Tag: encampments

homelessness, King County

Burien City Manager Accuses King County Executive of “Establishing” Encampment Outside Courthouse
“I look forward to receiving answers to all my questions”: Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon’s “demand” letter included several photos of the encampment, including this one.

By Erica C. Barnett

In an email to Deputy King County Executive Shannon Braddock last week, Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon demanded answers to a number of questions about an encampment outside the King County Courthouse in downtown Burien, where unsheltered people have been living for several weeks. The county recently set up a fence around the encampment that prevents it from sprawling onto the sidewalk.

In the letter, Bailon asserted that the county itself had “established” the encampment around the courthouse—an accusation that not only presumes that the county is physically moving unsheltered people into camps, but also suggests that homeless people would not choose to live in proximity to each other without government intervention.

The letter begins: “Deputy County Executive Braddock – I write to express disappointment in the indifference expressed by King County to the questions and concerns raised by Burien regarding the encampment created by King County.  My patience on this issue has now run out.  I now demand from King County answers to the questions listed below.”

A sampling, by no means complete, of Bailon’s “demands”:

“How, if at all, were neighboring residential apartment complexes, homes, and businesses notified of King County’s plan to establish an encampment?” (Bailon lives in downtown Burien, as does Councilmember Linda Akey.)

“What steps have been taken by King County to ensure that recent work performed at its encampment [the fence] is compliant with zoning codes that govern the City of Burien?

“Is King County planning to respond to Burien’s offer of assistance through its new service provider, The More We Love, and funds for temporary lodging?” (The More We Love, a company set up by a Union Gospel Mission volunteer and Kirkland mortgage broker named Kristine Moreland, is offering temporary stays at a hotel in Renton to homeless people who agree to leave encampments in Burien.)

“How many, if any, security and or camp management personnel are on-site during daytime/evenings/overnight?”

“I look forward to receiving a response to all of my questions,” Bailon concluded.

In her response, Braddock explained that King County did not, in fact, “establish this encampment. I can only assume that individuals began camping on this property given they had no place else to go.”

Last year, Burien passed a ban on “camping” in the city, defined as sleeping while in the presence of any “indicia of camping,” including sleeping bags, tarps, blankets, or other items that might provide comfort or protection from the elements. The law says that the ban won’t be enforced overnight (until 6 in the morning) if there is no shelter “available,” but Burien has interpreted this to include shelter far outside Burien, including in Seattle—effectively banishing homeless people from the city.

In addition, Burien’s sleeping ban permanently bars homeless people from sleeping within 500 feet of any public building, park, school, or day care, and includes a map of these banishment areas, which the law empowers the city manager to change without notice at any time.

The King County Sheriff’s Office, which provides police services to Burien, is suing the city over the ban and is not currently enforcing it.

Braddock also noted that Moreland told the county that Burien officials directed her not to do any outreach to people living at the courthouse encampment. ” I want to be clear that that is not a direction received from the County, but direction received from the City of Burien,” Braddock wrote. The county, she continued, is contracting with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to provide outreach and shelter offers to people living in the encampment.

There is no general overnight shelter in Burien. King County offered Burien $1 million to help establish a tiny house village, with supportive services, in the city; after more than a year of deliberations, the city had rejected multiple locations and was on its way to passing legislation that would preclude the final option, a piece of Seattle-owned property near the Sea-Tac Airport runways. The county ended up giving the money to KCRHA to spend in South King County.

According to Braddock, Bailon offered in June to “assist” the county in moving the encampment by partnering with The More We Love, an agreement that would have required King County to help pay for Moreland’s contract with the city. “If the offer of assistance is the same as what you proposed in your June 4 email—that King County would need to help fund Burien’s contract for services that have been procured by the City of Burien—the answer is no,” Braddock wrote.

In his letter to Braddock, Bailon also demanded to know why the King County Sheriff’s office classified at least 10 auto break-ins, or attempted break-ins, that took place on one night in an apartment parking as one incident instead of 10 or more. Then he answered his own question: “This seems to be an attempt to tailor the method for collecting data in order to manipulate results.” Bailon did not explain why a law enforcement agency would want to minimize crime, or why he believed the break-ins were related to the encampment other than proximity.

