City of Seattle closes Hoa Mai Park over rampant drug use – for now

When Hoa Mai Park was opened in the Chinatown-International District, the city of Seattle celebrated it as a response to a community that “has dreamed about a green and open space for the community to gather for over a decade.” But within just a few weeks, the park was overcome with drug users and homelessness. Now, it’s being closed temporarily as fencing is installed to help address community concerns.

“We quickly learned this park was not for us,” community activist and former Seattle City Council member Tanya Woo said to KOMO TV, which first reported the story. “We quickly lost it to blatant drug use. We want to go back to how this area used to be.

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Why are the homeless taking over this park?

One reason the park has been overrun with the homeless? A homeless service facility is within two blocks, bringing some people who are homeless to the neighborhood. They see the park as a respite. However, residents see it as a community asset that’s become dangerous and unusable.

The city of Seattle is now installing new gates and fencing. But it’s not yet clear to community members if the city is staffed to consistently lock the gates at 11:30 p.m. when the park closes or reopen it at 4:30 a.m. the following day.

“We need to make sure there are people coming in to close the gate every night, and they can move people out,” Woo said.

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