It’s the question that most people around Seattle have asked recently: Where should people be allowed to camp in Seattle?
The city council is asking that question as it considers a bill handed to them by the ACLU. The bill was sponsored by Council Member Mike O’Brien and accepted for consideration by the council. Only a few voices have opposed the bill and oppose allowing people to camp in Seatt
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The city council’s most recent revision of the Council Bill 118794 makes distinctions and definitions of “suitable” and “unsuitable” locations. It further defines “specific public use.” Despite the headache of navigating legal jargon, that point is an important definition. Critics of the bill have argued that the bill will allow homeless campers to pitch tents on sidewalks, schools and in parks. Under the “specific public use” definition, schools, park uses, and recreational areas are included. An “unsuitable location” is a location with such a “specific public use.”
It's a hypothetical that became reality recently as homeless campers have started to set up tents on play fields in Interbay. Coaches make a habit of combing the field for syringes and report that they have had to drag unconscious people off of the field before they use it. The kids now just play around the tents.
The remainder of the bill maintains other aspects of the original: that the city will have to pay campers if it violates the legislation, and an 11 member committee will be formed to manage the process. That process seems to have had further assistance from the ACLU and Columbia Legal Services.
ACLU helps council decide where to camp in Seattle
The ACLU and Columbia Legal Services has already considered many of these issues the council faces. They not only wrote the bill for the city council to consider, they wrote a guide to further modifying it. A simplified sheet summarizing what locations are suitable, unsuitable, and hazardous for people to camp in Seattle was provided to the council as they put the legislation through its committees.
It was referenced during council committee meetings, and also provides what procedures the city should follow for where to allow people to camp in Seattle: