Maurice Smith

Welcome to Rising River Media, a non-profit Christian publishing and media company (that doubles as my personal Author's Page!). My name is Maurice Smith. I’m the Executive Director of Rising River Media and the author of several books on themes of Christian ministry and life. We’ve published around a dozen books over the past ten years.

I’m also the Executive Producer of My Road Leads Home a documentary series on homelessness. We began adding documentary filmmaking as our media component in 2019 and have produced 6 full-length documentaries and several documentary short films. You can find all our work on our YouTube Channel: My Road Leads Home

I’ve been working among the homeless and marginalized of Spokane for some 18 years. Recently, I spent the past ten months, from August of 2022 through June 2023, helping to manage and close Camp Hope, the largest homeless camp in the State of Washington. Located on right-of-way property owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation along I-90 in Spokane, Camp Hope became the “perfect storm” of 689 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Spokane with no place to exist. I’ve written a book about the Camp and my experiences as both a homeless services provider and documentary filmmaker. It's titled, "A Place To Exist: The True and Untold Story of Camp Hope and Homelessness in Spokane." A short overview of the book is available on our YouTube Channel: My Road Leads Home

The book is a treasure trove of lessons learned about policy failures that created Camp Hope and the practical steps needed to successfully close the Camp by moving the unsheltered homeless from chaos to cosmos and to personal shalom. The lessons learned and implemented at Camp Hope became a model for state and local officials working to successfully resolve homeless camps throughout the State of Washington, a model that includes:

● The “12 Steps” that move people from chaos to cosmos and shalom

● Individual personal assessments that reveal what residents need to move forward

● On-site services that eliminate barriers to success

● ID restoration as a priority to address a chronic issue among the unsheltered homeless

● Law enforcement as an ineffective primary tool of homeless policy

● Peer Navigators as our “secret weapons” to build trust and engage Camp residents with services

And much more . . .

Is homelessness - especially unsheltered homelessness and homeless camps - an issue in your community? A Place To Exist will help you better understand it and discover ways to meaningfully address it.