larry Stone, one

of the city's largest conservative donors.

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Cooley served as the CEO for SBA for

almost a year, but announced he was

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moving into a new role as a director of

strategic initiatives earlier this week.

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The 5:00 AM walks and the emails Cooley

sends out after them are two primary

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tactics of Cooley's main strategic

initiative for SBA completely eliminating

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visible homelessness downtown.

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Cooley had been sending out emails to

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and 4,500 readers on LinkedIn since early

January, drawing attention to what he

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characterized as the city's failure to

treat the opioid epidemic and downtown

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homelessness as a real emergency.

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But the walks didn't start

until the middle of February.

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The idea for these walks

originated in a February 6th email.

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Were Cooley hypothesized about

what it would look like to reverse

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engineer success when it comes

to eliminating homelessness.

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If the mayor led her cabinet in a

forced march through downtown every

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morning at 4:00 AM until they could

complete that mile without seeing

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a single person sleeping on the

streets or struggling with addiction.

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Cooley wrote, exhausted and desperate

city leaders would finally move with

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urgency and collaborate both across

departments within the city and

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with other jurisdictions like the

conservative leaders of Spokane County.

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A week later, Barry Barfield,

administrator of the Spokane Homeless

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Coalition pitched his own version of

the Hypothetical, A Mile Long 5:00 AM

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Crusade from City Hall to the county

commissioner's offices with the goal of

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getting community and elected leaders

to quote, see the worsening crisis of

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homelessness, drug overdoses, and public

safety as the regional crisis that it is.

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Okay, Cooley quickly joined forces

with Barfield, sending the details

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out to the listserv with the promise

that the next day they'd start at the

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county commissioner's offices and walk

a loop that ended at City Hall aiming

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to put equal pressure on both the

city and the county to pool resources

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and collaborate on a real solution

to visible homelessness downtown.

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We will continue until

we see real progress.

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Cooley wrote when his group can

walk a mile downtown and not see

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a single person sleeping on the

streets or publicly using drugs.

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The walks will end.

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It will mean they've succeeded.

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Cooley told Range.

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The walks began on February 17th and

have continued every morning since.

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Range and local street photographer

Ben Tobin joined Cooley

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Barfield and four other people.

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The morning of March 11th, the group

encountered about a dozen unhoused people

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and didn't see the first person until they

were 37 minutes into the hour long walk.

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But Cooley doesn't take that as a

sign their succeeding because they

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haven't gotten any engagement from

Mayor Lisa Brown, who faces the vast

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majority of criticism from Cooley,

both during the walk, his emails,

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and in a subsequent interview.

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Cooley's position is that unless Brown

sets a zero tolerance policy for downtown

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homelessness, or make the more progressive

values, friendly commitment, that we will

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not abandon another person to being on

the streets or sidewalks going forward.

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Nothing will get better.

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For people like Julie DCUs, her

husband George, who also works for

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Larry Stone and Derek Boi Otis, who

frequently joined Cooley and Barfield

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on the early morning walks, the goal

seems to revolve more around wanting

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the mayor and other politicians to

look straight at the crisis and get an

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understanding of what homelessness and

drug use really look like in downtown.

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Come out at five in the morning, walk it

and see for yourself truly how bad it is.

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Ba Yotis said.

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It's no secret that Spokane is in

the midst of a two-headed crisis.

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Epidemics of homelessness

and opioid abuse.

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Sometimes the two affect the same person,

especially in the population of people who

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live visibly unsheltered lives downtown.

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Although both city leaders and

advocates caution against assuming

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that solving someone's addiction will

solve their homelessness or vice versa.

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Brown highlighted the individualized

needs and circumstances of each

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unhoused person and the large

amount of unseen homelessness, like

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couch surfing and sleeping in cars.

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Council member Paul Dillon pointed to

recent statistics from the Spokane Fire

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Department showing that during February,

overdoses on the street accounted for

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about 41% of all overdoses in the city.

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Overdoses within a home were roughly

equal, making up about 40% of the total.

