It feels like Groundhog Day: once again, the Mayor’s office and the City Council are at war over when it’s appropriate to remove unsanctioned homeless encampments. But COVID-19 puts a new twist on this never-ending debate.
Continue readingTag: sweeps
Council members attempt to further restrict “sweeps” of homeless encampments during COVID emergency
This week, Council members Morales, Sawant and Mosqueda are introducing a bill that would further restrict the city’s cleanups of unsanctioned homeless encampments during the COVID-19 emergency.
Continue readingCatching up on some old court cases with recent twists
Since the Council’s schedule is currently reduced due to the COVID-19 response, it’s a god time to catch up on some of the city’s ongoing litigation. There are four cases that have been kicking around for a while and recently saw some activity.
Continue readingSeattle notches another win in court
Last Friday the City of Seattle got another win in court, as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to certify class-action status to a challenge to the city’s process of “sweeping” homeless encampments.
Continue readingCouncil looks to fine-tune reporting on homeless encampment cleanups
Earlier this week, Council member Kshama Sawant held a discussion in her committee to push for some revisions in how the city reports on scheduled encampment cleanups.
Continue readingNotes from today’s meetings
Here are some highlights and notes from today’s City Council meetings.
Continue readingRevised budget “balancing package” released; showdown imminent over head tax
Monday afternoon Budget chair Lisa Herbold released her “revised balancing package” proposal for the 2018 city budget. Tuesday morning she begins to lead her fellow Council members in deliberations and votes on the items in the package. The big contentious issue, the employee-hours tax (or “HOMES tax,” or “head tax”), is still in the package, and in fact will be the first item up for discussion and vote. It won’t be pretty.
Continue readingCouncil continues to refine 2018 budget
Yesterday the City Council spent most of the day looking at 59 proposals to further refine the proposed budget for 2018. And a few of them got heated.
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.
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