(The Center Square) – Nothing was settled at a recent Burien City Council meeting regarding a proposed camping ban on public property as the city struggles to address homeless encampments.
Ordinance 818 is modeled on the Bellevue’s similar anti-camping law that does not criminalize people resting, sleeping, or lying down on public property if there are no shelter beds or spaces available. Instead, it authorizes the city manager to set reasonable place and manner restrictions on resting, sleeping or lying down on public property.
At Monday’s meeting, Councilmember Stephanie Mora moved to suspend council rules and orders and adopt Ordinance 818 without the inclusion of a section that would make the ordinance go into effect on Oct. 1.
“We are not criminalizing being homeless, we are criminalizing criminal activity,” she said. “Right now we have a lot of tents throughout the city – these people are breaking into our houses [and] they’re breaking into our cars.”
Mora added that the ordinance would make it so that tents would only be allowed during the nighttime and not during the day in the hope that this would reduce drug activity taking place in the encampments.
Ultimately, Mora’s motion did not pass.
The King County Regional Homelessness Authority penned a letter to the Burien leaders strongly opposing the proposed ordinance, mentioning the city only has two emergency shelters that are reserved for women and families with children, one transitional housing program for military veterans and one upcoming supportive housing project.
“If the experience of homelessness becomes criminalized, even if well-intentioned, the consequences may cost additional taxpayer dollars while also extending the issues around unsheltered homelessness,” King County Regional Homelessness Authority Intergovernmental Relations Manager Nigel Herbig wrote in the letter.
“Anti-camping ordinances do not solve homelessness; instead they continue the cycle of displacing people without providing any safe or stable alternative place to live,” the letter continued
Councilmember Cydney Moore expressed her opposition to the ordinance by noting it did not contain a financial statement, adding it’s important to know if there is a cost to implementing a new law that could send people to jail.
Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon said staff limitations preclude timely research on the financial impact of the ordinance.
Councilmember Hugo Garcia also indicated his opposition to Ordinance 818.
Herbig wrote in KCRHA’s letter to the city that criminalizing camping on city property is expensive because of increased policing and jailing costs, adding that homeless people do not have the resources to pay fines.
The Burien City Council will discuss Ordinance 818 at a later date.
