Burien

What’s Next Burien After weeks of contentious debate and public comment, the Burien City Council finally passed a “no camping” ordinance this week. This common sense bill was first championed by CM Stephanie Mora (@CmStephaniemora) and ended up being a close 4-3 vote. Now the heavy lifting begins. More than 60 people remain at the Ambaum Blvd encampment. I went there again this week. The open air drug use and trash is out of control. And sadly, Burien PD has taken multiple reports of young women being trafficked out of this encampment. Meanwhile, listen to Deputy Mayor Kevin Schilling describe what Highline Public School Dist. is doing in response to this situation. The city is now in talks to bring Read More ›

Crushing Expectations Kristine Moreland (@kmmoreland) and volunteers with “The More We Love” are way ahead of schedule. Only a handful of tents remain at the Grocery Outlet encampment in downtown Burien. No sweeps required. Most of the campers are being placed into tiny houses, motels, or detox facilities…FREE WILL CHOICE. But one man went on a bender after refusing to leave and was arrested by Burien Police (@BurienPD.) Otherwise, Moreland expects everything to be gone by Tuesday evening. When all is said and done, this needs to be a case study on how to do outreach. This was never about building more housing, spending lots of money, or warehousing people with foolish “housing first” policies. Instead, they leveraged resources already Read More ›

As city and county officials remain paralyzed trying to manage Burien’s out of control homeless encampment crisis, Kristine Moreland of “The More We Love” is building trust and relationships. “There are predators coming in from the community and preying on the people in here,” Moreland says as we walk past an encampment. She and her outreach partner, Chri Wee, are helping move men and women out of tents in the heart of downtown Burien into the services they need. They’ve been hired by local businesses to do the work politicians and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority have neglected. Together, they’ve moved more than two dozen men and women into housing or programs in just one month. “We celebrate because Read More ›

Breaking City of Burien one step closer to a NO camping ban on public property. Monday evening, the motion passed to have City Manager Adolfo Bailon craft the language of this ordinance, then present it to city council for vote at next meeting. That’s if he can get it done by then. Passionate testimony on both sides. YES VOTES: CM Jimmy Matta, CM Stephanie Mora, Mayor Sofia Aragon, Deputy Mayor Kevin Schilling NO VOTES: CM Cydney Moore, CM Sarah Moore, CM Hugo Garcia Currently, the city only has a no camping ordinance in public parks. Disaster in the Making Burien’s latest out of control homeless encampment is located at the corner of Ambaum Blvd SW & SW 120th St. It’s Read More ›

Human Tragedy The fentanyl crisis continues to play out on multiple streets in Seattle, especially in places like #Chinatown-ID. This evening, a young man in his 20’s showed me the early stages of “TRANQ FENTANYL” eating away at his skin. Pills laced with xylazine, an animal tranquilizer, are starting to show up more often on the streets. It’s also leaving addicts walking around in a zombie like stupor. Another man nearby using fentanyl said, “I can see the silhouette of a demon” in his friend’s flesh eating wound. @CampSiteSeattle and others have documented the aftermath of “tranq” across the city. There is no denying the zombie drug is here. Nothing has changed in Councilmember Tammy Morales'( @CMTammyMorales) district. Where is Read More ›

The city of Burien, Washington altered the parade route for its 100th Annual Independence Day Celebration to avoid a massive homeless encampment. The encampment on SW 152nd St near the entrance of a Grocery Outlet and Dollar Tree is now close to 20 tents deep. “It’s best just to err on caution,” Debra George, who leads Discover Burien, a coalition of business owners responsible for making the last-minute decision, said. “We’re going to take a left on 4th and just head into town square park,” George added. Families, children, and tourists usually line downtown streets to get a glimpse of the floats and marching bands, but George says they have no choice but to alter the route since the city is refusing to remove the Read More ›

Dismissing Dow In what may be one of the most defiant moments of the year, the #Burien business community and volunteers decided to ignore legal threats made by King County Executive Dow Constantine (@kcexec,) and proceeded to sweep a problematic homeless encampment on their own. No law enforcement showed up Thursday morning and it was completely orderly. This could be a playbook for other communities tired of being strong armed by #KingCounty. It all depends on how Martin v. Boise is interpreted and applied. Back in 2018, the landmark ruling struck down Boise’s city-wide public camping ban because it lacked adequate emergency public shelter beds. Non-profit Burien Cares (@BurienCares) officially took over the lease for this plot of land and Read More ›

A showdown is looming in Burien over a homeless encampment in the center of downtown. Now more than 20 tents deep, a resident walking her dog near the site describes homeless encampments like this one as “a national humanitarian crisis.” The encampment is being blamed for open air drug use, a spike in thefts, and sex trafficking.  Burien City Councilmember Stephanie Mora tells me she has become aware that “there have been several underage girls sleeping there.” The city decided to lease out the property that the encampment is on to Burien Cares, a local non-profit with plans to turn the site back into a dog park. Burien Cares put up signs around the property asking campers to leave by Read More ›

Search for Solutions #Burien council meeting is expected to be packed again Monday evening. Neighbors and biz owners are demanding an immediate solution to address the homeless encampment expanding in the main business corridor. Several new tents popped up over Easter weekend. Drug use is rampant. One camper got arrested. Volunteers at Hope Community Christian Church are trying to help, even offering to convert part of their building into a detox center. But they’re running into red tape and bureaucratic obstacles at City Hall. Meanwhile, @burien city leaders are calling on King County officials to step in and give them more resources. Is anyone working together? @KCCouncil @kcexec @KC_RHA @GovInslee @JoeMcDermottWA @DiscoveryCWP Finding More Foil and Needles New location, same Read More ›