After months of infighting over what to do about a small but growing unsheltered homeless population, Burien’s City Council approved a new ordinance allowing criminal penalties for people who camp on public property overnight.
But questions remain over the new ordinance’s legality and whether Burien will be able to enforce it.
Ordinance No. 818, titled “Unlawful Public Camping,” passed in a 4-3 vote during Monday’s regular City Council meeting. Under the new measure, a person can be convicted of “unlawful public camping” if they are living or sleeping on public property between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. This replaces a previous city ordinance that prohibited camping only in city parks.
People found in violation can now be charged with a criminal misdemeanor. The measure will take effect Nov. 1.
Before the vote, three council members made one final attempt to sway the majority, saying this ordinance will not solve the problems they face.
“We need shelters. We need more mental health care. We need places for people to live,” Councilmember Sarah Moore said. “But there is a gap in time when those things don’t exist and the people do, and during that gap, dispersing people is not going to solve the problem.”
Some council members who supported the measure partially agreed with Moore’s sentiment.
“Is it going to fix it? No,” Councilmember Jimmy Matta said of the ordinance in Monday’s meeting. “Is it going to be a patch? Maybe so. Is it going to bring us together? Probably not.”
Near the end of last year, a homeless encampment formed outside Burien’s Library and City Hall. After months of debate, people living there were forced to leave, but much to several city leaders’ dismay, most people just picked up their tents and moved a block west to a patch of city land not considered a park.
Since that time, Burien has cleared the 40 to 50 people living outside in groups from at least two different places — including by leasing out city land where homeless campers lived. Today, most homeless campers have congregated on one remaining piece of public land — a roadway median where Ambaum Boulevard Southwest splits into 12th Avenue Southwest in north Burien.
As the encampment has grown, residents have complained of an increase in crime, including gunshots, break-ins and trespassing.
In order to implement the new overnight camping ban, Burien must follow tough regulations under Martin v. Boise, a 2018 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that says West Coast cities cannot enforce anti-camping laws if they do not have adequate alternatives of shelter or housing to offer people.
Burien currently has one family shelter that is consistently full and one shelter that can help up to nine women at a time. The city has no shelter for single adult men, who make up the majority of its unsheltered residents.
Already, some homelessness services leaders have come out against the ordinance.
“There’s a big deficit of understanding by some elected officials [in Burien] that [by] taking up legislation like this they think that it will give the impression that they are quote-unquote ‘doing something,’ ” said Alison Eisinger, executive director of the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness. And they are wrong because it’s always clear that they have done nothing that actually helps, shelters or houses people.”
King County said Tuesday that it needs time to review the new ordinance. The county contracts sheriff’s deputies to serve as Burien police and previously admonished the city for taking punitive steps toward people living on a city lot in downtown Burien, warning that it could run into legal trouble if city officials didn’t figure out adequate shelter options for people being removed.
“The county will be reviewing the legislation with our legal team to understand any potential impact to policies or procedures, and will be discussing next steps soon,” said Chase Gallagher, spokesperson for King County Executive Dow Constantine.
Burien contracts with the King County’s Sheriff’s Office to staff its city police, and many cities have interpreted Martin v. Boise to say that police officers would first have to confirm and secure a vacant shelter space for that person before forcing them to leave a camping spot.
Edmonds, which does not have any homeless shelters in its city limits, passed a similar ordinance last year. Instead, it relied on shelter in other parts of Snohomish County, up to 35 miles away, to meet requirements under Martin v. Boise. When passing its own camping prohibition, Mercer Island also committed to sending homeless residents by bus or taxi to shelter outside city limits.
Burien’s ordinance does not spell out any requirements for how to get people to available shelter, and it doesn’t spell out how far away shelters can be located.
Before Monday’s vote, city officials said they could not respond to The Seattle Times’ request for comment regarding how it plans to enforce this law.
Burien’s new ordinance strongly resembles Bellevue’s anti-homeless camping law, and it states in the ordinance that “the language in this anti-camping ordinance complies with the Martin v. Boise” decision.
Eric Tars disagrees.
“Saying it’s so doesn’t actually make it so,” said Tars, the senior policy director of the National Homelessness Law Center. “The city could well be setting itself up for future litigation.”
Meanwhile, the city of around 50,000 people has yet to agree on a $1 million offer by King County to create a sanctioned encampment in Burien. King County sent a formal letter to the city in June, offering $1 million and 35 tiny, individual shelter buildings, saying that in order to receive the money Burien first needed to identify a piece of property.
Despite months of debate and finger-pointing, Burien has yet to vote on a lot for the encampment. Some City Council members have complained that $1 million isn’t enough money.
“It’s a shame that King County isn’t offering more,” Burien Deputy Mayor Kevin Schilling said during the Sept. 18 City Council meeting.
Councilmember Hugo Garcia scolded the council during the same meeting for its inaction to set up a sanctioned encampment.
“This has been an option for us since May,” Garcia said, “and the majority in control of the council continue to stall and look at more options.”
The city of Burien typically votes twice on an ordinance before it takes effect. The “Unlawful Public Camping” ordinance received a 4-3 vote during the Sept. 18 City Council meeting before moving to this week’s final vote.
During both votes, Mayor Sofia Aragon, Councilmember Stephanie Mora, Schilling and Matta voted in favor. Councilmembers Cydney Moore, Sarah Moore and Garcia voted against the ordinance.