4 lawmakers call on WA governor to block Tri-Cities sex offender home
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- Tri-City lawmakers urge governor to suspend siting of LRA home near schools.
- Delegation demands transparency on placement criteria, staffing and safety plans.
- Lawmakers push reforms: buffers, sale disclosure and local prosecutor input.
Tri-City lawmakers are calling on Gov. Bob Ferguson to stop the siting of a Kennewick home for sexually violent predators.
The four-page letter was sent Thursday to Ferguson, Attorney General Nick Brown, and other legislative leaders and state department heads as frustration continues to boil over about the home at Eighth Avenue and Edison Street.
The effort is the strongest rebuke since the lawmakers who penned the letter — Sens. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, and Nikki Torres, R-Pasco, as well as Reps. April Connors, R-Kennewick, and Stephanie Barnard, R-Pasco — had their slate of bills rejected that would have reined in the proposed home.
The “less restrictive alternative” program, known in the community as the “LRA,” would house multiple convicted sex offenders after their prison terms are served. The state’s civil commitment framework ensures that formerly incarcerated individuals have a path toward potential community integration.
But the delegation of Tri-City lawmakers says that does not require placing these programs in neighborhoods with “large concentrations of children.” The proposed home is within a 2-mile radius of five public schools serving 7,400 students.
Sheets of plywood went up this week at the home after vandals broke multiple windows on the property.
“The proposed location raises serious public safety concerns, exposes significant gaps in Washington’s current placement framework, and has generated widespread alarm across the Tri-Cities community,” the Republican lawmakers wrote in their letter.
“We urge the state to immediately suspend consideration of this proposal and undertake a comprehensive review of the siting process and governing standards,” they continued.
The lawmakers said that while the siting was permissible under state the, the proposed location “undermines public confidence in the state’s oversight of sexually violent predator placements and highlights the absence of clear, consistent standards guiding these decisions.”
In addition to shuttering plans to open the home, lawmakers also called on state agencies to offer more transparency on siting criteria, safety plans, staffing models and supervision structures.
They also said the state should work with local governments and police departments to establish clearer site standards that account for neighborhood density, and proximity to schools and child care facilities.
If their concerns were not addressed by the end of the current legislative session, set for Thursday, March 12, the lawmakers say they want their reforms to receive “full consideration and public hearings next legislative session.”
Their reforms would have increased buffers around schools, improved property sale transparency for future homes for that use and allowed county prosecutors to have a say in siting.
Democratic leaders in both state chambers — Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pederson and House Speaker Laurie Jinkins — were also addressed in the letter.
Tri-City concerns ‘unmistakably clear’
“The residents of Kennewick and the broader Tri-Cities region have made their concerns unmistakably clear,” they said. “They are asking for transparency, accountability and reasonable safeguards that protect children and families while ensuring the state fulfills its legal obligations under civil commitment law.”
Tri-City lawmakers also raised concerns with the contracting model.
Currently, Washington state allows private individuals to operate the homes and receive payments through contracts. But nothing prevents those individuals from buying multiple other homes in other communities for the program.
“This raises broader policy questions about whether existing oversight and accountability mechanisms are sufficient when facilities housing sexually violent predators are placed in residential neighborhoods and supported by ongoing state funding,” the lawmakers write.
The Kennewick City Council and Kennewick School Board sent a similar joint resolution to Ferguson demanding the state intervene on the sex offender home placement while calling for more accountability and transparency.
The facility would be a first for Benton and Franklin counties. There are about 25 of the homes in the state, mostly in Western Washington.
There is currently no way to legally prohibit them, but that hasn’t stopped local city councils from taking action to try to limit future homes in their communities.
Both Pasco and Richland have adopted six-month moratoriums on the facility types to allow them more time to study the issue and create laws.
The LRA program is a court-ordered treatment in a setting that’s less restrictive than McNeil Island’s total confinement facility.
The offenders have finished prison terms, then spent time at the special commitment center — on an island in South Puget Sound, near Steilacoom — receiving treatment for mental health issues.
When they are deemed less likely to reoffend, they are released to the homes, where residents must wear GPS tracking devices and have a chaperone if they leave the home.
This story was originally published March 5, 2026 at 8:25 PM with the headline "4 lawmakers call on WA governor to block Tri-Cities sex offender home."
