[Posted on The Olympian's Web site]

Published June 02, 2008
Lawsuit challenges Lacey's new law on homeless tent city
THE OLYMPIAN

LACEY -- Advocates for the homeless have sued Lacey to overturn a law that bans a tent city and instead requires churches to shelter the homeless indoors.

The lawsuit claims the City Council did not follow a proper procedure before it approved the law April 24 with a 4-3 vote.

Panza, a nonprofit group that supports Camp Quixote, Olympia’s tent city; Selena Kilmoyer, Panza’s secretary; and three residents who attend churches in Lacey -- Elizabeth Penney, Ronna Smith and Donald Stern -- filed the lawsuit in Thurston County Superior Court.

The lawsuit contends that while the city posted meeting notices and held public hearings and other meetings both before the Lacey Planning Commission and City Council on a draft law regulating temporary homeless encampments, no such steps were taken for a later draft that required faith-based groups to shelter the homeless inside their churches.

As a result, supporters of the law were uninformed that Lacey churches don’t have adequate room to both shelter the homeless and minister to their congregations, Kilmoyer said.

For more on the story, see The Olympian Tuesday.