Rantz: Democrats try to legalize lawless homeless encampments statewide

Ridiculously pleased by Seattle’s institutional legalization of camping out wherever homeless individuals choose, state Democrats hope to bring out-of-control encampments statewide.

After all, why shouldn’t Longview, Sumner, Dupont, or Issaquah experience the daily life of hopping over human suffering — instead of getting them treatment — like Seattleites get to do every day?

House Bill 1591 would legalize homeless encampments statewide, granting them a homeless bill of rights. Among their rights:

• the right to survive in a nonobstructive manner;
• the right to shelter oneself from the elements in a nonobstructive manner;
• the right to occupy a motor vehicle or recreational vehicle, provided that it is legally parked on public property or parked on private property with the permission of the property owner; and
• the right to a reasonable expectation of privacy in one’s personal property

Violate these newly-created rights to keep people on the streets, and you’ll be civilly liable. And the burden of proof to show you’re not guilty would be shifted towards you, of course.

This bill would be an unmitigated disaster.

To give themselves cover, House Democrats cite Martin v. City of Boise, which held cities can’t punish homeless individuals for their encampments if there are no beds available for them in shelters. But the court also said you may prohibit the encampments during certain times or in certain locations and you can prohibit camping in front of rights-of-way.

This bill would bring Seattle’s nightmare all across the state and would hurt the homeless more than it would help. Washington isn’t running low on shelter beds. Talk to experts who actually work in the field and you’ll find that there are always beds of some kind available. The problem is that many homeless choose not to take up the resources. They do this for a variety of reasons, including not wanting to follow rules. Rather than punish that kind of destructive behavior, the state wants to codify a reward for adults to do as they please in our streets.

And we know allowing people to camp where they want is bad for them, as well as us. There’s been both a rash of flat-out violent behavior as well as a general degradation of the quality of life that we should expect living in a civilized society.

The easier you make it for people to live on the streets without any consequences, the harder it is to get them into shelter or treatment. The approach to letting the homeless live wherever they want has been an epic failure in King County and Seattle, specifically. The laissez-faire approach, under the guise of “compassion” from activists, has made the problem worse. You’ll hear complaints from a small army of Progressive activists that it’s not compassionate to force the homeless from encampment-to-encampment.

You should reject these small, but loud voices. These Twitter activists take positions so they can proudly tell us how compassionate they are, bullying anyone who veers from their lazy approach, while doing literally no work to address the problem. They take positions to brag about how evolved they are on Twitter, while letting their neighbors suffer on the streets in what the activists weirdly views as dignified. They find it compassionate to let people sleep in alleys, using sidewalks and parks as toilets. I don’t find that compassionate and there’s certainly no dignity in it.

We should provide treatment on demand for addicts living in the streets, while quickly moving otherwise healthy individuals into life-saving shelter with easy access to electricity, plumbing, and resources to get them on their feet.

Activists quickly complain that forcing the homeless into shelters means they’d have to give up some of their belongings. They’re right. The homeless will give up some stolen or found bike parts in order to get help they need so they can actually get a job, pay rent and then buy property to enjoy, rather then hoard. Your belongings do you no good if you can’t hold down a job or an apartment.

Unlike Washington Democrats, I’m not pushing for your “right to survive” when you’re barely surviving due to permissive, regressive policies championed by activist bloggers and Socialists. I want to push for a right to live, not barely survive, which is what we’re asking people to do in order to live on the streets. And, no, you don’t have a right to privacy when you’re living in a series of cardboard boxes in the alleyway behind an apartment complex.

Make it easy for some homeless to not get help, then they won’t get help. How do we know this? Over a decade of worsening homelessness and less-stringent enforcement. We should aggressively fight against this kind of legalizing of encampments. It does no one good and lawmakers need to realize they fight for these contrived rights at their own political peril.

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