Colleagues,
Thanks to Greg Walker for alerting all of us to the proposed changes to Tacoma's City Code which are coming through Metro Parks and which target people experiencing homelessness sleeping in Metro Parks.  

Surely removing the walls from tents and other sleeping structures is not the solution to homelessness we seek.  We can all see some homeless people in local parks but we cannot see others - we don't know how many families with children or unaccompanied youth or people with disabilities are hidden within our parks.  Is the mother with her five month old baby recently reported on this listserve staying in one of the parks?  Is she safe?  Is her baby safe?  Tacoma does not provide safe sleeping places for everyone who is homeless and we know the shelters are full.  Tacoma has not even extended the Emergency Ordinance nor committed to continuing the Stability Site past the end of this year.

Fortunately, the public process of city code change provides us with opportunities to act.

The Metro Parks Board Minutes of July 22 provides the timeline in the Study Session portion of the minutes which I have attached.    This proposed code change has been in the works from the City for sometime now.  I don't know if any of the homeless providers have been privy to it.  Perhaps it has come up at Coalition meetings I have missed?  (With apologies for not reading the minutes.)   
 
Key dates:  
   Aug. 20 - Metro Parks Policy Group meets
   Aug. 22 - City Council Community Vitality & Safety committee meets to consider proposed changes - homelessness goes through this committee
   Aug. 28 - Metro Parks closes public comment
   Sept 9 - Metro Parks Board considers proposed changes to code; if adopted, process passes to the City
   Oct. 1 - City Council holds first reading of ordinance to change the code and holds the required public hearing.
   Oct. 8 - City Council holds second reading of ordinance to change the code and adopts the changes.

These are the links to the Metro Parks Board and the Public Comment Survey which closes Aug. 28:  Make sure you comment.  It's an easy click. 

Link to comment section: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ParkCode

The meeting agenda for 8/22 is not yet on-line.  I will forward it in a later email.  This committee meets at 4:30pm in City Hall.  CM Blocker is the committee chair.

Here are some suggestions I will bring to the Coalition to End Homelessness tomorrow as a way to think about and formulate our responses:

    1.  Homeless people need a safe place to sleep.  The City knows the existing shelters are full and the Stability Site has a waiting list of 80 single adults (last figure I know of).
    2.  We know some homeless people are sleeping in Metro parks.  We do not know how many.  Nor do we know how many people sleeping in Metro parks are not visible to the public and may include families with children or unaccompanied youth.  
    3.  The City has a homeless outreach team on staff and also funds nonprofits to provide similar outreach services.  The Tacoma Police Dept has a homeless outreach team.  We do not know how many incidents they report - how often they are afraid to approach the people in the tents, the number of unattended overdoses, number of violent incidents. 
    4.  Removing tent walls is not a solution to homelessness.  
    5.  We want solutions to homelessness.  We call on the Mayor to create a Task Force of Stakeholders to create a plan similar to the Affordable Housing Action Strategy addressing homelessness.  
    6.  We are opposed to the proposed City code change concerning structures in parks and ask you to remove that item from the proposed changes. 

I have also reached out to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty for assistance. 

Thank you for your work, 
Maureen

MaureenHowardConsulting
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