Tacoma’s homeless camping ban has been in effect for 4 months. Here’s how it’s going
In the last four months, the city of Tacoma has removed 23 encampments as a result of an ordinance banning homeless camps around temporary shelters and protected waters.
The ordinance, passed by the City Council on a 6-3 vote Oct. 11, restricts homeless camps within 10 blocks of the city’s temporary shelters and within 200 feet of protected waters and the Puyallup River.
It went into effect Nov. 14. An amendment to the ordinance called for the evaluation of effects before and after implementation with specific data requests.
The City Council received a report on Tacoma Municipal Code 8.19 from the city’s Homeless Engagement Alternatives Liaison (HEAL) Team at its study session Tuesday.
By early March, the city cleaned up encampments in the banned areas. Under the code, encampments are banned near Aspen Court, Tacoma Emergency Micro-Shelter Sites at 6th Avenue and Orchard Street, South 69th Street and Proctor Street, 60th Street and McKinley Avenue; the stability site at 1421 Puyallup Ave.; the mitigation sites at South 82nd Street and Pacific Avenue and 3561 Pacific Avenue, the RISE Center Emergency Stabilization Shelter, Altheimer Memorial Church of God in Christ, Bethlehem Baptist Church and Shiloh Baptist Church.
The most recent clean-up was March 8 at 26th and Pacific, which is in the 35th and Pacific zone. The HEAL Team contacted six people, and none accepted the city’s resources.
Allyson Griffith is director of Neighborhood and Community Services, which oversees the HEAL Team. Griffith said the team made 649 contacts citywide since the ordinance went into effect Nov. 14. Of those contacts, 386 people, or 59 percent, were interested in services, she said. Services include shelter, substance-use treatment, peer counseling and behavioral counseling.
She said 71 people, or 11%, were placed in a shelter.
“Individuals may not actually access that shelter right away,” Griffith said. “That may be due to their own needs and barriers. That may also be due to the readiness of the type of shelter location they wish to access.”
Griffith said that in the prohibited areas the acceptance rate for services has increased since the implementation of TMC 8.19. Between Aug. 1 and Nov. 14, 194 people were offered services, and 95 people accepted them, a 49% acceptance rate. Between Nov. 15 and Feb. 28, 485 people were offered services and 307 people accepted services, a 63% acceptance rate.
In non-prohibited areas, those who accepted services fell during the implementation by 7%. Between Aug. 1 and Nov. 14, 208 people were offered services with 110 accepting, and between Nov. 15 and Feb. 28, 164 people were offered services and 79 accepted.
Griffith said the timeline for implementation has been too short to “draw concrete conclusions on these data points.”
Removal of an encampment outside the banned area has to be authorized by the city manager, who assesses primary calls for services to public safety or 311, health impacts and environmental impacts, Griffith said.
The HEAL Team’s outreach is the same in the prohibited area and out of it, Griffith said.
Griffith said TMC 8.19 has achieved voluntary compliance.
“This means that no citations, infractions or fines have been issued related to TMC 8.19, which is in keeping with council’s directive to pursue the least restrictive enforcement methods possible,” she said.
Violations of the ordinance carry a maximum fine of $250 and/or a maximum imprisonment of 30 days.
District 1 Council Member John Hines, who was the sponsor of the encampment ordinance, said he wanted to highlight that the code has not led to arrest and criminal prosecution of people for being homeless or unhoused.
Shelter sites have increased slightly during the three-and-a-half months of the ordinance’s implementation. The city has 1,162 emergency, temporary and permanent shelters beds. The emergency shelter beds increased from 380 to 430, and temporary shelters decreased by 28 as a response to post COVID-19 and an operation’s ability.
In areas that have the ban, 311 requests related to homelessness decreased, from 1,531 requests before implementation to 1,082 requests after implementation. Requests for outreach decreased from 1,134 to 770. General complaints about homelessness issues, illegal dumping and miscellaneous requests also decreased. Non-prohibited areas had the same amount of 311 requests related to homelessness before and during the ordinance’s implementation.
Griffith said she is not certain if the decrease was due to reduced issues or if it’s related to the change in seasons.
In prohibited areas, calls for services increased by 3.2% for the three-and-a-half months during implementation as compared to the three-and-a-half months before implementation, according to South Sound 911 safety statistics. The calls were related to medical aid, welfare check, 911 hang up, unwanted person, suspicious person, suspicious vehicle, traffic stop, fire, disorderly verbal altercation, motor vehicle theft, shots fired with no known victim, burglary alarm-commercial, domestic violence verbal altercation and follow-up.
Since implementation of the code, the HEAL Team has added one full-time employee. There are eight budgeted positions, but the team has five.
At-large council member Kiara Daniels said the ordinance, which she did not support, was supposed to bring expanded shelter options and low-barriers sites and engage with more neighborhoods in Tacoma interested in setting up a shelter. She said she wanted to see that data.
“What I feel like I’m looking at is our staff is working really hard, and we don’t have any infractions,” Daniels said. “I don’t know what that says to me. Does that say that we needed to resource this work? Or does it say that we needed a law for this?”
Griffith said the council will receive its next homeless services and strategy update in June.
This story was originally published March 15, 2023 at 11:48 AM.