Burien Council Bans Sleeping Outside at Night, Still Has No Plan to Address Homelessness
by Erica C. Barnett (This article was originally published on PubliCola and has been reprinted under an agreement.) The Burien City Council voted M...
by Erica C. Barnett (This article was originally published on PubliCola and has been reprinted under an agreement.) The Burien City Council voted Monday night to ban unsheltered people from sleeping in public spaces between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., after failing for more than six months to create any shelter or other legal place for a group of several dozen people to sleep. The vote broke down along the same lines as every previous vote on the encampment, with a four-member majority (Stephanie Mora, Kevin Schilling, Jimmy Matta, and Sofia Aragon) voting to adopt the ban, which is modeled after a similar sleeping ban in Bellevue.