Homeless Encampment Policy

At a glance

Based on auto-generated captions; names and details may be misheard.

What: a proposed council policy on how the city responds to homeless encampments, drafted by Councilmember Baker as a resolution "establishing a policy for accountability of encampment responses".
Where it stands: introduced at the 2026-10-08 work session; no vote or agenda placement. Council is split on process, and the city manager says staff will bring their own policy on a timeline tied to service capacity.
Next: the mayor pro tem will confer with the mayor on a three-member subcommittee; the manager is to email a possible staff timeline within three to four working days; the next work session with all seven members is December 10.

No removal of unhoused residents until an appropriate shelter option exists; adequate outreach and notice; an action plan made with residents beforehand.
The city must protect and store belongings residents want to keep and make them free to retrieve; residents get access to key health and safety services within budget; a complaint and resolution method; stricter provisions for emergencies. Existing law enforcement and fire response would be unaffected.
Baker said the city has almost 200 encampments and that much of this is already staff practice, written down for trust. Baker proposed a November work session, review by a board or committee, and noted House Bill 437 (a state bill criminalizing homelessness, vetoed, with an override expected per Baker) might require edits.

Burris: objected to suggestions that staff target encampments; described drug activity at camps, including near an elementary school, and asked for a real, comprehensive policy built on the whole story. Asked that the Human Relations Commission be represented in any subcommittee.
Cook: supported moving forward as a starting point and wanted staff and the homelessness advisory body to review; later raised the state bill and the need to center unheard voices and interim harm reduction.
Kopack: treats the draft as input to a staff-led process, would not back a November agenda slot, and asked whether staff could deliver a draft by early December.
Mayor Pro Tem Caballero: no movement without the mayor and two absent members; proposed a subcommittee of three working with staff.
City Manager Ferguson: staff will bring a policy regardless, but a very prescriptive policy before capacity exists would effectively leave encampments in place; said he could answer on timing within days.

About eight speakers on 2026-10-08. A faith congregation coalition and a church member urged the council to take up the draft; one advocate asked for an ordinance with equal citywide standards; members of the National Union of the Homeless and others opposed sweeps and the police-led "Operation Safe Passage" clearing and asked that unhoused people lead the solutions; Victoria Peterson spoke of crime near the Pilot Street and Fayetteville Street camp (name garbled in captions) near a school and asked the city to develop the vacant Lincoln Apartments site. Claims are the speakers' own.

2026-10-08 - City Council Work Session (council work session video, auto-captions)
2026-10-05 - City Council (council meeting video, speech-to-text)

About 66 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-08 - City Council Work Session	66

2026-10-05 - City Council - Mayor raised Fayetteville Street encampment concerns in council comments.
2026-10-08 - City Council Work Session - Baker introduced the draft; council discussed process; no vote. Subcommittee idea, manager to report on staff timeline, December 10 as next full-council work session.
2026-10-22 - City Council Work Session - manager said staff expects to bring a draft policy in early 2027; Baker will wait rather than force a vote on her resolution; Cook asked that harm reduction and unhoused residents' rights be included; concerns about budget capacity (from auto-captions).
2026-09-24 - City Council Work Session - A member announced a planned future conversation on encampment policy.