(The Center Square) – A Washington Court of Appeals judge has rejected a nonprofit’s appeal to a December decision against its lawsuit regarding Spokane Proposition 1 banning camping within a certain distance of playgrounds, parks and school centers.
In its lawsuit, Jewels Helping Hands argued that the proposition, approved by 76% of Spokane voters, went beyond the scope of voter initiative and is reserved to the Spokane City Council.
The organization managed Camp Hope, a large homeless encampment on state land, until it was later dismantled. Under Proposition 1 – which bans camping within 1,000 ft. of certain locations – such a site would not be allowed to operate where it did.
In its Dec. 7 decision , the Court of Appeals concluded that “the initiative here is a classic vagrancy ordinance, which is an exercise of the city’s general police powers.”
The lawsuit initially was able to get an emergency injunction keeping the initiative off the November ballot, but that decision was later reversed.