March 4, 2019
Jason Johnson, Interim Director
Department of Human Services
City of Seattle
Seattle Municipal Tower – 58th fl.
700 Fifth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98124-421
Re: Camp Second Chance
permit extension
Director Johnson:
In response to requests that Highland Park Action Committee
(HPAC) support a permit extension for Camp Second Chance (CSC) at the camp’s
current location at 9701 Myers Way South in the West Seattle neighborhood of
Highland Park, HPAC’s executive committee considered the matter and has come to
the decision, supported by our membership, not to endorse or advocate for
another permit extension at the Myers Way location.
Also contributing to this decision is the input from
residents of other neighborhoods near Camp Second Chance, including
unincorporated King County, Highline, Top Hat, and White Center.
We did not come to this decision easily. We know that
homelessness is an urgent issue that affects our neighbors and our communities.
In order to understand the wishes of our neighborhood and unincorporated
neighborhoods that surround the CSC site now, HPAC has gone through another
significant community engagement process over the last few months.
In December 2018, HPAC leadership received three emails
requesting that HPAC support a permit extension for Camp Second Chance at the
existing Myers Way location. Requests
were from Cinda Stenger, a lay leader at Alki UCC and CSC Community Advisory
Committee member, from S. Denise Henrikson, a volunteer at Camp Second Chance
and member of Westside Interfaith Network (WIN), and from Martin Westerman,
Director of Seattle Green Spaces Coalition (SGSC).
This prompted HPAC’s leadership to hold a listening session at
our January 23, 2019 meeting to understand the wishes of neighbors,
stakeholders, community groups, and businesses in order to inform HPAC’s
response to the permit extension. Over 40 people attended, with a significant
number of the attendees being from Camp Second Chance. Opening and closing
statements were made by Eric Davis, Camp Second Chance Manager, Martin
Westerman, Director of Seattle Green Spaces Coalition (SGSC), Cinda Stenger, a
lay leader at Alki UCC on the Camp Second Chance Community
Advisory Committee, Barbara Dobkin, a leader with North
Highline Unincorporated Area Council, and me, Gunner Scott, acting chair
of HPAC.
What we came away with was that Camp Second Chance has been a
model encampment, particularly for individuals working on their sobriety, and
there was support for the encampment in the room. There was also opposition, most strenuously
expressed by residents living closest to CSC who are the most negatively
affected by CSC and the unsanctioned camps, RVs, and rubbish collecting around the
area.
Many spoke about the City not honoring repeated requests to
deal with those unsanctioned encampments, RVs, and rubbish accumulations that
increased significantly over the last two years since Camp Second Chance was
established.
RVs were originally staged on Myers Way in 2015
for the RV safe lot that did not happen, but were allowed to remain while the
attendant issues with trash, broken furniture, and car parts strewn along Myers
Way were not addressed adequately or timely.
Despite continual requests from HPAC since 2016 for
enforcement action against unsanctioned encampments and RVs, it was only 3
months ago that the greenbelt between SR-509 and Myers Way was cleared,
including removal of 190 tons of trash.
Another matter is the ongoing lack of coordination between
SPD and the King County Sheriff’s office when law enforcement issues arise in
the Myers Way area. In 2016, HPAC
requested a memorandum of understanding between SPD and King County, however,
that request is still unfulfilled according to the memo dated Feb 26, 2019 from
Jackie St. Louis, Unsheltered Crisis Response:
“Request
Summary
Request 3 – an MOA or
some agreement to address the jurisdictional issues between Seattle Police and
the King County Sheriff’s office, is a work product that we’ve desired for a
long time. I want to thank George for
scheduling meeting last October {2016} with the King County Sheriff, SPD, and
KC Councilmembers McDermott and Fitzgibbon, and Deputy KC Exec Fred
Jarrett. But if we could *formalize*
what came out of that meeting, I think that would be useful.
Status
George Scarola led
during that time the community engagement for the City’s unsheltered homeless
response. In the Myers Way neighborhood George brought together community to
discuss a range of issues which included law enforcement and safety.
We confirmed with
George that the October [2016] meeting did not happen in the configuration
described above. We do know that the topic was discussed at several community
meetings with representatives from SPD and the King County Sheriff’s office.
