Roving homeless camp will soon leave Seattle for Tukwila
Aug 27, 2019, 6:46 AM | Updated: 7:59 am
After briefly setting up in Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood, Seattle’s oldest homeless camp will now pack up and head to Tukwila.
Tent City 3 moves again, seeks support in Seattle
Tent City 3 is a roving homeless encampment run by SHARE/WHEEL, that’s been around for the better part of two decades. It’s moved roughly 90 times over that period, surviving on limited-stay permits from churches and universities.
In early August, it was forced to move from a host church after a 90-day-stay had lapsed. After it couldn’t get insurance to stay at the Christ Spirit Church property in the Central District, it began to set up along I-5 near Ravenna.
Almost immediately, the neighborhood began to speak out.
“People are living underneath the overpass — they shouldn’t be there,” said one local business owner in the area. “And children who are living in the camp shouldn’t be here either, they need to be in homes.”
Soon, Tent City 3’s 42 men, women, and children will pack up and move once again, this time to Tukwila’s Riverton Park United Methodist Church, as reported by The Seattle Times. The Tukwila church has hosted the camp in the past.
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“It is a huge relief that we’ll be able to go to Tukwila. We are really tired though,” Tent City 3 leadership team member Michelle Atwood told the Times. “It was a heavy burden to move this camp, and to move again [in three weeks] … but we’ll do it.”
The City of Seattle has given Tent City 3 until Sept. 7 to move out, and doesn’t plan to clear it out before then.
