Spokane significantly toughened its laws regulating where and whether the homeless can sleep, sit or loiter in public, following a unanimous vote by the City Council on Monday.

The law, first introduced Friday, was fast-tracked under an emergency basis and takes effect immediately.

The new law is a tougher, broader alternative to the citizen initiative that outlawed camping near parks, schools and childcare facilities approved in 2023 and struck down by the state Supreme Court earlier this year – and that Mayor Lisa Brown and most members of the city council opposed two years ago.

“At some point, I started thinking to myself: what’s the catch?” Councilman Jonathan Bingle, who had for months unsuccessfully lobbied for stronger enforcement, said in a brief interview Monday. “Because it’s

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