Asked why the sheriff’s office would classify incidents one location as a single offense, KCSO spokesman Eric White said the office “did receive a call from a community member who stated they saw 15 cars that had been either broken into or vandalized,” but that person “did not make a report with us. One victim did make a report with us … but asked to make a report over the phone[,] which he did.”

“For clarification,” White added, “it is not uncommon to group several crimes into one report and list multiple victims of the crime if the crimes are related to string of crimes, in close proximity (time and distance) of each other by the same suspect or suspects.  Suspects can be charged with multiple crimes  under the same single case number.”

In a separate letter, also sent on July 23, five members of the Burien City Council asked the King County Council for “help with investigating the King County Executive Office’s actions in Burien,” accusing County Executive Dow Constantine of showing “contempt for for the United States Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson,” which overturned a ruling that said jurisdictions must provide shelter before sweeping unsheltered people.

The council majority, like Bailon, accused the executive’s office of “permitting… King County’s encampment” at the courthouse, “without discussing this plan with Burien and without any community engagement.”

“The Metropolitan King County Council has the authority to demand a briefing from the King County Executive Office and/or any county department involved in establishing, maintaining, and operating the county’s unpermitted and unlawful encampment in Burien.”

Courts, homelessness, Mayor Harrell

City Attorney Praises Homelessness Ruling; Mayor Says Seattle’s Encampment Removal Policies Won’t Change
Image via City of Seattle

By Erica C. Barnett

Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison released a statement praising the US Supreme Court’s decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson, which effectively overturns a Ninth Circuit ruling, Martin v. Boise, that has forced cities to make at least a nominal offer of shelter before removing homeless encampments.

“Today’s ruling makes it clear that determining policy to address homelessness is a task for locally elected leaders,” Davison said in a statement. “This decision emphasizes the importance of local authority. The variety of local jurisdictions throughout the country that supported Grants Pass in this litigation demonstrates that local governments recognize the importance of creating safe and healthy environments for everyone in the community, a challenging task made even more difficult by the constraints of the Ninth Circuit’s prior ruling.”

In the ruling, which was widely anticipated by homeless advocates and service providers, the court upheld a law in Grants Pass, Oregon that criminalizes the use of blankets, pillows, and protective gear while sleeping in public, including inside a vehicle. Homelessness, the court majority ruled, is not a state of being like mental illness or addiction, but an action that a person could effectively choose not to engage in.

Davison, a Republican, previously wrote an amicus brief in the Grants Pass case, arguing that encampments “have an intensely negative impact impact on neighboring residents. Most report a plummeting quality of life, and businesses exasperated by the increased crime and decreased sales will often relocate to new markets.”

In the brief, Davison also claimed that living unsheltered (and thus sleeping unsheltered) is a form of voluntary “conduct,” not a state of being. The court echoed this argument in its ruling, saying that the anti-camping laws in Grants Pass criminalize sleeping outdoors regardless of a person’s “status.” A housed person who chooses to sleep in a park overnight, the court majority wrote, is not treated differently under the law than someone who sleeps in a park because they don’t have a home.

PubliCola is supported entirely by readers like you.
CLICK BELOW to become a one-time or monthly contributor.

Support PubliCola

In its ruling, the court zeroed in on statistics from the city of Seattle, which claimed that 60 percent of people simply “refuse” legitimate offers of shelter. As we’ve reported many times, an “offer” of shelter may not be viable for any number of reasons. Many shelters have strict abstinence or behavioral policies that make them inappropriate with addiction or mental illness. Many are individual or single-gender shelters that require people to leave their partners; many ban pets or do not allow people to bring more than a few possessions.

Additionally, shelters are often located far away from the places homeless people live. Like housed people, homeless people build communities with other people and live in neighborhoods; someone who grew up in Ballard and became homeless there may be understandably reluctant to relocate across for a temporary shelter bed.

