2021/03/03 Council Agenda Packet

CEREBRATE LAW, PLLC March 3, 2021 Everett City Council 2930 Wetmore Avenue Suite 9-A Everett, WA 98201 Dear Everett City Councilmembers, am contacting you regarding the proposed legislation, Council Bill 2102-06, an ordinance prohibiting certain conduct within designated rights of way. This ordinance does nothing to address the unique needs of individuals within the City's houseless population while targeting the most vulnerable members of the community for arbitrary enforcement of criminal codes by people who lack the knowledge, training, and empathy to effectively help these people rise from their current state of impoverishment and exclusion from housing. The criminalization of homelessness is the scourge of the criminal justice system. Measures like the above proposed Council Bill increase houseless residents' interaction within the justice system, while providing no tangible benefits to anyone from the local community. These measures degrade the relationships between law enforcement and their overpoliced populations, while the measures waste valuable resources and time that could otherwise provide housing to area houseless populations. It is the City's obligation to provide housing to all of its residents. The City's failed to meet Washington State's 2005 goal of ending homelessness by 2015 (RCW 43.185C.005), and the City's own failure to meet the needs of its population should not be directed towards concerted efforts arbitrarily selecting the most vulnerable members of the community for additional traumatization and exclusion. Moreover, these measures target organized efforts to address the conditions that houseless individual live within on your streets by criminalizing constitutionally protected activities like assisting a houseless person. The establishment of a permit to engage in constitutionally protected activities is likewise a violation of the First Amendment along with Article I, Section 5 of the Washington Constitution. While these measures violate our constitutional protections to due process, equal protection under the law, and proscriptions against cruel and unusual punishment, they also come with price tags. As the City looks toward enforcement of the unconstitutional and inhumane treatment under the law, these legislative measures are not a financially viable means of obtaining full housing of all residents. Instead, it is an unimaginative use of the State's police power, which is provided to local governments for the health and welfare of the general population. Arbitrarily selecting a group for unequal treatment under the law is proscribed by the State and Federal Constitutions. Professor Sara Rankin of the Homeless Rights Advocacy Project at Seattle University School of Law released a report on the financial costs for criminalizing homelessness in Seattle and Spokane. "Generally, the baseline costs of criminalization ordinances can be placed into three categories: (1) policing, which includes citation and arrest costs; (2) adjudication, which includes judicial, prosecution, and defense costs; and (3) incarceration, which includes daily bed and medical costs." Re: Council Bill 2102-06 Page 1