Advocate chuckles at Tacoma’s anti-homeless boulders

The City of Tacoma is getting some criticism after placing large boulders in a grassy area downtown to discourage homeless people from gathering there. The boulders make it impossible to put up tents or lay on the ground.

Tacoma’s Human Services Manager Pam Duncan says the intention was not specifically to push out people who are dealing with homelessness, but the city did receive complaints about large gatherings in that area, by Tacoma Public Library’s main branch.

She says she, too, recently drove by and didn’t like what she saw.

“There were people laying out in the grass. There were a lot of clothing articles hanging on the fence. I saw someone who was just sitting out on the sidewalk with a lot of what was maybe their personal belongings.”

She says the Mayor’s Office received letters saying the crowd in that spot was using business entryways as toilets. That, she says, elevated the situation to a public health issue. Still, she says hauling in the boulders is simply part of a larger long-term plan for the area, which really just replicates the boulders and trees on the other side of the street.

Bill Hobson is a longtime advocate for people who are homeless and the Executive Director of Downtown Emergency Services Center in Seattle. He laughed when he heard about the boulders.

“That’s amazing! I’ve never heard of a city doing something like that.”

He says trucking in boulders is extreme.

“But then again, our city puts bumps in benches to prevent homeless people from sleeping on them, right here in Seattle.”

Hobson says people who don’t have anywhere to live get tired and want to lay down. They also end up needing a place to relieve themselves.

Ultimately, he believes the only real answer is more funding for affordable housing, something going way beyond what Seattle or Tacoma currently provide.

“I think municipalities are of mixed mind. On the one hand, I think most of the major metropolitan jurisdictions, including Seattle and Tacoma, have adopted plans to eliminate or dramatically reduce the number of homeless people on one side of our brain and on the other side of the brain, we enact ordinances that criminalize certain behaviors of homeless people.”

He says tactics like boulders and uncomfortable benches are not solutions.

“I don’t agree with those things … the solution to homelessness is not rocket science. It’s a home.”

Pam Duncan with the City of Tacoma says it’s true that cities have to deal with a tricky juxtaposition. Tacoma, she says, is helping folks who don’t have housing by offering outreach. Her colleagues did offer services and support to many of the people who used to hang out on that grassy lawn by the main library.

But also, she says, “We have to balance that with presenting a community that’s clean, healthy, and safe.”