A federal judge dismissed a King County lawsuit against Burien this week, saying the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case surrounding the constitutionality of Burien’s controversial camping ordinance.
As a result, Judge Richard Jones, in a decision issued Tuesday, accepted Burien’s motion to dismiss the case — though King County could still decide not to enforce Burien’s anti-camping ordinance. This comes after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way this summer for West Coast cities to enforce bans on people sleeping outside in public places without providing shelter.
“It is not the place of federal courts to decide the legality or constitutionality of local ordinances prior to enforcement,” Jones said in his decision.
Much of Jones’ decision focused on Burien’s new ordinance never being applied by King County sheriff’s deputies before it was challenged in court. This asks the court to issue an “advisory opinion,” which, he writes, is “impermissible.”
King County, which filed the suit alongside King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall, has yet to say whether it will appeal the decision or whether it will apply Burien’s current camping ordinance.
“Still, that decision leaves unresolved important constitutional concerns that motivated the sheriff to pause enforcement of Burien’s ordinance,” according to prepared statements released by the King County Sheriff’s Office.
Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling said he expects and hopes “the county stops playing political games and gets to enforcing our law.”
“From the very beginning, the city of Burien crafted an ordinance that we knew was enforceable,” Schilling said on a call Thursday.
This battle began in March after Burien tightened an existing camping ordinance, creating “buffer” zones to prohibit homeless people from sleeping within 500 feet of schools, day care centers, libraries, parks and other “critical areas.”
Days after the revised ordinance passed, Cole-Tindall announced the Sheriff’s Office would not enforce it because of “substantial concerns” about constitutional issues. The Sheriff’s Office followed the announcement by filing the lawsuit in federal court, asking the court to determine whether the updated ordinance is constitutional and whether the county’s interlocal agreement with Burien requires the Sheriff’s Office to enforce it.
Tuesday’s ruling avoids answering either question.
Sara Rankin, professor of law at Seattle University, said there are still valid questions King County raised.
“It’s an example of how the legal system often requires the actual infliction of harm before the courts get involved,” Rankin said.
The Sheriff’s Office did allude in a statement released Wednesday that it’s more open to enforcement if the previous version of Burien’s camping ordinance were to be restored. That version passed in September 2023 and did not include the “buffer zones.” Sheriff’s deputies enforced that version, which required homeless people to tear down their tents in the daytime, until the ordinance was modified in March.
Between 100 and 200 people were estimated to be living outside in Burien last year. The city of 50,000 residents has one shelter for women, which can hold up to nine at once, and one for families. It lacks any shelter for single adult men, which make up the majority of its unsheltered population.
Unsheltered homelessness has increasingly affected cities across King County, but Burien has garnered extra attention since early 2023 as city leaders dragged their feet on offers of help and were quick to pass stricter enforcement measures. Burien is involved in four other lawsuits related to homelessness with the most recent complaint coming from a local church.
Since 2018, cities had to offer people living outside a form of shelter before punishing them for sleeping on public property. But in the wake of this summer’s Supreme Court decision in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson — which said that punishing people for sleeping outside was not cruel and unusual punishment — many West Coast cities, including some in Washington, are enacting stricter rules.
One of the largest homeless encampments in Burien is on King County-owned property in its downtown. King County has spent more than $150,000 so far to put fencing and sanitation services on the site, according to Amy Enbysk, spokesperson for King County Executive Dow Constantine.
This summer, the county pulled a $1 million offer to Burien to help it create a tiny house village. Now, the county says it’s using that money to pay the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to oversee outreach to the Burien encampment instead.
Outreach workers have been slowly working to move people from the encampment into forms of shelter and housing, Enbysk said. The authority recently posted signs on the property saying the encampment will be closed and no new residents are permitted to move on to the site.
Lisa Edge, spokesperson for the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, said it doesn’t have a set date for when the site will close.