Department of Justice clarifies it won’t endorse the Seattle homeless bill
Oct 18, 2016, 6:10 AM | Updated: 10:50 am
It was a point of contention at a recent Seattle City Council committee meeting. Members went face-to-face with representatives of Mayor Ed Murray’s office over different approaches to the homeless crisis. This included a controversial Seattle homeless bill that defines where people can legally camp in the city.
Related: Seattle homeless czar finally speaks out
Council members Kshama Sawant, Mike O’Brien, Rob Johnson, and Lisa Herbold are in favor of the bill that would create policies and procedures in dealing with encampments in Seattle’s public areas. Other city officials, such as Tim Burgess, are not in favor of it. The mayor unveiled his own alternate plans on Oct. 13.
Then there are the swarms of residents who have fiercely voiced their opposition to the Seattle homeless bill — CB 118794.
But to back up their position, some council members reached out to the United States Department of Justice to review the legislation. They got a letter back from the DOJ, and Sawant had it on hand Oct. 14 while facing the mayor’s office. Sawant read from the letter:
“They say, ‘The department has long encouraged cities to adopt ordinances that protect the constitutional rights of persons experiencing homelessness while attempting to implement policies that address legitimate public health and safety concerns.’ Without question, the bill co-sponsored by us four council members, ‘is consistent with the constitutional principles the department has previously articulated.’ The rest of the letter makes it clear that they do not find anything unconstitutional with this,” she said.
But Ian Warner, legal counsel to the mayor, wasn’t about to let that go. He saw the letter before meeting with the council committee and called up its author — Lisa Foster, director of the Office for Access to Justice with the DOJ. Warner said that there has been some confusion as to whether the DOJ backs Seattle’s homeless bill.
Warner read from the email he received from Foster:
“’This email is intended to clarify the letter that I sent to council members Herbold, Johnson, O’Brien, and Sawant. The Department of Justice does not endorse CB 118794. Rather the letter was intended only to state that the ordinance is consistent with the constitutional principles that the department articulated in Ball v. Boise, which is the Idaho case about criminalizing homelessness which is not something that we do here in Seattle,” he said.
Bell vs. Boise was a recent case which argued the merits of cities’ homeless legislation. It essentially concluded that cities cannot outlaw homelessness.
