March 2, 2006

By LAURA PEACH
Contributing Writer

Valentine’s Day dawned with a light snowfall dusting the greater Seattle area. While others warded off the chill by exchanging tokens of affection, a handful of people sheltering in a greenbelt received a very different message. All their belongings were thrown away.

“ I have nothing left — some valentine,” says Barry Williams. His canned goods, clothes, the tent he slept in, a quilt, and three sleeping bags — along with the possessions of two other nearby campers — were taken and discarded by a Department of Corrections work crew. Williams had been camping in an overgrown area on Queen Anne Hill’s southwest flank for about six months.

According to Seattle’s trespassing laws, any individual who is on unused, unenclosed land has license and privilege to remain there unless asked to leave by the owner or authorities. The Parks Department, which authorized the cleanup, posted notices warning campers three days before it began, on Feb. 10, says Parks spokesperson Dewey Potter.

The crew’s work, which cost the city about $10,000, was followed Feb. 27 with another cleanup operation on Queen Anne’s northeast side.

The bitter cold of that week, with lows between 23 and 27° F, claimed the life of Steven D. Blosberg, 40, who died of hypothermia Feb. 17 downtown. A day before, the city Human Services Department had opened additional cold-weather shelter, then paired social workers with police to go find people sleeping outside and offer them an indoor haven.

After his campsite was emptied out, Barry began sleeping in a doorstep with a borrowed sleeping bag. He doesn’t want to go to a shelter because of his emphysema; others believe his coughing is tuberculosis and they complain, he says. He fears that more homeless people will be faced with sweeps this winter: “I’ve been warning every tramp I know that lives in Kinnear to hide your stuff, dude, because they’re coming.”

Homeless individuals also testified to having their possessions taken by work crews on both Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill during the same time, although those reports could not be confirmed by authorities.

One man, who wanted to remain unidentified, had his belongings taken on Feb. 13 from under an overpass near Eastlake Avenue. “They did me a favor, with this cold now,” he says. “It got me into a shelter.”

Parks spokesperson Potter says that the decision to sweep the areas around Kinnear Park was made prior to the forecasts for cold weather. The effort was authorized by Christopher Williams, director of parks operations, after a series of citizen complaints. “When it reaches the point where neighbors are complaining, then we have to act,” says Potter.

The neighbors were always tolerant, says Williams; they routinely offered household items, and knew some of the campers by name.

Jim Thorburn, who oversees the prisoner work crews for the Department of Corrections, says such sweeps are not new. Nor would they be scheduled according to the weather.

“ No emphasis is placed on any time of year, it’s just a response to a specific request from [our contractors] to go in and do a cleanup,” he says. n