After a recent Supreme Court ruling opened the door to stricter camping bans, Tri-Cities leaders are looking at pairing the bans with other existing codes to see if they have enough legal authority to prevent homeless encampments .
That’s left some wondering what the difference is between a camping ban and the tools cities have been using to remove unhoused people from public places.
Many cities in Washington had public camping bans in place before a lower court ruling barred them.
Those were either repealed or left unenforced and cities looked toward other measures to combat the impact of homelessness. Cities were still allowed to enact limited bans in some public areas, such as parks.
Public drug use bans and drug paraphernalia littering bans also have played a part in disrupting areas where unhoused people congregate, but sit-lie ordinances have been the most prominent tool used by cities.
While these ordinances can’t legally target specific groups of people, like those experiencing homelessness, the result is often the same.