Homeless advocates of SHARE and Wheel, two self-organized, democratic, grassroots organizations of homeless and formally homeless individuals, are speaking up against the City of Seattle's new draft Encampment Ordinance, which they say could possibly bring an end to Tent City3’s decade of stability.

From the SHARE/WHEEL statement:

"For almost 10 years the City of Seattle, SHARE/WHEEL, El Centro de la Raza and others have successfully worked together to make Tent City3 the longest and smoothest running encampment in the Entire United States of America.

SHARE/WHEEL’s Tent City3 is King County’s most cost effective 24/7 shelter, and has helped literally thousands of people stay together and safe, get jobs and savings, and move back into the mainstream. A Consent Agreement signed in March 2001 – and due to expire next March – has been one important factor in this success.

Under the Consent Decree all hosts are treated the same – secular or religious – common sense rules are agreed to by all, and a Community Notification Process which includes a meeting and last approximately 3 weeks is required.

Inexplicably, the proposed replacement Encampment Ordinance returns secular property owners wishing to host Tent City3, Nickelsville, or any other encampment back to the Pre-Consent Decree regulatory system.

The results will be a stifling of creativity in keeping people together and safe, and quite possibly an end to Tent City3’s decade of stability.

The proposers of the Encampment Ordinance are mistaken about two things:

1) They believe that Seattle Churches have the capacity to support encampments sufficiently on their own

2) They believe that the permitting system for secular organizations hosting encampments is a no muss, no fuss proposition.

THEY ARE WRONG ON BOTH COUNTS!

Mistake #1: Assuming that from the beginning of Tent City3 until today, Seattle Churches have been able to support even one encampment by themselves.

The first site of Tent City3 was private land at Martin Luther King Jr Way South and South Charlestown. The City of Seattle’s precursor to DPD – DCLU - forced us from this site by threatening the (secular) property owner – King Vin Inc -with a Notice of Violation for hosting us.

The City of Seattle next issued daily Notices of Violations against El Centro de la Raza for hosting Tent City3. By the time Tent City3 left El Centro, the City claimed it was owed over $17,000 in fines.

Only about half the hosts of SHARE/WHEEL’s Tent City3 have been Seattle Churches or Synagogues. Almost half the hosts have been churches OUTSIDE of Seattle. Tent City3 has been in Tukwila many times. We have been in Burien and unincorporated King County. Some years we are in Shoreline as much as we are in Seattle. We have also stayed on individual landowners land and at Universities.

The next host – and quite possibly the next two hosts – of Tent City3 will be in Shoreline!

The reason for this is simple – there are not enough Seattle Churches with enough land -that lacks any other use - for Tent City3 to stay just in Seattle.

The Shoreline and Tukwila Churches who host us are wonderful – and land is more plentiful in Shoreline and Tukwila than it is in Seattle. Our goal – as homeless people – is to move out of homelessness and back into housing.

Having to jump from Tukwila to Shoreline to Magnolia makes it hard to keep a job, or to stabilize bus routes and learn about community resources. We would prefer that each Tent City be in just one area, so that we can move out of homelessness more quickly. The reason why we don’t just stay in Seattle is that churches aren’t always available here to stay with.

This dilemma of Seattle Church Property keeps getting more and more challenging. That is because churches in Seattle are not expanding – they are contracting. Many churches that we have stayed with in the past have folded – such as Dunlap Baptist Church, St George Episcopal, and Northgate Baptist Church. Many others have sold their land – such as Lake City Christian, Star of Bethel, and Riverton Park UMC.

Our church and synagogue friends have always gone the extra mile for us, and we are eternally grateful. The prerequisite for hosting Tent City3, though, is owning land – and fewer and fewer religious institutions in Seattle have enough land.

MISTAKE #2 For secular organizations getting a Permit for an Encampment is a piece of cake.

In fact, the City of Seattle Permit Process for private property owners is onerous and unfair, making it impossible for secular organizations to often host encampments.

