Burien considers camping ban and first homeless shelter

This month the Burien City Council is set to vote on an ordinance that would make sleeping on public property a misdemeanor. If passed, the law would make life even more difficult for homeless people in a city that doesn't offer any shelters.

Without a shelter in Burien, Amanda Hales isn’t sure where she should go at night.

She’s slept behind grocery stores and in friends' cars.

“I don't really stay under the bridge,” Hales said. “It's kind of nasty under there and then I mean nobody gets messed with down there though, nobody gets bothered. I've been on the side of the road.”

Hales moves around Burien with a small cart and her kitty, who has earned the name, Mayhem.

“I've had to call the fire department to get her off a roof before already,” she said. “She's a sweetheart, though. She listens well.”

Like most everyone in Burien, Hales is keeping a close eye on the Burien City Council.

For months now, the Council has debated what to do about the city’s unhoused population.

They’ve gone back and forth on maybe opening the city’s first sanctioned campsite for people in tents.

But still no decision.

One thing they are seriously considering — a city ordinance prohibiting people from sleeping in public.

It would make it a misdemeanor if people were caught sleeping in parks.

Councilmember Cydney Moore said the ordinance is akin to criminalizing homelessness.

“We know that enforcing this is going to require additional police time and prosecution,” Moore said, “and if anybody runs afoul of this ordinance and ends up in jail, that costs us as well.”

If passed, Burien would become the latest Seattle suburb to prevent homeless people from camping in public spaces.

In May, King County admonished the Council for forcing people off public property without providing shelter.

To help the city out, the county is offering Burien a million dollars to open some sort of shelter plus 35 pallet shelters for people to live.

But after multiple, contentious meetings, the Council still hasn’t taken up the county’s offer.

And that’s starting to worry Moore.

“I am concerned that at some point that money might go away,” Moore said. “We have not heard of any timeline at this point. But I personally am of the mind that we should jump at a million dollars because our city is facing a budgetary crisis at this point and a million dollars can go a long way. Fingers crossed we get to use it.”

Other councilmembers, however, do not want the city to take the money if it means they have to build a shelter in their backyard.

At public meetings, housed residents have said sheltering homeless people should be the county or city of Seattle’s problem, not Burien’s.

“What you guys are doing is tolerating criminal vagrancy,” Robert Gage said at a recent meeting, “and I don’t mean the crime of being vagrant, I mean vagrants who are committing crimes.”

Some downtown business people also say they don’t want any sort of shelter to open near them. They point to open drug use and people stealing shopping carts. The owner of a convenience store said when a tent encampment was nearby, a group of men used to go through the garbage outside and dump trash all over the sidewalk.

They see the no camping ordinance as a way to bring some order to the area.

But Councilmember Moore said she and her colleagues are considering four locations where shelters could open.

The one closest to downtown, she said, is the best option to help people who are homeless.

“Since that is directly adjacent to a transit center, very close to service providers and food,” Moore said, “it makes everything much more accessible for people who often have mobility issues and other needs that need accommodation.”

As the debate continues, Amanda Hales faces a few more weeks of uncertainty for herself and her cat.

Asked if she knows where she’ll sleep at night, Hales said, “Not yet, not yet.”

The Council still hasn’t decided whether to take the county’s million dollars, but it is set to vote on the camping ban in the next week or so. The agenda for the next City Council meeting on Monday, Sept. 11 should be made public on Thursday, Sept. 7.