Around 50 residents of Tent City 4 found a new temporary home on a church parking lot near downtown Kirkland on Feb. 19. But conspicuously absent in the move from St. John Vianney church in Finn Hill to the Kirkland Congregational Church of Christ were picketers from the TentCitySolutions.com group.
"I haven't seen them around for awhile," said John, the Tent City 4 move master for the latest migration of the Eastside homeless encampment.
The sometimes-vitriolic Tent City opponents weren't around during the move on Saturday, and none of them showed up on Sunday that weekend, added John, who spoke on condition his last name not be used because he has a job and fears the stigma of being homeless.
Rev. Walter John Boris at the Congregational Church would prefer that the opponents stay away. The pastor has gone to meetings at the locations of other Eastside Tent City 4 camps, where he has seen local residents "stirred to a frenzy by power hungry individuals spewing venomous misinformation," Boris wrote to his congregation. "They have made a hobby of masquerading as the voice of reason," he added in a later interview.
The congregation voted 55-2 on Feb. 13 to invite the homeless group to set up camp on the church's parking lot after they heard that the Bellevue Aldersgate United Methodist Church congregation voted against housing the camp, Boris said.
Residents of Tent City 4, Mayor Mary-Alyce Burleigh, congregation members from St. John Vianney and an officer from the King County Sheriff's office answered written questions at the meeting before the vote, he said. "Our congregation was satisfied their questions were answered."
One area of concern was crime associated with the camp residents, but the King County Sheriff's officer said there have been no statistical jumps in incidents at any of Tent City's sites, according to Burleigh.
Like St. John Vianney, housing the homeless speaks to the core mission of his church, a progressive national denomination that made a point in 2001 of welcoming gays, lesbians and bisexuals, Boris said. "But it's also we welcome all God's people," he said. "Jesus didn't turn people away, and neither did we."
The Tent City move didn't completely slip under the radar screens of the TentCitySolutions.com members, though. They printed up a flier that announced: "Kirkland Congregational Church voted Sunday to allow SHARE/WHEEL, organizers of the Tent City social experiment, to bring a 100 person homeless encampment to the North Kirkland neighborhood THIS WEEKEND."
The flier also urged readers to attend the February 15 Kirkland City Council meeting to "show your city leaders that you deserve and expect the public to be involved and considered in decisions such as these ...."
Indeed, the council did hear from Tent City opponents, a couple of whom didn't identify themselves as such after Mary Burleigh announced that comments on both sides of the issue would be limited to three people each.
John O'Neill - who was ejected from a St. John Vianney informational meeting about Tent City after he started shouting at Rev. Kevin Duggan - said he wasn't at the council meeting to speak about any specific homeless issue. Instead, O'Neill said that finding 2,600 beds could end homelessness in three years.
Scott St. Clair (see letter to editor) also objected to Tent City. Describing the group's move to Kirkland as folly, he said, "Those who say Tent City never hurt anyone are not telling the truth."
St. Clair also complained about what he said were vicious attacks on Tent City opponents, and he described the city decision to allow the encampment to move to Kirkland as "an absolute abuse of the legal process."
Karen Tennyson told council members that she welcomed the homeless group to Kirkland. She conceded that Tent City 4 is not a solution to homelessness on the Eastside, but Tennyson welcomed the presence of the encampment "so people will see it is not the evil it is portrayed to be."
Sharon Sherrard, a member of Eastside Cares, an organization that supports Tent City, said she hoped Kirkland would welcome the homeless group. Sherrard added that volunteers at Tent City were grateful for the opportunity to serve and "for the changes in their hearts."
Steven Pyeatt, a co-founder of the TentCitySolutions group, didn't object to the presence of Tent City 4 in Kirkland. Instead, he took a legal approach to the temporary-use permits the homeless group operates under at the Eastside churches where they have stayed.
According to the city of Kirkland Web site, churches have a constitutional right to house the homeless. But it is not an absolute right, according to Pyeatt. "Churches have to abide by the same zoning laws as everybody else," he said, adding that citizens have the same rights as churches.
Assistant City Manager Lynn Stokesbary said Tent City 4 had applied for a temporary-use permit to move to the Kirkland church the day of the council meeting, adding that notices about the permit application and final decision would be mailed to all residents within 500 feet of the Congregational Church.
"We also have a phone line (587-4321) that will be updated as needed," he said, adding that city officials will visit the camp on a daily basis.
The TentCitySolutions group tried to get a temporary restraining order to prevent Tent City 4 from moving to Kirkland. But a judge allowed the move, anyway - with conditions, Stokesbary said.
"These we would be doing anyway," he said of conditions that are identical to the ones in place for Tent City 4 when it was at St. Brendan's Church in Bothell and at St. John Vianney.
The conditions include a limit on the number of residents, not allowing children to live at the camp, limiting the stay to 90 days, and a guarantee that residents adhere to a SHARE/WHEEL code of conduct, Stokesbary said.
The conditions also addressed noise, traffic and parking, he said. Noise is not a problem because Tent City rules call for quiet from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m., and traffic is not a problem because few of the Tent City residents have vehicles, he said.
Parking, however, is a bit more complicated. Staff at the Kirkland City Hall across the street from the Congregational Church pay to use 40 parking places in the church lot where the Tent City is located, Stokesbary said. "We were able to mitigate the loss of the 40 parking places," he said, by using spots at a nearby Baptist church and parking places at the Waverly site.
John at Tent City 4 was surprised at the Congregational Church invitation to move the camp there. "I was a little worried there for a moment," he said.
The Woodinville Unitarian Universalist Church congregation also voted in February to invite Tent City to stay there, and John said that might end up being the next location of the camp. "We don't know for sure ... but that would be really cool," he said.
Mayor Burleigh wasn't surprised at the lack of heated opposition that has greeted Tent City 4 elsewhere. "I don't think many of our residents are upset," she said. Besides, if there is a problem, Burleigh noted that the Kirkland Police Department is just across the street.
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or (206)461-1309.[[In-content Ad]]