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Even Cooley agrees to an extent

you cannot conflate mental health

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issues and drug addiction with

homelessness at all, he said.

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But in terms of downtown, you actually

can, and I think we would all agree,

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and I've never had anybody disagree

that probably 100% of the people we're

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seeing sleeping on the streets of

downtown Spokane have some level of

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mental health or drug addiction issues.

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Other cities have reported their

opioid epidemics around the wane.

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Spokanes is getting worse.

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While one of the walkers

described the city's approach to

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homelessness as all talk, no action.

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In contrast to the walks, which

are a form of action, progressive

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politicians feel it's the opposite.

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What are they really doing about

the crisis besides just go gaw

139

at people and take pictures.

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Council member Lily Navarrete said at

a council committee meeting on Monday,

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March 10th, what are they doing to help?

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Are they all getting together

and putting money together?

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Are they putting their

money where their mouth is?

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Council President Betsy Wilkerson's

impression of Cooley's Group was

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that they just quote, walk to

look on the walk that you went on.

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Nicolette was any help offered?

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She asked the council's manager of

housing and homelessness initiatives,

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Nicolette Ogletree, who went on

the walks for five days in a row.

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Were there any pamphlets of,

here's a list of services.

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Call these numbers.

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Dylan took issue with the emails

Cooley sent each morning, which

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sometimes included pictures

of unhoused people's faces.

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Is there ever like a conversation

around the ethics of taking photos

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of people without their consent?

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He asked Oaktree.

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Mary Lisa Brown gives similar criticisms

in her interview with Range Cooley's

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walk isn't helping make anything

better, it's reinforcing a negative

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self-fulfilling prophecy about downtown.

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And the story he's telling is biased

against her in the city, she said.

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He is a very specific employer

with a very specific agenda.

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Brown said at this point, I don't think

he's telling a neutral or objective story.

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He's leaving a lot of pieces out of

it because if he were to give credit

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in an unbiased way, it might not

reflect the agenda of his employer.

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Al Tree herself expressed

complicated feelings about the walks.

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She'd learned things.

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She said The parks and bridges have gotten

a lot cleaner, but open drug use in the

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viaduct was worse than she expected.

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Al Tree said one major positive,

was seeing a moment of empathy

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from one of the other walkers.

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One woman said, if my toes

are cold, her toes are cold.

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If my toes hands are

cold, her hands are cold.

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But there were also things that

she felt really uncomfortable with.

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As someone who had been homeless

before in her life, Ree said that

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the photography without consent

was a real pain point for her.

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These people who were experiencing

homelessness on the streets, it's not

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as though they're animals in a zoo.

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She said that wasn't

the only issue she had.

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There was one gentleman who seemed like

he wanted to see somebody suffering.

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Ree said.

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She described another person as

unnecessarily aggressive towards an

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unhoused person that they saw the

day after she presented to council.

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Ogletree joined the walk for a

sixth time, the same day as range.

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On that morning, she brought meat

and cheese snack packs to hand out

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to the people they encountered.

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Despite seeing only about a dozen people,

all her snacks were gone by the end of

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the walk, as was her half drink, Perrier,

which she offered to a man who was

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thirsty and which he gladly accepted.

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Ree, the city employee was the

only person who engaged with the

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people they passed as they walked.

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The walks have been characterized

as voyeuristic by critics,

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including council members.

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When Cooley hears his project

characterized that way, it

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invokes an emotional response.

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While he's on the walks, Cooley said he's

thinking about one of his children who has

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struggled with PTSD and addiction issues.

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I used to have nightmares thinking,

I'm going to see my child in one

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of those settings, Cooley said.

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I'm afraid of seeing their face.

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There's no voyeurism in the walk,

but he also wrestled with some of

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the inherent contradictions wrapped

up in the concept of the walks.

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I try not to look at people's

faces when I'm walking by.

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I feel like it's a little, almost

condescending to say good morning,

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and I always do when I walk by the

people, but it doesn't feel like

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a good morning to these folks.

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Cooley said.

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And I don't know how you strike a

non voyeuristic on a walk like that

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when you're walking around with a

group of people at 5:00 AM I frankly

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try to move through as quickly as

possible and not really linger.

