MONROE – After seeing troubles with homeless encampments in King County, Monroe officials say they are developing rules to head off problems before they move into town.
“We feel it’s better to stay ahead of the curve rather than being reactive,” City Councilman Mitch Ruth said.
The city is drafting an ordinance to place strict regulations on homeless encampments. The City Council may adopt the ordinance in early 2007. If passed, the law will replace interim regulations that the city set in September.
Those regulations require a homeless encampment to obtain a building permit from the city, to be located at least 40 feet from abutting properties, to have a 6-foot tall fencing and restrict residence to people 18 and older.
In July, Everett created similar rules.
Monroe has a homeless shelter for women, the only one in the Skykomish Valley. Many people want to help homeless people, but as the dispute over Tent City 4 in King County has shown, homeless encampments could cause public safety and health issues, Ruth said.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” he said.
There is no homeless encampment in Monroe.
The temporary rules in Monroe also make it mandatory for the sponsor of such an encampment to identify sex offenders.
“It needs to be done,” Ruth said.
In late 2005, the city passed a ordinance, which prohibits level-2 and level-3 sex offenders from living within 750 feet of schools, city-licensed day-care centers, public trails or parks.
The city wants to control how homeless encampments would affect city residents, Mayor Donnetta Walser said.
“Most of them are sponsored by churches with strict guidelines, but not all of them,” Walser said.
Just outside the city of Sultan, homeless people live in an isolated area, Walser said. They have many problems including drug and alcohol abuse and the lack of sanitation, she said.
Homelessness is an issue that goes beyond setting rules on tent cities, Ruth said. It takes a long-term strategy to increase affordable housing and family-wage jobs to reduce homelessness, he said.
The city doesn’t intend to shun homeless people, Ruth said.
“Most people are eager to help the less fortunate than them,” he said.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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