King County Sheriff Sues Burien Over Homelessness Ban

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King County Sheriff Sues Burien Over Homelessness Ban - PubliCola

By Erica C. Barnett In an unusual move, King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall announced Monday that her office is…

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King County Sheriff Sues Burien Over Homelessness Ban​

King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall, King County senior deputy prosecutor Erin Overbey​

By Erica C. Barnett

In an unusual move, King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall announced Monday that her office is suing the city of Burien over its total ban on living unsheltered in the city, calling the law a violation of the rights affirmed in a consequential 2019 case, Martin v. Boise, which prevents cities in the Wastern US from banning homeless people from public spaces unless adequate shelter is available.

Last Friday, the sheriff’s office informed the city that they would not be arresting people for violating the new homelessness ban. Since then, city manager Adolfo Bailon has directed the city to stop paying the sheriff’s office millions of dollars the city is obligated to pay under a contract with the sheriff’s office, which serves as Burien’s police force. In his previous position, Bailon was city manager of a small town in Vermont whose entire police force “drifted away” during the year he was there, leading the town to disband the force.

Cole-Tindall acknowledged that there have been “some challenges with the city, and specifically the city manager.”

“We have an obligation to avoid engaging in conduct that has been addressed in federal litigation and found to be unconstitutional,” Cole-Tindall said Monday. “As law enforcement officers, we must uphold the state [constitution] and the Constitution of the United States of America, and if there is a law that is not constitutional, I cannot in good conscience have my people enforce that.”

Burien’s new law expands on an earlier sleeping ban, prohibiting people from “living” on all nonresidential public land at all hours of the day or night; previously, people were allowed to sleep outdoors on some sidewalks. The law pays lip service to Martin by saying that the police can’t arrest people for being homeless if shelter is available, but the city has interpreted this requirement to include shelter in Seattle or Bellevue, neither of which is accessible to Burien.

The new law also creates 500-foot “buffers” around all schools, parks, day cares, and libraries, effectively banning homeless people from around 80 percent of the city, and gives City Manager Adolfo Bailon absolute power to expand these “buffers” at any time to include any other land in the city for any reason.

Burien has posted no signs identifying the exclusion zones, nor has it ever directly designated or posted notices identifying areas where the homeless are permitted to engage in “living space” activities,” which include not just sleeping but possessing items that “indicate” camping, like tents, tarps, and survival gear such as blankets.

“The city manager seems to have unfettered discretion in drawing a line at any point and in any way which he deems appropriate, without any real public comment or notice or opportunity to be heard,” Senior Deputy King County Prosecutor Erin Overbey said Monday.

In response to Cole-Tindall’s directive to deputies not to enforce the new ordinance, Bailon “reacted strongly,” according to the lawsuit, and directed the city to stop paying the county for its police services, which, according to the lawsuit, the city has done.

Last Thursday, one day before the sheriff’s office told the city it would not enforce the new law, Bailon sent a letter to Evergreen Treatment Services announcing that the city was terminating its brand-new outreach contract with ETS’ outreach arm, REACH, because “businesses within the Downtown core … have reported to the city a lack of outreach from the Neighborhood Outreach Coordinator.”

Representatives for REACH did not return calls for comment Monday.

In his letter to ETS, Bailon also accused a nonprofit set up last year to run a temporary tent city at a Burien church of “creat[ing]” an encampment in downtown Burien—suggesting that the group, run by former city council member Cydney Moore, is tactically deploying homeless people to areas where they will be visible and inconvenient. The encampment, notably, is the same site where City Councilmember Linda Akey was recently caught on tape verbally attacking a group of unsheltered people sleeping on the sidewalk near her luxury condo. That video, which was first reported by PubliCola, made international news last month.

Burien has been pushing unsheltered people around the city since last March, when the city swept an encampment in front of the City Hall. As the county’s lawsuit notes, “Burien’s actions on homelessness succeeded only in shuffling unhoused people from City Hall to the dog park lot”—a piece of public land the city leased the land to a private animal shelter in order to evict the homeless people living there—to the triangle encampment [on Ambaum Way] to the church and then back again to City Hall, while never offering them any authorized camping location.”

REACH worked with the sheriff’s office to offer services and shelter to encampment residents when sheriff’s deputies enforced an earlier, less-expansive version of the outdoor sleeping ban; according to Cole-Tindall, no one was ever arrested under that version of the law. “REACH has been a real benefit to the sheriff’s office,” Cole-Tindall said. “They’ve been collaborating with us for many, many months. So the loss of that resource will adversely impact the work of the sheriff’s deputies.”

The future of Martin v. Boise is an open question, as the US Supreme Court gears up to hear arguments in a case that will decide whether cities have to ensure adequate shelter before removing or arresting people next month. Meanwhile, another lawsuit is moving forward that’s based on the Washington State Constitution’s prohibition on “cruel punishment”; that lawsuit will not be affected if the US Supreme Court overturns or alters the lower court’s findings in Martin.

 

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Burien Councilmember Tells Unsheltered People Outside Her Condo Building: "I Have Authority. I Live Here and You Do Not" - PubliCola

By Erica C. Barnett Recently elected Burien City Councilmember Linda Akey was caught on tape confronting a group of unsheltered…

publicola.com

Burien Councilmember Tells Unsheltered People Outside Her Condo Building: “I Have Authority. I Live Here and You Do Not”​

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By Erica C. Barnett

Recently elected Burien City Councilmember Linda Akey was caught on tape confronting a group of unsheltered people last week outside her condo building in downtown Burien. The group, who had set up tents on the sidewalk under the building’s awning, are among dozens now sleeping on sidewalks around Burien after the council imposed a daytime encampment ban that requires people to pick up sleeping bags, tents, backpacks, and other “indicae of camping” by 6:00 every morning.