Seattle adopted rules (known as the Multidisciplinary Administrative Rules, or MDARs) in 2017 saying that the city won’t remove an encampment without providing 72 hours notice and offering each resident a shelter bed, except in limited circumstances in which a tent or encampment constitutes an “obstruction or immediate hazard.”

In practice, the city has interpreted “obstruction” to include virtually any tent or encampment located on public property, including all areas of public parks, allowing the city’s encampment removal team to bypass the required notice and shelter offer.

A spokesman for Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office says Harrell has no plans to propose legislation changing the rules to make it easier to remove encampments now that there’s no requirement that cities offer shelter to people they displace.

“Our approach to resolving encampments is based on data, best practices, and our values – and the Supreme Court decision will not affect that approach,” Harrell said in a statement. “Our approach leads with offering shelter and services as part of the encampment resolution process, ensuring people come indoors at the same time as we keep public spaces clean and accessible for everyone. The City’s Unified Care Team closely follows the requirements set out in the MDARs, grounding the City’s encampment resolution work in the compassionate approach we believe in.”

Courts, homelessness, human services, King County

Burien Forfeits $1 Million for Shelter, Will Contract With Controversial Group for Outreach and Hotel Rooms

By Erica C. Barnett

King County has withdrawn its offer to provide $1 million to the city of Burien for emergency housing after the city spent a year considering and rejecting locations for a tiny house village. Most recently, the Burien City Council considered legislation that would prohibit tiny houses on a lot, owned by Seattle City Light, that they had tentatively approved as a shelter site.

The bill, which the council postponed, would have limited the size of lots where shelter is permitted to a size much smaller than the City Light lot; an amendment, proposed by Councilmember Stephanie Mora, would have also explicitly prohibited tiny houses by requiring that any shelter structure have permanent foundations.

In a letter to Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon, Deputy King County Executive Shannon Braddock wrote, “we are withdrawing King County’s offer of $1 million and 35 pallet shelters effective immediately,” in part because the county’s formal offer has been on the table for over one year and Burien has yet confirm a site and make use of the funds. In addition, the Burien City Council appears to be actively working to put in place restrictions that exclude pallet shelters on the site selected by the Burien Council.”

On top of the $1 million, the county offered Burien the chance to apply for $5 million to fund the operations of the tiny house village, but Burien “chose not to apply,” Braddock noted. Council members who opposed the funding frequently complained that it didn’t come with any operations funding beyond the initial million dollars. Burien’s annual general fund budget is around $36 million.

Braddock told PubliCola in a statement that the county “will now direct the $1 million and pallet shelters to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) to use on outreach and emergency housing for individuals in South King County, including addressing the District Court site in Burien” by providing portable toilets and handwashing stations.

Bailon has complained to the county about an encampment outside the courthouse and “shared [his] outreach team will not be able to service that area,” according to Braddock’s letter. In his response to Braddock, Bailon said he hadn’t asked for the toilets or handwashing stations, but said the city “is pleased to learn that steps are being taken to address the public health issue created by King County”—that is, the presence of homeless people at the courthouse.

In a related development, Burien is preparing to sign a contract for homeless encampment outreach with The More We Love, a private encampment removal company started by Kristine Moreland, a Kirkland real-estate broker who has volunteered with Union Gospel Mission. As PubliCola has reported, Moreland sent a spreadsheet containing private information about unsheltered people to city officials and a private business person.

 

PubliCola is supported entirely by readers like you.
CLICK BELOW to become a one-time or monthly contributor.

Support PubliCola

The More We Love will reportedly use a small private system called Diversion Management Information Services, rather than the Homeless Management Information System used by most homeless service providers, to keep track of its clients’ data, including health and service information.

“Throughout the review process it was determined TMWL’s work proposed fit our funding goals, will be accessible to Burien’s unhoused community, and will be implemented in a timely manner,” Manuel Hernandez, a spokesman for the city of Burien, said.

