AN ACT Relating to compassionate and effective strategies to address the homelessness crisis; adding a new section to chapter 36.01 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 9A.84 RCW; creating a new section; and prescribing penalties.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 36.01 RCW to read as follows:

(1) Every county and each city with a population over fifty thousand must establish and operate at least one emergency overnight shelter site in its respective jurisdiction. Counties and each eligible city with the county's geographic boundary must coordinate to ensure that there are enough cumulative shelter beds to accommodate, at a minimum, the sheltered and unsheltered portions of the county's most recent point-in-time homeless count. Each shelter must prohibit the possession and use of alcohol and unprescribed drugs on its premises, and provision must be made for a police presence during the shelter's operating hours. Counties and each eligible city shall require and make available employment, mental health, and drug counseling services at each shelter location.

(2) Any shelter established under this section is eligible for assistance under the housing trust fund pursuant to RCW 43.185.050.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 9A.84 RCW to read as follows:

(1) A person is guilty of unauthorized camping if he or she camps or stores personal property, including camp paraphernalia, on any publicly owned or maintained land, whether improved or unimproved, unless the land has been specifically designated by the controlling jurisdiction as an area allowing recreational camping.

(a) "Camp paraphernalia" includes, but is not limited to, tents, tarps, cots, beds, hammocks, mattresses, blankets, sleeping bags, cooking equipment, and other items commonly associated with sleeping or remaining outdoors overnight.

(b) "Camping" means the erection of a tent or other temporary shelter or to assemble personal property on public land that to a reasonable person indicates a person has remained or intends to remain on the land overnight without proper permits or lawful authority or when the land is not open to the public.

(2) Unauthorized camping is a misdemeanor.

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