In 2021, the Washington Legislature passed a law that attempted to stop cities from banning homelessness facilities.
Yet last month, Des Moines fined the city’s only existing homeless shelter and asked it to shut down. Earlier this year, Federal Way denied a permit for a fully funded shelter.
The South King County cities are using a caveat in the state law to fight efforts to add homelessness services. Some cities have passed codes that are more restrictive than before the state law because elected officials and residents think shelter and housing exacerbate the effects of the homelessness crisis in their neighborhoods.
One service provider said these actions are “de facto regulating shelter out of South King County,” where there already exists a dearth of options for people living on the street to move inside.
State lawmakers say they’re looking into whether these cities’ new zoning regulations are not only counterproductive, but illegal.
Shelter requested, then rejected
Last fall, homelessness nonprofit Catholic Community Services began pursuing a shelter in Federal Way after the city’s community services manager reached out with concerns that more people were sleeping outside the existing day center for homeless people than ever before.
More than 1,100 people were sleeping on the street in South King County as of the 2020 annual Point-in-Time Count, widely understood to be an underestimate. More than 5,600 people connected to homelessness services said they last resided in South King County.
Despite that, South King County only provides 529 of the region’s shelter beds, and the majority only admit families with children. The vast majority of homeless people in King County are single adults.
“There is extremely limited shelter and housing options for single adults in South King County,” said Dan Wise, director of homelessness services at Catholic Community Services.
This problem has recently come into stark relief as Burien’s City Council debates how to handle about 40 people living outside in the city. There are few outreach resources or places for them to go, yet many city officials and residents don’t want people camping in public parks and on sidewalks.
In October, Wise secured funding from King County and the Regional Homelessness Authority to operate a shelter at the Stevenson Motel in Federal Way. City staff worked with the nonprofit to inform neighbors about the project.
But once the nonprofit submitted its permit application, the city denied it, citing policy that two shelters cannot be within 1,000 feet of each other. The proposed shelter is 921 feet away from Catholic Community Services’ own day center, a facility for homeless people to receive health care and other services that does not provide overnight accommodations. The city still categorizes it as a shelter.
“We were intentionally looking for our shelter to be in a space where clients could successfully connect to other services,” Wise said.
In the neighboring city of Des Moines, Catholic Community Services started sheltering people in a motel during the pandemic, becoming the only shelter in the city and the only 24/7 shelter that admits single men in South King County.
In September 2021, the Des Moines City Council passed zoning codes prohibiting homeless shelters from operating within 1,000 feet of a school, putting Catholic Community Services’ shelter in violation.
In July, the city fined Catholic Community Services $512 and asked it to shut down the shelter. The city provided two alternate hotel locations that fit the city’s requirements, but the nonprofit said those building owners refused to host a shelter.
Ongoing battle
Cities in South King County have been fighting for years against efforts to add shelter and housing in the region. Many residents there fear accommodations for homeless people will attract crime and drug use and depreciate their home values.
In 2020, King County moved more than 200 homeless people who had been staying at a mass shelter in downtown Seattle to the Red Lion Hotel in Renton to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Residents and City Council members protested fiercely, citing increased calls for police and anxiety among business owners and customers. Eventually, the City Council forced the shelter to shut down by tightening regulations on where and how shelters can operate.
Partly in response to Renton, state lawmakers passed House Bill 1220 the following year, a contentious bill that passed by one vote in the state Senate.
House Bill 1220 requires cities to allow homeless shelters in any zone where hotels are allowed, and housing for homeless people in any residential zone. Previously, homeless shelters were only allowed in commercial zones in many cities.
But the bill provided cities with an out. It allowed them to impose “reasonable” occupancy and spacing requirements to protect public health and safety.
Some cities took full advantage. Within months, Federal Way and Des Moines passed their restrictions. Des Moines also changed its zoning to prohibit hotels in certain areas and Federal Way added additional licensing requirements for shelters.
Federal Way also banned possession of drugs in shelters, which service providers say is a common rule in South King County and hampers their ability to bring people inside where they can address people’s substance use disorder.
Federal Way and Des Moines officials declined interview requests. Federal Way spokesperson David Solano wrote in an email the city’s distancing requirements “ensure that no specific area is disproportionately affected by this type of facility.”
“Is that the farthest we can push them away?“
Comments made by city officials indicate their aims go beyond spreading out services.
Des Moines Mayor Matt Mahoney — then deputy mayor — asked a city staff member at a meeting before passing their restrictions, “Do you believe that you’ve done whatever you can legally to best protect this community?”
Councilmember Jeremy Nutting asked if 1,000 feet was the maximum distance the city could require shelters to be from schools.
“Is that the farthest we can push them away?” Nutting asked.
One council member asked city staff to create a map showing where shelter and housing would be allowed under the new zoning.
“That is going to be a very delicate process so that people’s land values are not negatively affected by the speculation,” said City Manager Michael Matthias.
In Federal Way’s council meeting in October 2021 to discuss its ordinance tightening regulations around homeless shelters and housing, resident Jeannie VanVleet wrote to council members, “Aside from the [permanent supportive housing], we know the drug dealers will be coming into family neighborhoods to sell to these residents, which is a safety issue for Federal Way children.”
Service providers and state lawmakers say Des Moines’ and Federal Way’s newly passed codes do the opposite of addressing these concerns.
“An increase in access to permanent supportive housing will likely result in fewer encampments or reduce spread of health issues such as COVID and less paraphernalia littering the public areas,” Robin Corak, CEO at the Multi-Service Center, a homelessness service provider in South King County, wrote to Federal Way council members.
“There’s some false belief that if the service doesn’t exist, the people won’t be there,” said Alison Eisinger, executive director of the Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness. “But in fact, if you don’t have shelter, people will be there, unsheltered.”
Did they go too far?
House Bill 1220 allows cities to add reasonable requirements on shelter and housing only if they do not prevent the siting of a sufficient number of beds.
Rep. Nicole Macri, D-Seattle, a sponsor of the bill, said Des Moines and Federal Way are “clearly trying to exploit” that language. But she said it looks like those cities have taken it too far because they are not allowing the siting of sufficient shelter.
“Where is there shelter for people in South King County? I look around, I do not see it,” Macri said.
Rep. Strom Peterson, D-Mukilteo, a primary sponsor of House Bill 1220, agreed with Macri and said he would be asking the state Attorney General’s Office for its interpretation on the cities’ ordinances.
On Friday, Catholic Community Services filed a land use petition asking King County Superior Court to reverse Federal Way’s denial of its shelter permit, and to declare Federal Way’s spacing requirements for shelter and housing in violation of state law.
“But all the time that we don’t have shelter, there’s people outside,” Wise said.