City of Burien Makes Unsheltered Homelessness a Crime

The new law bans unsheltered people, including people who live in their cars, from sleeping or "storing property" in any public space.

By Erica C. Barnett

With surprisingly little discussion, the Burien City Council passed a new law on Monday night criminalizing unsheltered homelessness in the city. The law bans unsheltered people from "camping" or "storing property," such as tents or sleeping bags, anywhere in Burien, including sleeping in vehicles, making it one of the region's harshest anti-homeless laws.

The legislation, which the King County Sheriff's Office confirmed it will enforce, was rushed through as emergency legislation—meaning that it will take effect immediately—because, according to Burien City Attorney Garmon Newsom III, it creates an "incentive" for homeless people "to actually accept the offer of shelter treatment, [and] if there's housing, housing."

Last year, Burien passed a new law barring unsheltered people from "camping" in the city at night, and created a map where sleeping at any time was banned. The law also gave city manager Adolfo Bailon unfettered authority to expand the boundaries of "areas protected from unsheltered homelessness" at any time.

The King County Sheriff's office, which provides police services to Burien, challenged that law on the grounds that it violated a Ninth Circuit ruling that barred encampment sweeps unless shelter was available. The Supreme Court overturned that ruling in the case Grants Pass v. Johnson, and the sheriff's office now says it will enforce the new ban. Driving the point home, the law specifies that "[t]here is no requirement that beds, housing, shelter, or treatment be available, offered, or sought before enforcement of this ordinance."

Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall said her office believes that "this ordinance, as written, is enforceable, as it no longer contains vague language found from the prior ordinances nor does it allow the city manager to rewrite the boundaries of the no-camping zones at any time without notice. That said, I am asking the men and women of the King County Sheriff’s Office to continue to lead, as they do each day, with outreach and compassion while continuing to engage with regional service providers whenever appropriate."

Newsom called the sheriff's previous refusal to enforce the ban an "emergency" in itself—one that outweighed the "concern" that "the weather does seem to be arguably colder than it might typically be." The sheriff's office, he continued, was still "in violation" of its contract to provide police services, "but [it's] less about the money and more about the impact, which is that it allows people to not have the incentive to actually accept the offer of shelter, treatment, [and] if there's housing, housing."

The city, Newsom continued, has been more than generous with its homeless population, permitting two buildings for formerly homeless people—a 95-unit permanent supportive housing project for chronically homeless people, run by the Downtown Emergency Service Center, and a 90-unit building for low-income families that will be operated by Mary's Place. "It's not as though Burien has not done anything in support," he said.

Last year, Burien replaced its outreach provider, the established outreach organization REACH, with a group started by a Kirkland real estate broker called The More We Love, which began as a business offering private sweeps at a price of $515 for each "camper" it removed.

Councilmember Stephanie Mora called the city's earlier partnership with REACH "a massive failure" that didn't house people or take them off the streets. "So I was very excited when we were able to cut that contract and give it to a new provider who could provide housing, and has been providing housing" to unsheltered people in Burien, she said. "I don't know if you guys have noticed, but our streets are cleaner. We don't have encampments anymore. We don't have tents outside."

Although Bailon claimed TMWL "created" a previously unidentified "housing option" for people removed from Burien encampments, the organization has never publicly presented any evidence showing it has provided housing to anyone, or that the people it directs to available shelter beds have ended up in housing or treatment.

Burien does not have a year-round shelter, and a 95-unit permanent supportive housing building run by the Downtown Emergency Service Center is reserved for chronically homeless people with disabilities. DESC confirmed that The More We Love has not referred anyone to its apartments in Burien.

Ironically, given how often Burien leaders claim Seattle is sending its unsheltered people to their city, the encampment Mora celebrated The More We Love for resolving was only closed down after the King County Regional Homelessness Authority—not The More We Love—transferred people living outdoors in Burien to temporary lodging in Seattle. Another Burien-based nonprofit provided short-term hotel stays for a handful of encampment residents.

The concept that people prefer to be unsheltered than "accept" housing and services is a longstanding myth grounded in a paternalistic belief that homeless people are lazy, entitled, or just don't want to follow rules, like prohibitions on alcohol and illegal drugs in shelters.

In reality, the number of unsheltered people eclipses the number of shelter beds, and unsheltered people frequently articulate specific reasons they don't want to sleep in crowded rooms full of strangers, including the lack of privacy, theft and assaults, curfews, and dehumanization by staff. People with addiction and mental health issues may also be banned from shelters for exhibiting the symptoms of their diseases.

Three homeless Burien residents, along with the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, sued Burien over its previous ban, arguing that it was vague, overbroad, and unenforceable. This morning, the city of Burien filed a motion arguing that because the city has now passed a new law that bans sleeping outdoors or in vehicles without exceptions, any complaints about the previous law are moot, and that the only remaining issues are whether a ban on unsheltered homelessness violates state constitutional strictures against cruel punishment, unlawful search and seizure, or restrictions on the right to travel.

Yesterday, the ACLU of Washington submitted a letter to the Burien City Council opposing the new ban, noting that even though Grants Pass removed a legal restrictions on sweeping people when no shelter is available, "the Court also acknowledged the need for humane and reasonable approaches to homelessness. The decision does not mandate the criminalization of homelessness, nor does it absolve local governments of their responsibility to provide adequate shelter and services."

Councilmembers Hugo Garcia and Sarah Moore voted against the ban. Garcia called it an "emergency that's not really an emergency" that would further endanger families with parents who could soon be facing deportation under Trump's sweeping anti-immigration plan, and Moore highlighted the cruelty of banishing people without offering them anywhere to go.

"I will not vote to become a city that practices banishment," Moore said. "I will not vote to become a city that ignores the reality of people's bodies existing in time and space. I will not vote to become a city that commits to future planning for shelters and housing while giving itself a pass to ban people now in the present. I will not vote to be a city that offers a severe weather shelter on a 32-degree day and exile on a 33-degree day."