Moreland’s group will receive funds originally allocated to other groups. First, they’ll receive the remaining funds that were previously allocated to REACH, a countywide outreach organization whose contract Bailon unilaterally terminated earlier this year; the city issued a request for proposals for $380,000 in outreach funding earlier this year. Second, they’ll get funding that was originally earmarked for a day center at Highline Methodist Church in Burien, which also hosts a severe weather shelter in the winter. Continue reading “Burien Forfeits $1 Million for Shelter, Will Contract With Controversial Group for Outreach and Hotel Rooms” →

Courts, homelessness, King County, Police

Burien City Manager Demands Removal of Police Chief Who Won’t Arrest People for Being Homeless

By Erica C. Barnett

Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon sent a letter to King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall this week demanding a replacement for Burien Police Chief Ted Boe, whose “actions,” Bailon wrote, “no longer represent the City of Burien best interests, vision, and goals, in a manner that supports trust between the City and King County Sheriff’s Office.”

The sheriff’s office provides officers, including Chief Boe, who serve as the city’s police force through a contract with the county.

Last month, Cole-Tindall sued Burien over its total ban on “camping” in the city, calling the ban unconstitutional. Burien responded by countersuing the sheriff’s office, alleging breach of contract—an ironic claim, given that Bailon responded to the county’s lawsuit by directing city employees to stop paying the sheriff’s office for the services it provides under the same contract.

In his letter, Bailon accused Boe of violating a portion of an agreement between the city and county that says the police chief will act “in a manner that supports and maintains trust” with the city, and another that says “Police Chiefs are expected to represent the City’s point of view, consider City needs in carrying out their duties and advocate on behalf of their City similar to other City departmental directors.” Effectively, Bailon is saying Boe has an obligation to enforce a law he and his actual employer, the Sheriff’s Office, believe is illegal.

In his declaration, Boe laid out some of his concerns with Bailon’s, who he said repeatedly demanded that Boe “redeploy resources away from other public safety matters such as 911 calls and to address several non-criminal aspects of camping. … He also made repeated calls to 911 to redirect patrol resources away” from actual emergencies—at least 45 last year, as PubliCola recently reported.

In her response dismissing Bailon’s request, Cole-Tindall noted that just “two hours prior to Bailon’s letter, Burien was given detailed statistics on the first three months of 2024 that demonstrate the high level of police service in Burien,” including an uptick in arrests for drug-related crimes and an overall reduction in both violent and property crime since last year. In February, Cole-Tindall continued, city council members lauded Boe for his “excellent” performance.

By demanding Boe’s removal, Cole-Tindall continued, Bailon appeared to be retaliating against Boe for statements he made as part of the sheriff’s lawsuit against the city. In his declaration, Boe laid out some of his concerns with Bailon’s, who he said repeatedly demanded that Boe “redeploy resources away from other public safety matters such as 911 calls and to address several non-criminal aspects of camping. … He also made repeated calls to 911 to redirect patrol resources away” from actual emergencies—at least 45 last year, as PubliCola recently reported.

“State law prohibits any local government from retaliating against a person for raising concerns with the constitutionality of government action,” Cole-Tindall wrote. “King County cannot be party to retaliatory action against the chief.”

PubliCola is supported entirely by readers like you.
CLICK BELOW to become a one-time or monthly contributor.

Support PubliCola

Boe’s statement notes that until the city council hired Bailon, “I had limited challenges in addressing the unhoused persons living in Burien. I worked collaboratively with the City Manager who was not focused on addressing homelessness as a crime.” But once Bailon arrived, Boe said, “the approach to unhoused persons began to shift,” as Bailon began asking the department to arrest unsheltered people rather than working with service providers like REACH to find shelter and services.

Bailon unilaterally canceled the city’s contract with REACH, which is funded with federal ARPA dollars, earlier this year. He is reportedly working toward a new contract that would replace REACH with The More We Love, a controversial group that until recently advertised “sweeps” at a rate of $515 for each homeless person they remove from a site. (The city’s contract was with Discover Burien, a downtown business group that led its own encampment sweep last year, because The More We Love was unable to get the required insurance.) It’s unclear whether The More We Love meets federal requirements for ARPA funds. Continue reading “Burien City Manager Demands Removal of Police Chief Who Won’t Arrest People for Being Homeless” →

homelessness, King County, Police

As Burien Countersues Over Homelessness Ban, Another Unsheltered Person Dies Downtown
Burien’s map showing where unsheltered people are banned at all times is misleading in one key respect—most of the light-gray areas (which are not restricted) do not include public spaces large enough for people to set up tents or sleep without violating other city rules, so the actual restricted area is much larger than the map suggests.

