Hundreds of Ballard residents and small-business owners are expected to turn out Monday evening for the first significant opportunity to provide comments and question elected leaders and city officials about the process for locating a proposed city-sponsored homeless encampment on NW Market Street.

Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brienhas has confirmed he will attend the meeting. Mayor Ed Murray’s office has been invited but has not confirmed at this time if they will attend.

The moderator will be Enrique Cerna, a broadcast journalist and Ballard resident. Also Ballard residents, stakeholders and small business owners and patrons will be there.

The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m., Monday, Aug. 3 in the parking lot of the Ballard Eagles on VFW Post 3063 (2812 NW Market St.), next door to the proposed tent encampment site on NW Market Street.

On June 29, Mayor Ed Murray announced three preferred sites for new, city-sponsored homeless tent encampments, including one on Market Street in the heart of the Ballard neighborhood.

The announcement came with no prior formal communication or public outreach to Ballard residents, community organizations or nearby business owners. To date,there has been no official outreach process or public meetings conducted by the city to gather community comments or answer residents’ or business owners’ questions.

Speak Up Ballard with support from VFW Post 3063 organized this grassroots, community-led meeting in response to the lack of an open, public and transparent process regarding the consideration of proposed encampment sites.

Shortly after the June 29 announcement, Speak Up Ballad, an ad-hoc community organization, created an online petition requesting city officials hold an appropriate public comment and engagement process. So far, nearly 1,300 local residents have signed the petition, indicating a widespread desire to engage with city officials on the issue. You can view the petition here.

Despite the lack of public process and community engagement, the city has moved forward with work to prepare the City Light-owned property for the encampment, including cutting down a valuable tree.