Bremerton has become the latest Kitsap County city to pass a change in its code since a landmark June 28 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for stricter enforcement of local camping bans.
The Bremerton City Council in a 5-2 vote Aug. 7 amended its code on unauthorized camping to eliminate language that would otherwise suspend the law’s enforceability if shelter space was unavailable. The council approved that same language last year to maintain constitutionality, but a recent SCOTUS ruling cleared the way for local lawmakers to revisit the policy.
Bremerton police chief Tom Wolfe was among the public officials eager to reopen the discussion, and as he had two weeks earlier at the council’s study session, he implored the board to heed his request to prevent what had transpired on city streets last year. The new vote struck the shelter stipulation from the code.
“We have never experienced such chaos in our neighborhoods,” Wolfe said in a brief statement. “The Supreme Court overturned the lower court, reaffirming our ability to regulate (the) health, safety and welfare of our citizens and how best to address the difficult and sensitive issues raised by camping on our streets.”
Wolfe was met with a largely split council in its prior session; many requested additional data on the recent response to homelessness in the city. The requests were met with new data on homeless response, property management, outreach and response efforts from Commonstreet, running bed totals at the Salvation Army seasonal shelter and nine pages of pictures taken during the height of the city’s encampment crisis.
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, then how many data points are in those pictures? This is what we don’t want to happen to our neighborhoods again, and by removing the shelter requirement from the ordinance, we can ensure we don’t recreate that again,” Wolfe said.
Homelessness remains consistently visible in the city despite constant levels of available shelter space at the Salvation Army and continued work by the county and nonprofit partners to open additional shelter options in Port Orchard and Bremerton.
The new data and discussions in committee appeared to sway more of the council to Wolfe’s side this time around. Councilmember Denise Frey used the carrot and stick analogy in expressing her aligned interest with the police chief to approach homelessness with compassionate accountability. “We’ve got to make sure the carrot is really healthy too,” she said. “We can’t lose sight. I think we all agree that ensuring that there’s adequate shelter is a goal that council wants to keep regardless of this ordinance. I’m supportive of this as long as we keep an eye on the carrot.”
Councilmember Michael Goodnow added: “To me, this ordinance gives us the ability when needed, when there’s other problems, when it’s maybe growing in size. It gives us a tool when we need it. It’s not the first tool I’ve seen our police department pull out at any given time.”
The pair were joined in their “yes” votes by Jeff Coughlin, Jane Rebelowski and Eric Younger. Coughlin vocalized his appreciation for the law being brought forward sooner rather than later to avoid the 2023 levels of crisis, but expressed his concerns for what the change might do to the city’s previous level of shelter space prioritization going forward.
Voting against were Anna Mockler and Jennifer Chamberlin, both sharing that they did not see the urgency other officials had presented.
“If there were an urgency for this, if MLK for example looked the way it did last summer, and there was no requirement from the Supreme Court, I could very well be thinking differently,” Mockler said. “But that is actually not happening, so I think we have an opportunity here to remain compassionate.”
Chamberlain added, “I’m baffled why this has to happen now, and I’m disappointed this is coming to us at this time.”
