Two years ago Tacoma banned public camping. What do data show about how it is enforced?
Two years after passing an ordinance prohibiting public camping, the City of Tacoma has reportedly contacted individuals in encampments 5,970 times and has removed 7.5 million pounds of trash across more than 500 encampments.
The City of Tacoma’s Homeless Engagement and Alternatives Liaison (HEAL) Team reports making contact with approximately 3,000 individuals living unhoused in 2024 alone.
City spokesperson Maria Lee told The News Tribune that certain individuals could have been contacted multiple times by the HEAL team, but the city does not currently keep track of duplicated contacts with the same individuals.
Lee said some obstacles to effectively recording the identity of contacted individuals the HEAL team includes varying information given by individuals, privacy concerns, lack of stable addresses, phone numbers, or email addresses, and lack of standardized database systems.
“Many organizations working with the homeless population may have their own separate databases and record-keeping practices, leading to inconsistencies and potential duplication when information is shared or transferred,” Lee told The News Tribune.
As part of the city’s camping-ban ordinance, which prohibits camping on public property within 10-blocks of a homeless shelter or adjacent to a waterway, the HEAL team goes to encampments that have been reported to the city by residents.
According to data from South Sound 911, more than 135,000 calls for service were made in 2024 in areas where camping is prohibited. The first two quarters averaged around 42,5000 calls for service respectively. In the last two quarters, South Sound 911 began counting only the unduplicated calls, the city reported. During which the third quarter recorded 23,340 unduplicated calls related to homelessness and the last quarter saw 27,006.
The top three kinds of calls were categorized as requests for medical aid, welfare checks and 911 hang-ups.
Reports made in 2024 through Tacoma’s 311 system regarding homelessness total near 18,000. According to the city, the most common types of reports include general requests for outreach, people living in vehicles on public property, and illegal dumping on public property.
A map of the HEAL Team’s responses and encampment cleanups shows it has responded to encampments spanning nearly every part of the city’s limits. The map also indicates hot spots where requests for outreach are still open. As of Jan. 14, some of the hot spots include 96th Street South and South Steele Street, the wooded area near South 42nd Street and South Fife Street, an undeveloped area near the intersection of Union Avenue and South Tacoma Way, and areas near the end of the Thea Foss Waterway near the Port of Tacoma.
Lee told The News Tribune the city’s camping ordinance is intended to find a balance between assisting those experiencing homelessness and creating public safety. She said authorities work to prioritize “voluntary compliance” with those living in encampments with enforcement of the ban as a “last resort.”
According to Lee, only two arrests have been made in an effort to enforce the ordinance since it was passed by the city council in fall 2022.
As part of the ordinance, the HEAL team first makes contact with those living in encampments that have been flagged for removal before police and contractors arrive to remove the trash and debris left behind.
Since the implementation of the ordinance, 47% of those contacted by the HEAL team expressed interest in accepting services, with 9% being placed in a shelter.
According to the city’s 2024 data, 37% percent of individuals who were contacted expressed interest in services, down from 56% the previous year. About 276, or 10%, of individuals contacted were placed into shelter in 2024.
Kevin Ruby works as an outreach specialist for the HEAL team. Ruby previously told The News Tribune there are a multitude of reasons why an unhoused person might refuse services, including mental health challenges, social stigma and fear of social separation.
Lee told The News Tribune the outreach work that the HEAL team is a part of is an ongoing process, focused on building trust and relationships with those living unhoused to try to better understand their needs and challenges.
In 2024, the city removed more than twice the amount of encampments than it did the previous year, with 361 encampments removed.
With help from contractors, the city removed 2.5 million pounds of debris from encampments in 2024 — almost exactly half of the amount of debris it removed the previous year.
A Dec. 10 memo from the City Manager’s Office attributed the decrease to the fact that encampments were smaller than in the previous year as they had less time to accumulate debris with more frequent encampment removals.
Lee told The News Tribune some positive data trends from 2024 include the slight increase in rate of those placed in shelter, as well as the increase in 311 reports — which she said indicates the community is growing more aware of the 311 tool.
According to Lee, some challenges city staff anticipate in the next year include a decrease in shelter capacity with a handful of shelters scheduled to close as well as anticipated funding decreases.
This story was originally published January 15, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
