Washington House committee delays vote on bill that could block anti-camping rules, including Spokane’s

OLYMPIA – A state committee has delayed a vote on legislation that would stop local jurisdictions from enforcing anti-camping ordinances when no shelter space is available.

Some Spokane City Council members who unanimously passed the city’s law restricting camping in public places say while it isn’t exactly clear what impact the legislation would have, it would negatively impact the city’s efforts.

As drafted, the bill in the House Housing Committee would prohibit regulations adopted by cities, towns, counties and other jurisdictions to restrict outdoor camping, sleeping and other “life-sustaining activities” if “adequate alternative shelter space is not available.”

Lawmakers considered similar legislation last year, though that bill would have required the regulations to be “objectively reasonable for the time, place, and manner.”

The legislation follows a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision that effectively overruled a lower court decision and gave cities more flexibility to outlaw camping on public property.

Members of the House Housing Committee in the Legislature were initially scheduled to vote on the new version of the legislation on Tuesday afternoon. As of early Monday afternoon, an updated committee schedule no longer lists the bill on the agenda. It is now expected to come up for a vote in committee next week.

It was not immediately clear why the vote was pushed back. The bill is sponsored by state Rep. Mia Gregerson, D-SeaTac, and cosponsored by 24 other Democratic members of the House of Representatives, including both Spokane Democratic Reps. Timm Ormsby and Natasha Hill.

During a Jan. 20 committee hearing, Gregerson said the proposal was “about creating statewide standards, and it’s about putting people first.”

“We currently have a patchwork of proposals that span from a range of do-nothing to displacement, enforcement and even, at times, punishment,” Gregerson said during her testimony. “This bill seeks to create a floor, with clear, consistent statewide standards, on public property for those who have no other place to survive.”

Jazmyn Clark, a policy program director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, said in her testimony during a House housing committee meeting last week the state currently has a “dense, fragmented, patchwork of local laws that often change from block to block, city to city, and county to county.”

“For people experiencing homelessness, that patchwork translates into constant displacement,” Clark said.

Clark said the bill is “grounded in a simple premise.”

“The system should not punish someone for survival conduct unless there is a real alternative available,” Clark said.

The delay follows the pushback the bill received following the committee hearing last week. Both the Association of Washington Cities and the Spokane Business Association were among the organizations that objected to the legislation.

In October, the Spokane City Council unanimously adopted the “Safe and Accessible Spokane” ordinance, which toughened laws that prohibit people from sleeping in public or sitting on the sidewalk. Under the ordinance, the Spokane Police Department is authorized to offer assistance, issue citations or both.

Spokane City Councilman Paul Dillon said in an interview Monday that “it’s still hard to tell” what impact the legislation would have in Spokane due to the vague definition of “lifesaving activity.”

“I do think, at the end of the day, these decisions are best made by local city electeds who were elected to govern cities,” Dillon said. “The ordinance that we did pass for the city of Spokane is really focused on outreach and engagement.”

Dillon said the city has other efforts to reduce homelessness, including an eviction prevention ordinance that the council will consider next week. Dillon said the city is also working with the state to create timelines for casework and rehousing those in large encampments.

“So the city is not conducting the kind of sweeps I think some proponents are arguing for,” Dillon said. “It’s actually really unclear how it would apply.”

Dillon noted that the bill would not provide additional funding for shelter space in the city.

Spokane City Councilman Michael Cathcart said in an interview Monday that the bill would “be incredibly harmful on the city of Spokane and the region.”

Cathcart said the city’s approach with code enforcement, law enforcement and outreach teams would not be effective “if we were to go back to a system where we can’t really enforce any sort of laws.”

“And frankly, unless this were to come with a substantial amount of money, I mean an incredible amount of money, there’s just no way you could build enough shelter beds that would enable this law to go into place,” Cathcart said. “So, it would really just take us very much backwards, and any progress that we’ve achieved so far would be lost, in my opinion.”

On Friday, the Spokane Business Association said in a statement the bill would “force cities backward just as experience is pointing the other way” and urged residents to contact their legislators.

“You might need to build a fire, that could be a life-sustaining activity. You’re certainly going to need to go to the bathroom, that’s a life-sustaining activity,” Gavin Cooley, director of strategic initiatives at the Spokane Business Association, said in an interview Monday.

“So urinating, or defecating in the streets, or the sidewalks downtown, for instance, is a life-sustaining activity.”

Cooley said if the bill were passed, “there is nothing the police or enforcement could do to preclude that or interfere in that in any way.”