Rantz: Dangerous homeless addicts take over park, terrorize Seattle neighborhood

Homeless people living in a dangerous and inhumane Seattle encampment are terrorizing nearby homeowners. Despite months of complaints and violence — including a stabbing — the city is only now prioritizing the encampment. But a sweep is not imminent.

Anywhere from 10-30 tents occupy Seven Hills Park in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood at any given time. The homeless people living there come and go. It is in the middle of a residential area, sharing a wall that separates the park from expensive townhomes.

Since at least July 2021, the encampment has been a dangerous nuisance. There’s been a stabbing, assaults, threats, open-air drug use, and public defecation and urination. This past Sunday, there was a near-fatal overdose.

Residents say the city has ignored their pleas entirely. But now that the park is earning media coverage, the city says it will act. But they’re not moving with urgency, and it’s coming with activists stalking homeowners.

Using homeowner’s property as a toilet and drug den

The homeless people living in the camp can be aggressive — when they’re not using nearby private property as a toilet or shooting up.

The park shares a border wall with pricey townhomes. A walkway on the townhome-side of the wall offers privacy that the encampment cannot provide. While homeowners can use this location as a door to access their homes, it’s no longer safe. The homeless have taken over.

Homeless people in the park shoot up, smoke meth, or relieve themselves, though sometimes they don’t need privacy to do that. Some homeless will urinate on the townhomes in full view of the public.

One homeowner shared several graphic and disturbing pictures and surveillance videos with the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH.

“Seven Hills doesn’t have any bathroom facilities,” Mariana, who lives in a property across the street from the park, tells the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “So the people who have been camping there, you know, … it’s just a giant biohazard at this point.”

Mariana says nearby residents have complained to the city for months, but they never see anything done.

“It started with just a few tents, and then it doubled in size, … tripled in size. I think we were all trying to get the city’s attention. And yeah, just never got a response. It’s fluctuated between 10 to 20 tents over the past six months,” she said.

Other homeowners say they’ve seen the encampment reach 30 tents.

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A stabbing and assault

Some of the homeless people living at Seven Hills Park are dangerous. There have been reports of assault and threats.

“I also have heard from neighbors when they’ve tried to engage saying, ‘hey, can you please stop defecating on my doorstep,’ that they’ve gotten hostile. One of my neighbors was assaulted and did take it to the police,” Mariana said.

In one video captured on a homeowner’s Ring security system, a homeless man demands to the homeowner, “Let me in!” He appears either drunk or high, mistaking the place for his own.

In November 2021, there was a stabbing at the encampment.

According to police, the victim was a homeless woman living in a tent. After an argument, the suspect stabbed the victim, who survived. Police arrested the suspect and recovered a knife.

Rantz: Seattle police say video shows homeless man hitting woman in head with bat

Super Bowl night saw an overdose

Many of the people living in the park are drug addicts.

On the evening of the Super Bowl, a neighbor says a man was overdosing. But no one in the encampment would help.

“I had to call 911 for an overdose last night because no one in the park would, and one of them did have a phone,” a neighbor told me Monday.

The homeowner says the homeless “sit on the [park] bench and openly shoot up.” They also do it in front of her back entryway.

She says the park has gotten progressively worse, and she and her neighbors deal with constant break-in attempts from homeless people who are high or drunk or are simply trying to burglarize the property.

City of Seattle did little to address the camp

The City of Seattle did not consider this encampment a priority for a sweep, even after the November stabbing. The encampment enjoys sporadic clean-ups courtesy of the city, but it has not been enough to satisfy residents concerned with the smell and unsanitary conditions. There are dozens of rat sightings a night.

Despite frequent calls, multiple residents tell me they’ve never received any meaningful response from the city. They only get talking points.

“The only response we can get from the city is, ‘well, outreach is prioritized based on highest public safety risk.’ But that begs the question, what’s the definition of a public safety risk?” Mariana asks.

Apparently, a safety risk involves media attention.

Now there’s movement — sort of

Seattle Parks and Recreation confirmed via a spokesperson that “intensified outreach” only started last week — after media outlets began to cover the encampment. But they say no sweep is imminent.

“Intensified outreach began last week following the City identifying the encampment as a high priority,” a Seattle Parks spokesperson emailed the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “Once a site is deemed a priority encampment site by an interdepartmental team at the City, HSD’s [Human Services Department’s] HOPE Team [Homelessness Outreach and Provider Ecosystem] ensures that offers of shelter are made to individuals residing at these priority encampments prior to a removal. Depending on the size of an encampment and availability of shelter resources, this outreach coordination process may take weeks.”

But why wouldn’t the city clear up the encampment sooner? Wouldn’t a stabbing lead to a high priority designation? A Seattle Parks spokesperson wouldn’t answer.

But a member of the administration did meet with residents at a recent community meeting by the encampment. It was an attempt to address community concerns — finally. Activists from outside the community also showed up. According to two neighbors at the meeting, the activists harassed homeowners, even following some of them as they walked home.

New mayor made big promises

Newly elected Mayor Bruce Harrell campaigned on a promise to clean up city streets.

Harrell is under increased pressure to deliver, even though he’s only been in office a few weeks. The media coverage may be intensifying that pressure. Voters indicated they were unhappy with the direction of the city under then-Mayor Jenny Durkan, who was hindered by a recalcitrant council.

While Harrell says he hopes to clean up the city, that city council has almost the same makeup as the previous years. Councilmembers are almost unanimously opposed to all sweeps. They helped create the homelessness crisis and say they will only allow sweeps if free housing is offered to the homeless.

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