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He added that everyone has their own

reasons for being there, but emphasized

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that ultimately, no, I don't think

there's anything voyeuristic about it at

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all, because I go home greatly saddened.

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Conservative council members also took

issue with any comparison to voyeurism.

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Council member Jonathan Bingle, who went

on the first of the crisis walks, said

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it wasn't just people there to gawk and

make fun of or ridicule or whatever.

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And so I don't like that being

said about that group either.

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Whether or not the walks are

voyeurism, they certainly aren't

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service or outreach oriented.

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The morning we joined Ogletree handed

out those two dozen snack packs

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that she bought with her own money.

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In stark contrast was an email Cooley

sent out a month earlier where he

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profusely thanked local business,

David's Pizza, who had donated

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breakfast pizza to the walk-in group.

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None of that pizza was shared

with the unhoused people the

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group encountered that morning.

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On the question of the ethics of

photographing someone sleeping on the

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streets, council member Michael Kakar

appealed to the legality of the practice

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saying Photos taken without consent in

public are perfectly legal because there's

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no expectation of privacy on the streets.

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He compared it to photos snap

by automated cameras when people

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break the law and run red lights.

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Still.

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This week, Cooley took the criticism

about the photography to heart.

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After hearing condemnation from both

council members and from his own sister

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who is a service provider, he resolved

to no longer send out pictures that

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include the faces of people on the

streets, but still quote, capture the

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devastation and suffering to some degree.

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But Mary Lisa Brown says she

doesn't need photos or a 5:00 AM

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walk to know how bad things are.

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It was one of the defining issues of

her campaign, and now she estimates she

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spends 25% to a third of her time working

on housing and homelessness issues.

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Brown points to the seven

scatter site shelters.

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Her administration has opened

with two more on the way.

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Also moving the city away from

a congregate shelter model to a

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navigation center model that's

statistically more effective.

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She says she makes a point to

get firsthand knowledge of the

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crisis happening in her city by

walking or biking most places.

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She goes downtown at all

hours noting what she sees.

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She participated in the point in time

count this winter, joining volunteers

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scouring the streets to talk to unhoused

people, and joining Barfield on what

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he calls an urban plunge, a guided trip

to homeless encampments where she spoke

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with people living on the streets.

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We just didn't feel the need

to post pictures about it.

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City Spokesperson Erin Hutt added

Brown says she has mobilized her state

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connections to maximize the amount

of dollars flowing into the city

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for housing and homelessness issues.

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She's activated 50 90 funds, which

come from a sales tax within the city,

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and previously sat untouched to pay

for inclement weather, sheltering and

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affordable housing developments, and

gotten creative with the city's budget

259

deficit and aggressive with ongoing

contracts, taking back millions in

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unused funds and successfully getting

the city out of its black hole lease

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with the Trent Shelter, A building

owned by Cooley's Boss, Larry Stone.

262

Some of her tactics are more conservative.

263

Under brown enforcement of laws on the

books that are intrinsically tied to

264

homelessness, like unlawful camping

and pedestrian interference has spiked.

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Her administration is also using

city dollars to increase opioid

266

prosecution capacity, filling a gap

left by Trump's federal funding,

267

freezes overall crime is down.

268

Enforcement of crime is up.

269

On the housing supply side, brown points

to her work with council to roll back

270

development restrictions in city code

and increase density limits downtown.

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None of that's enough for Cooley and SBA.

272

She could open 50 more scatter site

shelters and it wouldn't be enough.

273

Cooley said he thinks that expanding

shelter capacity might actually

274

worsen the problem doubling the

amount of unhoused people downtown

275

because the approach wouldn't have

started with a zero tolerance policy.

276

If Brown doesn't start with the goal

of zero tolerance for visible unhoused

277

people in downtown and work backwards

from that, Cooley said, whatever

278

she does won't work, quote, she'll

never find a way to quite say no.

279

She'll always see someone on the street

and think, how can we help this person?

