Burien adds 500-foot buffer zones to its existing homeless camping ban

BURIEN, Wash. — The homeless camping ban in Burien now includes buffer zones after city leaders voted to add new restrictions on where tents can be pitched in a vote on Monday night.

A 500-foot perimeter is being added around libraries, schools, daycare facilities, parks, and senior centers. Anyone who sets up a tent within these areas could now receive a citation from police as Burien looks to crack down on illegal camping.

“They want to push us out pretty much,” said Hiram Diaz, who is homeless. “I feel like they don't care about us. We're all human at the end of the day.”

In a 5-2 vote, the Burien City Council amended the existing camping ban to add these buffer zones, leaving a small patchwork of areas where homeless people can still go to camp.

“We're used to this. We're used to them changing laws on us,” said a homeless woman who identified herself as DL. “It's nothing new. We knew that they were going to do this."

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Councilmembers in support of the tighter rules called it a response to ongoing public safety complaints.

“We have a lot of drug abuse and also it's not safe,” said a neighbor named Peggy, who didn’t want to give a last name. “We have had residents in the area who have been attacked and chased by homeless people."

Neighbors said they are dealing with break-ins and trespassers at their homes and businesses. When they review security footage, they said they see the same faces of the people who are sleeping in the nearby park.

“Nobody wants to have somebody breaking their doorway, pooping on their doorstep, lighting fires on their doorstep. That's just not working,” said Dave Gould, who lives in Burien. “On the other hand, they need care."

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By law, people who violate the camping ban can only be given criminal infractions if the city has no available shelter to offer, so how enforcement will look is unclear.

Mayor Kevin Schilling said the goal is to get people to move their tents from inappropriate public spaces and get them to connect with shelters and other services. He said Burien is doing what it can to create more housing opportunities, including a permanent supportive housing facility set to open in May and operated by the Downtown Emergency Service Center. Beyond that hundreds of affordable units are in the works and will start to be available later this year.

Austin Aby, who lives on the streets, said regardless of those efforts, the new rules on camping still seem discriminatory to him.

“They're saying that because we're homeless we can't be in these certain areas or even just exist in one area,” Aby said.

However, many of the neighbors who live near encampments said the needs of the entire community need to be considered.

“It comes down to you have to deal with the issue, but you also need to protect your businesses and your residents,” Peggy said.

Burien is being sued over its original camping ban. The lawsuit claims the ordinance banishes homeless people and is unconstitutional.