By Erica C. Barnett

On Thursday, the city of Burien sued King County and the King County Sheriff’s Office for breach of contract, seeking to force the sheriff’s office to drop their own federal lawsuit against the city. In its complaint, the city claims the sheriff’s office breached an agreement to provide police services to the city by refusing to enforce a recently passed camping ban.

That law prohibits people from sleeping or possessing “indicia of camping,” such as sleeping bags, in public spaces at all hours of the day or night unless there are no shelter beds available. It also bars homeless people from “living” within a 500-foot radius of all parks, libraries, schools, day cares, and other public facilities under any circumstances—effectively banishing them from most of the city.

Two weeks ago, King County Sheriff Cole-Tindall filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming the ban on “camping” violates the constitutional rights affirmed in a landmark case called Martin v. Boise, which prevents cities from banishing homeless people from public spaces unless adequate shelter is available. Burien has claimed shelter is “available”—just not in Burien. A group of unsheltered Burien residents also recently sued the city, charging that new “camping” ban violates the state constitution.

On Friday, another unsheltered man died in downtown, reportedly of an overdose, PubliCola has learned—the second death in the encampment in less than two weeks, and the first since the city announced it was terminating its contract with REACH, which provided outreach and case management to people living unsheltered in Burien. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office did not immediately have more information about the death.

In a statement announcing the lawsuit, the city said the county had had “placed its judgment over that of Burien’s duly elected officials; denied the City of Burien its authority to assist and protect Burien residents, businesses, and property; prevented Burien’s City Manager from providing direction to the contract police as stated in the Interlocal Agreement [between Burien and the county]; and interfered with Burien’s effort to provide guidance for the unhoused within the city’s boundaries.”

A spokesman for the sheriff’s office said, “The constitutionality of Burien’s anti-camping ordinance is squarely before the federal court.  Burien’s attempt to avoid a binding judgment by filing a lawsuit in Snohomish County is just a misguided distraction as we await decision from the federal court.”

A spokesperson for the city of Burien responded to PubliCola’s questions by sending a link to a web page the city has set up about the lawsuit.

The lawsuit asks the Snohomish County court to require King County to drop its lawsuit against the city, participate in a resolution process that could force the sheriff’s office to enforce the law, and pay the city damages and attorney’s fees.

Those fees could be substantial, because Burien has hired a large downtown Seattle law firm, Williams, Kastner & Gibbs PLLC, to represent them. It’s unclear how much Burien has budgeted for the case, including attorneys’ fees and other costs the city could incur if it loses; as the city’s chief executive, City Manager Adolfo Bailon can issue contracts of up to $50,000 without a public process or council approval. The city faces a $2 million budget cliff next year.

Burien City Manager Called 911 Dozens of Times 

Over the last year, Burien’s approach to homelessness has seemed to focus primarily on making the city an inhospitable place to live. For the last year, the city has swept a group of unsheltered people from location to location while delaying action on a shelter that would provide them with a place to go.

City officials have also tolerated  individual actions designed to drive homeless people out—or participated themselves.

Public records shared with PubliCola reveal that City Manager Bailon called 911 at least 45 times last year. PubliCola has reviewed summaries for 10 of these calls, which all concern people located just outside Burien’s downtown library and City Hall. In one call, Bailon reported seeing a person with their head “under a towel” and three tents set up in violation of the city’s encampment ban; in another, he told the 911 operator he had been watching a man wandering around and yelling for a while but had finally called in because his “butt [was] exposed.” Another call involved a man “adjusting his pants a lot but pulling them lower and lower” while kids played nearby; in another, Bailon reported seeing people in the park with “bongs, foil, etc.”

