Drafter
Clerk 11/02/2004
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A MOTION adopting the policy framework to guide the siting and permitting requirements for establishing temporary emergency homeless encampments on county-owned land, in collaboration with Seattle Housing and Resource Effort ("SHARE"), the Women's Housing, Equality and Enhancement League ("WHEEL") and faith-based and not-for-profit community organizations in King County; and directing the county executive to prepare a plan for the county's response to the committee to end homelessness's ten-year plan to end homelessness in King County.
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WHEREAS, homelessness is widely recognized as a growing problem in King County and elsewhere in the nation, and
WHEREAS, more than eight thousand King County residents are estimated to be homeless on any given night, and
WHEREAS, forty-seven people without homes have died out of doors or in emergency rooms in the first seven months of this year, and
WHEREAS, King County finds it unacceptable that people are dying on the streets of our communities because there are insufficient safe alternative locations, and
WHEREAS, the Seattle Housing and Resource Effort ("SHARE") and the Women's Housing, Equality and Enhancement League ("WHEEL") are nonprofit organizations that advocate and provide services for homeless persons, and
WHEREAS, SHARE/WHEEL has established Tent City 4 in King County to provide a safe community for up to one hundred homeless persons every night, and
WHEREAS, Tent City 4 is self-governing, complies with all health, fire and public safety regulations, and the residents live by a strict code of conduct providing a drug-free, alcohol-free and respectful environment, and
WHEREAS, SHARE/WHEEL has successfully worked with churches and nonprofit groups to provide support services and assistance to residents of Tent City 4, and the site moves every ninety days, and
WHEREAS, there is no general King County policy affirming use of King County properties for a tent cit...

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