Should people be allowed to camp on public property in Tacoma? Have your say
This story has been updated to reflect that homeless advocates did not agree on a specific camping ban ordinance.
City leaders are considering a law that restricts where and when people can camp on public property in Tacoma.
First, they want to hear from the public.
The city is hosting a community conversation via Zoom at 5:30 p.m. Monday to present the options for the law and hear feedback.
Tacoma elected officials have been working on an ordinance prohibiting camping on public property since the spring. Council members proposed to put the law back on the books when they found out it sun-setted in 2019.
Aside from adding an element prohibiting storage of personal belongings on public property, the camping ban proposed in the spring closely resembled the ordinance that expired in 2019. It prohibited camping on public property citywide 24 hours a day, enforced by police. Violations of the law would result in a misdemeanor, with convictions bringing a fine of no more than $1,000 and/or imprisonment not to exceed 90 days.
The ordinance also required shelter to be located and offered to an individual prior to removing them. That is a requirement of a 2018 decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding an no-camping ordinance in Boise, Idaho, in which the court ruled that it is unconstitutional to enforce camping bans if people experiencing homelessness have no other place to go.
In April 2021, Tacoma City Council tabled the ordinance in order to work more with the Tacoma-Pierce County Coalition to End Homelessness, which is made up of individuals, nonprofits, government agencies and businesses across the county.
Months later, city staff and coalition members have worked collaboratively to come up with versions of the ordinance but have not been able to completely agree on all aspects of it.
When and where can people camp?
In a Nov. 18 meeting of the city’s Community Vitality and Safety Committee (CVS), city staff laid out what is under consideration.
The city can choose to restrict camping on public property by geography.
Staff says a city-wide ban on public property camping would be simpler to enforce but might not address areas most impacted by the camping. The city could instead choose to prohibit camping on public property in certain areas — for example, within the vicinity of schools or parks — but deciding which areas are most impacted would be a complex process.
City leaders are considering whether to make the ban 24 hours a day or within a certain time frame of the day.
A 24-hour ban is simpler to enforce, according to city staff, but would require that the city have shelter beds available to comply with the Boise decision. On the other hand, having a specific time frame — such as no camping on public property between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. — might not require that shelter space be available during the time camping is not authorized. That would be much more complex to enforce.
Finally, city leaders are considering whether camping on public property should be a crime or a civil infraction.
If a crime, law enforcement could arrest and transport violators away from the site, and the individual would enter the criminal justice system, where there are costs to the city to prosecute and potentially jail the individual. If a person lacks the money to defend themselves in court, the fine could be waived.
If a civil infraction, law enforcement could not arrest or remove an individual. A fine could also be waived if a court determined a person cannot pay it.
At the Nov. 18 meeting, city staff recommended prohibiting camping on public property citywide between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. and using police to enforce the law if a person refuses shelter offered by the city. Staff recommended the violation be up to $250 fine and/or 3 days in jail for a first offense, and for second and subsequent offenses a fine up to $250 and 90 days in jail.
As presented by the city of Tacoma, homeless advocates had a different idea.
Their feedback recommended prohibiting camping on public property citywide 24 hours a day, with outreach workers who are not police to perform the initial contact of violators, then police to issue a civil infraction notice. Advocates recommended the first and second violation of the law to be a Class 4 infraction or $25 penalty with no jail time. The third and subsequent offense would be a crime up to $250 fine and maximum three days in jail.
Maureen Howard is a longtime advocate in Tacoma and who worked with other advocates and Council member Robert Thoms, Mayor Victoria Woodards, deputy mayor Keith Blocker, a city attorney and one council staff person on the ordinance. Howard said that the advocates never agreed to a camping ban and did not discuss the 24-hour time frame and said that personally, she doesn’t want to see a camping ban in Tacoma, but if the city is going to move forward, she wanted to work collaboratively.
Howard said advocates worked with the city to lower the penalty of an infraction, have fines waived for individuals who cannot afford to pay and have the Tacoma Police Department work with the Office of Equity and Human Rights to enact formal enforcement rules prior to enforcing the law.
“If we’re going to have one, lets try to make it as humane as possible,” Howard told The News Tribune on Wednesday.
Varied viewpoints
The number of people experiencing homelessness and visible encampments have been on the rise in recent years. The number of people without homes in Tacoma grew from 6,664 people in 2017 to 10,858 in 2020, about a 63 percent increase, according to data from the Pierce County Homeless Management Information System (HMIS).
At a City Council study session on Tuesday, city staff said Tacoma has more than 1,000 beds available for people experiencing homelessness — some of the beds are restricted for certain people, such as individual men, women or couples — and an additional 180 beds are planned to come online by the end of 2021. Of the beds, 120 will be located at the Comfort Inn, just purchased in part by Tacoma, Lakewood, Pierce County and the Low Income Housing Institute.
Staff also said the city conducted five encampment cleanups over the past six months: South 11th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way; South Eighth Street and Yakima Avenue; Sixth Avenue and South L and M streets; adjacent to the city’s Recovery Transfer Center; and along the Schuster slope. The city had slowed encampment cleanup amid the COVID-19 pandemic in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus, per guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Responses to prohibiting camping on public property in Tacoma have been complex and varied.
Some, like Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards, believe that a no-camping ordinance is a necessary tool to address homelessness in Tacoma, but only when there is enough shelter beds that are available and accessible to people who want them. What constitutes “enough” has been heavily debated.
Some advocate groups are staunchly against any camping ban, saying it criminalizes people experiencing homelessness and goes against the Boise decision.
“Camping bans have no place in our city when there’s nowhere permanent to go,” according to an April 2021 press release by the Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America. “... No matter what platitudes you include in your proposal, camping bans criminalize homelessness.”
Others say that a camping ban is needed to get people out of living in inhumane encampments on the street. Some people also claim having encampments near their homes is causing a problem with crime in the neighborhood.
“It is inhumane for the people living in the encampments, and it is intolerable for the people who live nearby and have businesses nearby,” said one Tacoma business owner during public comment at the Nov. 18 CVS meeting.
At the same meeting, Council members Catherine Ushka and deputy mayor Keith Blocker both said that maybe they could find a different avenue aside from a camping ban.
“Maybe a camping ban isn’t the solution,” Blocker said. “There have definitely been talks about what this could be called. I think the opposite of banning anything — we probably want to take a more proactive approach and sheltering people as opposed to banning ... But I do think that we’re going to be challenged to complete this assignment by the end of the year, considering how complex these issues are and all the different dynamics.”
At Tuesday’s study session, Council members Conor McCarthy and Robert Thoms spoke to the city’s need for some sort of enforcement tool.
“When it comes to people who refuse the services, we’re not doing anything until it gets bad, until someone gets hurt. Then we respond. And that’s just not the right approach,” McCarthy said.
Thoms said Wednesday that there is available shelter capacity that is not being filled, and having an enforcement tool is a way to fill those beds.
“We are better than that — we have capacity so let’s fill it each and every night,” Thoms said.
About the meeting
What: Community conversation about camping on public property, hosted by the City of Tacoma
When: 5:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 6
Where: Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88161861974?pwd=b2dxNVBJK0p6ejNkalJ1Zld4azRQdz09
This story was originally published December 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
