Despite activity on various fronts by business, government, and nonprofit sectors, Spokane’s homeless population remains at 0.685% (1,559 individuals), nearly three times the national average of 0.2%.

Of those in Spokane, 485, or 31%, are experiencing chronic homelessness, as compared with the national average of 19%. This offers potential for a strong return on investment by focusing on a unified response to chronic homelessness with a coordinated plan to address all forms of homelessness. International and national data reflect cost-saving to cost-neutral returns when cities focus efforts on this subpopulation that accounts for highest costs.

Hello for Good is hosting a free symposium on Sept. 1 to engage in dialogue with a panel of national experts on this issue. Sign up at www.helloforgood.org.

Areas of growing concern for Spokane include safety for all, property destruction, lack of accountability in our systems, crime, and lack of leadership to take bold steps to address the issues—not to pander to them.

Lack of housing options is a significant contributor to homelessness in Spokane. The market for homes below $750,000 is nearly sold out. The median Spokane-area home price this year through July has increased 18.1% compared with the year-earlier period, according to Spokane Association of Realtors’ data.

Apartment rents continue to climb as well. To meet the recommendation of spending no more than 30% of one’s income on housing, a Spokanite will need to earn $31,800 to afford a one-bedroom unit, and $41,320 for a two-bedroom unit. Because 1 in 4 residents are at or below the poverty line, this becomes problematic.

The discrepancy between wages, housing costs, and housing selection are high barriers to overcome in any city. This imbalance will need to be addressed over a multiyear timeframe and will require input and participation by the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Identifying a key non-governmental stakeholder to help shepherd this process of creating more balance between income opportunities and housing costs across sectors might be valuable.

Enticing developers with tax credits and other housing solutions can support our community’s need for growth, revenue, social programs, and the opportunity for all to have a chance to change the stars.

Spokane is a beautiful city with a homelessness issue that deserves a robust plan of action. We have the partners, providers, and local leadership to do just that.

There is no single thing we can do to solve this challenging issue, but by combining existing resources and programs with new initiatives and streamlining and coordinating efforts, we can make significant progress over time. This means bolstering efforts that currently work, eliminating programs that don’t, and better engaging partners, providers, elected officials, and local business and neighborhood leadership to rally around proven solutions and best practices.

It takes political and community will—and compromise. Our efforts will suffer if we sacrifice good ideas in search of perfect solutions. We have ideas already in process that are proven to work, but we must be willing to be agile and pivot when adjustments need to be made. This is easy to say but hard to do. It’s not inexpensive, and won’t happen overnight, but our community is worth it.

Chris Patterson is the community solutions adviser for Washington Trust Bank.