Stop Seattle From Turning Our Parks Into Homeless Encampments

This is irresponsible to homeless and the people who use and live near the parks. Instead of addressing the long term needs of the homeless city council is creating a toxic situation. Housing needs to be created for the homeless and this is poor fix. This proposal needs to be put on the ballot. Any council member voting for this will be voted off the council.

I am sure this measure is well-intended, but it is dangerous and irresponsible, and creates rather than solves problems. Children and mothers should not have to stop going to parks because of fear of assault and having to navigate trash and used drug needles. Please respect law-abiding citizen's rights to safe and clean public spaces, and work on the right solutions: rehab and mental health facilities and transitional housing and work for the homeless.

This ordinance is ludicrous! the Socialist city council continues its enabling of herion addicts and people who dont want out of their situation in life. we are being taxed to death to enable these people. honest law abiding taxpaying citizens continue to get the shaft by this current government/city council. Stop the madness!

I already feel like I cannot enjoy many of our public areas and parks due to the overrun of homeless sleeping on the park benches and camping in the trees. Furthermore, I don't feel safe for my children to run free in a park.

Sacrifice our parks, neighborhoods, and schools because government can't do the job they were elected to do. Really nice folks...

Please do not approve this measure.

Bad idea. encampments should not be allowed in parks and public areas.

No thank you!

Please don't do this! Letting people sleep in parks is not a valid solution.

Allowing homeless people to camp in public spaces is not the solution to the homeless epidemic in Seattle. It not only creates dangerous environments for those who want to use our city parks and sidewalks for their intended purposes, it does nothing to help people in need. Stop enabling homelessness. Start solving it.

We do not need to protect them.

This is a bad solution to a systemic problem. As a wealthy city, we have to do better--by chronically homeless people and by other Seattle residents.

Get them proactive help instead of allowing themselves to be helpless.

Park encampments are unacceptable, our parks are for all people, families, and children actively enjoying the outdoors.

Now 2 tents at Greenlake, one on the water near no bathroom facelities. On canal bike path from Freemont to Discovery Park, were 2 tents a month ago now 7 tents and a "tarp camp" with garbage and urine smell as you ride by. Police are reticent to clear again because they do not know what the city council wants. We just pass an initiative to fund $300 for homeless and this bill is what the "totally out-of-touch" city council (excluding Burgess) give us. There are 99% of the population that are not homeless that have rights and one of them is use of public spaces. Portland tried the "camp where you want" law and it was a total disaster. Maybe our city council members need to do a little research before they propose bills that endanger the public good..

We should be improving our parks and public spaces, not trashing them. GSL

This plan while well intended will lead to abuses by homeless individuals and drug addicts and do little to protect hard working individuals wishing to use these public green spaces for what they where intended for recreational activities not living spaces .

Kshama Sawant needs to go. This is the final straw. Children play in those parks and whenever the city comes to move encampments the garbage and feces are piled high.

I look at the homeless encampments through several perspectives, one of them a homeless brother (a Vet) living in lower Woodland Park; a second brother who is disabled who was waiting for a bus by the Egyptian Theater on Capitol Hill when two homeless men tried to rob him, twice. Two individuals interceded to prevent the robberies. I want the city to develop thoughtful long-term solutions to affordable housing, addiction treatment and policies that do not compromise our parks. The proposed Council Bill does consider the impact to the residents of Seattle as a whole. A few encampments like the one in Ballard have a more formal and supportive structure but many homeless people are living under less safe and more difficult circumstances. The conditions of where homeless people live are not safe for them, and they create larger health concerns. Dangerous levels of human waste entering the Duwamish Waterway and the Thornton Creek Watershed should be a concern to all of us. Human waste contamination in our waterways may be responsible for the increase in E. coli levels. People living on the streets in Seattle is not new, but the city after many years has still has not developed a coherent plan, and one that is both humane and respects the communities where homeless people live in nearby parks, greenbelts, under freeways and in the doorways of Capitol Hill or other neighborhoods.

Thanks to Tim Burgess for being the sensible and practical voice. Shame on the other council members for supporting policy that facilitates fellow human beings living outdoors.