As Mayor Mike McGinn and the Seattle City Council continue to quarrel over whether or not to move forward with discussing land use changes to allow 100 homeless people to camp on the industrial Sunny Jim site in SODO, there's one piece of legislation that's being overlooked: a proposal from the mayor to free up roughly $700,000 in city funds, remove chemicals from the mildly toxic Sunny Jim site—or another site within the city—and prepare it for habitation.

"This current fight is a total distraction," says Tim Harris, executive director of Real Change, a kickass homeless advocacy newspaper. “It's pretty obvious that there's a question as to whether the Sunny Jim is a politically viable site. I think we need to revisit that question later. Right now, we need to move forward with the discussion on funding."

The legislation that addresses funding is still not assigned to a committee by city council president Richard Conlin—even though Conlin and several other council members, most notably homeless advocate Nick Licata—pledged yesterday to discuss funding the cleanup of that site, or another site, further.

While the legislation languishes on Conlin's desk, it's impossible to debate funding the toxic cleanup of the Sunny Jim site or readying another site for habitation. If a site was settled on and the funding was there, the mayor's office could direct the Department of Planning Development to get a temporary use permit to move homeless people onto the site for up to six months—essentially keeping the mayor's office on track for establishing the controversial camp before winter sets in.

In essence, Harris is saying that the mayor's office is picking the wrong fight. "This is not the place to spend energy right now,” he says. “This is a distraction.”

It's a distraction—a delay—that the city council seems to want but the mayor's office cannot afford.