After the chaos of this summer’s unhoused encampment eviction and subsequent enforcement of the City’s anti-homeless ordinances. A debacle which ended up with one councilor in jail awaiting trial, and one reprimanded and stripped of her position as council president. A new council president is now in place, Sydney Swor, and Joshua Francy reclaimed his seat which he had lost to Riley Carter, now in jail. The Aberdeen City Council has decided to draft something it has never had before, a council and procedures document. Who knew they were just flying by the seat of their pants this whole time.

This was raised by the incoming Council president, Sydney Swor, as a good idea since the council has spiraled into a chaotic mix of paranoid right wing conspiracy theorists and scared shitless liberals unable to understand what is at play. Their “decorum” is not up to snuff apparently. The proposed document will include:

• General policies
• Meeting regulations
• How to fill vacant positions
• Procedures for voting
• Policies for suspending any of these rules

When Swor sought four or five volunteers to head the drafting of this document several offered. Without hesitation, city councilors David Gakin, Liz Ellis, Stan Sidor and Scott Prato all volunteered to be part of the group.

Since the last update you will have received we have seen these ordinance be enforced on the most vulnerable population in our community. We saw many people flee in fear, some found temporary refuge in friend’s or family’s houses or yards, some ended up scattered around town, and a few did manage to obtain their housing in time for the eviction.

Managing this violent upset and destruction of a micro community down at camp has made everyone’s lives harder. Not just the unhoused themselves, which should be obvious, but social workers, case managers, peers, mutual aid workers, and friends and family have all found it difficult to keep track of their clients or loved ones. Not to mention the horror of not being able to stand or sit on downtown sidewalks, which the City has expressed a desire to extend to all of Aberdeen, and not having any camping or sleeping gear allowed full stop.

The City Administrator Ruth Clemens has been spreading her opinions on where people have gone off too with the Daily World, mostly amounting to the suspicion that “a majority of people” left the county, acting as though they probably left because the party was over and it was time to go back home, instead of fleeing the repression faced in this county for a safer place to live.

The local Catholic Mission the Union Gospel has opined about their high barrier, forced-worship services not being taken advantage of since the camp eviction.

In talking to the paper about the new laws, and the law enforcement officer response to being “unchained” and allowed to run rough shod all over the unhoused residents who ended up with nowhere else to go.

Clemens sounded supportive of the work Aberdeen Police Department has done about the unhoused collectively moving elsewhere in the city.

“Police officers and code enforcement have been very vigilant checking for new camps throughout the city,” Clemens said.

Clemens also commended the city’s ordinances. Part of the ordinance is to inform people of what they’re allowed to do.

“I think the enforcement of both ordinances have been very effective as exemplified by the large, visible reduction of homelessness,” Clemens said about the sit-and-lie ordinances. “Aberdeen Police Department have done a great job consistently educating people and enforcing the law.”

Speaking of moving elsewhere in the city, the City of Aberdeen also decided to remove the “unpopular” Request For Proposal for a contract to make their half though out “homeless village”. They said it was after all not the City’s job but the County’s, the same refrain that has cycled back and forth between the two for years now, precluding any forward progress for those on the streets.

Their next steps in anti-homeless legislation is restricting RV parking with Ruth Clemens, Aberdeen’s city administrator, saying she already has proof that shows limiting parking for such vehicles can be done. It’s because Lacey already has ordinances in place to do so and that city has found success.

Clemens called it “a long-awaited,” presentation.

“One of the things we had been waiting for outside of the Grants Pass (decision) or Johnson v. Grants Pass case was Potter v. City of Lacey, which came soon after the ruling on Grants Pass, which affirmed the authority cities have to enact and enforce parking regulation,” Clemens said. “We also have Aberdeen Municipal Code Title 10 that was impacted, which didn’t allow us to address people living in their vehicles around the city. But I think what we’re proposing today would also address not only that, but other RVs parked around the city on the city streets.”

This new one would restrict “residents” to parking on the street to unload only for 4 up to 48 hours with a permit. “Non-residents” on the other hand, meaning presumably, unhoused individuals, would be allowed to park in a “safe parking spot” at …guess where? The City Hall Parking Lot! Right where the old TASL (Temporary Alternative Shelter Location) was located over two years ago. One big circle. Clemens said, “This would just allow people a place to park from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. It would also have a porta-potty on site and a hand-washing station similar again that mirrors what Lacey uses. Lacey uses their city hall parking lot as well.”

As for barriers to accessing this pittance, she said:“I talked to Chief (Green) yesterday, (they) would handle unlocking it and locking the facility,” Clemens said. “APD will patrol the site. APD will conduct the background checks for those individuals who want to stay there. And they will lock and unlock the on-site restroom facilities as stated.”

To be able to park on the TASL site, visitors require a permit. To get a permit, they must be engaged with social services. They must have a government-issued driver’s license or ID. There may be more than one person staying in the RV. All people in the RV must have a government-issued ID. They must have valid vehicle insurance, valid vehicle registration and their vehicle must meet all standards and requirements to legally operate.

“They must also undergo a background check completed by Aberdeen Police Department,” Clemens said. “They can’t have any outstanding warrants from any jurisdiction and they must not be a registered sex offender.” To get a permit for Temporary Alternative Shelter Location, the people have to apply for a permit every day.

“There might be a way, because they have to be compensated some way, I think we might be able to use opioid funds to kind of cover this one. I think it would be an appropriate use.”

So, the City is still very much on its bullshit and doesn’t seem to be slowing down or coming anywhere near a reasonable resolution to housing shortage. They keep blaming individuals for personal failings and putting barriers in the way of them accessing resources to bettering their situation, resources that often have their own barriers already. Not to mention navigating and tolerating the non-profit industrial complex in this city.

They have destroyed this community, and in its death spasms they continue to strike. They show zero compassion or mercy towards these people who have been waiting on these social service housing lists for years because there are NO HOUSING UNITS!! The City isn’t concerning itself with trying to solve that side of the equation at all. All they want to do is further ruin these people’s lives by enacting law after law that targets them and makes their lives all but unlivable.