Homeless camping legislation advocate: ‘I’ve never seen anything like this’

Lisa Daugaard and KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson had a lot to clear up about the proposed legislation before the Seattle City Council that Dori believes would open up a swath of parks and sidewalks to tent camping in Seattle.

Daugaard, director of the Publican Defender Association and an author of the legislation, spoke with Dori several weeks ago and said she was happy to return to try and clear up any apparent misunderstandings.

“So much of what’s going on right now I regret to see because I think that there is a great deal of misunderstanding and a missed opportunity to have some common cause around this,” she said.

“What people are upset about, understandably and legitimately, is the status quo. It is not caused by this ordinance. This ordinance is attempting to sort out a very chaotic situation and establish that actually we are really not gonna allow camping …”

You can listen to the full audio below, but here’s a rundown of their exchange:

Do you acknowledge that this legislation is horribly flawed?

Daugaard: “Well, no. The legislation that people are talking about has no relationship to the ideas that are actually on the table. I’ve really never seen anything quite like this. I acknowledge that people are hearing that there is some proposal to open up parks to public camping. This is completely untrue.”

We received video proving that tents are being set up in an Interbay park where football games are being played. You said that wouldn’t happen.

Daugaard: “This ordinance is not in place. The Interbay example is happening now. … The point was not to say that people could never pitch a tent in a park. The point of our legislation that many people have worked on was actually to make it easier and faster to remove encampments from places that are not appropriate, which includes any activated developed areas of parks, for sure. There is absolutely no disagreement about that.”

I thought you could only remove them if the city offers them an alternate place to live?

Daugaard: “That’s not true. … Even the originally introduced version reduced the maximum amount of time that the city would have to wait to move people from an unsuitable or unsafe location in 48 hours.”

So you don’t need to provide alternative place to live?

Daugaard: “No, you just have to tell them where else they can go. You don’t have to provide them with any kind of housing. When people ask the question, ‘Dori, where can I go?’ You should answer the question and that could be, ‘You know what, that open field across the street is a place that isn’t unsuitable.’ That doesn’t mean the city is providing a place for those people to go.”

Why is someone owed an alternative if they set up on a playfield?

Daugaard: “You’re not taking yes for an answer. We all agree, everyone agrees about that. Everybody agrees that people should not be living in parks, on sidewalks that are being utilized for residential or business purposes. There is universal agreement about that and the legislation that was proposed, and is being discussed, would only tighten and reduce the amount of time necessary to remove those encampments.”

Would the proposed legislation codify that people can be removed within 48 hours if set up in a park inappropriately?

Daugaard: “Current discussion was actually immediately, so long as the person was physically there and, at most up to 24 hours.”

Should the laws be changed so taxpayers are allowed to camp for 24 hours at places like Golden Gardens and Magnussen Park?

Daugaard: “To be honest, I don’t have a good answer to that question. I suspect many of us would like to camp at Golden Gardens and probably some people have done that. … No one should be living in parks.”

But under the proposed legislation, homeless people would be allowed to tent camp for 24 hours at Golden Gardens.

Daugaard: “It’s not a question of allowed. I think the use of the word allowed is really unhelpful. If you were tent camping or some high school kids were tent camping at Golden Gardens because it’s really super fun, even though, it’s not allowed, if the police found that they did that, should they immediately confiscate all their stuff and move it over to West Seattle?”

Yes. But police will give them 24 hours to leave.

Daugaard: “Again, no. If the people are there, the police, or whoever, can immediately remove them. If they are not there — bear in mind, this is people’s entire household, entire set of possessions in many cases — to give people some period of time to come back and give notice that this is not a place you can be; you need to move your stuff or it will be confiscated. That’s the point of this. Right now it’s 72 hours.”

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