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Kenmore staff to gather regional guidance before revising code on temporary and cold‑weather shelters
Summary
City planners proposed code changes to align Kenmore with state law on temporary shelters and lower administrative burdens on sponsoring organizations; council asked staff to survey neighboring cities and funders and return with comparisons and recommended language.
Kenmore — City planners presented proposed amendments on July 28 to Kenmore Municipal Code chapter 18.100 that would ease some requirements for temporary homeless shelters and cold‑weather low‑barrier shelters and align the code with recent state law. City council asked staff to collect comparative policies used by neighboring jurisdictions and regional funders before finalizing changes.
What staff proposed: Planner Riley Rossbotham said the draft amendments are intended to bring city code into parity with Washington’s Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1754 and to remove procedural burdens the city has found made hosting shelters difficult. Changes proposed include increasing the maximum allowable duration of a standard temporary shelter from 125 days (about four months) to six months, simplifying and centralizing public‑notice duties (shifting most mailing obligation to the city), allowing more than one shelter per year at a site with minimum spacing rules, and dropping a rule that required cold‑weather low‑barrier shelters to operate only overnight and to prohibit residents from leaving and re‑entering during the night.
Why it matters: State law seeks to remove conditions that unduly burden religious organizations and other sponsoring groups that host emergency encampments and shelters. Staff emphasized the changes would preserve the city’s public‑health and safety review (site plan, code of conduct, staffing, trash and sanitation plans) while simplifying application steps that groups find onerous.
Areas of council concern: Several council members asked staff to research how neighboring jurisdictions handle warrant checks and criminal‑history screening for emergency shelters. City Attorney advised the council that under the city’s proposed language (and current practice) the code requires contacting the King County Sheriff’s Communications Center or an approved office to determine whether an applicant for shelter admission has an active felony warrant or is a registered sex offender; if so, admission is prohibited. Multiple council members and public commenters said the requirement has had the practical effect of discouraging some regional shelter providers from siting severe‑weather operations in Kenmore and asked staff to report back on regional practice and funder requirements.
Other requests and next steps: Councilor Sassen and others asked staff to consider renaming “cold‑weather low‑barrier” shelters to “severe‑weather shelters” so the rule covers heat as well as cold exposures. Council members asked staff to compile neighboring‑city policies, funder rules (for King County and regional shelter-provider funding), and state guidance and return with recommended code language and a public‑hearing timeline. No final ordinance was adopted at the July 28 meeting.
