MOSES LAKE — At a nearly two-hour-long public meeting of the Moses Lake Ad Hoc Homeless Committee, residents expressed nearly universal opposition to using some of the city-owned land near the dog park as a temporary parking place for RVs used as residences, many of which are currently parked on stub-outs along Central Drive.

As a result, the ad hoc committee – which is made up of City Manager Allison Williams, Assistant City Manager Rich Huebner, Mayor Don Myers, Deputy Mayor Deanna Martinez and Council Member David Eck – is going to take another look at two other potential sites, including the Moses Lake Police Department’s former pistol range on Randolph Road in the Port of Moses Lake.

“This issue is very important to me. I can see the dog park from my kitchen window,” said Maria Zarate, who said she worked with the homeless during her 27 years with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. “I’ve been an advocate. … But that site is off limits, I can tell you that.”

Zarate was one of nearly two dozen people who expressed their concern about using a portion of the 9.5 acres at the corner of Paxson Drive and Central Drive as a place for homeless residents to park their vehicles, citing crime, drug use, an unwillingness to support those who will not support themselves and a small pack of possibly endangered foxes that make their home in the sagebrush on the parcel.

“We consistently deal with homeless and transient people who are not respectful of the patrons on the fairgrounds,” said Grant County Fairgrounds Director Jim McKiernan. “In our efforts to keep patrons safe at the facility, it is not uncommon to ask trespassers to leave, to clean up drug paraphernalia from our wet restrooms, to clean the showers that someone has defecated in, and call the sheriff when a patron has had something stolen.”

In fact, McKiernan said, last year one fairgrounds employee was actually stuck with a used needle while cleaning a bathroom. Because the dog park is right across Paxson Drive from the county fairgrounds, McKiernan said he was concerned that locating a park for RVs used residences there would raise the threat of thefts and pose a risk to future activities at the fairgrounds.

“I too am opposed to the dog park,” said Debbie Doran-Martinez, a business owner and executive director of the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce. “I think you need to remember that the community raised money to put that in and it’s not fully funded by the city. So I don’t think it’s appropriate to go there.”

At the start of the meeting, Williams outlined the situation the city faces with RVs and vehicles used as residences parked on city streets. While she outlined state and federal laws that aim to alleviate and eventually solve the problem of homelessness, Williams said the city’s ability to act in dealing with the current situation is limited by a pair of court decisions that expand the rights of homeless people.

In the case of Martin v. City of Boise, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in September 2018 ruled that cities and counties could not arrest homeless people for sleeping on public property if there were no shelter space. As a result, Williams said, the city responded by creating the sleep center on East Broadway near the intersection of SR 17. So far in 2023, the sleep center has averaged 26 guests per night, Williams said, 71% of those being Moses Lake residents while only 5% report passing through on their way to someplace else.

“So that is where we are in dealing with the on-street issues associated with the Boise case,” Williams said.

Williams explained the city is also affected by the Washington State Supreme Court’s ruling in August 2021 in Long v. City of Seattle which found that people living in motor vehicles such as RVs are protected from debt collectors – including debts incurred by fines and impound fees – under the state’s homestead act. Because of that ruling, the city is limited in its ability to enforce parking restrictions on vehicles used as residences when they’re parked on public property, she said.

The stub-outs along Central Drive, where a number of RVs are parked, are currently private property, and the city has issued 30-day eviction notices, though if there is no place to park them off the city streets by the end of May, the city will be limited in its enforcement ability.

“We invite lawsuits (if we don’t) treat any car that appears to be a residence as if it is a residence,” Williams said.

Huebner said the city has looked a number of sites as possible alternatives for parking – the 9.5 acres where the dog park sits, a 47-acre plot on the Port of Moses Lake currently housing the former MLPD firing range, a parcel on Road 4 Northeast near the Municipal Airport and the city’s Municipal Services Operations Center, a 0.38-acre site at 1150 W. Broadway Ave. that is city-owned, and a small parcel of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation-owned land near the Love’s Travel Center on the far west side of town.

Public interest quickly gravitated to the former pistol range, which already has power and water and is far from town. However, Williams said the site will be the future location of a shallow-water well if the city can secure the rights, and so there may be some requirements for protecting the ground in the future.

“My understanding is we’re on a timeline, and that we need to move these RVs because we don’t want them there anymore,” Martinez said. “We don’t want to miss an opportunity to trespass them and move them because we’re looking at another area that might be a better choice.”

The ad hoc committee will make its recommendations to the city council later this month.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].