February 22, 2006

By LAURA PEACH
Contributing Writer

A House bill recently proposed for legislative review is seeking to create minimum housing standards for all homeless shelters that are equal to the state requirements for housing migrant agricultural workers. If the state legislature approves the bill, it may endanger the existence of Tent Cities throughout King County.

Tent City is a housing establishment which provides basic temporary shelter — such as a place to sleep and a portable toilet — for about 100 individuals at each site for up to three months at a time.

The bill, sponsored by Representatives Toby Nixon (R - Woodinville) and Al O’Brien (D - Bothell), would require all transitional housing establishments to include amenities like insulation and heat and to create dormitory-style housing for unrelated individuals and communal housing for families.

Tent City 4 was recently hosted in Kirkland, where Representative Nixon lives. As he came in contact with Tent City, he was “appalled by the low standards of infrastructure,” according to his legislative assistant. Nixon maintains that the creation of these standards would be “entirely beneficial for those individuals” (whom the legislation terms as “our friends, neighbors, co-workers, and fellow citizens who find themselves temporarily homeless”).

Nixon “thought that it would be better for [people in transitional situations] to have an expectation of plumbing, for example.”

No funding is provided to help the transitional housing establishments meet the new codes. The bill would technically place the demands for the housing requirements on the property owner — meaning the faith-based institutions such as churches, schools, and synagogues that allow Tent City to occupy their space for a given period of time.

Ted Hunter, the attorney for SHARE/WHEEL, which organizes Tent City, thinks that the bill is inappropriate because it applies the same standard to two different situations.

“ The problem of homelessness and migrant agricultural workers are different. Why would we treat them the same? Migrant agricultural workers are coming back year after year, whereas the homeless are in emergency situations and need immediate shelter.”

“ It puts statewide restrictions on land use, which should be up to cities and counties. Cities and counties are doing a fine job of regulating land use.”

The institutions that host each Tent City are required to obtain a land-use permit from their city, and both Tent City and the institution must adhere to the conditions that the permit sets.

Tent Cities have strict regulations about maintaining a high standard of cleanliness. Residents are forbidden to litter, and patrols are established to ensure that the surrounding streets and sidewalks are clean. Public Health officials monitor each site, and Tent City complies with their standards and recommendations.

The legislation incorporates some vague terminology that could be open to litigation, such as the phrase that transitional housing should be “substantially equivalent” to that of migrant agricultural workers.

It also contains an emergency clause, which would allow it to take immediate effect if it passes. “There is an emergency need for suitable housing,” Hunter says, “but all this bill is going to do is put more people on the street.”