State bill aims to keep homeless camps 1,000 feet from schools
Feb 22, 2019, 4:54 AM | Updated: 4:59 am
(Jason Rantz, KTTH)
(Jason Rantz, KTTH)
Pills, meth pipes and piles of trash were found feet behind a Pierce County elementary school last month.
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Officials said the Roy site has since been cleared. Parents hope it doesn’t pop back up.
“You don’t know what kind of people are living on the streets, and you don’t want those bad habits around your kids,” said mother Stephanie Soto.
In Seattle, someone set up a tent right in front of Whitman Middle School last year.
Sen. Curtis King said he’s seen enough. He introduced a bill that would keep homeless camps at least 1,000 feet from schools and child care centers. That adds up to about three football fields in length.
“We have laws that say you can’t put a marijuana store within 1,000 feet of a school or a liquor store. Why would you put a homeless encampment there?” said King.
Ikeem Townes lives in Olympia’s new tiny house village. He believes unregulated sites should be banned but said organized sites, like where he lives, are safe.
“If they’re regulated, then that means you wouldn’t have the drugs and stuff involved, but if they’re unregulated, then no,” he said. “You don’t know who’s inside. You don’t know what their lifestyle may be. They could’ve been a murderer.”
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In December, KIRO 7 found a trashed trail down the road from a school in Olympia.
“There are tents back here, stolen mail, tons of garbage, heroin needles, there are used condoms. It’s pretty terrible,” said Olympia resident Harrison Buck.
However, people who live in Olympia’s downtown tent city said the bill isn’t fair.
“Everybody has rights, and sometimes when people are down on their luck, sometimes they frown upon that and they feel like they can bully you, so that’s the part where I feel like it’s wrong at,” said Jeremy Scott, who lives in an Olympia unregulated site.
Officials with the City of Olympia and Thurston County said there have been homeless camps near schools in the past, but they don’t know of any current camps within 1,000 feet of a school.
