BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – New restrictions on sitting and lying could soon be enforced in a portion of downtown Bellingham.

The Bellingham City Council voted on Monday, Sept. 16, to move forward with an ordinance that would establish a shelter protection area surrounding the future Way Station at 1500 N. State St.

The Way Station is a county-owned facility that will offer a range of services for people experiencing homelessness, including 24-7 medical care, behavioral health assistance and access to showers. It will also provide overnight care to help patients who are in need of housing recover after they are released from the hospital.

The shelter protection area would act as a buffer to reduce certain activities that could harm residents at the Way Station, while also mitigating effects of the facility on surrounding businesses.

If the protection area is approved, it would ban camping, sitting or sleeping on the sidewalk and living in vehicles.

Still, Unity Care Northwest Facilities Manager Steen Brochner-Nielsen – who will help operate the Way Station – says the organization doesn’t see the rules in black and white.

“Our staff will use this protection area as a tool to ensure that our neighbors don’t feel burdened by people camping outside our areas,” Brochner-Nielsen said at the meeting. “But we are going to enforce that we don’t want people lingering around our facilities for hours or camp out at night because they want to be the first one to have a shower.

A shelter protection area already exists around the Lighthouse Mission’s Base Camp on Cornwall Avenue, but it will be moved to the shelter’s new location in Old Town when it opens this fall.

The proposed zone near the Way Station would surround a two-and-a-half block area around the facility, with the outer edges extending to E. Champion Street, N. Forest Street, York Street and the Walton Place parking lot.

The council will have a final vote to approve the shelter protection order for the Way Station at its meeting on Sept. 30.

The facility itself is expected to open in October.