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Hot spot: a sleeping arrangement under I-5 near the corner of Sixth and Cherry, where a city-contracted worker forcibly removed one man’s blanket while he was sleeping Jan. 4.
Photo by Adam Hyla
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When Real Change first reported in October that the city had embarked on a campaign of “proactive” sweeps to remove homeless people and their belongings from underpasses and greenbelts, the city publicly backtracked, saying it would proceed with clearing encampments only on a “case by case” basis.
Public records obtained last week show that, behind the scenes, the encampment clearances went on as usual.
Nine days after Human Services Department director Patricia McInturff publicly told councilmembers that city staff were backing off on their “proactive” policy, which included posting warning notices that featured a disconnected phone number [“Swept but still dirty,” Oct. 31] mayor’s staff distributed a new, updated clearance notice with an up-to-date number.
Explaining the new notice to fellow staff in an email Dec. 11, the mayor’s human services manager Marilyn Littlejohn wrote that “We are in interim mode with respect to cleaning encampments…. [E]ach situation will be evaluated on a case by case basis. Whether we do a cleanup will depend on the urgency of the problem and the location of the encampment.” Littlejohn and her cohort in the mayor’s office, Julien Loh, were to do the evaluating.
Deputy mayor Tim Ceis, however, had other ideas. In an emailed reply the same day, Customer Service Bureau manager Darby DuComb set the record straight.
“TC [Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis] wants us to respond to all cleanups requested by anyone from within the city or from external customers. We are NOT reviewing them on a case-by-case basis, we are responding as usual.”
The Customer Service Bureau typically receives complaints about homeless people over the phone at 206-684-CITY.
DuComb told Real Change that it “wasn’t workable” to have Loh and Littlejohn screening each new complaint. “If we were getting complaints, we were supposed to respond to them.” she says.
And while the city’s notices — printed in bold “NOTICE AND ORDER TO REMOVE” — are newly printed and being distributed whenever the city sweeps an area, they feature a number that connects to the Citizens Service Bureau — not the city- and state-subsidized social service resources line, 2-1-1.
“If you need assistance in relocation call the Customer Service Bureau for assistance,” the notice says in capital letters.
Kathleen Southwick, director of the Crisis Clinic, asked the city not to include 2-1-1 on the notices. “If you put our number on the sign, [homeless people] will just be mad at us and we won’t be able to help find their stuff and most likely won’t be able to help find them shelter,” she wrote in a Nov. 13 email to DuComb, who was soliciting her input on a draft protocol. “They probably know there isn’t shelter available, which is why they are camping out!”
Southwick says printing signs listing her agency’s 2-1-1 phone number is helpful neither to her volunteer call staff nor the homeless people who are being uprooted from an area.
“The reason people are camping is because there is no shelter, not because they don’t know about shelter,” she says.
DuComb says there’s no reason her bureau can’t respond to calls from those subject to the city’s sweeps. “We help homeless people all the time get connected to services,” she says. “It depends on the nature of the call.”
City officials publicly released a draft rule guiding the city’s sweeps of homeless people from urban campsites Jan. 10. The new rule would sanction the removal of homeless people and their possessions from public property — not just in parks or under bridges, but on any city-owned or -managed land, including sidewalks or alleys.
The draft rule says that the city will post notices in any area that it plans to clear out at least 48 hours beforehand. Possessions found there by work crews will be stored for later retrieval — if they are marked with “identifying information and… not contaminated, illegal, or hazardous.” City or state work crews need not supply the 48-hour warning if they suspect that any illegal activities other than camping are going on in the area. And the new rule says they “shall, when practicable and safe under the circumstances,” post the notices, offer social services help, and retain belongings. It also promises to open extra shelter, if needed. There are no specifics as to who decides when shelter, outreach, and advance warning won’t be necessary.
Seattle-King County Coalition on Homelessness director Alison Eisinger is asking the city to expand the 48-hour notice into two weeks, preceded by a two-week outreach period led by a team of social workers. SKCCH has documented instances already of the city removing articles with far less warning; a Dept. of Corrections work crew physically removed one man’s blanket while he slept under I-5 Jan. 4.
“People and their belongings should not be removed from public spaces unless we can offer them suitable housing and services,” she says. “We’re committed to working with people to make sure everyone has a roof over their heads. Protocols and policies should start from that point.”
The city is accepting comments on the proposal until the end of January. |
