Seattle backtracks on encampment after pressure, but concerns remain

After a morning of intense pressure from KTTH listeners, calling and emailing the Seattle Human Services Department, the City of Seattle is now backtracking from a planned low-barrier encampment in South Lake Union and finally directly answering questions we’ve been posing.

“…we got ahead of ourselves,” Lois Maag, with the Department of Neighborhoods, explained to the Jason Rantz Show in an emailed statement.

For days, Human Services and the Department of Neighborhoods would not answer direct questions about a planned tiny village encampment proposed for Aloha Street and Eighth Avenue, a block from thousands of apartment complexes and dozens of restaurants and businesses.

RELATED: Councilmember Bagshaw backs Seattle’s secret encampment for addicts

A flyer was distributed to roughly 25 area “business leaders” saying the encampment “will happen” sometime in the summer. It promoted a May 31 meeting with the community, though neighbors and the greater business community were not informed. I asked Maag, Karen Ko (with the Department of Neighborhoods), and Meg Olberding (Human Services) repeatedly to confirm if the meeting was still on the books and for an update on the status of the encampment.

While Olberding explained the plans were not definitive, she didn’t explain why the flyer confirmed it was happening, or why the Low Income Housing Institute, which would manage the village, confirmed to KIRO 7 details of the encampment. And when repeatedly pressed about the meeting on May 31, she simply refused to comment.

She forced our hands. On Thursday morning, I gave my listeners Olberding’s office number and email account and asked them to politely inquire about the meeting. After a couple hundred texts and CC’ed on several emails from the audience, Olberding finally responded, explaining the meeting is still set for May 31, where a contingency of show supporters will join me in attending.

Further, Maag finally explained that they went live with details of the village community too soon:

Community members across the City have told us they want to be notified much earlier of City projects and activities, which is why the City has been hosting dozens of meetings on homelessness and affordability in recent months. In an effort to provide early outreach, DON staff first contacted 25 South Lake Union neighborhood and business leaders to give them a heads up of the May 31 meeting before we began broader community outreach. However, by doing this initial outreach, we got ahead of ourselves. As HSD noted, there are no definitive plans until the City has done community outreach, review of the site, and the Mayor presents a budget plan. DON will continue working with departments to continue community engagement and outreach about addressing our homelessness crisis.

The new flyer does not include the language suggesting the encampment has already been decided, but I’m suspicious. Too many details have been confirmed for this to be in error. I suspect they had hoped to quietly announce the village, hold a meeting where few attended, move forward with the village. When people complain, they’ll respond by saying we all had the opportunity to speak up but didn’t attend the meeting. The reason for the delay in getting back to me? They were likely formulating a plan.

Still, I’m grateful they finally responded and I hope you’ll join me at the meeting on May 31 from 6-7:30 p.m. at 415 Westlake Event Space and 415 Westlake Ave. North. Stop by and say hi — I’ll bring donuts.

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