BURIEN, Wash. — Hiram Diaz has been living on Burien’s streets for just a few months but already says he’s had to move multiple times around the city, and it’s hard to keep up.
“They don’t accept us because we’re not wealthy or dressed nice like them or on their level,” Diaz said.
But Diaz may have to get ready to move again.
During Monday’s city council meeting, Burien leaders met to discuss what can be done to address camping on public property in the city.
The council decided to consider implementing a camping ban, but before making an official decision, it took a look at how its neighboring cities put their ordinances together.
Bellevue, SeaTac, Auburn, and Kent were all studied, and City Attorney Garmon Newsom II highlighted a common issue in all of them that Burien leaders need to be aware of when it comes to instituting a camping ban for Burien.
“People inherently, as human beings need an opportunity to rest, whether they sleep or lie down or whatever it is, they need that opportunity, and that’s what we can’t criminalize if that have no other options,” Newsom said. “All of these ordinances, though they’re not identical, they generally have the same concept of, sure they outlaw sleeping, resting, residing on public property, but all of them contain some language that addresses the need to have an exception if the person has no place to go.”
Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon also mentioned that there’s only so much the city can do with the resources they have when it comes to providing shelter.
“People typically think of Burien and SeaTac as being very similar, but once we start looking at the actual differences, we see that they have three times the money we do on an annual basis.”
However, Diaz said a camping ban may actually be a positive thing for Burien.
“That would’ve prevented a lot of this,” he said. “All this chaos, and making Burien look bad because we’re over here and people are just on the loose, there’s no structure.”
An official proposal for a camping ban could be presented to the Burien City Council as early as next Monday. However, that won’t be confirmed until the council’s schedule comes out later this week.