The People’s Assembly Statement to tacoma mayor & City Council re: Ord. 28756

To the Tacoma Mayor and Tacoma City Council:

This ordinance is cruel and unethical, especially in the midst of a global pandemic.

We demand that the Mayor and city council:

• Drop this cruel ordinance

• Cease any and all planned sweeps or evictions of unhoused residents

• End the criminalization of homelessness

• Invest in efforts led by community members directly experiencing or affected by homelessness in developing true and equitable solutions for housing and economic justice

Tacoma City Council states that its intent is “not to create or otherwise establish any particular class or group of individuals who will be discriminated against by the terms of the ordinance”, but Ordinance 28756 does exactly that. This ordinance punishes unhoused people, a majority of whom are Black, Indigenous, disabled, and/or living with chronic health conditions.
This ordinance bolsters policing in the face of a growing movement of the people calling for the abolition of police. This ordinance is a direct violation of the people’s unalienable right to exist and survive in public space, especially when city-driven development and gentrification have created the very conditions that the city now seeks to outlaw.

Ordinance 28756 effectively:
1) criminalizes homelessness
2) punishes unhoused people, a majority of whom are Black, Indigenous, and/or living with chronic health conditions, for surviving in the face of city-driven gentrification and displacement
3) emboldens and empowers policing in the face of a growing movement of the people calling for defunding and abolition of the white supremacist and violent institution of policing
4) violates orders by the CDC and Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department to not disperse encampments (unless safe and alternative housing can be identified for evicted residents — housing which we know does not currently exist in this city) and
5) most of all, violates the ethical codes of morality which call on the preservation of dignity of human existence in public space over the “protection” of public property.

Ordinance 28756 should have never been introduced at all and should be dropped now. Instead, city council should invest in efforts led by community members directly experiencing or affected by homelessness in developing true and equitable solutions for housing and economic justice.