Public Hearing Today On Proposed Homeless Encampment Ordinance; Said Encampments Not Happy

Way back in March of 2002, the City entered a Consent Decree with El Centro de la Raza and SHARE/WHEEL, the organization that operates homeless encampments Tent City 3 and 4. This agreement (.pdf), due to "exceptional circumstances" "pressing needs" of the city's homeless population, provided a set of guidelines for operation of Tent City over the following 10 years. These guidelines are why SHARE/WHEEL hosts community meetings every time Tent City moves, why each encampment is limited to 100 residents, plus other key operational details. The ten years stipulated in the agreement are up, and the City Council is addressing it -- just not in the way that SHARE/WHEEL would like.

The City Council Housing, Human Services, Health and Culture Committee will hear public comment today on a proposed new homeless encampment ordinance (.pdf) to replace the existing policy, put forward by 2001's Consent Decree, set to expire this March. The biggest difference? While the new ordinance recognizes that secular organizations can host encampments under currently existing laws concerning Temporary Use Permits, it only makes special provisions for religious organizations.

"Under the Consent Decree all hosts are treated the same - secular or religious," said SHARE/WHEEL representatives in a statement yesterday, "The proposed replacement Encampment Ordinance returns secular property owners wishing to host Tent City 3, Nickelsville, or any other encampment back to the pre-Consent Decree regulatory system."

That means that instead of SHARE/WHEEL holding community meetings a couple of weeks in advance before moving, a secular host would have to apply for a Temporary Use Permit each time they wanted to host an encampment -- a process that is full of red tape. It's even presented problems in the past, before the Consent Decree was entered. At one point, they tried to move to El Centro de la Raza, raising their half of $2,500 in permit fees with car washes. Their permit was denied, and they never got their money back.

Plus, SHARE/WHEEL says, "the permit application process for secular owners can take months - when often an encampment has only several weeks to find a new location." They say that they could be subject to a new set of regulations with every new permit, i.e. every single time they move.

They add that Temporary Use Permits have "repeatedly been abused for political purposes."

Under the proposed new ordinance, religious organizations are given exemption from a lot of the regulations, but according to SHARE/WHEEL, no single religious organization or property has been able to fully host an encampment on its own. Their resources are too strained. Besides, they say, religious organizations already have a lot of the same privileges from a 1956 state bill.

The office of Nick Licata, chair of the Housing, Human Services, Health and Culture Committee and the ordinance's sponsor, points out that despite the Consent Decree, no official guidelines exist for homeless encampments. The guidelines outlined in the proposed ordinance, like "basic life safety standards," would also apply to secular organizations. They acknowledge the need for the Temporary Use Permit in these cases, and add that "there is a separate piece of proposed legislation that would eliminate the distinction between permits up to four weeks and permits more than four weeks up to six months."

SHARE/WHEEL hopes to add this amendment (.pdf), called the Hunter Amendment, to the proposed ordinance that would preserve some of the guidelines from the Consent Decree by loosening permit regulations for those hosting encampments -- and waive permit fees, which even recently for the Firestation 39 site added up to over $4,198.

Lisa Herbold, legislative aide at Council member Licata's office, says that the Department of Planning and Development billed that balance to the city's Fleets and Facilities Department, not to the property owner. She adds that out of the five instances where hosts applied for a Temporary Use Permit for an encampment, two applicants had all their fees waived on a a hardship basis, and another two had their fees partially waived. DPD's fee ordinance, she says, which would govern whether Temporary Use Permit applicants would charge fees, would be the appropriate place for the Hunter Amendment to go -- that will be part city budget discussions, probably during "issue identification," which starts October 17.

Want to learn more? Want to give your input? The Housing, Human Services, Health and Culture Committee will be hearing public comment on the ordinance this afternoon. If you can't make it, there is always emailing Nick Licata.

Today at 2 p.m. // Council Chambers, Seattle City Hall, Floor 2, 600 Fourth Avenue // Free (duh)