EVERETT — The mayor has set two new "no-sit/no-lie" zones along Evergreen Way around the south Everett Fred Meyer and in a multi-block area of north Everett around United Church of Christ at Everett and Rockefeller avenues, where a homeless shelter operates.
Mayor Cassie Franklin set the zones July 21 with immediate effect. The new zones were revealed at a July 26 City Council subcommittee meeting.
“No-sit / no-lie” zones forbid people experiencing homelessness from laying down or camping in the zone. The zones also require Good Samaritan groups to get a city permit to hand out any goods or services within the zone.
The north Everett zone's north line is 24th Street. It reaches as far south as Hewitt Avenue between Lombard and Hoyt avenues. It happens to cover a good chunk of the prime retail area of downtown north of Hewitt.
Clark Park is in the northeast tip but is excluded in the city's rulebook because park rangers control activity there.
Homelessness aid groups widely pan the zones.
The two-block zone tied to the church tells people they must keep moving if they spend the night in its shelter, said Penelope Protheroe, the founder of the Angel Resource Connection, a group that serves homeless individuals food, water and warm clothes.
This boundary is "negligent and irresponsible" considering people go there for help, Protheroe said, and called it a cruel law that will push people out of Everett to places such as Marysville or Lynnwood.
"It will cause people to become lost more and more into the cracks," she said.
Meanwhile, AliCat Community, a local volunteer group that cleans up garbage mostly produced by homeless encampments, said in a statement the new "no-sit/no-lie" zones would push people around in the city without solving the root issue of homelessness.
AliCat founder and president Cate Harrington told the Tribune that "we (AliCat) feel that ultimately it's not helpful and feels purely performative. There are already plenty of laws in place that could be enforced that would cut down on the drug use, public intoxication, and crime in this area" (of north Everett). "Those are already not being enforced."
Harrington noted the Broadway McDonald's, the Jimmy John's and the Chevron are just outside the zone, which she said are "major locations that should definitely be included."
The city's rules on setting a two-block "no-sit/no-lie" buffer zone can be used two ways: Either it can wrap around the blocks of a provider for homeless services, or to curb loitering homeless individuals in a frequent crime problem area. The second type requires multiple police incidents within a set timespan — think open drug use, loitering, or the presence of an encampment — to set a "high impact" buffer zone.
The city is using this second type for the south Everett buffer zone in the 8500 and 8600 blocks of Evergreen Way, city community development director Julie Willie said.
Central to this area is the Casino Road Fred Meyer. Managers at that store had complained about the crime and issues with homelessness in past months.
City officials said any risk of losing the Fred Meyer would create a food desert for Casino Road residents. Some walk to the store. (The next nearest supermarket is the Safeway about a mile north.)
The south Everett boundaries on Casino Road cover Cascade High School and Horizon Elementary, but do not stretch to include Evergreen Middle School. The on- and off-ramp at Highway 526 is included in the zone.
The two new no-sit, no-lie zones became effective July 21 upon the mayor's designation, and will stay effective until the mayor repeals them, according to the law on buffer zones. Franklin is to review the buffer zones every six months.
The city posted the "no-sit/no-lie" buffer zones on its website and will have police and social workers communicate the zone boundaries to people, Willie said. No public signs will be posted.
Protheroe said that doesn't announce the zone boundaries well enough to prevent getting in trouble. "People don't have access to the Internet, so (the city) can't hold them in the wrong," Protheroe said.
In early May, the City Council approved giving the mayor this temporary authority in a 5-2 vote. These are the first two new zones the mayor has designated. This authorization expires at the end of 2025.
In 2021, the City Council set a "no-sit / no-lie" zone around the Everett Gospel Mission men's homeless shelter on Smith Avenue.
