stop Swope's sweeps Lewis County Commissioner Sean Swope has proposed an "Encampment Removal and Clean Up Policy" directed at our local unhoused population. This policy is up for vote on October 25th. Criminalizing homelessness and forcing people to move inflicts additional trauma upon an already marginalized population. Below are a few sections of Swope's proposed policy and some of their negative effects. This graphic and other information along with your personal thoughts with local representatives and media. Board of County Commissioners Public comment may be given in person or online. Lewis County Historic Courthouse, 2nd Floor Tuesday October 25th, 2022 - 10:00 AM Share Attend Write Lewis County Commissioners: Sean.Swope@lewiscountywa.gov Lee.Grose@lewiscountywa.gov Lindsey.Pollock@lewiscountywa.gov Letters to the Editor: letters@chronline.com How you can help Read The full policy available online at: bit.ly/SwopesSweeps Recovery of stored Personal Property 11.2 DCP should not require a formal legal identification, such as a valid driver’s license, as a condition of releasing the property. If a competing claim of ownership arises, they should not release the disputed property until the County Prosecutor has been consulted. The word "should" is ambiguous. Ambiguous policy statements are open to interpretation by individual DCP. The word "shall" is irrefutable. Irrefutable policy statements leave no room for interpretation. DCP are instructed they "should" not require identification for reclamation and they "should" not release disputed property. Both of these are ambiguous statements that may be broken by simple DCP misinterpretation. These policy statements should be irrefutably worded and not ambiguous. Removal or disposal of Personal Property 8.6 DCP may remove and dispose of all items which are not personal property, including, but not limited to, solid waste, hazardous items, and other like material. They may remove and dispose of items of personal property which may present a health and safety hazard, or are saturated in liquid, or contaminated by solid waste or a potentially infectious agent. The term "saturated in liquid" is problematic policy language. Unsheltered individuals in our climate spend 3/4 of the year in wet conditions where their possessions may be "saturated in liquid" numerous times on any given day. The ambiguous writing of this policy provides opportunity for DCP to freely dispose of potentially any personal property they may find during a majority of the year. Ultimately, DCP may be encouraged to dispose of personal property under this section rather than take additional steps required for personal property storage and recovery. No notice removal of "obstructions" 3.1 DCP may remove sites which in their discretion meet the definitions of an obstruction or immediate hazard without prior notice to inhabitants. Discretion is subjective to an individual and places an enormous amount of power into a single person's hands to displace people in an already vulnerable situation. Emphasis Areas are automatic "obstructions" 12.1 DCP may identify a specific area as an Emphasis Area and treat the unauthorized encampments within the area as an obstruction as provided in Section 3. When considering sections 3.1 and 12.1 together, DCP can simply designate any area an emphasis area and then remove all encampments within that area without notice. Emphasis areas are Identitfied on a website 12.5 DCP should identify Emphasis Areas on the County’s website. Commissioner Swope has a known history of dehumanizing behavior toward other community members and with recent incidents of purported harassment of outreach service providers, giving a map of our most vulnerable population freely available to anyone online is an enormous safety concern. "DCP" = Designated County Personnel additional issue considerations Leaders should provide services such as public toilets, showers, and trash receptacles to address hygiene issues at encampments without throwing away a person's personal possessions. Leaders should prioritize investment in affordable housing and outreach programs that connect people to holistic wraparound services. Unhoused persons who are continuously evicted lose trust in service providers as well as local government and they become increasingly difficult for outreach teams to locate and help. Disrupting people’s lives by perpetually displacing them and destroying their belongings only prolongs a person’s homelessness as they are repeatedly forced to start over. Sweeps don’t solve the problem of homelessness. Sweeps only serve to displace people from their community and inflict further harm upon them with failed attempts to make the problem of homelessness invisible.