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| Photo by JP Gritton |
On Thur s., March 13, the Real
Change Organizing Project and
friends will stand with those who
struggle to survive in Seattle’s public
spaces. Your support is vital. If you have
a few hours during the day, we need
you. If you can spend the night at City
Hall Plaza, we need you. Come stand for
human dignity, compassion, and public
accountability.
Since last spring, the mayor’s office
has coordinated a campaign of harassment
and intimidation against homeless
campers. The obvious question has been
asked a thousand times: Where are these
people supposed to go?
The city has yet to offer an honest
answer. While this year’s one night homeless
count found more than 2,600 people
surviving outside of a maxed-out emergency
shelter system, the systematic
destruction of homeless campsites has
continued unabated. Survival gear is destroyed.
No-trespass citations are issued
against “unauthorized camping.”
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Eviction Notice
Click on the above photo |
The city has criminalized both the act
of sleeping and the storage of survival
gear on all public land. All camping is
“unauthorized.”
This is an inhumane waste of resources
that places the blame for extreme
misery and poverty squarely upon the
victim.
And to what end? Campers find
other places to go. They replace the survival
gear that the city destroys. Eventually,
they return to sites that have been
cleared. They have little choice. Since this
new policy of targeting homeless campers
seems to have regional coordination
with the Department of Transportation,
even those who leave town are likely to
face similar harassment.
The mayor’s public relations team has
vilified homeless campers as lazy and
irresponsible, diseased and dangerous.
They have offered smooth assurances
that the concerns of homeless advocates
have been met, and that services and
shelter are available to displaced homeless
campers. They have couched their
assault in the language of compassion.
Simply put, they lie. Here’s what they
say, and what they really mean.
Shelter will be made available to
those displaced from encampments:
This, so far as we can tell, means that
individuals will be offered a mat on
the floor of a city overflow shelter for a
limited period of time that has yet to be
defined. Nobody is talking about opening
new shelter. Last January 24, on a
night when all the shelters were filled
and the severe weather overflow shelters
were 40 people past capacity, more than
2,600 individuals were found surviving
outside in the pre-dawn hours. Where
are they supposed to go? The question
remains unanswered.
Personal property will be stored for
up to 60 days: The city’s draft policy defines
all tents, sleeping bags, blankets,
tarps, and other survival gear as immediately
disposable. When they say “personal
property,” they mean identification,
military papers, prescriptions, perhaps
photos, and eyeglasses. In other words,
when people return to their camps on a
cold night to find that everything they
own is gone, the gear that they need to
survive outside will almost surely have
been thrown away.
Campers will receive a minimum of 48
hours notice: The notices the city posts
are pre-printed with a 48-hour warning
for disposal of belongings. While city
departments will have 10 business days
to respond to reports of camping with
removal, this does not translate into the
nearly two week’s warning that is often
implied.
Outreach workers will offer campers
shelter and services: Seattle’s Crisis
Clinic refused to have its number listed
on the notices of removal because staff
there understand that little to nothing
is available to callers. Providing effective
referrals to those who have little reason
to trust means having the capacity to
build relationships over time and offering
actual resources. Without this, talk of
“outreach” is mostly a sham.
By the end of March, the mayor’s office
will finalize their rules and procedures
for homeless campsite removal. Minutes
of last January’s public hearing are
available on the city’s Human Services
Department website. In over three hours
of testimony, not one person spoke in
favor of the draft policy.
On March 13, concerned citizens have
the opportunity to send a clear message
to the mayor and his staff.
Our message is simple: Help, Don’t
Harass. End the sweeps of homeless
encampments. Work with advocates
to provide alternatives. Provide real
outreach, sufficient emergency shelter
alternatives, and expand services to
those in need.
Visibility teams will stand throughout
downtown with banners, leaflets, and
petitions to raise awareness of the city’s
actions. Dinner, provided by Operation
Sack Lunch, will be served at 5:30 p.m. on
City Hall Plaza by leaders of Seattle’s faith
community. We will camp overnight on
City Hall Plaza to highlight Seattle’s critical
need for housing and shelter. There
will be a final visibility push before the
tents come down on Friday morning.
Please visit our advocacy
page where you can pledge your
participation in the Day of Action. Sign
up for a visibility shift. Commit to staying
overnight. Download a petition to
distribute, or simply add your name to
the many who have already signed.
Silence is complicity. Your action matters.
Please pledge your support and help
make March 13 the strong showing of
community concern that homeless people
need and deserve. |
