Advocates win: City Council votes to allow camps on publicly and privately owned land
The Seattle City Council has approved legislation that will allow the creation of three additional tent encampments for homeless people and, for the first time, allow the encampments to legally operate on privately owned property and city-owned property as easily as tent cities operate on religious property today.
The Seattle City Council unanimously approved the legislation March 30 to cheers from a large crowd of homeless people and advocates at city hall.
The city council also narrowly passed an amendment to the encampment ordinance by Councilmember Kshama Sawant that directs city staff to conduct an environmental review to determine what impacts tent encampments would have on residential property. The study would allow the city council to expand its encampment ordinance to include residential property later if councilmembers choose to.