In the crosshairs: ML Council discusses homelessness

MOSES LAKE — In an attempt to comply with a federal court’s ruling with regard to homelessness, Moses Lake City Council members seem to be leaning in the direction of designating a public space, such as a park, where homeless people are allowed to set up camp.

In early September the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down its decision in Martin vs. City of Boise, ruling city ordinances can violate the Eighth Amendment, which relates to cruel and unusual punishments, if they impose criminal penalties for homeless people who sleep outdoors or on public property when there isn’t a shelter available for them to use.

During Tuesday’s Moses Lake City Council study session City Attorney Katherine Kenison explained to the council the ins and outs of the decision and what it means for the city. What the decision didn’t do is mandate that cities provide homeless shelters. Nor did it state cities cannot enforce the ordinances they currently have in place.

What the Boise decision did say, however, is that if ordinances are imposed and criminal/civil penalties are levied against violators, those penalties violate the Eighth Amendment due to the decision, according to Kenison, “elevating the status of being homeless to a protected legal status.”

Most cities have some sort of regulations in place that prohibit camping in city limits. The problem with that is regardless of how the regulations are worded they can still be challenged in light of the Boise decision. As the city’s chief legal counsel Kenison strongly recommended against enforcing the camping regulations the city already has on the books, as potential litigation in a constitutional violation case would prove to be costly.

“There is a lot of money in national coalitions that are supporting the efforts of folks to...I hate to say this out loud, but if you read their dialogue in their press releases and their responses to the 9th Circuit ruling, they are very interested in using the 9th Circuit decision as a tool to force cities to be the provider for homelessness. We are supposed to be the solution. So there is a lot of money and a lot of interest behind getting some of these cases to go on up and further expand this area of law.”

With no homeless shelter in Moses Lake, city officials have been forced to find another option to address the public outcry after several homeless camps have sprung up in the city at high-exposure areas in the wake of the Boise decision.

Kenison explained there are several cities that have opened up a public place, such as a park, for camping, their rationale being that as long as the they are providing a place on public property they are complying with the Boise decision and can enforce anti-camping regulations at other public places.

An alternative but similar solution, which Vancouver has been enforcing since 2015, would be designating certain hours people can park/camp at a public space, but stipulating during daytime hours they are off-limits for setting up camp. The only problem with that course of action, Kenison says, is assuming people will leave the area during the day, as well as people leaving their property at the location where they camped, which in turn is typically gathered by the respective city. Courts have ruled the gathering of the left belongings constitutes unlawful seizure of personal possessions and violates the Fourth Amendment.

During Tuesday’s study session Kenison offered her legal opinion that having a designated area or areas for the homeless would put the city into compliance with the Boise decision’s rationale as long as the entire homeless population is accommodated. Council members seemed to be in agreement with that sentiment Tuesday night.

“I like this idea of a designated space. Though we did hear the example of Walla Walla about ‘Camp Anarchy,’ as they called it, with no rules and how bad of an idea that was,” council member Don Myers remarked.

Moses Lake Police Department Chief Kevin Fuhr strongly encouraged against mirroring cities like Seattle that have turned “a blind eye to the narcotics use and stuff like that” in the designated spaces, which he says leads to issues like the one in Walla Walla with regard to the aforementioned “Camp Anarchy.”

“What our goal is if we can designate an area, or build something, that is the area that they are to use and then anybody that decides to not use that, then we can enforce on them. Or, in what happened before the decision is, they end up in other areas around the city using private property or areas that are less visible,” the chief said.

“If we designated a park for them to use that doesn’t preclude us (the police department) from being able to walk around the park.”

No decision was made on the matter during Tuesday night’s study session.