Picture this: tents filling Point Defiance or lining the sidewalk next to your home, but when you call the city for help, you’re told, “There’s nothing we can do.” That’s not hypothetical. That’s HB 2489.
HB 2489 would prohibit cities from enforcing camping restrictions unless they can provide a shelter bed for every person experiencing homelessness — along with accommodations for pets, possessions, partners, family members, and support persons. In practice, these expansive and unfunded requirements would make enforcement nearly impossible. Even cities like Tacoma, which have invested heavily in shelter capacity, could never fully comply.
The predictable result would be the unchecked proliferation of unauthorized encampments in parks, near schools, along waterways and in business districts…