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1. What are the rules for conducting a clean-up and what do they entail?

In summary, the Policy outlines the City’s process for: 

• Prioritizing cleanup and removal of encampments. 
• Providing notice when an encampment is scheduled for cleanup. 
• Offering outreach and alternative shelter options. 
• Cleaning up an encampment site. 
• Collecting, cataloguing, and storing personal belongings and how individuals can recover their property. 
• Immediately removing obstructions and immediate hazards. 
• Identifying and specifying emphasis areas that will be subject to daily inspection and immediate removal of any encampment-related materials. 

2. When there is a clean-up, what level of outreach will be conducted and what services offered?

In many cases, outreach occurs before notice of an impending cleanup and after cleanups. Outreach always happens after a cleanup notice has been posted and during the cleanup. The City works with community organizations and other providers to help identify and implement individual solutions that break down barriers preventing unsheltered people from moving indoors. These organizations are helping people with everything from getting legal IDs to finding shelter, from mental health and substance issue services to referrals to affordable housing programs. 

The Policy for Unauthorized Encampments on City Property, requires outreach providers to inform individuals in the encampment of alternative shelter options prior to encampment removal. Those options include housing programs, shelter programs with or without day programs, and “no-barrier” authorized shelter programs.

3. What notice will be required before a scheduled encampment cleanup?

No fewer than 72 hours in advance of a scheduled cleanup, notice will be posted throughout the encampment warning of the removal of all tents, structures and personal property. The notice will include the date it was posted, the dates of the scheduled cleanup, where personal property will be stored and how to retrieve it, and contact information for an outreach provider that can provide shelter alternatives.

4. How and where will the City store personal belongings during the cleanup?

On the dates of the cleanup, staff collect, inventory, photograph and store personal belongings whether or not the individual is present, unless the items are clearly hazardous, a biohazard or evidence of a crime. Information on how to retrieve items from storage is handed to campers (if on site) and posted at the site. 

Items are stored for at least 60 days. Belongings may be recovered by calling 360-414-5002 and accurately describing the items. 

5. What are obstructions or immediate hazard encampments and how is their removal different than other encampments?

An “obstruction” could be people, tents, personal property, solid waste or other objects related to an encampment that are in a City park or on a public sidewalk, interfere with the pedestrian or purposes of public rights-of-way, or interfere with areas that are necessary for or essential to the intended use of a public property or facility. An “immediate hazard” means an encampment where individuals occupying the encampment are at risk of serious injury or death beyond that caused by increased exposure to the elements or their presence creates a risk of serious injury or death to others, or the encampment is causing imminent compromise to the structural and environmental integrity of the surrounding location. This includes encampments at roadway shoulders and off-ramps, areas exposed to moving vehicles, areas that can only be accessed by crossing driving lanes outside of a legal crosswalk, and landslide or flood prone areas, areas at high risk of fire, areas along or on top of river levees and other critical areas where the lack of sanitation facilities results in human solid or liquid waste being discharged in a manner that threatens public health.

6. What are key points of the Policy regarding Unauthorized Encampments on City Property?

The Policy for Unauthorized Encampments on City Property requires the City arrange for outreach resources to come to the encampment site to offer shelter and other services that would be an improved situation than living rough, but individuals have a choice as to whether they accept the offers. However, building relationships through repeated, intensive outreach can be successful in meeting people’s individualized needs to find them a better alternative than an unsafe encampment. 

 The City is not required to provide additional alternatives to individuals who have been previously or are currently excluded from all usual and appropriate alternatives because of the individual’s behavior. 

7. Does the Policy for Unauthorized Encampments on City Property require acceptance of alternative shelter before an encampment can be removed?

The Policy for Unauthorized Encampments on City Property requires the City arrange for outreach resources to come to the encampment site to offer shelter and other services that would be an improved situation than living rough, but individuals have a choice as to whether they accept the offers. However, building relationships through repeated, intensive outreach can be successful in meeting people’s individualized needs to find them a better alternative than an unsafe encampment.

The City is not required to provide additional alternatives to individuals who have been previously or are currently excluded from all usual and appropriate alternatives because of the individual’s behavior.