3 Pierce senators introduce bills aimed at reducing homelessness

Three Republican state lawmakers who represent Pierce County released their plans on Tuesday to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness in Washington, stressing they want to work with Democrats who control the Legislature.

Sen. Hans Zeiger, R-Puyallup, noted that a recent Crosscut/Elway poll found that voters ranked homelessness as the top issue that lawmakers must address.

“The reality is people are facing housing insecurity. The reality is people are suffering from substance abuse disorder and mental illness. The reality is people are living on our streets and the reality is people are facing unsafe conditions. The people I’m describing are not all homeless, but they are deeply affected by homelessness,” Zeiger said at a press conference.

Gov. Jay Inslee has proposed spending more than $300 million to add 2,100 shelter beds and take other steps to reduce homelessness. On a per-capita basis, Washington ranks fifth in the nation in unsheltered homeless individuals, with about 10,000 people on any given night living outside or in places unfit for human habitation, according to the state.

The GOP senators said the state has budgeted $625 million over two years to combat homelessness and they want to work with Democratic lawmakers on programs that can be measured for success or failure.

At an earlier event, Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig, D-Spokane, said “homelessness and housing is an area where I think there’s a lot of opportunity to work across the aisle.”

Zeiger is sponsoring bills to lower impact fees to make it easier to build affordable housing, guarantee services to those with substance abuse disorders, help cities launch employment programs for homeless adults, and increase penalties for the illegal manufacture of fentanyl.

Sen. Steve O’Ban, R-University Place, is sponsoring a measure to create a special guardianship program. It would allow a local government to appoint a family member or a social worker — with court approval — to make sure individuals experiencing homelessness get mental health and/or substance abuse treatment.

“If they refuse it — just like if your 95-year-old grandmother who is suffering from dementia refuses cancer treatment or refuses some other vital treatment — you can substitute your consent for that of the individual who is impaired by their condition,” he said.

O’Ban said last summer, as part of an outreach effort by the Tacoma Rescue Mission, he met a former administrator at a law firm who was living at a homeless encampment and “enslaved by a drug addiction.” He said he urged the man to go to a shelter. Two weeks later, O’Ban said he learned from the shelter that the man had not sought help.

“We basically wait until they finally choose to get help, get shelter, get services for their underlying drug addiction. In many, many cases, it’s too late. They perish. They are victimized by others. They die of an overdose. It’s time that we think of these individuals as if they were our own children,” he said.

California has a similar guardianship program that state officials are testing in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. O’Ban’s bill would establish a pilot project in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties.

Sen. Phil Fortunato, R-Auburn, is sponsoring a bill to require local governments to provide a “secure” location for homeless individuals to camp, and provide them services, including employment assistance and mental health and drug counseling. Those services would be funded by the state’s Housing Trust Fund, he said.

“The fence is to keep people out, keep drug traffickers and sex traffickers out, so these people can get the counseling and services that they need,” he said.

In 2018, a federal appeals court ruled that local governments can’t criminalize homelessness — such as arresting people for camping on public property — if shelter beds are not available. Fortunato said his bill is in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last month to not hear an appeal challenging that ruling.

This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 5:45 AM with the headline "3 Pierce senators introduce bills aimed at reducing homelessness."