Moses Lake extends sleep center lease

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake City Council was all set at its regular meeting on Tuesday to vote on a new site for the city’s homeless sleep center when the owner of the current site at S.R. 17 and E. Broadway offered to extend the city’s lease on the site.

Kevin Richards, president of Western Pacific Engineering and owner of the 1.52-acre site of the city’s homeless sleep center, said he was always willing to renew the city’s lease on the land for at least one year. He said he hadn’t heard back from the city on the issue when he brought it up.

“I offered a second year,” Richards said. “Nobody reached out to me.”

The council voted unanimously to extend the lease for a year and to further consider Richards’ offers for the construction of a permanent building at the site. Such a facility would help serve its homeless population while at the same time allowing police to enforce city ordinances against camping or sleeping on public property.

The talks would also involve HopeSource, a Central Washington-based social services organization that helps the homeless in Moses Lake, Wenatchee, Ellensburg and Cle Elum, about the most appropriate way of providing assistance.

“Let’s not rush into an extended lease,” said Mayor Don Myers. “Let’s talk with HopeSource and see what we need.”

The City Council budgeted $1.4 million this year to purchase a permanent site for the city’s homeless sleep center, a collection of 35 sheds for individual sleeping along with temporary toilet and shower facilities and space for storage and offices for staff. The council was evaluating three parcels as potential homes for a permanent sleep center — the current site, the building housing the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District at 932 E. Wheeler Road, and the site of the planned new Moses Lake Police Department building on N. Central Drive across from Lauzier Park.

Consultants hired by the city to study the matter advised the council the best plan was to purchase the MLIRD site, according to Community Development Director Kristen Sackett. The council appeared ready to do that until Richards spoke up and said he is willing to do whatever the city needs in order to keep the sleep center open.

“I have a huge heart for the homeless, as that’s my faith. I want to do right by them,” Richards said. “I’m community-driven and very faith-based. … I’m willing to do what needs to be done.”

The city developed the sleep center in response to a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in April 2019 stating that cities could not arrest homeless people for sleeping or camping in public if the city did not have enough shelter beds or sleep spaces for that population.

“We need the sleep center in order to enforce our camping ordinances,” said MLPD Chief Kevin Fuhr.

“We don’t want our parks full of homeless people,” said Deputy Mayor Deanna Martinez.

However, a number of area residents told the council during the meeting that funding the sleep center without providing services to help homeless people get jobs, kick drug habits and find permanent housing would only encourage reckless lifestyles

Moses Lake dentist Kasey Coulson told council members about a family member who, from the age of 14, became addicted to drugs, and was only able to get clean and eventually stay clean because he was arrested and jailed twice. Coulson said as a result, he concluded that what his family member needed was tough love that made kicking the habit a priority.

“He had to have something that made it difficult, hard enough that he had to change his life,” Coulson said. “If I was to make the decisions, I would allocate lower amounts of money for housing and higher amounts for mental health help and substance abuse programs.”

It was a sentiment several council members supported, with Council Member Dustin Swartz noting the feasibility study prepared by the consultant seemed to support increasing the kinds of services the city should provide its homeless residents, and that the consultant limited interviews with the homeless themselves and those providing services to the homeless.

“They did not include any of your voices,” Swartz told those attending the council meeting.

In a study session prior to the regular meeting, Fuhr outlined the current situation with RVs parked on city streets. Under a Washington State Supreme Court ruling from August 2021, impounding vehicles like RVs that are lived in violates the state’s Homestead act. That law is designed to prevent people from becoming homeless by ensuring that a property used as a primary residence cannot be seized for collection of a debt.

“You can tell if someone is living there,” Fuhr said. “We don’t want to take someone’s home.”

Fuhr said there are 11 RVs parked on public streets in Moses Lake and considered residences, including seven along N. Central Drive not far from the proposed site of the new police station. Fuhr said the city has a right to tow those vehicles, but only to a safe parking lot, and not to impound vehicles used as residences.

“There aren’t a lot but they are in visible spots,” Fuhr said.

Richards told the council that the city has an easement between the sleep center site and the Cenex service station lot that would work as a parking lot for residential RVs, a fact confirmed by the county parcel map maintained by the Grant County Assessor.

“It’s additional space if you were to make the most of it,” Richards said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.