Seattle Mayor Ed Murray says the city will spend more than $37 million on homeless services this year. Seattle currently offers 1,700 shelter beds. A Jan. 24, 2014 count of people sleeping on Seattle streets and in cars totaled 2,300.

On Jan. 14, 2015, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray sent a draft ordinance to the city council that proposes three tent cities on vacant parcels in nonresidential areas for the city's homeless. Each one would accommodate 100 people. Sites on private and city lands would be eligible for permits, but would not include parks. Social-service organizations would manage the tent cities.

The mayor's proposal stems from an Oct. 2014 hearing from his Emergency Task Force on Unsheltered Homelessness. The task force recommended seven tent cities on sites in all land-use zones. There are already homeless tent camps in Seattle, but those are affiliated with churches, which the city allows with few restrictions.

"Permitted encampments are not, in my view, a long-term strategy to end homelessness, but organized encampments have less impact on our neighborhoods and provide a safer environment than what we see on our streets today," said the mayor.