Authors: Kirsten Carlson, Founding Member, Tacoma Business Council & Kristen Wynne, Founding Member and Chair of the Tacoma Business Council.
Picture this: tents filling Point Defiance or lining the parking strip next to your home, but when you call the city for help, you’re told, “There’s nothing we can do.” That’s not hypothetical. That’s HB 2489.
HB 2489 would prohibit cities from enforcing camping restrictions unless they can provide a shelter bed for every person experiencing homelessness—along with accommodations for pets, possessions, partners, family members, and support persons. In practice, these expansive and unfunded requirements would make enforcement nearly impossible. Even cities like Tacoma, which have invested heavily in shelter capacity, could never fully comply.
The predictable result would be the unchecked proliferation of unauthorized encampments in parks, near schools, along waterways, and in business districts.
Tacoma is a compassionate city—but compassion without accountability isn’t kindness, it’s chaos. HB 2489 would strip away the tools Tacoma uses to move people indoors and keep public spaces safe. Tacoma’s current approach is both compassionate and accountable. City leadership balances humane outreach with reasonable public-safety standards. Tacoma provides more shelter beds than any other city in Pierce County and funds dedicated outreach through the HEAL and HOPE teams. Before any encampment is moved, individuals are offered shelter, services, and case management. The goal is connection—not punishment.
The City has backed this commitment with real resources, investing approximately $100 million in housing and homelessness in the 2024 biennial budget.
Claims that Tacoma’s camping regulations “criminalize” homelessness are not supported by the facts. Arrests are rare. Enforcement is used primarily as a last-resort tool to encourage people to accept shelter and services. City data—and reports from providers like the Tacoma Rescue Mission—show that more individuals accepted shelter after the camping ordinance took effect.
HB 2489 would remove one of the few tools that helps move people indoors and into care. Leaving people in unmanaged encampments is not compassionate. It exposes them to victimization, untreated behavioral health challenges, and dangerous living conditions. It also creates serious public-safety and environmental concerns for surrounding neighborhoods, including trash, needles, fires, and contamination.
This bill also undermines local control. Tacoma already functions as the de facto service hub for Pierce County. The immediate impact of HB 2489 would be to effectively require Tacoma to house everyone who arrives—without additional state funding—while the city faces a $15 million budget deficit.
This one-size-fits-all mandate from Olympia ignores local realities and shifts enormous costs onto the very cities already doing the most.
The broader impacts cannot be ignored. Expanding unsanctioned encampments would deter tourism, investment, and small business growth, reducing the tax revenue needed to fund housing, behavioral health, and public safety solutions. Weakening local economies ultimately harms everyone, including those the bill seeks to help.
We share the goal of addressing the root causes of homelessness. The state could make meaningful progress by expanding behavioral health treatment beds, funding therapeutic courts, strengthening addiction services, and investing in workforce pipelines for mental health professionals. These measures address causes—not symptoms.
HB 2489 does not solve homelessness. It limits effective local tools and risks worsening conditions for both the unhoused and the broader community. Lawmakers should reject HB 2489 and empower local leaders to continue tailoring balanced, compassionate solutions that work for Tacoma.