Many Vancouver residents have long considered homelessness to be an emergency in our community. As the city government officially makes such a declaration, the question is whether or not it will make a difference.
City Manager Eric Holmes has declared a civil emergency in response to growing homelessness, spurred by reports of rising criminal activity and drug use in camps, along with general disinterest among the unhoused population in seeking help. The Vancouver City Council unanimously ratified the declaration Monday night.
In a staff report, Jamie Spinelli, the city’s homeless response coordinator, outlined reasons for a lack of interest in assistance among homeless people: “The impacts of the pandemic, passing of the Blake decision, and shift to much more widespread fentanyl usage seem to have created a perfect storm, which has effectively changed the landscape regarding unsheltered homelessness — what it looks like, what it responds to, and how it impacts the entire community.”
Holmes said: “Collectively the convergence of those trends and the swiftness with which they have emerged in Vancouver are what underpin and, what I believe, warrant the declaration of emergency.”
The Blake decision was a 2021 state Supreme Court ruling that struck down Washington’s drug possession laws. The decision essentially legalized possession of all drugs; the Legislature has taken steps to rectify that loophole, but more work is required.
That reflects the complexity of dealing with the crisis, but it leads us back to the underlying question: Will an emergency declaration make a difference? Performative governance that is not backed by sincere action can be useless.
The emergency order allows the city manager to access additional funds and resources to deal with the crisis. It also allows for the designation of up to 48 acres of public property and rights-of-way as closed to camping; the building of a 150-bed “bridge shelter”; and the updating of police response to homelessness.
Additional shelter beds might be the most important part of the plan. While critics often call for the removal of encampments in public spaces, simply telling unhoused people to go elsewhere does not solve the problem if there is not a viable alternative.
Federal courts have ruled that cities may not prohibit camping if there is a shortage of shelter beds. An emergency declaration can provide city officials with a temporary path around those rulings, but it does not provide a long-term solution.
One informative aspect of the debate is a survey by the city’s Homelessness Assistance and Resource Team. Interviews with unsheltered people found that 48 percent became homeless outside of Vancouver; and 64 percent of those not from Vancouver have been here for one year or less.
Previous surveys here and elsewhere have shown that homeless people typically remain near where they lost housing. But the updated information indicates that unhoused people now are drawn to areas where services are plentiful and attitudes are permissive.
An end to such permissiveness is the first step to enhancing safety and quality of life for both housed and unhoused residents. But it will be effective only if city officials aggressively make use of the emergency declaration and diligently work to increase shelter beds and treatment services.
As the declaration notes: “Homelessness has threatened and continues to threaten the lives of residents of the city of Vancouver, and the real property occupied by those experiencing unsheltered homelessness.”