In the video, Akey can be seen telling people that they are “trespassing” and threatening to call the police on them if they don’t move their tents at least five feet away from her building and onto the public portion of the sidewalk. Every tent shown in the video appears to be well over five feet from the building.

“I have authority. I have authority. I live here and you do not belong here,” Akey says. “You’ve gotta move all the tents out of here. We will call the police,” she continues.

In an email, Akey said she was “not acting in any capacity as a government official” in the video, “but as a homeowner. I want to work toward positive solutions. I recognize I may look angry and I apologize for raising my voice.”

“Get away from here, move away from here. If you don’t want my attitude, then leave, take your tent. Residents live up here. … I live here and you do not belong here.”

“On the night in question, I approached individuals camped on the sidewalk, informing them of condo policies and city ordinances,” Akey continued. “While I empathize with their challenges, ensuring everyone’s safety is a top priority.”

In the video, as some of the people on the sidewalk begin to heckle Akey—”take your drunk ass home,’ one says—Akey continues: “I’m trying to help you. I’m trying to help you, okay? And everybody out by 6 am, okay? I want all tents gone by 6 am. If you need to start at 5am to do that, then you do that. You can laugh at me all you want, but the law says 6 am.”

At this point in the tape, a person tells Akey, who has walked behind a tent in the foreground, to “get away from my tent.” She responds, “Oh, no—get out from under where I live. … Get away from here, move away from here. If you don’t want my attitude, then leave, take your tent. Residents live up here.” The video shows Akey pointing up at her building. “I live here. I live here. All these people live here. All these residents. All these residents. All these residents. … I live here and you do not belong here.”

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Prior to the adoption of the new law, people living unsheltered in Burien were allowed to stay in public spaces other than parks.

The law says that people can’t be swept from a location unless shelter is available, but does not specify where this “available” shelter has to be. It also allows police to arrest or sweep people who can’t go into available shelter because of “voluntary” actions like active addiction and behavioral health conditions that lead to—as the law puts —”unruly” behavior.

Burien has no year-round shelters for the general population, and the council and city manager repeatedly stalled efforts to open a King County-funded tiny house village somewhere in the city before finally accepting the offer late last year.

When the city began enforcing the new “camping” ban last fall, it scattered the residents of a large encampment on Ambaum Blvd. throughout the city—including back into downtown Burien, where an encampment sweep in March of last year set off a series of events that led to the encampment ban. Akey lives less than a block from the original encampment.

In a second video, one encampment resident calls the experience of looking for housing “a loop you never escape from” while Akey repeats, “I want to get you housing, I want to get you help” and asks them what she can do (“do you mind if we get a shower?” one asks) before telling them, “This is not the place for you to live.”

Near the end of the video, a partially obscured Akey can be seen in an argument with one person, who claims she put her hands on them. “Let’s do it. Right now,” Akey says. “You want to live underneath other people? You guys don’t have to live here. You can live somewhere else. You can accept services. You can turn off the camera.”

In another video that appears to have been taken after the first, the man accompanying Akey (who appears, based on social media photos, to be her husband) tells the group, “you’ve been offered [housing] multiple times,” and claims that “there are programs for everybody.” Several encampment residents respond that this isn’t true—one calls the experience of looking for housing “a loop you never escape from”—while Akey repeats “I want to get you housing, I want to get you help” and asks them what she can do (“do you mind if we get a shower?” one says, laughing) before repeating, “This is not the place for you to live.”

In her email, Akey said her “primary concern is the well-being of all involved. I believe a multi-faceted approach involving residents, social services, and relevant authorities is crucial to address homelessness and addiction.

“One promising strategy is [criminal legal system] diversion programs, which often become more readily available when existing laws are enforced fairly and consistently,” Akey said. “By enforcing existing laws, we can ensure a safer environment for everyone in our community while also providing pathways to support and rehabilitation for those experiencing homelessness and addiction.”

The LEAD program has a contract to offer people accused of several specific misdemeanors, such as drug possession and theft, to bypass the criminal legal system and enroll in case management. The program is not designed as an off-ramp from arrest and prosecution for sleeping outdoors.

Prior to her election, Akey was a frequent public commenter at Burien City Council meetings. In September, when the council passed the encampment ban, she testified that allowing people to sleep outside is a way of “enabling” people. “I know some people reject help; however … sometimes rock bottom helps a person decide their life is unmanageable and that they need help.”

Three homeless Burien residents have sued the city of Burien over its camping ban, arguing that the law criminalizes homelessness.

 

[Voice of Reason]

We are going back to the convict leasing era

 

[WIA20XX]

Wow, just wow.

 

[Geek Nasty]

fukk these guys you saw that camera pan around the city. They‘re camping outside buildings to panhandle and harrass places with the most traffic. I don’t want people shooting up outside my house either.

 

[88m3]

very rare example of a sheriff doing something positive, I still think sheriffs offices need to be abolished /

 

[ORDER_66]

How do you ban homelessness and or criminalize people that are homeless... country is ass backwards!!!

 

[bnew]

fukk these guys you saw that camera pan around the city. They‘re camping outside buildings to panhandle and harrass places with the most traffic. I don’t want people shooting up outside my house either.

where do you want them to camp?

 

[mastermind]

How do you ban homelessness and or criminalize people that are homeless... country is ass backwards!!!

 

[Geek Nasty]

where do you want them to camp?

Anywhere but right outside someone’s front door. You saw all that space around them.