King County Executive Dow Constantine’s homeless strategy suffered yet another blow as a federal court threw out the county’s lawsuit against the City of Burien over enforcement of the city’s no camping laws. U.S. District Judge Richard Jones ruled on September 25 that the county’s legal claims were “nebulous,” and Burien’s public-area camping ban is constitutional.

The county’s lawsuit was filed last March after Executive Constatine ordered the Sheriff’s department to NOT enforce the city’s latest camping ban (Burien contracts with King County to provide law enforcement). The county’s lawsuit challenged the constitutionality of the city’s anti-camping ordinance. The City of Burien filed a countersuit against the county for failure to fulfill its contract obligations.

Predictably, after it became known that Burien’s camping ban was not going to be enforced, encampments instantly popped up around the city, the biggest one near the city hall. Almost immediately an overdose death occurred at an encampment and more soon followed. The encampments became a drain on city services as crews were required to clean garbage around the tents, respond to many drug overdoses, and extinguish multiple large fires.

Judge Jones’ ruling throws out the county’s lawsuit while Burien’s lawsuit against the Sheriff’s office continue.

Following the ruling, Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling (a Democrat who has long been critical of Constantine’s failed homeless policies) stated his frustration over the county’s action: “We’ve known from the beginning that the county and the Sheriff are playing political games instead of enforcing common sense public safety measures. Since they’ve arbitrarily decided to not enforce our law under ideological grounds, Burien has seen a record number of overdoses, deaths, outside tent sleeping, and property crime. Burien is continuing our suit against the county for breach of contract, as this clearly is.”

Executive Constantine has not responded publicly to the court’s decision as his communication staff has sent reporters seeking comment to other county departments –  who also do not respond to the inquiries.

This is the latest in a long string of failures the King County executive has had on the homeless issue since he and then Seattle Mayor Ed Murray stood before the region’s media and declared homelessness an emergency in November 2015. Despite billions being spent annually on the issue, homeless numbers have grown 63%, from 10,000 individuals to well over 16,000 in the past decade. Tragically, every year more homeless people die on the streets or in transitional housing.

During that time, Constantine has championed controversial “Housing First” policies through strongly advocating for the much-maligned King County Regional Homeless Authority, repeatedly upsetting local leaders by not working with them before moving large shelters into their communities, saying “it is wrong” to believe addiction and mental health play a significant factor in the region’s homeless crisis, and a recent documentary revealed that the county’s supportive housing facilities are drug-filled, unsanitary, and often very violent.

At this time, there has been no word from the Sheriff’s Office over when they will finally keep their contractual commitments and enforce Burien’s camping restrictions.

Mayor Schilling summed up Burien’s frustration with King County’s actions on the encampment controversies, “From day one, the goal of Burien’s common sense and practical ordinance is to encourage people off the street and into shelter and services. The ordinance fits squarely within the US Supreme Court ruling, as well as the State Supreme Court’s ruling on Lacey. Local governments need to use all the tools they can to nudge people off the street and to accept services. The County needs to show leadership on solving problems, instead of playing political games with their appointed sheriff.”