Jason Goss has been homeless since March and a vendor at Real Change for six months. He was living in Nickelsville when a community disagreement forced him to remove his belongings immediately. A friend in a tent just off of Nickelsville grounds offered him storage space, so he put his flat-screen television, generator and a dufflebag with ten days’ worth of clothes in the tent.
While Jason was selling Real Change and his friend was working day labor, all the tents along both sides of Dearborn were removed. The friend went to the police and was told that since there was no identifying information in the tent, they were unable to retrieve the belongings, because they couldn’t tell whose belongings were whose. Jason says since he’s on the street, losing the TV and generator has lightened his load, but together they were worth more than $300. And without his duffle bag, he now has only three sets of clothing. He’s philosophical: “It goes with the territory of being homeless; if you leave it behind, it’s as good as gone. Storage [in Seattle] is ridiculous on the prices.”
To the people who live in houses, he says “I can understand it might look like a blight on the territory, but that’s people’s property.” Camping under the freeway might not look like much, but it’s home.
Background
Unsheltered homelessness in King County has grown by 19 percent over the past year to 4,505 people counted outside in a single night. For every three homeless people in King County, at least one is unsheltered due to a shortage of appropriate services.
Sweeps of homeless campsites have also increased, with 595 individual campsite clearances occurring in the past year alone.
When health and safety concerns make campsite clearances necessary, they should occur in a consistent and compassionate manner. This means at least 72-hours advance warning, outreach to campers to offer shelter and services and storage of possessions for later retrieval.
Current encampment protocols, developed in 2008 under former Mayor Greg Nickels’ administration, fall short of this standard and have long been criticized by homeless advocates. Encampments of just one or two tents and areas where encampments have persistently occurred may be removed without warning or any offer of services.
People have lost medications, IDs and legal papers, as well as vital survival gear such as tents, bedding, clothing and food stores in these sweeps. Even items valued at $100 or more, which should be saved under current rules, have often been discarded by work crews.
A truly consistent and compassionate approach to problem campsites requires clear and fair policies, applied with transparency and community accountability. We support calls by Seattle City Councilmembers to review and amend campsite clearance protocols before further sweeps occur.
What you can do
Join us as Real Change and others present our concerns to the Human Services Committee on Feb. 10 at 2 p.m. The public meeting will be held in Council Chambers, 2nd floor of City Hall, 600 Fourth Avenue.
OR Contact the mayor, your district city councilmember and at-large Councilmembers Burgess and González to say you support a review of encampment removal protocols by the city council.
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