We need more immediate action on the homeless camps

Pat Cole

It seems to me that there are two parts to getting anything done.  One, deciding what to do and two, doing it.   And deciding what to do is sometimes the harder part. 

• Do I go to college or go to work? 
• Do I get married or stay single? 
• Make a career as a performing musician or in construction? 

Making a decision can be agonizing and sleep-depriving, but once we decide then we can make a plan and get after it. 

That seems to be the case with respect to the homeless situation.  So many issues; mental health, drugs and alcohol, poverty, unaffordable housing and on and on. What to do on a local level that’s in our control?

The reality is that the situation is urgent and the jurisdictions have to make decisions and act now.   One item on the Olympia Council’s May 4 agenda is passing an ordinance Declaring a Continuing State of a Public Health Emergency Related to Homelessness and COVID-19. There are a number of “Whereas” statements constituting a list of problems and background that supports the ordinance.   One of them states:

“WHEREAS, the number of homeless persons occupying portions of the downtown zone within the City of Olympia has caused significant and real problems for public health and safety relating to human excrement, urine, trash, refuse, needles associated with drug use; all of which pose a serious and immediate danger to public health”

This alone requires the council to address the specific problems in the camps right away.  The Scattered Site pilot program, while an important and positive step, doesn’t address the downtown, nor many of the camps.  It also is a year-long program and we can’t wait until then to address the other problem locations. 

The ordinance also recognizes some of the barriers we face in determining what we can actually do.  For instance one of the statements reads:

WHEREAS, the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as interpreted by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Martin v. City of Boise, 902 F.3d 1031 (Sept. 4, 2018), precludes the City from enforcing criminal ordinances against homeless persons for sleeping outside on public property when there is no access to alternative shelter or lawful camping sites …

That may answer one question about why the Council isn’t enforcing certain laws pertaining to actions like sleeping on the sidewalks or camping on the right-of-way.  They also acknowledge that the supply of shelter beds is inadequate for the demand, the breadth of causes for homelessness, the lack of resources and that the existing state of affairs constitutes a public health risk.

At the same May 4 meeting, there is a resolution on the agenda to have Interfaith Works build and manage a new 38-bed shelter on Martin Way.  Plus there is an item approving an agreement to sell a parcel of property downtown (the Griswold building) with the requirement that the new owner includes “affordable” housing in the project.

So we see that the Council understands the severity of the problem, causes, and crisis that we face.  This is encouraging.  Unfortunately one wouldn’t know this without looking at the meeting agenda and pulling up the proposed ordinances.   What is still lacking is a way for the public to find out what the Council’s intent is for the camps we have.  We don’t know if they plan to challenge the City of Boise findings so they can be more aggressive in cleaning up the downtown. How are they going to address the “Immediate health danger” that we have?   If it’s immediate, and we need an emergency ordinance to address the problem what’s the plan for the next six months or year?  The Scattered Site program is a year-long “pilot” program, thus it doesn’t address the immediate issues at the other camps. 

From my experience getting current information is a major challenge.  There is virtually no recent communication with the public.  The council meetings are recorded, but the technology to watch them is very poor; I’ve tried a couple of times but there is no indexing, no record of any public comments, and it is a significant challenge to find any specific item on the video.  The only social media presence seems to be Facebook, but most of the postings are similar to what we see in the papers.  

What Olympia has done to date is certainly laudable; they are cleaning, creating housing, and spending a lot of money to address homeless issues.   The part that is missing is what they will do now about the condition of the camps and the immediate and urgent health issues.  In Olympia’s words, they are “Declaring an Emergency”.  The onus is on the local jurisdictions to make these decisions, make them quickly, and communicate to the public in an accessible and timely way. 

Pat Cole is a former member of Olympia's city council. As a private citizen, he is developing plans to assist with efforts to clean up the homeless camps in Thurston County.