280

Cooley said, without that zero

tolerance policy and a large scale

281

collaboration with the county,

specifically with County Commissioner

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Al French, she's doomed to fail Cooley.

283

Thanks.

284

And that's the twofold

goal of Cooley's Walks.

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Get Brown to agree that any number of

visibly homeless people downtown is

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too many, and get her to sit down with

French and coordinate the city and the

287

county's responses to the emergency.

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None of this is political.

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Cooley writes repeatedly in his

emails, one of his subject lines.

290

This isn't about politics.

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It's about saving lives

and fixing what's broken.

292

Brown thinks that's laughable.

293

Cooley has an employer with a very

specific agenda, and they've made it very

294

clear that if the city's not doing what

they want, they're going to apply tactics

295

of pressure to try to bring that about.

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She said it wouldn't be the first

time Cooley and SBA tried to bully

297

Brown into bending to their will.

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She added last year when Brown ran a

public safety sales tax on the ballot,

299

SBA initially endorsed the tax encouraging

members to vote in favor of it to increase

300

public safety downtown, but behind closed

doors, the conversation was different.

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Cooley came to me after the SBA said

they would support the community

302

safety initiative and said they would

withdraw that support if I didn't change

303

where we were planning to allocate

those resources that we shouldn't be

304

spending money on Fire and Fire Capital

and neighborhood resource officers.

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Brown said they wanted me to publicly

announce I was going to change

306

the allocation of those resources.

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Cooley described it more as a running

conversation, but admitted to expressing

308

a lot of frustration with Brown's

plan for how to allocate the funding.

309

Pulling our support was

definitely on the table.

310

Cooley wrote in a text to range.

311

We felt and still do feel

that the promises made were

312

not held up in particular.

313

Much of the funding went to the fire

department, capital purchases that would

314

not have any impact for many years.

315

It's not just their history that makes

Brown leery of Cooley's assertion

316

that his efforts aren't political.

317

It's his ongoing email rhetoric

when they say it's not politics, but

318

then they always focus on the mayor.

319

I'm sorry, but that feels political to me.

320

Brown said, especially given what they

did during the campaign, which is to

321

spend a million dollars to try to make

sure I wasn't elected and easily the

322

most expensive mayors race in Spokane

history, then Mar Nadine Woodward and

323

her supporters, largely realtors and

developers, including Stone, almost

324

doubled up on Brown and her supporters

outspending them by just under $670,000.

325

While the initial premise was to

encourage collaboration between the

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two entities by alternating walk

destinations between Spokane City Hall

327

and the County Commissioner's office.

328

Since the first week, every walk has

left from and ended at City Hall Cooley's

329

emails have gotten more and more targeted

at Brown and the city of Spokane.

330

We read every single email

Cooley sent to his listserv

331

from January 1st to March 13th.

332

Cooley referenced Brown and the

city positively six times, and the

333

actions of the county positively.

334

13 times 14.

335

If you count a photo of Cooley and

his group smiling in front of a county

336

sheriff's car, he referenced Brown

in the city negatively 23 times,

337

and the county negatively once.

338

In one email, the subject line

read a Tale of Two Spokanes Beauty,

339

desperation, and the Barriers to

Meaningful Change, painting a picture

340

of recent county actions as positive

and city Action as supporting

341

policies and decisions that prioritize

political identity over real solutions.

342

He frequently criticized Brown's

leadership, comparing her unfavorably

343

to past male leaders of Spokane, like

Mayor Jim West and David Condon, and

344

to Houston Mayor Anise Parker, who

is frequently lauded for her handling

345

of her city's homelessness crisis.

346

True leadership means confronting the

problem, head-on, not avoiding it.

347

Cooley wrote in one email.

348

Cooley also alleged that Brown

wasn't enforcing anti camping

349

laws, though data shows otherwise.

350

With citation records presented this

month by Police Chief Kevin Hall showing

351

massive jumps in enforcement under Brown's

tenure influenced in part, he said by the

352

2024 Supreme Court ruling on the Grant's

Pass case in another email, Cooley blamed

353

Brown for the lack of collaboration

between the city and the county.

