Sixty residents at Tent City 4 pulled up stakes at the Congregational Church of Christ on May 19 and moved to a new location at the Lake Washington United Methodist Church on 132nd Ave. N.E.
"It was an all-church welcome," said Stephanie Miller, a United Methodist staffer on a Tent City taskforce. The welcome, she said, included a picnic and a performance by the children's choir at the church, and Sunday school children from the church stopped by a few days later to drop off cards and candy for the residents.
But as usual, there were objections from some neighbors and from members of the TentCitySolutions.com group about the move, Miller said.
"There were certainly people who were concerned," she conceded, adding that TentCitySolutions members were at one informational meeting for the congregation and left flyers on vehicles in the church parking lot. Miller couldn't recall what the flyer she found on her car said.
But an administrative-council decision to invite the homeless group to the church was based, in part, on what the group heard during three meetings, two of which involved neighbors, she said.
A panel of city officials also attended one meeting, and church members were already familiar with the homeless encampment in any event. "We've been serving dinners at Tent City," Miller explained.
Church members also did some checking. "We heard wonderful things from all the churches we talked to," she said. "And we also touched base with the schools in our area." That included the pre-school that rents space in the church, Miller added.
Rev. Walter John Boris at the Congregational Church of Christ, Tent City's last home, said the group's stay went very smoothly after a King County Superior Court ruling that churches had the right to house homeless encampments.
"It was basically a non-event from the point of view of controversy," he said, while conceding that some neighbors were initially upset about the homeless group's move to his church from St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Finn Hill. "But many of the neighbors were supportive," Boris stressed.
One of the objections to Tent City is that the group's presence increases crime in surrounding neighborhoods and poses a threat to area children. But there were no property crimes, assaults or crimes against kids when Tent City was located at the Congregational Church, according to Assistant City Manager Lynn Stokesbary.
"Those simply did not happen," he said. "There were no arrests for criminal behavior attributed to Tent City." That's not to say people weren't concerned about the issue when the move to the United Methodist church was discussed at a meeting Stokesbary attended. "There was a lot of similar questions (to those in Finn Hill)," he said.
But there was one difference from previous Tent City moves. "There was more opportunity for the public to comment ahead of the move," he said of both neighbors and the Kirkland community at large.
City, county regulation tightened
Another thing that's new is one of conditions in the temporary-use permit allowing Tent City to stay at its newest location: the group won't return to Kirkland for a year after leaving the United Methodist Church.
"SHARE/WHEEL offered to do that," Stokesbary said of an agreement tied to the group being able to stay in Kirkland for another three months at United Methodist. No one from TentCitySolutions.com responded to an e-mailed request for comment, but the organization doesn't believe the pledge is genuine, according to its Web site.
"They may venture into Bothell for 90 days," the posting says, "but they will be right back in Kirkland area first chance."
However, Stokesbary said, the one-year moratorium on Tent City staying in the Kirkland was approved by the city council in May, meaning it would be a condition of any future temporary-use permits for an encampment in the city.
Other conditions in the temporary-use permit for the camp's stay at United Methodist are basically the same as the ones in the use permits for the stays at St. John Vianney's and the Congregational Church, he said.
They include no open fires, keeping the camp quiet from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m., no residents younger than 18, and taking "all reasonable and legal steps" to check verifiable IDs of camp resident against lists of arrest warrants and sex offenders in King County, or in the cities of Kirkland or Redmond.
Tent City - which is self-governed - already operates under a strict code of conduct, noted veteran camp resident Bruce Thomas. The rules include prohibitions against drinking, doing drugs, carrying weapons, fighting, littering, disturbing neighbors and abuse of any kind, according to a Kirkland city Web-site section on Tent City.
Anyone who breaks those rules is thrown out of the camp, said Lora, a Tent City resident who didn't want her last name used. "Some of my best friends had to leave," she said.
Why is unclear. "We don't discuss our internal business with anyone," Thomas said when asked about the expulsions.
The Bellevue City Council is also considering tighter rules for homeless encampments in that city, rules that would include limiting stays to 60 days instead of the current 90 days.
The King County Council has also weighed in on the Tent City issue from a couple of different angels. The council has passed an ordinance setting up a one-year moratorium on Tent City using any county -owned property for the camps.
In addition, District 1 council member Carolyn Edwards got an ordinance adopted that contains restrictions for Tent City camps on private land. The camps have to be within half a mile from a bus stop, no more than 100 people can stay there, and the stays at sites are limited to 92 days - including setup and tear-down of the camp.
The Edwards ordinance also calls for all homes and businesses within 500 feet of a proposed encampment to receive two week's notice about a Tent City moving there. In addition, the ordinance calls for holding a public meeting at least 10 days prior to Tent City setting up camp in a new location.
"This legislation is not an endorsement of tent cities as a solution to homelessness," Edwards said in a press release.
Bob Ferguson, a King County Council member from District 2, goes even further. He's proposed taking $3.4 million that will be saved when the council is reduced from 13 member to nine next January and using the money to buy and renovate one or two closed hotels in unincorporated King County.
According to a press release, the project may be modeled after the Aloha Inn in Seattle, a self-managed transitional-housing facility that requires residents be clean and sober, and either working or actively looking for a job. The goal is for residents to save up enough money to afford to rent a place, and Ferguson notes the program has a 60-percent success rate.
"Resident-managed transitional-housing programs work," he said. "Let's help the homeless find jobs and save rent money and find a real roof over their heads."
Ferguson's idea is only in the proposal stage so far, said council spokesman Al Sanders. "The next step will be to assign it to a committee, and that hasn't happened yet," he said in late May.
TentCitySolutions.com is skeptical about the idea on its Web site. "We expect SHARE to oppose this attempt to provide REAL roofs over the head (sic) of Tent City residents," the group wrote, "but we are in full support of this, and the other solutions we have been proposing for past year."
Actually, the Aloha Inn program on Aurora Avenue North was set up by SHARE in the 1991 while the group was living in an old Metro bus barn near the Seattle Center. The former hotel in the Queen Anne neighorhood was purchased for $1.9 million using city and Catholic Community Services funds, and the facility has since become an accepted part of the community.
Thomas at Tent City 4 said it would be fine with him if King County buys one or two hotels and converts them into transitional-housing sites for homeless people, but he did add a caution. "It will not solve the homeless problem," Thomas said.
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or (206) 461-1309.[[In-content Ad]]
