PORT TOWNSEND — The Board of Jefferson County Commissioners discussed updating its policy on the removal of unauthorized homeless encampments on county-owned land.
“The overarching theme to the policy is that being homeless is not a crime,” Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ariel Speser said in a Monday workshop.
While the potential action of adopting an updated policy was noted for the workshop, Speser advised the commissioners to give the county’s legal team until the Nov. 3 board meeting to update the code.
A workshop led by Speser covered a short list of updates to the policy, which has been in place since 2023, including adopting a public health framework for encampment response, aligning policy with new case law and ensuring internal consistency with operations and code.
“Ultimately, the policy revisions seek to balance the county’s interests,” Speser said. “First and foremost, treating all people with care, dignity and respect, ensuring the safety and security of public county employees and county property, and protecting the public’s ability to access county property for allowable uses.”
A table of contents for the draft included sections to address notice requirements, identification of alternative sites or shelters, site cleanups, storage of residents’ personal property and recovery of stored property.
While the county cannot require service providers to engage encampments, a requirement that the county invite service providers to engage populations living at encampments set to be removed was included in the draft.
“The policy kind of tries to reach a balance where it says, ‘At minimum, here’s what the county is going to do, what they’re required to do, but in addition, we’re going to work really, really hard to make sure that there’s all these other wraparound services being provided to the extent that other service providers are available and willing to do that,’” Speser said.
The policy would outline the county’s requirements before removal, during removal and after removal, Speser said.
While removal should be seen as a last resort, the county would retain the ability to remove encampments. As it was written Monday, the draft policy required at least 72 hours notice and no more than seven days, unless immediate safety concerns are present, Speser said.
Well Organized Jefferson County’s co-director Cendre Hunt said in public comment that they appreciated the public health framing of the draft policy update, the added clarity around timelines and attention to property storage and outreach, but the document left room for improvement.
“As written, the policy still leaves much room for people to be displaced without anywhere safe or appropriate to go,” Hunt said.
Well Organized requested five amendments: One, adopt a no displacement without placement rule. Two, define low-barrier and no-barrier shelters clearly. Three, limit emphasis areas so they don’t become broad exclusion areas. Four, connect the policy to the county’s comprehensive plan housing element and House Bill 1220 with measurable housing equity goals. And five, strengthen notice, accountability and public health oversight, ensuring removals happen transparently and safely.
Speser noted that the time frames chosen were a synthesis of policies that the legal team looked at in creating the draft.
As a policy matter, the BOCC has discretion to change the time frame, Speser said.
“It’s the hardest decision that we have to make,” Commissioner Greg Brotherton said.
The county’s past efforts to improve the encampment removal code were delayed as major cases played out in the U.S. Supreme Court, Speser said.
Last year’s City of Grants Pass v. Johnson ruling overturned a 2018 ruling — Martin v. City of Boise — which prevented the criminalization of individuals sleeping or camping in public when no shelter is available.
“Jefferson County has the opportunity and the moral responsibility to uphold the higher standards,” Hunt said. “Our community is more compassionate than the federal minimum.”
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah. sussman@peninsuladailynews.com.
