This month, the Tacoma City Council will consider an amendment to an ordinance that prohibits public camping in certain parts of the city. The proposal will be heard during the City Council meeting on Oct. 14.
The current ordinance prohibits camping within a 10-block radius around temporary homeless shelters located in four zones within the city. The proposed amendment would establish no-camping buffer zones in nearly every neighborhood.
Advocates for those living homeless say the proposal comes at a time when shelter capacity is at its lowest in recent years and will leave the unhoused with nowhere to go…