It’s been a whirlwind two days in court, as one of the individuals living in an encampment in Cal Anderson Park attempted to convince a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order to stop the city from clearing out the park. It ended late this afternoon when the judge firmly denied the request.
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Lewis announces first step toward replacing Navigation Team in compromise deal with Mayor’s Office
After three and a half weeks of working behind the scenes today Council member Andrew Lewis announced that an agreement had been reached between the Mayor’s Office, the City Council, and homeless outreach providers on a first step toward replacing the disbanded Navigation Team with a new model for how the city will deal with homeless encampments.
Continue readingMarathon Council meeting on encampment removals ends in impasse, but hints at a better path
The City Council met for five and a half hours this afternoon. The official topic was a proposed bill that would codify restrictions on the removal of unsanctioned homeless encampments, and from time to time the bill garnered a mention or two. In the end there were no votes today on amendments or on the bill itself, and for the most part things concluded right where they began. But there were the occasional nuggets of wisdom shared, and if you squinted you could see hints of a path to get the city to a better place in its attempts to …
Continue readingNotes from today’s Council meetings
For a Tuesday, it sure felt like a Monday.
Continue readingReview of homeless encampment protocols gets stuck in the mud
Last fall when the City Council wrote the budget for 2018, it inserted a proviso on funding for removal and cleanup of unsanctioned homeless encampments. That proviso requires all such funding to be spent in conformance with the Multi-Department Administrative Rule (MDAR) established in January of 2017 that specified the specifics of how cleanups should be carried out. The proviso also spoke to the unease that some of the Council members feel toward that MDAR, and demanded that the executive branch review it and recommend changes by: Furthermore, the Council intends that the Executive shall review MDAR 17-01 and FAS …
Continue readingWar of words over unsanctioned encampment “sweeps” heats up
The ongoing debate over how to handle unsanctioned homeless encampments has become deeply entangled in this year’s budget process, with both sides engaging in a war of words and with competing budget proposals attempting to enforce or modify the encampment removal procedures.
Continue readingOffice of Civil Rights report on encampment removals is a mixed bag
This afternoon the Seattle Office of Civil Rights (SOCR) issued a report on its monitoring of the city’s removals of unsanctioned homeless encampments between May and September of this year. Their conclusion: the city is complying with the MDAR rules, but problems still persist.
Continue readingOffice of Civil Rights once again monitoring homeless encampment cleanups
Earlier this year, the city issued an update to its protocol for cleaning up unsanctioned homeless encampments. Notably missing from those rules was a formal role for the Office of Civil Rights in monitoring implementation and compliance, as it had been doing last fall when the city was accused of not following its own rules. The Office of Civil Rights stopped its monitoring work in January, but after public outcry the city backtracked and said that it would use the department in an “audit capacity.” Last month, three city departments quietly signed a Memorandum of Agreement re-establishing a formal monitoring …
Continue readingJudge denies ACLU’s motion for temporary restraining order on sweeps
This afternoon U.S. District Court Chief Judge Ricardo Martinez issued an order denying the ACLU a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop WSDOT and the City of Seattle from seizing and destroying personal property without due process in cleaning up unsanctioned homeless encampments in Seattle.
Continue readingNews roundup: the SODO arena roars back
Chris Hansen’s surprise announcement yesterday dominates the news this morning.
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