During those meetings both SPD and King County 911 dispatch relayed that from
their experience calls are efficiently routed. The experience of community is
that reporting crime and requesting help on the border is clunky and confusing.
We cannot confirm action around creating a MOU.”
Additionally, how future unsanctioned encampments, RVs,
rubbish clean up, and law enforcement will be handled and by whom remains
unclear and unresolved.
In
addition to our community listening session, we also provided an anonymous
survey to which the Highland Park / Riverview community responded and informed
the HPAC executive committee of the community’s position on the CSC permit
extension request.
Of those surveyed and living in the Highland Park / Riverview
neighborhoods, of which HPAC represents, 57%
did not support an extension for Camp Second Chance at the Myers Way
location.
Survey respondent comments included:
“It is time for another
neighborhood to host. No one neighborhood should have to shoulder the burden.
The concept of this camp can be moved to another location.”
“Hosting should be a
shared responsibility by all neighborhoods in the city and the timeline should
be respected for all neighborhoods hosting.”
“The illegal encampment
and RV surrounding the area should be considered as issues deriving from the
authorized encampment. They should be addressed effectively before any
extension. Also, it is unfair for the neighborhood to host an encampment for so
long.”
“Do not let the City
set a precedent of perpetually extending any camp’s stay at one location. The
City should keep their promise to the surrounding neighborhoods. The goal is to
get C2C residents HOUSED.”
Of
those respondents supporting the CSC permit extension, the majority (58%) were
residents located beyond the neighborhoods immediately around the Myers Way
site.
Comments
included:
“This is a model
community that is working and changing people’s lives.”
“Camp Second Chance is
seen as a model in addressing the housing crisis – it provides people with
safety and community within the constraints of RV living. The fact is people
are homeless and live how they can – if there’s a model that works well until
this crisis is solved, I think it should be supported. That said, the other
residents near Camp Second Chance need to be supported by police and other
infrastructure to minimize impacts on their lives and property by unsanctioned
homeless”
We
also agree that Camp Second Chance appears to be a model that works when there
is no other option, but an outdoor tents/sheds encampment is not ideal. The
model also highlights the need for more peer-led sober transitional living
programs.
But
we feel that this “support’ for Camp Second Chance remaining at Myers Way is
actually best summed up in the letter sent from Martin
Westerman, Director of Seattle Greenspaces Coalition:
“Our
SGSC question is, what conditions would HPIC/HPAC need satisfied to keep the
camp there? Moving it to another West Seattle location may only create
the same challenges we’re facing now. My impression is that,
intentionally or reluctantly, CSC draws homeless folk seeking food and drink,
and thereby attracts unauthorized homeless campers to the forest. Are
there other factors at play for you and other neighbors? Rather than
repeat the problems in another West Seattle location, we’d like to solve them
at Myers.”
Over the past 10 years, Highland Park has hosted three
encampments (Nickelsville on two occasions and Camp Second Chance since 2016) and in 2015 served as a staging
area for a proposed safe lot for individuals
residing in recreational vehicles. Additionally, the presence of RVs along
Myers Way Southwest and the surrounding neighborhood has not been adequately
addressed, and those RVs attract more derelict vehicles of all kinds.
This burden has impacted not only our neighborhood, but the
neighborhoods immediately south of us along the city limit. No other neighborhood in Seattle has
willingly or unwillingly taken on as much and to the same extent.
Although Camp Second Chance has been sanctioned by the City
since 2017, it has actually been located in the neighborhood for the last 2
years and 8 months when it moved from Riverton Park United Methodist Church in
Tukwila to Myers Way on or about July 18, 2016, as reported by Camp Second
Chance to the West Seattle blog:
“Until
July 18, the camp had a legal site at Riverton Park United Methodist Church in
Tukwila. They were there for three months, as per their agreement with the
church, and have been invited to move back there in January. However, they were
unable to find another host site in time, and they wanted to honor their three
month agreement with the church, so they have moved to a Seattle city owned lot
that has been unused and vacant for several years. They are continuing to
search for a new permitted site sponsored by a religious organization and plan
to move as soon as they have located one.”[1]
After 8 months of being an unsanctioned encampment at the Myers
Way site, the City of Seattle officially permitted the site in March 2017. On
June 7, 2018, the Human Services Department extended the permit allowing Camp
Second Chance to remain at 9701 Myers Way South for an additional 12 months,
until March 2019.