354

When a key member of our city's political

majority refuses to engage directly with

355

key members of the county's political

majority, it tears apart that tapestry,

356

leaving the different parts of the

system unable to properly interact

357

and solve the problems before us.

358

Cooley wrote a crisis response, requires

cooperation, not political entrenchment

359

or personality driven obstruction.

360

On the walk range.

361

Attended Cooley.

362

Told a story about a competition between

county commissioners Al French and

363

Josh Kerns, where they tried repeatedly

to get Brown to meet with them.

364

Whoever got a meeting scheduled

with her first would win.

365

Cooley said.

366

They both lost George DCUs.

367

One of the walkers chimed in Brown

said that was unequivocally false.

368

Her office has received one phone

call from Kerns asking to set up

369

an off-campus meeting between her

Kearns and French, but without staff.

370

She said she proposed an alternate meeting

where staff would be present to ensure

371

whatever came out of the conversations

were quote, accurately portrayed.

372

From French, there's been

radio silence and spokesperson.

373

Hutts at Brown's office had sent

French a slew of messages trying to

374

engage on a variety of topics that

have been unanswered ranges, waiting

375

on public records requests submitted

at both the city and the county to

376

confirm what communications between

the commissioners and Brown have been.

377

Brown contends that while French and

Kerns are avoiding her, she meets with

378

Mary cuny Republican Chair of the County

Commission monthly to discuss ways

379

the city and county can work together.

380

Brown says those meetings have resulted

in a number of regional collaborations

381

she considers successful like the opioid

overdose dashboard in partnership with

382

the Spokane Regional Health District,

A tool that was created after ranges

383

reporting on the lack of accessible

up-to-date data and joint federal

384

funding requests for things like opioid

prosecution and additional beds at the

385

county's crisis stabilization center.

386

Just today, brown and Wilkerson

announced a joint proposal

387

with the county to invest 1.5

388

million in behavioral health services

and treatment programs in our region.

389

None of that's good enough for Cooley.

390

Our current fragmented efforts

masquerading as a regional

391

approach are not working.

392

He wrote in his most recent email

on March 13th, Cooley says you

393

could consider his focus on a

collaborative regional approach.

394

His white whale referencing Moby

Dick, the whale who spoiler alert

395

kills the man pursuing him at the

end of her Melville's classic novel.

396

He says It's the reason he flipped from

longtime democratic donor and member of

397

Brown's transition team to public face

for a conservative business association.

398

It's the reason his emails largely

criticized Brown rather than the county.

399

It's the reason he's canceled vacations

with his wife so he can be at city hall

400

for the walk at 5:00 AM every morning.

401

If every municipal government and every

service provider could get in one room and

402

on the same page coordinating all their

money and resources to jointly address

403

issues of homelessness in the region,

Cooley assured they could solve it at

404

the end of Woodward's term, along with

two other former city hall administrators

405

to Teresa Sanders and Rick Romero.

406

Cooley had shepherded a proposal that

had the tentative backing in support

407

of eight local governments, the county,

the city, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake.

408

Millwood, airway Heights,

Cheney, and Medical Lake.

409

When Brown stepped into the mayorship,

Cooley was really optimistic.

410

The region was finally on the cusp

of that crucial collaboration.

411

With her experience working across

the aisle in state government.

412

Cooley says he thought she would be

the leader who could finally figure

413

out a way to work with the county

to coordinate their respective pools

414

of money, resources, and expertise.

415

As of now, the county receives

more funding for mental

416

health resources and controls.

417

The Spokane Regional Health District,

which runs one of the state's

418

largest publicly administered

opioid treatment programs.

419

Meanwhile, the city receives more funds

for shelter and affordable housing.

420

Cooley met with Brown monthly and

thought she was an ally in the

421

effort to form a regional homeless

authority until she wasn't anymore.

422

Brown ultimately pulled her support for

the regional efforts, citing concerns

423

with the proposed governance and financial

structure of the authority, which would've

424

left the city funding a large chunk of

the authorities activities while holding

425

only two seats on the 14 person board.