The first host of Tent City3 was threatened with Notices of Violations and fines for hosting us. They had to ask to leave as a result.

Within half a year of the start of Tent City3, we move to El Centro de la Raza. It was also quickly issued Notices of Violations. As soon as they started, SHARE/WHEEL and El Centro de la Raza applied for a Temporary Use Permit. To do this we had to deposit a Permit Application Fee of $2,500! (SHARE/WHEEL raised its half with car washes.)

Upon receiving the application, the City spent over half a year reviewing it, and only after Tent City3 left El Centro de la Raza was the application turned down!

Read for yourself, in the Consent Agreement, that the City believes that the ‘total’ cost of this permit was $8,050! Not only did SHARE/WHEEL and El Centro not receive any of their $2,500 back when the permit was denied, but SHARE/WHEEL was forced to do the equivalent of $8,050 in ‘community service.’! ! ! (Don’t believe us, read the Consent Agreement yourself.

Since this time, there has been NO change in the City Ordinance that affects and guides these permitting processes. What’s more, the Proposed Encampment Ordinance doesn’t change this permitting process for Secular Organizations.

The City of Seattle – without the Consent Agreement – can continue to charge the same sort of outrageous fees charged El Centro and SHARE/WHEEL for the Permit Application, and they can continue to process permits at a snail’s pace.

The proof is in how Nickelsville has been ‘permitted’ by the City of Seattle. (Nickelsville doesn't come under the Consent Agreement, because it is a legally separate and independent organization.) Both the second and third hosts of Nickelsville were secular organizations, and both received Notices of Violation from the City of Seattle within days of Nickelsville arriving.

The fourth host – University Christian Church – applied for a permit and was refused.

The fifth host, University Congregational Church, was charged $2,033 for their first permit application. It took two months to issue it.

At old Fire Station #39, the owner of Record – Seattle’s Fleet and Facilities – applied to DPD for a Permit. They were charged $4,050 and it took over 4 months to issue!

Nothing in the proposed Encampment Legislation takes away the ability of a future City Administration to turn the permitting process into an onerous and outrageous ordeal. Without improvements to the Proposed Encampment Ordinance now, secular owners hosting encampments can be issued Notices of Violations and possible fines even after application has been made – as has happened with El Centro, University Christian, and University Congregational.

As it exists now the permit application process for secular owners can take months – when often an encampment has only several weeks to find a new location. Finally, the language regarding what conditions DPD can place on a permit are so loose you could drive a Mack truck through them!

CONCLUSION

Thank goodness these problems take only three sentences to solve. We call it “The Hunter Amendment” after the attorney – Ted Hunter – who wrote them for us. d.)

Mr. Hunter has – pro bono – represented SHARE/WHEEL for over a decade now, protecting us from unfair processes and prejudices emanating from not just the City of Seattle, but other local municipalities.

SHARE/WHEEL is not asking that secular landowners receive the same religious liberty that religious institutions have. We are simply asking that they not be penalized for helping poor people stay together and safe. The Hunter Amendment does this by removing the ability to charge outrageous and onerous permit fees, as had happened as recently as last winter, removing the ability to deny permits for no good cause, and setting a fair and reasonable standard for permit conditions.

Without creative changes, the proposed Encampment Ordinance is a step backward for SHARE/WHEEL’s Tent City3. The gains that are within the Ordinance for religious institutions don’t substitute for the effective shutting down of creative efforts of secular groups to host encampments.

In addition, the gains within the Ordinance for religious institutions have already been granted via Washington State Bill 1956. This State Bill actually goes much further than the proposed City Ordinance in the latitude churches have in allowing operation of encampments on their property. And the State Bill supersedes City Legislation.

From the perspective of the homeless men and women of SHARE, WHEEL, and Tent City3, we’d rather have NO Encampment Ordinance at all than the Ordinance presently being considered.

We thank Mr. Hunter for his good work, and hope the City of Seattle enacts his amendment. Let’s get creative about solving homelessness in Seattle!"

Visit http://www.sharewheel.org/Home/tent-cities for more information.