Brian Coddington, Communications Director, 509.625.6740
Wednesday, July 6, 2022 at 1:25 p.m.
Mayor Nadine Woodward proposed revisions today to ordinances protecting public land, property, and sidewalks that strike a compromise between differing versions proposed by councilmembers and clarifies enforcement of the City’s camping and sit-and-lie laws.
The ordinances set expectations for protection of public health and safety and designates specific areas where camping, sitting, or lying in public spaces is prohibited at all times regardless of shelter availability. Woodward proposed changes that establish clear time and place restrictions in the downtown area, in and around railroad viaducts, around congregate shelters, and along river banks.
“The additions we are proposing account for the health, safety, and welfare of everyone who uses our sidewalks and other public spaces,” Woodward said. “We know that people are nearly unanimous in their desire for something to be done about public camping. These changes would bring the City within the expectations of the court, encourage services as a first option, and allow for enforcement if necessary.
Woodward’s proposed ordinances are based on separate proposals made by individual councilmembers, and community feedback to the current ordinances and the more recent proposals. Councilmembers Michael Cathcart and Jonathan Bingle, who developed an earlier proposal, have worked with Woodward to strike a balance between the other proposals, community expectations, and court requirements.
Changes to the camping ordinance would prohibit camping at all times:
The camping ordinance defines congregate shelter as any private or public facility that provides short-term or contingency communal living, which includes homeless shelters. It also removes the blanket enforcement exception when shelter space is unavailable to be clearer about time and place restrictions as required by the courts.
Sit-and-lie ordinance revisions removes some exemptions, including for homelessness. The ordinance would continue the sitting and lying prohibition in defined spaces between 6 am and midnight.
“The courts permit cities to enforce violations of an ordinance that establishes time and place restrictions as long as such prohibitions are not on all public properties when shelter is unavailable,” Cathcart said. “We have received a great deal of feedback from the community that makes it clear they expect the City to work within the boundaries established by the courts to solve that balance between services and enforcement.”
The emphasis in both proposed ordinances is to consider all users of the space regardless of housed status.
“Our goal is to protect the rights of others to use the areas for the purposes for which they were intended while preventing harm and promoting the health, safety, and general welfare of individuals, property, and the environment,” Bingle said.
