SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. – City leaders in Spokane Valley are evaluating their approach to homelessness as a steady homeless population remains a concern in the Greater Spokane area. With this, Spokane Valley City Council reviewed the impact of the city’s Homeless Outreach Program Tuesday night to assess how effectively it is meeting community needs.
The council analyzed the efforts of the homeless outreach team throughout 2025, as well as ongoing homelessness trends within city limits.
According to an administration report on the city council’s agenda, the team contacted an average of 323 people each quarter, successfully placing 50 in permanent housing and 43 in shelters over the course of the calendar year. The report also shows the team visited 779 camps throughout the year, with 58 citations or arrests.
All those on council who spoke thanked the presenting members of the outreach team: Deputy Dan Spiewake of the Spokane Valley Sheriff’s Office and the city’s Housing and Homeless Coordinator Eric Robinson. However, council members’ reactions to their data varied.
“I’m a bit disappointed that in some ways this is almost the same presentation that we got last year,” said Al Merkel, a Spokane Valley City Council member.
Spokane Valley City Manager John Hohman replied, “I think it’s a miscategorization to say that [program members] haven’t made any progress on this. This is a very difficult subject matter.”
In response to Merkel’s comments, Spiewake and Robinson highlighted strides they say the program made last year. The pair noted that many popular public camping areas within city limits have been cleared, and emphasized that point-in-time counts are not an accurate indicator of the program’s progress.
Spiewake and Robinson added that their data shows success in securing permanent housing for dozens of individuals the program contacted in 2025.
The Homeless Outreach Program’s administration report also discusses challenges the city faces in combating homelessness, including rising evictions and changes in SNAP benefits.
Insufficient number of shelter beds in Spokane Valley, an ongoing topic of conversation among Spokane County leaders, were another point of note in that administration report.
In December, Erin Hut (a spokesperson for the City of Spokane) told NonStop Local a lack of shelter resources in Spokane Valley places extra strain on Spokane’s resources, especially during winter months when warming shelters are needed across the region.
In response, Jill Smith, a spokesperson for Spokane Valley confirmed the city does not have its own warming shelters, instead relying on resources from the County and neighboring cities.
“The City of Spokane Valley does not stand-up warming shelters during cold weather, but we work with in collaboration with our regional partners,” Smith wrote. “Spokane Valley is part of the Spokane County consortium, along with other small cities in the county, that pools our share of dedicated state and federal dollars for housing and homelessness efforts to execute a comprehensive homelessness program, including funding a portion of the shelter beds in the region.”
