Title
A MOTION requesting the executive to develop a homeless encampment map and dashboard status report and to develop a comprehensive plan to remove homeless encampments.
Body
WHEREAS, on November 2, 2015, King County executive Dow Constantine and Seattle mayor Ed Murray proclaimed homelessness to be in a state of emergency in King County and the city of Seattle, and
WHEREAS, the number of individuals in King County experiencing homelessness is more than eleven thousand seven hundred, according to the 2020 Point-in-Time Count for Seattle and King County, and
WHEREAS, on December 18, 2019, King County and the city of Seattle entered into an interlocal agreement approved by the King County council and the Seattle city council creating the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to oversee a coordinated and unified response to homelessness, and
WHEREAS, since the creating of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, the King County council enacted Ordinance 19179, imposing a one-tenth of one percent sales tax for construction of new affordable housing units and construction and operation of new behavioral health facilities, known as the Health Through Housing sales tax, and
WHEREAS, in April 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided interim guidance on people experiencing unsheltered homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic, which in part recommends allowing "people who are living unsheltered or in encampments to remain where they are" in order to minimize the spread of infection disease, and
WHEREAS researchers form the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington stated that the pandemic phase of COVID-19 is over and we are heading into an endemic phase, and
WHERES pandemic restriction including prohibitions on large gatherings, vaccine verification requirements, mask mandates and other social distancing restrictions have been lifted, and
WHEREAS King County has the obligation to be a good s...

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