We
agree with sentiment from the 2015 Director’s Report Transitional Encampment
Interim Use Amendments:
“…to permit transitional encampments for homeless
individuals as an interim use…”
Therefore,
the Highland Park Action Committee requests:
- That the City of Seattle honor its
commitment to our neighbors in the area and follow the law;
- City of Seattle’s
Ordinance 124747 only allows a sanctioned encampment at a site for up to
two years, and then a 12 month minimum lapse is required before another
encampment can be located on the same site.
- Accordingly, Camp Second Chance must be relocated to another
site by the end March 2019, but not in any part of the Highland Park area
including Myers Way or any another location in the South Delridge area
- A
3-year moratorium on any future encampments in our neighborhood is also
requested.
- That Camp Second Chance remain the same model at a new location; and,
- That the Myers Way parcel be moved into the Seattle Parks Dept portfolio this year to be land banked.
If
the City does not honor the law, then the City is doing a disservice now and
setting a precedent for future negotiations.
Other neighborhoods as well will not embrace a sanctioned encampment
knowing that the City of Seattle does not honor its commitments.
As
we have previously mentioned in other letters regarding sanctioning of
encampments or RV lots in our neighborhood, HPAC’s position remains that
Highland Park has disproportionately borne the responsibility of accommodating
the city’s responses to homelessness, hosting 3 large encampments and absorbing
the increase in related crime over the preceding decade.
Since
2016, the Highland Park Action Committee (HPAC) has sought resolution from the
City of Seattle and specifically the Human Services Department on a number of
items including:
1) The adoption of a
set of best practices (manifested as our “Neighborhood Protocols for Sanctioned
Encampments” which have been provided to the department on many past occasions
and are again enclosed below) by which the City of Seattle will abide prior to
sanctioning an encampment in any given neighborhood.
2) That the Finance and
Administrative Services Department accelerate the relinquishment of the Myers
Way Parcels to the Department of Parks and Recreation.
3) A plan resolving
jurisdictional issues that arise from the presence of sanctioned and
unsanctioned encampments at the interface of city, unincorporated county, and
state land.
4) A 10% increase in
the number of police officers assigned to the Southwest Precinct Patrol to help
mitigate the increased burden on our current resources. (At 124 Full-Time
Equivalents for budget year 2018, the Southwest Precinct Patrol Budget Control
Level is the lowest in the city.)
Three years have passed and to date, NONE of
these requests have been enacted or fully acknowledge. Instead, the methods that
City agencies have employed have lacked transparency, accountability, and
eroded neighborhood trust in City government.
As a
reminder in 2007, Highland Park and Myers Way were both identified as potential
sites for a jail, which the neighborhood was not in favor of and organized
against. Later in 2008, the first Nickelsville encampment started in Highland
Park at the Glass Yard site. It was eventually moved, but then returned in 2011
where it grew too large and unmanageable.
There
is a long documented history of the City either being unable or unwilling to
address the safety concerns including: from not being able to evict the problem
campers from Nickelsville, to those who were evicted moving into the Greenbelt
across the street, to increase in petty crime in the neighborhood. Some
neighbors expressed feeling trapped in an unsafe situation and ignored by City
officials during the time Nickelsville was in Highland Park. All sentiments
echoed by the current situation on Myers Way from the unsanctioned encampments
to the RVs.
It
cannot be stressed enough that Highland Park continues to suffer from a historical
lack of public investment and our neighborhood has seen no commensurate redress
while we have hosted these encampments.
I welcome any questions and we look forward to
seeing a swift plan for Camp Second Chance’s relocation by the end of the
month.
Sincerely,
Gunner
Scott
Chair
hpacchair@gmail.com
CC: Mayor Jenny A. Durkan
Seattle City
Council Members
homelessness@seattle.gov
[1] UPDATE:
New encampment on Myers Way: ‘Camp Second Chance’, West Seattle Blog,
Accessed 2/20/2019 https://westseattleblog.com/2016/07/new-encampment-on-myers-way-camp-second-chance/
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