Last month, City Councilmember Linda Akey was caught on video berating a group of unsheltered people outside her downtown condo, yelling, “I live here and you do not belong here and threatening to call the police.

And, more recently, Taproot Church—whose mission is “to glorify God and enjoy him forever by making disciples of Jesus Christ”—set up a large spotlight in its parking lot and aimed it at the group of tents; the light, which is powered by a noisy generator, reportedly floods the encampment all night.

homelessness, King County

Burien Officials Make Threats, Cast Blame—But Continue to Defend Their Ban on “Living” in Public

By Erica C. Barnett

Burien city officials escalated the drama over the city’s total ban on “living” outdoors last week after King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall sued the city for what she called the city’s “unconstitutional” new law. As we reported last week, City Manager Adolfo Bailon immediately responded to the lawsuit by instructing employees to stop paying the sheriff’s office, which serves as Burien’s police department. (The move makes Burien, ironically, the first local city to actually defund its police.) Bailon also canceled the city’s recently signed homelessness outreach contract with REACH, leaving Burien without any professional homeless outreach services.

On Thursday, a man died in an encampment in downtown Burien; his body was discovered by outreach workers from REACH. Burien officials  immediately politicized the tragedy.

Speaking to the B-Town Blog, Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling lashed out at Cole-Tindall and a nonprofit run by a former city council member that ran a short-lived sanctuary encampment at a local church. Schilling said the man’s death, from an overdose, was a “direct result of the Sheriff’s Department and the County Executive suing us so they don’t have to enforce our common sense tent regulating measure, as well as not enforcing drug laws in the Downtown core. … I sure hope the Sheriff and County Executive staff taking their roles seriously, and stop wasting taxpayer time and money with their stunts that are leading to deaths.”

“We do not have capacity to provide continual management and oversight of conduct in encampments of unhoused persons that have been part of the community for the entire time I have worked with the City.”—Burien Police Chief Ted Boe

The new ban on “living” in public spaces includes appearing in public with any “indicia of camping,” including blankets, sleeping bags, and cooking equipment.”

The sheriff’s department has repeatedly told city officials that their priority is 911 calls and serious crimes, not the presence of homeless people in Burien. In a deposition last week, Burien Police Chief Ted Boe said his deputies spend most of their time responding to emergency calls, which “means we do not have capacity to provide continual management and oversight of conduct in encampments of unhoused persons that have been part of the community for the entire time I have worked with the City.”

Boe, who has been Burien’s police chief since 2018, said he had no issues getting people living unsheltered in Burien to “voluntarily move” when asked— until the city council hired Bailon in 2022.

Starting that year, Boe said, Bailon “put continual pressure on me to redeploy resources away from other public safety matters such as 911 calls and to address several non-criminal aspects of camping. I requested he provide support for addressing non-criminal behaviors to prevent police from being responsible for managing camp rules.”

PubliCola is supported entirely by readers like you.
CLICK BELOW to become a one-time or monthly contributor.

Support PubliCola

 

Boe also revealed that during a recent conversation with Bailon, the city manager told him he “would be demanding that I be removed as the City’s Chief” and replaced by someone who would be willing to accede to Bailon’s demands.

Another option the city is reportedly considering: Hiring their own police force, and ditching their contract with the county. This, however, would almost certainly be more expensive than the county contract. When the city looked into creating its own police force in 2011, a consultant concluded that it would cost between 12 and 35 percent more for the city to fund a similar level of service. Policing makes up about 45 per cent of Burien’s annual general-fund budget.

“I have grown to love this community and it is upsetting to have this assignment taken away for doing what I not only believe is right, but what I think our courts expect me to do as a police leader in Washington,” Boe said in his deposition.

At tonight’s Burien City Council meeting, the council will discuss a proposal to take away federal ARPA dollars that the council allocated to a day center for homeless Burien residents at Highline United Methodist Church last year. Opponents of providing shelter and services to homeless Burien residents have made similar arguments against providing them an indoor space to be (and access services) during the day, claiming that they will bring drugs and violence into the area.