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For Cooley, it was a betrayal.

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The mayor, he'd backed with $150 of

his own money unilaterally killed

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the proposal he'd pinned all of his

hopes on after promising her support.

429

But to Brown, it was

a smart business move.

430

She inherited a city with a budget

deficit and wanted to shore that up

431

before handing the reins of any city

funding over to a brand new organization

432

and trusting a brand new and untested

regional entity looked risky to her.

433

The progressive city and the conservative

county have historically struggled to

434

work together or agree on equitable

distribution of resources, a relationship

435

that has only gotten more tense now

that Spokane has a Democrat mayor.

436

C, the county's refusal to

give Brown a say in the city's

437

representation on the SRHD board.

438

The city's breakup with the Spokane

Regional Emergency Communications over

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equitable funding concerns, constant

city versus county tensions on the

440

Spokane Transit Authority Board and

the recent end of the city and county's

441

collaborative behavioral health unit.

442

She's right, the county

should be criticized just as

443

much as her Cooley admitted.

444

But in his mind, brown single

handedly sank the regional homeless

445

authority, so she bears the majority

of the responsibility for what he

446

would qualify as real collaboration.

447

Despite Cooley's assertion that Brown

was the sole killer of the regional

448

homeless authority, the efforts had

actually fizzled and ground nearly to a

449

halt before Brown even won her election.

450

First service providers balked

at the plan's inclusion of

451

incarceration as a housing plan.

452

Then there were more sparks when providers

found out that Theresa Sanders, one of the

453

three architects of the regional homeless

authority, had close ties to stone.

454

The conservative donor owner of

the now closed t Trent Shelter

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and creator of the anti Homeless

Fearmongering video curing Spokane.

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Marie Smith, a longtime homeless advocate,

told the spokesman, we all know we need a

457

regional authority to consolidate things,

and we were also desperate for it, that

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we took it at face value without realizing

we were being handed a Trojan horse.

459

I.

460

A few weeks later and more than two

months before the election that brought

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Brown to office, the Spokane City Council

voted to pump the brakes on the regional

462

approach, asking for more data, more

transparency, and less reliance on jail.

463

Cooley hoped Brown would

revive the regional efforts.

464

Instead, she put the

final nail in its coffin.

465

Life has a way of coming full circle.

466

Accusations of Larry Stone's influence

and an over-reliance on jail.

467

Were a large part of what sank

the regional collaborative plan.

468

Now, Cooley works for stone at SBA,

which is a stated goal of building a

469

new jail and sends emails advocating

for involuntary commitment of unhoused

470

people to Geiger Correction Center.

471

Okay.

472

Prioritizing the civil rights of

individuals who are incapable of caring

473

for themselves over the preservation

of their lives and over the health

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and safety of our communities is

neither moral nor compassionate.

475

Cooley wrote in an email on

January 30th, there comes a

476

point at which we all forfeit our

freedoms based on our behaviors.

477

Cooley told range in defense of the email,

if I don't show up to work for a week,

478

I'm gonna forfeit my right to a job here.

479

That's just the harsh realities of life.

480

Since he sent the email, though,

he has shifted his stance a little.

481

Instead of pushing for the city to

illegally detain homeless people, he's

482

planning to refocus his advocacy at

the state level, asking them to change

483

laws to make it easier for cities

to invoke Washington's Involuntary

484

Treatment Act, also known as Ricky's Law.

485

For Brown, there are neither simple

silver bullets for collaboration

486

nor white whale solutions.

487

Just over the horizon, there's only

steady, careful data-driven work opening.

488

More scatter site shelters, increasing

affordable housing options by changing

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zoning and leveraging 1590 funds to

incentivize development and approaching

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people in need with individualized

solutions that have a higher success rate

491

than things like involuntary commitment,

which has a higher rate of recidivism.

492

Okay.

493

Would it be easier if the city

and county work together better?

494

Sure.

495

Brown said, commissioner French can call

me anytime he'd like and we can meet.

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Brown says a 5:00 AM walk just feels more

performative than what I'm looking for.