City sets downtown homeless forum

Shelton City Manager Jeff Niten said some residents are misinformed about the city's new rules on homeless encampments as well as believing the problems caused by some downtown street people are not being addressed.

"There is a concern the city is doing nothing," Niten said at the Shelton City Council's meeting on Sept. 6.

On the contrary, the city manager said, the changes passed by the council on Aug. 2 are amendments to a 1995 ordinance that "strengthens the criteria" for allowing a homeless encampment of up to 30 people. The camps are not allowed on a resident's private property, as some people believe, and require a community organization to operate it, he said.

The amendments also identify camping on private property as a public health issue "and identified it as a nuisance, which allows our code enforcement officers to actually address the concern," Niten said.

"The city is doing everything that we can to address the homelessness in our community," he said.

Niten then announced that the city will host a "Spotlight Shelton" community forum on homelessness from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 11 in the Shelton Civic Center. Some of the nonprofit groups that partner with the city will give presentations, and residents can share their thoughts.

At the council's Sept. 6 meeting, the city manager spoke in depth about the city's challenges to help homeless individuals amid calls from downtown business owners and others upset by garbage, public urination and defecation, open drug use and vandalism.

"What has prompted this is recently there have been calls for the resignation of our police chief (Carole Beason) because she is 'doing nothing,' " Niten said. "And I will say right here and now that the police chief and every other member of this team is doing what I ask them to do. So if there's someone that you would like to go after on Facebook, in person, anywhere else, that would be me."

Shelton Police are also limited by the shortage of jail space, Niten said. Shelton Police recently pulled over a woman who was found to have five warrants for her arrest, and they had to let her go because a jail cell wasn't available, he said.

"You have to have a carrot and a stick," Niten said. "We don't really have a stick."

The city's new task force on homelessness, which includes members of the council, business owners, Mason County Commissioner Sharon Trask and others, will meet Sept. 20 to hear from a Jefferson County commissioner "to talk about what's worked for them" Niten said.

The group's last scheduled meeting is set for Oct. 11, before the community forum, where it will produce two short-term goals, two intermediate goals and two long-term goals. Those goals will be presented to the city council.

The task force members have talked about ways to provide affordable housing and creating a mitigation site, Niten said.

"If you create a mitigation site, but then provide no opportunities for the next step up, all you're going to have is an ever-expanding mitigation site," Niten said. "You have to have these stepped opportunities in order to really address the issue that we see in our community and has been mentioned in public comments several times, and in communities around the country. There is a way to solve this and we know how to do it. We just need to vet it so that we make sure the most appropriate solutions for Shelton come from Shelton."

Council member Joe Schmit said he "fully supports" the directions the city is taking on homelessness.

"I don't think any one of us is comfortable with the way things are going, right?" he said. "We all want to see things improve. But I gotta be honest. I think we're quite possibly in the hardest place we can be. It's a small city. We're screwed. We just don't have the resources. We don't have the support from higher levels to really make this happen. Yes, we can probably pull off the mitigation site, but as (Niten) stated, we don't have the followup services. So, we get stuck with the tent city for how long?"

Before the public comment period at the Sept. 6 meeting, Mayor Eric Onisko mentioned a moment at the previous meeting when Shelton resident Tommy Stearns stood at the microphone and called six of the seven council members "cowards" for voting to amend the homeless encampment ordinance.

"Two weeks ago, one of our speakers called us a derogatory name in these chambers, and that's really uncalled for," Onisko said. "And then several hours later, a council member was verbally attacked on the street and threatened with bodily harm. We can do better. We can disagree and not threaten each other and call names to people that have a different opinion than us. But at this time, it is a reminder that outbursts from the audience are prohibited."