Latest News on the Halfway House Issue

The City of Puyallup is now significantly better armed to protect our families and children from sex offender halfway houses.

Earlier this week ESB5105 received a unanimous 96-0 vote in the House. This was the last notable hurdle before going to Governor Inslee to be signed into law.

Local resident and community advocate Julie Door and her volunteers have been working hard to get this bill through the House after a 49-0 vote passed it through the Senate in early March.

What this means for Puyallup is legal control and authority over the kinds of halfway houses which have previously been started with virtually no rules for community safety or for resident rehabilitation. Under the new laws, community outreach and services will be mandated. The city will have the ability to enforce good planning and safe facilities and even be able to work with the Department of Corrections to close down non-conforming establishments.

Now the city staff in concert with the city council will be able to begin crafting the final language for the protection and safety ordinances. In February on the heels of an extension of a moratorium to prohibit the founding of such a facility the council held “first reading” on the initial verbiage of the ordinance. First reading is the time when new laws are first introduced and followed by a time for public comment and consideration until “second reading” when the new laws will be written into code.

We don’t have an announced timeline for second reading yet, but I would expect it to come up before too long.

From the creation of the Shaw Come Together facebook group to the public meetings to the rising stars of community advocacy we have been witness to the system working to solve a problem. It’s been stressful and a lot of work but in the end it all came together. Our community and the entire state will be better and stronger for the effort.

If you have any questions on this or any other city topic, please let me know.