Final March, Burien’s Metropolis Council tightened its ban on sleeping outdoor and made it unlawful for folks to sleep inside 500 ft of faculties, day care facilities, parks and libraries. That got here after complaints by residents that homeless folks have been spending the evening — and far of the day — in these areas.
And now the council has tightened the screws on the unhoused much more by utterly banning in a single day tenting.
Burien is not alone in banning out of doors in a single day dwelling or tweaking ordinances that make it more durable for unhoused folks to outlive. Different cities have carried out the identical because the U.S. Supreme Courtroom ruled in June in favor of Grants Go, Ore., in its ban on sleeping in public parks. The courtroom dominated that such bans should not merciless and weird punishment, even when there are not any shelters out there for the folks dwelling exterior.
Cities resembling Auburn, Richland and Aberdeen have taken actions to maneuver out individuals who don’t have any place to sleep. Principally, “preserve it transferring, don’t cease right here.”
If metropolis officers assume placing extra restrictions on unhoused folks will repair their homelessness issues, they probably will likely be disenchanted.
The 2024 Level-in-Time rely of homeless folks revealed greater than 16,000 unhoused folks in King County, and the U.S. Division of Housing and City Growth reported an 18% enhance in homelessness nationally final 12 months. Bans on tenting in a single day will, nevertheless, accomplish two issues: enhance the variety of folks cited or arrested for violating the ordinances, and push folks additional out of closely trafficked areas and into locations the place they’ll cover from regulation enforcement.
Metropolis officers can also count on pushback from advocates for homeless folks. On Feb. 3, a circuit courtroom judge in Oregon ordered Grants Pass to briefly pause enforcement of its new tenting guidelines as a part of a lawsuit by Incapacity Rights Oregon.
A whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} have been spent on addressing homelessness within the area. And municipalities and states ought to count on cuts to federal spending on social companies underneath the Trump administration.
Penalizing poverty, psychological sickness, habit, disabilities and job insecurity — all issues that contribute to homelessness — gained’t assist resolve the issue.
“The people who find themselves coming in are apprehensive and fearful what this can imply,” mentioned the Rev. Jenny Partch, pastor of Highline United Methodist Church and director of the 50-bed Burien Extreme Climate Shelter. “They’re asking us the place can they go once we’re not open. It might be tough for them to get to Seattle.”
Coordinating with nonprofits, authorities businesses and church buildings is a greater, extra humane solution to discovering options to assist enhance lives than ordinances that prohibit the place folks in want can sleep.
