Moses Lake approves homeless camp at former lumber yard

By EMRY DINMAN

Staff Writer

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake City Council voted 6-1 Tuesday to move forward with a one-year lease on the southeast corner of East Broadway Avenue and state Route 17 for the development of a managed homeless camp.

The site, a former Penhallurick’s lumber yard, will contain 20 “tiny house” portable units, surrounded with a “view-obscuring fence” with lighting and security services, according to city officials. Those staying at the site will only be allowed access from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and will be expected to leave each morning.

The site will be temporary, to the consternation of some council members, and the originally imagined three-year lease was shortened to one year after negotiations with the property owner. City Manager Allison Williams said that, ideally, the site would be operated for 18 months, providing services for two winters, but that it wasn't clear this would be possible.

There are currently no plans for a permanent site, according to city officials.

“We do see this, unfortunately, as shorter-term than what we had originally wanted, but we do need to do something,” council member Dean Hankins said. “We can go another winter and not get anything done, we can go another year and not get anything done, and it goes on and on and on. We need to get started with something.”

The site, initially paid for primarily with funds specific to homelessness made available by state and federal agencies due to the pandemic, does not currently call for any additional costs to area taxpayers. While it may later serve as very short-term shelter, during the pandemic it will provide longer-term housing and potential quarantining of homeless people who may be exposed to the coronavirus, Williams said in a recent interview.

At Tuesday’s city council meeting, city staff told council members that centralizing the homeless population will provide an opportunity to clean up informal, dispersed camps throughout the community. Once centralized, officials said that it will be more efficient to process individuals through other, preexisting services that can help transition them into permanent housing.

“Our homeless population has spread through many areas throughout Moses Lake, that’s become a public health concern, nuisance,” said Taylor Burton, the newly hired Housing and Grants Coordinator, who will be managing the city’s housing and homeless programs.

“The opportunity to have it all centrally located in this location, it does give us the opportunity to really get a handle on the issues that we’re seeing on the homeless population and the city right now,” Burton added. “Ultimately our goal is to transition our homeless population into stable housing.”

Several people whose business are located near the proposed site spoke at the Tuesday council meeting to voice their opposition and to dispute statements from city officials and council members claiming that business owners had been notified well in advance of the meeting.

“We just found out about this a few days ago, we hadn’t been contacted by anybody,” said Edie Cole of Cost Less Carpet of Moses Lake.

Cole and others expressed concern about potential hits to their property values, as well as potential vandalism or property crimes. Cole also questioned whether the intersection of a highway and East Broadway Avenue would be too visible, which she said could make the area less appealing to people driving through.

“You mentioned you want it to look good,” Cole said. “I don’t think a homeless shelter off Broadway and 17 is going to look good. It’s a very visible location.”

Council member Karen Liebrecht, who was the sole no vote on Tuesday’s proposal, criticized the optimistic language being used by other council members.

“As much as we want to say this is a good example of a camp, we don’t know that,” Liebrecht said. “We’re going into this not knowing the future. I don’t think we can just blindly pretend that’s not happening.”

Liebrecht was also the sole no vote on a previous proposal to develop the site in the Longview Tracts residential area. Echoing her statements from that earlier vote, Liebrecht stated that there was no perfect spot for the camp and said she had previously preferred to locate the site at Civic Park next to city hall.

However, she noted that site would also affect nearby business owners.

“There is no good spot,” Liebrecht said. “I don’t have a solution tonight. I wish I did, but I don’t.”

While other council members also acknowledged that there could potentially be issues with the site, they were not swayed to vote against the proposal.

“There is no good place, there is no perfect solution,” Hankins said. “This is one of the best sites in this community that we’ve found, and we need to move with this; we need to do something. Winter is coming.”