Nickelsville sprang up in South Seattle two years ago to protest then-Mayor Greg Nickels' policy of clearing the homeless off public property. The encampment and its residents have roamed from church lots to fields around the city ever since, all the while agitating for a permanent piece of land to call home.
In November, Mayor Mike McGinn gave them a place to settle down -- a concrete pad in Sodo where a former Sunny Jim peanut butter factory had burned down.
Now, as city employees make the site livable for up to 100 residents, it's not clear whether the Nickelodeons will be among those moving in.
Residents of the roving encampment -- currently located at an old fire station in Lake City that McGinn made available -- say it works because they run it themselves. They fear life will be different at the Sunny Jim site, and they may be right.
Time limits
The mayor's staff is taking a different approach. Instead of self-governance, city officials will seek proposals from nonprofits or agencies to manage the site under contract with the city.
Stays at the city's camp won't be open-ended like they are at Nickelsville. A team of three case managers will be expected to move camp residents into housing within 12 to 15 months from the date they move in, said Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith. At Nickelsville, there's no such time limit. A few people have stayed at Nickelsville since it was founded.
Whoever gets the contract will be required to connect each camp resident with services, too. Within a week after a new person arrives at the Sunny Jim camp site, case managers will assess his or her needs, such as health services, veterans benefits or referral to a landlord.
The Nickelodeons could partner with an agency to provide the necessary services and still manage themselves, Smith said.
The Sunny Jim site may not last as long as Nickelsville has, either. Smith said the city hopes to open the Sunny Jim camp this summer and plans to give the pilot 18 months to two years.
Nickelodeons say they won't decide whether they're going to apply until they see the city's request for proposals. Many are skeptical of the new management plan. James Stewart said he isn't interested if it means he and his fellow Nickelodeons have to sacrifice the freedom and independence they currently enjoy.
"I don't think they [city officials] quite understand what we've got going here. We're self-managed. We use a democratic form of meeting and parliamentary procedure. Everybody has a vote," said Stewart who has lived at the camp for two months.
If the city doesn't allow the Nickelodeons to manage the Sunny Jim site, "I personally don't want to go. I don't want to be under anybody's thumb," he said.
The case against case management
Stewart said he's not opposed to services or case managers, but most Nickelodeons already have them, he said. Stewart has one case manager at the Department of Social and Health Services and another at Social Security, and he still hasn't gotten housing or his disability benefits, he said.
Besides, if the city wants case managers, there's lots of well-educated, intelligent people they could hire from Nickelsville to do the job, he said.
Julie Law agrees. Bedbugs forced her out of her Capitol Hill apartment last November, and since she was unemployed she couldn't afford to rent another. After sleeping at a shelter and lugging her backpack around all day, she found Nickelsville in Lake City.
"We're not concerned with basic services, we're concerned with basic survival -- sleeping, hygiene, food, our sense of security," Law said. "The money used to pay a staff that manages services could be better utilized in other areas of need."
For the city's part, Smith acknowledges that the new site will not be for everyone.
"This encampment, as we envision it, would not be a new Nickelsville," he said at a Feb. 7 community meeting near the Sunny Jim site. "Frankly, there may be people from Nickelsville who don't want this approach."