Burien faces another homelessness lawsuit, this one about religion

A Methodist church in Burien is suing the small South King County city in federal court, marking the fifth suit tied to the city’s efforts to limit homelessness.

But unlike the other cases, this one focuses on a bedrock American principle — religious freedom.

“People left England and came here so that a government couldn’t tell them what kind of religious things they could or couldn’t do,” said James Lobsenz. He’s one of the lead attorneys for the plaintiffs, Pastor Mark Miller and the Oasis Home Church.

The city of Burien, which is being sued alongside two of its staff members, declined to comment on the litigation, according to spokesperson Devin Chicras.

The facts of the case are relatively simple.

After months of Burien’s city leaders debating how to handle a small but growing unsheltered homeless population, the city passed an ordinance in September 2023 that allowed it to clear a large encampment located on a grassy median in North Burien, yards away from speeding cars.

After Burien’s camping ordinance passed, Miller and the Oasis Home Church opened their property to a local nonprofit, called the Burien Community Support Coalition, to host an encampment. From November 2023 until early February, the site gave about 100 people a temporary place to live. Most moved to the site after Burien cleared the large median encampment on Dec. 1, 2023.

The city of Burien told the church it had to get a “temporary use permit” before it could host an encampment. After the church refused to go through the permitting process, the city issued a $250 fee for every day the church didn’t comply. So far, the city has yet to try to collect on those fees, totaling more than $100,000 according to the complaint, which was filed Aug. 20.

Now, the church and its leader are asking a federal court to weigh in.

The church is arguing that offering homeless residents a place to sleep is an exercise of its religion, protected by the Constitution. But it’s also drawing from the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, known as RLUIPA, which protects religious institutions from discrimination in zoning laws.

“Burien can pass any law that it wants,” Lobsenz said. “But it’s municipal law. It doesn’t trump the Constitution, and it doesn’t trump RLUIPA.”

If successful, the church is asking for its legal fees to be covered, and, according to the complaint, it’s looking for clarity because it intends to host similar encampments in the future.

The camp, known as Sunnydale Village, operated during the coldest part of the year from early November 2023 until Feb. 5 and provided portable restrooms, hand-washing stations, trash pickup, fencing, food, water and more.

No violent incidents, arrests or deaths occurred on the property during the site’s life span, according to a recent report compiled by the Burien Community Support Coalition.

“When people stayed at Sunnydale Village, they weren’t sleeping on sidewalks or in alleys or doorways,” said Cydney Moore, director of the Burien Community Support Coalition.

Since the camp was closed, at least four people living outside in Burien have died from an overdose, according to a monthly report by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office and local coverage by the B-Town Blog. And unsheltered homelessness has continued to proliferate — currently there’s a large encampment near the center of Burien’s downtown — without any large-scale solutions.

After the Oasis Home Church’s encampment closed in early February, most of its residents returned to Burien’s sidewalks and streets. And for a while, volunteers were helping people pick up their tents and belongings every morning to avoid possible punishment under the camping ordinance Burien passed in 2023 — which allowed people to camp overnight if there were no available shelter beds but requires them to move each day.

Things took a sharp turn in early March when Burien’s City Council added more restrictions, which included a map that identified numerous “buffer” zones laying out where people were not allowed to sleep.

The King County Sheriff’s Office, which provides contracted law enforcement to Burien, questioned the revised ordinance’s constitutionality. King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall and King County filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, asking a judge to weigh in, saying they would not enforce Burien’s camping ordinance for the time being.

In response, Burien filed a countersuit, saying that the Sheriff’s Office violated a contract with the city by not enforcing the city’s policy on homelessness. That case remains ongoing.

Additionally, Burien’s camping ordinance is being challenged in King County Superior Court by three homeless people and the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness under claims that it “banishes” homeless people and inflicts “cruel punishment” that violates Washington’s Constitution. This case remains active.

Burien is also the defendant in a fifth lawsuit in King County Superior Court that claims members of the City Council violated Washington’s Open Public Meetings Act in April.

It was triggered when Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling and three other council members held a news conference at City Hall to discuss concerns they had after the Sheriff’s Office’s decision to stop enforcing the city’s homeless camping ordinance.

While these legal battles drag out, Burien’s largest encampment, which is now located on King County property, is getting some added resources.

King County has spent more than $150,000 so far to put fencing and sanitation services on the site, according to Amy Enbysk, spokesperson for County Executive Dow Constantine.

In June, the county pulled $1 million it had previously offered to Burien to stand up a tiny house village. Now, the county says it’s using that money to pay the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to oversee outreach to the Burien encampment, helping to get people moved into more stable forms of shelter or housing.

The Oasis Home Church, in its recent complaint, said it plans to open another encampment on its property sometime in the future.