Tent cities find no shelter from critics
SEATTLE – Tent cities that shelter the homeless are popping up in parks and empty lots in several West Coast cities, offering at least a temporary sense of community for some of the estimated 800,000 people struggling on the outer edges of American society.
But the encampments are legal in just two cities: Seattle and Portland.
“The argument against this is that people need permanent homes and we should focus on low-income housing, but that takes years and in the meantime, homeless people have a right to set up their own societies,” said Michael Stoops, director of community organizing at the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C.
The encampments generate outrage from those who use them as a deplorable example of the lack of affordable housing, and from neighbors.
There was a furor when King County’s newest collective, Tent City 4, moved onto the grounds of St. John Vianney Church in Kirkland, a comfortable Seattle suburb.
As the homeless set up tents in November, neighbors hit the Internet, blasting the settlement as “a blight on our community” run by “a bunch of scoundrels and exploitationists.”
Share/Wheel, the non-profit group that operates the county’s two tent cities, demonizes its opponents as “haters.” It has staged camp-ins and protests wherever public attention will be greatest.
Continuously operating encampments have been a presence in Seattle since 2000, when Share established Tent City 3 at a Rainier community center.
Previous settlements, including Tent City 1 and 2, were short-lived or taken down by the city in the 1990s. But in 2002, Share/Wheel won the legal right to maintain itself, moving to new sites – usually provided by churches – every 90 days.
Tent City 3 welcomes a scruffier clientele, requiring neither picture identification nor screening for outstanding warrants.
But Tent City 4, whose carefully chosen residents dress in Nike fleeces and Gore-Tex parkas, generates more controversy – most recently because residents turned down neighbors’ offers of short-term shelter.
Four residents of Tent City 4 recently met with sponsors at St. John Vianney to work out policies for a temporary move indoors due to cold.
The temperature was near freezing, but the residents would not leave their tents until it was 32 degrees or below. The church auditorium was cleared of their bedrolls by 7 a.m. Overnight use of church bathrooms was barred in favor of outdoor Port-a-Potties.
“They kind of make the decisions, and that’s not always comfortable,” said Laura Stanger, children’s minister at the church.
Share/Wheel’s two encampments hold 100 people each – a fraction of King County’s estimated 8,000 homeless.
The encampments are not a first for Seattle. In the 1930s, outcry over the city’s sprawling “Hoovervilles” led to the nation’s first public housing authority.
“Their purpose is twofold,” said Seattle City Councilman Peter Steinbrueck. “First and foremost, it’s an expedient way to meet a very real need, but Share does use its tent cities to send a message. … that there are large numbers of homeless people out there and if they can’t get help, they will help themselves.”