Seattle property owners file claim over homeless encampment, say city blocked cleanup
Sep 28, 2026, 5:00 PM
A gavel and a law book. (Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons)
(Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons)
A group of Seattle property owners has filed a claim against the city over what they describe as a growing homeless encampment marked by fires and violence.
The owners said the city blocked them from clearing the property themselves.
According to the group, the encampment occupies four vacant lots in the 9200 block of 42nd Avenue S. A man was shot in that area last week.
“The claim alleges that the city took control of the response to an encampment on the property, held the police authority to remove it, and for 17 months did not use it,” according to a press release announcing the claim Monday. “What began in spring 2025 as a single vehicle and some trash is now an entrenched settlement with built structures, burned vehicles, hazardous waste, and fires several times a week.”
Owners say encampment prevented property sale
The owners said they had agreed to sell the site to a nonprofit funded through the city’s Equitable Development Initiative, but the contract required trespassers to be cleared from the land. They claim the sale collapsed when that did not happen. The owners said the city would not let them address the problem when it was still small enough to handle on their own.
“Seattle took this problem out of our hands and then walked away from it,” said Jay Wampold, who speaks for the ownership on behalf of his father, claimant Thomas Wampold. “The police have had written authority to clear this property since April 2025. They never used it. Then the City cited us for ‘maintaining’ the encampment we had begged it to remove for more than a year.”
Wampold told KIRO Newsradio the owners want the site cleared and a city violation withdrawn after being threatened with fines of up to $500 a day.
Seattle police respond to encampment claim
“Because this has now risen to the level of filing suit, the department can no longer comment,” a spokesperson for the Seattle Police Department (SPD) told KIRO Newsradio Monday. “Please reach out to the City Attorney’s Office for more information.”
KIRO sought comment from the City Attorney’s Office but had not heard back as of Monday afternoon.
