Rantz: Mayor to announce Seattle encampment they claimed wasn’t definitive

After spending weeks telling neighbors and members of the media that a low-barrier encampment wasn’t a certainty in South Lake Union, Mayor Jenny Durkan will announce she’s moving forward with a plan to install the encampment, pending City Council approval.

RELATED: Astonishing dishonesty as Seattle installs secretive encampment

For weeks, the Department of Neighborhoods (DON) and Human Services Department (HSD) claimed that the encampment was not a certainty, despite flyers being distributed, stating the encampment “will open” in the summer. The Low Income Housing Institute confirmed they will be managing the site.

Still, Meg Olberding with HSD assured neighbors and the media that “there is no definitive plans until the city has done community outreach, review of the site, and the Mayor presents a budget plan to city council – none of which has happened yet.”

None of that has happened yet, apparently, but Durkan is moving forward with her plan anyway. And she’ll likely get council support. Without even knowing the details of the SLU encampment, Councilmember Sally Bagshaw said she supports it.

There was a coordinated effort between Olberding and Lois Maag with DON to mislead anyone who expressed concern over the project. Despite claiming the original flyer that said the encampment “will open” was an “accident,” her department exclusively posted those flyers in the neighborhood and handed them out to businesses. In an email (Maag hasn’t returned a single phone call), she claimed it was a mistake to pass the flyer out to businesses. She hasn’t responded as to why the old, incorrect flyer was the only one posted in the neighborhood.

City officials do not deserve the trust you offer. They get away with it because there are no consequences. Olberding and Maag keep their jobs, despite knowingly misleading us. Durkan’s office is deflecting, claiming they didn’t lie, and now moving the goalposts. They don’t care what you have to say; they’re going through the motions with a May 31 community meeting. You have no say about your neighborhoods anymore. They think they know best because why? A stellar track record on attacking homelessness? The situation continues to deteriorate, money continues to be wasted, and officials continue to lie.

I’ll be at the May 31 meeting with many of my listeners (if you want to join, RSVP here) and I intend on calling them out. And tune into my show over the coming days. This fight isn’t over. As you’ll soon see, sunlight is an amazing disinfectant.

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