SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane Police Department is turning West Central nuisance homes abandoned for more than two years into affordable housing.
The five properties are located in the Grove Community, according to police spokesperson John O’Brien.
“This truly is an exceptional win for the community as we will now be able to return five blighted and abandoned properties to productive use,” O’Brien said.
The negotiated agreement allows the police department to rehabilitate the properties rather than spending city resources to enforce a demolition order, O’Brien said. It is also the first time the police department has used receivership to create affordable housing.
“This was not a fast process and the work is not yet done, but we are optimistic that these five properties will soon be safe and affordable housing in West Central,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien said the project was supported by the department’s Civil Enforcement Unit, Code Enforcement, City Council member Karen Stratton, and community members and advocates.
In February, the Spokane Police Department filed a lawsuit in Spokane County Superior Court to stop drug activity at a home in Spokane’s West Central neighborhood.
The lawsuit came after nearly fifty calls for service to the home in a year.
Other nuisance homes in Spokane
In April 2017, KREM reported on a nusiance home in North Spokane that was boarded up after 20 years of problems. Police said they received 151 calls about the home in two years. A court ruled it a chronic drug nuisance home, so the city could take action.
Another chronic drug nuisance home in East Spokane was boarded up in December 2017. There were about 50 total complaints in about a year.
City officials said in a release that the negative activity in and around the home was having a “devastating impact on the community.”