The saga around Burien’s approach to homelessness continues, with a new plan that could see unhoused residents either relegated to a toxic, noisy plot of land on the periphery of the city or facing criminal penalties.
Another late-breaking proposal to send unhoused Burien residents to a Renton rehab facility was floated by Deputy Mayor Kevin Schilling in a July 25 city council meeting, though this has not yet been approved by the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA).
In June, Real Change reported on the mass resignation of 11 volunteer commissioners over the Burien City Council’s treatment of unhoused residents. Residents had experienced repeated sweeps and little available shelter, leaving many people to continue camping along busy arterials.
Despite constant criticism from progressives, the firm 4-3, right-leaning majority on the council has pressed on with its own plans for addressing the crisis.
At a July 17 meeting, the council reviewed different options for where to site a proposed 35-unit tiny home village that would be contracted out by KCRHA.
Many homelessness advocates had been looking at a city-owned lot in downtown Burien that is currently occupied by a neighboring Toyota dealership on a month-to-month lease. The site is close to public transportation and would be easier for service providers to reach. King County had even offered to free up 100 parking stalls in a nearby park-and-ride garage for the dealership to use in lieu of the lot.
However, the downtown site hit a big snag from the Toyota dealership owners and other local businesses who opposed having a managed encampment on the lot. In a letter to B-Town Blog, owners Alan Anderson and Dean Anderson wrote that siting a camp on the lot could cost their business millions of dollars in revenue.
Dean Anderson and his wife have also donated $6,400 to conservative Burien City Council candidates, including Schilling.
Two alternative sites under consideration included a parcel of land owned by Seattle City Light and an old Highline Public Schools property. The school district has already ruled out the school property, while Burien City Councilmember Sarah Moore said that City Light has plans to utilize its site.
This left only one other potential site: the Northeast Redevelopment Area (NERA), a neighborhood that was demolished because of its close proximity to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Moore said the NERA location was seen as problematic for the three progressive city council members.
“Several of us have very serious concerns about unknown soil contaminants that would have to have been discovered,” she said. “And also that, if it’s legally uninhabitable due to noise and airplane pollution, there would be not only ethical reasons, but legal reasons not to have tiny homes there.”
The tiny homes, which are manufactured by the company Pallet, may not be able to be noise-proofed. Sound levels at NERA can reach as high as 70 decibels.
Burien Mayor Sofia Aragon said that while these were valid concerns, they could be mitigated using the $1 million KCRHA has pledged to set up the tiny house village.
“There were also questions that are very legitimate around noise and how we mitigate that,” Aragon said.
“What do we need to do to make that actually a temporary livable space, and what can $1 million get us?”
Alongside the new tiny home village, Aragon and the three other conservative city council members instructed the Burien City Manager to draft a camping ban ordinance modeled after laws that are already in place in other cities like Bellevue and Portland, Oregon.
The Bellevue ordinance prohibits camping on public property and right of ways. People who violate the law could be charged with misdemeanors.
Progressives like Moore are concerned this plan could punish homeless people for just being homeless and ultimately be counterproductive.
“So here we are with two choices: one is to provide a location, and the other is to ban everyone,” she said. “And I think that there’s a lot of desperation in that decision.”
Aragon disagreed with the characterization that the Burien City Council wants to criminalize its unhoused residents.
“We’re not criminalizing them; we’re telling them where is it safer to stay,” Aragon said. “And so then when they go to that place where we want — where we can safely offer them direction to get what they need, either stable housing or treatment.”
As the Burien’s leadership continues to debate how to address the crisis, conditions for unhoused people may continue to deteriorate. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office reported that between 2012 and 2022, 17 homeless people died in the city.
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the agency responsible for ruling out use of the Highline Public Schools site. The newspaper regrets the error.
Guy Oron is the staff reporter for Real Change. He handles coverage of our weekly news stories. Find them on Twitter, @GuyOron.
Read more of the July 26-Aug. 1, 2023 issue.