Lacey ban on tent city challenged

By Christian Hill | The Olympian • Published June 03, 2008

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LACEY – Advocates for the homeless have sued Lacey to overturn a law that bans a tent city and instead requires churches to shelter the homeless indoors.

The lawsuit claims the City Council did not follow proper procedure before it approved the law April 24 by a 4-3 vote.

Panza, a nonprofit group that supports Camp Quixote, Olympia's tent city; Selena Kilmoyer, Panza's secretary; and three residents who attend churches in Lacey — Elizabeth Penney, Ronna Smith and Donald Stern — filed the lawsuit in Thurston County Superior Court.

The lawsuit contends that while the city posted meeting notices and held public hearings and other meetings both before the Lacey Planning Commission and City Council on a draft law regulating temporary homeless encampments, no such steps were taken for a later draft that required faith-based groups to shelter the homeless inside their churches.

As a result, supporters of the law were uninformed that Lacey churches don't have adequate room to both shelter the homeless and minister to their congregations, Kilmoyer said.

The pastor of at least one Lacey church interested in hosting a tent city has said it couldn't house the homeless with such a requirement.

"There would have been an opportunity for church members to testify and state this effect," Kilmoyer said of the added public review. "It may have made a difference."

City Attorney Ken Ahlf said Lacey is reviewing the lawsuit, filed May 23, and will respond to the allegations in the complaint but noted the planning commission and council meetings "were totally open to the public."

Deputy Mayor John Darby and council members Ann Burgman, Jason Hearn and Tom Nelson voted for the law.

Mayor Graeme Sackrison, Virgil Clarkson and Mary Dean opposed it.

Superior Court Judge Gary Tabor has been assigned the case. A court hearing is scheduled Aug. 22.