Tent City
Tent City is the name common to a series of organized encampments of homeless people in the greater Seattle, Washington, USA area. Homeless people have long resorted to seeking shelter in tent groups, but these communities are one of the first known to be organized by a sponsoring organization (a partnership between the Seattle Housing and Resource Effort and Women's Housing Equality and Enhancement League, often referred to by the combined acronym SHARE/WHEEL), and, even more notably, are one of the first in a major U.S. city to be largely accepted by local governments.
The original Tent City and Tent City 2 both in the 1990s, were created illegally and opposed by the City of Seattle. City officials tolerated their presence longer than many cities would have, but eventually forced both to be shut down. In March of 2002, as a result of a legal battle, city attorney Mark Sidran signed a court ordered consent decree with SHARE allowing Tent City ONLY on private land and setting standards for its operation.
Tent City 3 and Tent City 4 have faced opposition in most communities they move to. Tent City 4 had a rocky start in Bothell with over 150 police contacts during their 90 day stay there. The Tent City leaders claim there is no drug or alcohol use, and evict anyone caught stealing or committing other crimes, but police reports indicate these activities exist anyhow. Couples, single men, and single women each stay in a separate area to make people feel safer. By agreement children are not allowed to live in camp but this rule is often ignored. Portable toilets and Dumpsters are provided to address sanitation concerns.
Tent City 4 is the first to locate outside of Seattle, settling on church property in the suburb of Bothell. Share/Wheel threatened to occupy a County Park illegally so King County Executive Ron Sims initially arranged to site it on a county-owned wetlands adjoining a park-and-ride lot near Interstate 405 and N.E. 160th Street, but opposition filed a lawsuit, noting, among other things, that it was too close to an environmentally sensitive area.) With the high probability of defeat in Court, and with no notice, TC4 was located across the street from St. Brendans Catholic Church in Bothell.
As a result another lawsuit was filed and intense negotiations took place over certain issues related to the camp. Central to the issue was the proximity to four schools and the resulting financial damage they incured. The main sticking points include the city of Bothell's desire to require the encampment's residents to provide identification for warrant and sex-offender checks, and the church to either hire private security or pay overtime to the Bothell Police, and to provide liability insurance of at least $1 million. A judge at a hearing about the issue refused to order these conditions, but they may be part of permit requirements once they've been finalized, and ordered Share/Wheel to obtain permits for their Encampments.
As a result of public pressure King County Councilmember Carolyn Edmonds proposed a citizens' commission be formed to study the siting issues, but King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert insisted that they must first determine if tent cities are even needed and offered amendments to rewrite the ordinance. On June 1, 2004, the council voted to create the King County Citizens' Advisory Commission on Homelessness and Encampments to recommend policies and guidelines for dealing with homelessness. Ron Sims stacked the commission with Homeless advocates so the report, due August 15, 2004, ended up representing the views of special interest groups and not the citizens as intended. A Dissenting Report was also submitted. Information on the Commission work can be found at:
Reports are now starting to surface about Share/Wheel's operation of the encampnents. Campers are being denied their rights and donations to the camp are being taken away and sold.
In August of 2004 Tent City 4 once again threatened to move to Woodinville illegally despite the court order in Bothell requiring them to obtain permits. As a result, in order to protect the public, the Woodinville City council allowed them to move into an undeveloped plot of park property for 40 days while they pursue their legally required permits.
