POULSBO — Currently, it’s against the law to camp in a Poulsbo city park without authorization. But, through an oversight, it is still legal to live in your RV or car on Poulsbo streets and in city parking lots.

But probably not for much longer.

Draft ordinances on camping and loitering were on the agenda of the Public Safety Committee recently. Those in attendance included Poulsbo Mayor Becky Erickson, Public Safety Director Shawn Delaney, Deputy Police Chief Andy Pate, City Prosecutor Alexis Foster, Judge Jeff Tolman, Court Administrator Linda Baker, Councilman Jeff McGinty, and Committee Chairman Ed Stern.

The city’s current “anti-camping ordinance” only refers to camping in public parks. The proposed ordinance change, would be amended to include “public streets, thoroughfares and public parking lots.” That’s in response to transient RVs and campers parking on public property.

The King Olaf parking lot was of particular concern, committee members said, because the people parking there can access Wi-Fi.

Councilman Stern said he understood King Olaf parking lot was created so people would have someplace temporary to park larger items, like RVs and boat trailers, rather than park them on the street. He said it was alright for him to park his camper in King Olaf, but he shouldn’t be permitted to camp in it.

According to the legal staff present at the meeting, only the Poulsbo City Council is authorized to give permission to camp on city property. That authority does not extend to camping on private property. However, that does not mean that someone can live in their trailer or RV in your driveway or back yard.

“We have other ordinances that say you can’t live in a mobile home inside the city,” Erickson said. However, she went on say the proposed ordinance change shouldn’t necessarily apply to family or friends just visiting for a week or so.

Councilman Ed Stern then proposed that the proposed ordinance might be amended so that, when friends or families come to visit in their RVs or fifth wheelers, there would be some kind of permit that residents could get at City Hall to put on their visitors’ windshield. The permit, which would be free, would allow visitors to park on a public roadway for a period of time not to exceed,say, five to seven days at a specific address.

Law enforcement and legal staff expressed concern that the permit might be abused by individuals who would get permits for transient vehicles. “The neighbors still are not going to be happy … What if they stay for a week, move and then come back?” said one official.

As it stood, the last paragraph of the proposed ordinance change allowed first time violators to be provided informational resources at discretion of officer, rather than writing a ticket.

Mayor Erickson was careful to define the difference between those who are “homeless in crisis or homeless by choice.” If they are homeless in crisis, they can get rent vouchers from Fishline, she said. As for the homeless by choice, “please choose another city,” said Erickson.

The City Council will hold public hearings on the proposed changes. But before that they said they want to have it pretty well worked out because “this is going to raise some hot button issues,” said Erickson. The final version, they agreed, should show some thought and sensitivity.

Drug peddling

The second proposed change had to do with amending the loitering ordinance to give law enforcement more leeway to approach suspected drug dealers.

“We’ve got a problem in our public parking lots, and in some places on our streets and underneath our bridges … where we’ve got people parking and doing bad stuff,” said Erickson. King Olaf and the Walmart parking lots were singled out as examples.

Loitering, per se, cannot be prohibited, according to Foster, as all loitering laws have been struck down by the higher courts. However, officials can restrict loitering or vagrancy related to drug-related activity or prostitution. This gives the police a basis to engage with that person and take the necessary law enforcement action. Officers still have to have probable cause and a warrant to search. But this change would just make it more clear when an officer could conduct a custodial interview, according to one law official.

The mayor noted that opiod use is creeping back and that city officials want to send the message that they are not going to tolerate that..

This ordinance will also go through the public hearing process, probably as part of a package of ordinance revisions the mayor wants to propose to help deal with the homeless and affordable housing crisis, according to the minutes of the meeting.