If a lawsuit against the city of Burien wasn’t enough to give its leaders pause in its quest to move the unsheltered out of the city, maybe a directive by the King County sheriff to her deputies not to enforce the city’s latest ordinance on “camping’’ is enough to have the City Council rethink its decision.
The relationship between the city and the Sheriff’s Office took another hit Friday, when Burien accused the Sheriff’s Office of violating its contract with the city, and Sheriff Patricia Cole-Tindall and King County requested Monday that a federal judge determine if the new ordinance is constitutional.
By now it should be pretty clear to policymakers that homelessness is a serious regional problem, not limited by ZIP code.
Disappointingly, a majority on Burien’s City Council rushed to add even more restrictions to where people who are unhoused can sleep overnight while a lawsuit is pending against the city over an ordinance on that topic.
In addition to the lawsuit in King County Superior Court, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2018 in Martin v. Boise that homeless people can’t be punished for sleeping outside on public property if there are no adequate alternatives to offer them. Burien doesn’t have a shelter for single adult men or young adults.
Still, the Burien City Council voted 5-2 last week to ban sleeping overnight within 500 feet of City Hall, schools, parks and libraries, and on sidewalks — places where those without shelter have been sleeping for months.
Not only does the new ordinance muddy the city’s legal defense in the lawsuit by three unsheltered people and an advocacy group, it was approved with no warning to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, and little warning to the King County Sheriff’s Office, which is contracted to enforce the city’s laws.
On Friday,Cole-Tindall did the right thing by directing her deputies not to enforce an ordinance that has “serious constitutional issues.” The sheriff wrote in an email to Burien officials that her “office will not enforce on the public camping portion of Burien Municipal Code (BMC 9.85.150), until the constitutionality of the ordinance is resolved.”
King County and Cole-Tindall were right to request an opinion from a higher court. Still, that question won’t be answered overnight.
The city has been grappling with people sleeping overnight on public property for months. The latest order tells people where they can’t sleep overnight but doesn’t give much guidance to where they can sleep.
“I have been opposed to the camping ordinance from the beginning,” said Councilmember Sarah Moore, one of the two votes against the latest law. “I don’t have the answer to homelessness — to get everybody in housing and treatment. We don’t have the resources to do those things but people need to be somewhere while we figure that out.”
Last year the city reluctantly accepted $1 million from King County to address homelessness. The KCRHA is expected to use the money to establish a tiny homes village in Burien. But that’s being delayed as zoning issues are worked out.
Last week’s shortsighted ordinance vote ostensibly was an emergency effort to help keep residents, including children, safe. Those who live outdoors are residents, too. Anti-camping laws won’t keep them safe, nor are they a sound regional solution to homelessness.
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