Editor's note for Dec. 7, 2011: King County Sheriff's Office Captain Joseph Hodgson met with the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council on Dec. 6 and clarified the laws regarding public drinking in White Center. He told the council that statewide in Washington it is legal to be drunk in public, however it is not legal to drink openly in public and citations would be issued if an officer drove past someone drinking an unconcealed alcoholic beverage in White Center.

Take a walk down the streets of White Center and there is a good chance of spotting at least a couple littered cans of Steel Reserve 211, a 24 oz. malt liquor with 8.10 percent alcohol by volume.

You may also see people hanging out in the White Center business district, drinking malt liquor openly while visibly intoxicated.

“It’s pretty difficult to get past the guy staggering down the street or the guy passed out in the corner,” said Mac McElroy, owner of Mac’s Triangle Pub and a Chamber member.

It is an uncomfortable scene for some, and a scene the White Center Chamber of Commerce is intent on changing.

“The most common complaint we (the Chamber) were hearing from new business owners and new businesses that were willing to take a risk and come into White Center is, ‘You’ve got to make this more family friendly and this is an issue that is making it less family friendly’,” Chamber president Mark Ufkes said. “We are taking a long term process to try to solve it.”

The Chamber’s top priority for 2011 is tackling the problem of a homeless, chronic alcoholic population that is, simply, bad for business.

Steel Reserve 211 is considered the top choice of homeless chronic inebriates in White Center because of its price ($1.29 to $1.39) and potency (one 24 oz. can is equivalent to five beers), according to Ufkes and McElroy.

From a business perspective, they have identified three stores (that were not named) in White Center that willingly sell 211 to chronic inebriates, and their hope is to stop those sales using community-based pressure.

According to Ufkes, pressure has worked in the past. He said the Chamber complained to the state liquor board about irresponsible alcohol sales at White Center Market and Club Evo over two years, partially leading to their demise. Both operations have shut down recently.

That pressure to stop selling Steel Reserve 211 (and similar malt liquors), or at least stop selling it to chronic inebriates, will come about in two ways.

First, they have made stickers and signs that read, “We Support Responsible Alcohol Sales,” that will be distributed to stores throughout White Center’s business district.

Next, they will go door to door, asking stores to sign a “good neighbor agreement,” stating they “agree to follow a voluntary restriction on the sale of certain alcohol products used by the chronic alcoholic population.”

If the above measures don’t persuade the three problem stores to stop selling 211, Ufkes and McElroy will contact the liquor control board about violations, such as selling alcohol to people who are visibly intoxicated, which is illegal in Washington state (although very subjective).

“My first approach … was let’s start hauling these people into pickup trucks and get them out of here,” Ufkes said.

He also considered an outright ban of the problem malt liquors, but heard of the approach failing in other states where the manufacturers simply change the label and continue selling the same product, packaged differently.

They also discussed an alcohol restriction zone, but realized responsible alcohol sales are good for business.

Ufkes continued, “Mac (McElroy) made a point. He said, ‘Look, we have to engage these business owners and talk to them, we have to create an environment where they have a chance to do the right thing, and we help them do the right thing. Then, you look at regulatory structures if this participatory community-based approach doesn’t work – and you have to give it time to work.’”

Both Ufkes and McElroy said they realize stopping the sale of high-octane malt liquor in White Center is not a cure-all for chronic alcoholics living in the area. They have apprehension over the lack of social services to help chronic inebriates.

“Community based policing is an effective model,” Ufkes said. “The challenge is that if you don’t have the social services to back up community based policing than it doesn’t work. (Currently), there is not a social service structure behind it, and without it you won’t see long term impacts.”

“Some of these small communities around Seattle, they just want to push the chronics back to Seattle and let Seattle deal with them because Seattle has the dough (for social services).”

Every January the King County Committee to End Homelessness performs a “One Night Count” of homeless people. In January of 2010 they counted 8,937, comprised of people found in shelters or transitional programs and those surviving outdoors (with recognition that there are many more not counted).

47 of those nearly 9,000 homeless residents were in White Center and 30 of them were dealing with chronic alcoholism, according to Chamber president Mark Ufkes. And the population keeps growing, Ufkes said.

The demographic of that population, according to Ufkes and McElroy, is primarily white males in their 40s. On the contrary, the Committee to End Homelessness found that overall in King County, while 27 percent of the general population is of color, 64 percent of the homeless population is of color.

White Center’s homeless chronic alcoholic population is encouraged to grow based on its location, laws in unincorporated King County and a lack of social services, Ufkes and McElroy said.

“We’ve got a geographical issue with the fact that the city ends where White Center proper begins on the other side of Roxbury,” McElroy said, “which means there are some regulatory disparities with regard to alcohol consumption, specifically consumption in public and public drunkenness.”

McElroy said the Southwest precinct have done a good job of enforcing the laws of Seattle, forcing chronic inebriates into White Center, which lies in unincorporated King County where it is not illegal to be drunk in public.

“It pushed the indigent population that likes to drink and has no place to drink but outside to a place where it’s not illegal to do that,” he said. “So pragmatically, as an alcoholic, this is a good place to be.”

McElroy said Burien contracts out their own police force and has a drunk tank, which forces even more people into White Center where law enforcement is perceived as lax.

“And if you are an alcoholic that wants to avoid services or avoid pressure that services put on you, this is a great place to be,” Ufkes added.

The White Center Chamber of Commerce will start visiting stores in the business district in January to distribute “We support responsible alcohol sales” stickers and signs and ask business owners to sign the good neighbor agreement.

“The fact that we have a segment of our population that are our neighbors, they just don’t have residences, that have a problem; I think that needs to be addressed and I don’t think you have to be a business owner or anything other than a decent human being to see someone who’s having a hard time and want to give them a hand,” McElroy said.