Homeless family reaches out to Seattle Mission shortly after deadline is announced

It didn’t take long before people began asking Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission for help after officials announced Wednesday that the city’s most infamous homeless encampment would be cleared out.

Mission President Jeff Lilley told KIRO Radio that after the news came out, a family living in the “Jungle” asked for assistance.

“One of the families that live underneath [I-5] said, ‘Really, can you help?'” Lilley said.

Related: City, state give Seattle’s ‘Jungle’ residents a deadline

The Mission has set aside additional housing for homeless people who want to transition from life in the Jungle to a more stable place to live. Mission workers will conduct an “intensive outreach” over the next few weeks in an attempt to get people out of the Jungle and get them services and shelter.

The Jungle, which has been in existence for decades, gained national attention after a deadly shooting at the end of last year. The city did a sweep of the area, finding approximately 200 tents and an estimate of about 400 homeless people in the greenbelt that runs under and alongside I-5 near Beacon Hill. A more recent estimate by the city lowered the number of people living in the Jungle to approximately 300.

No matter how many hundreds of people are currently living in the Jungle, they won’t be able to stay there long. The Mission has about two weeks to offer people a way out before the state and city go in and clear out the remaining people.

The Mission’s challenge isn’t finding people who need services, it is convincing them to leave a place they have called home. Lilley says it’s a change in lifestyle. Despite the switch from being sheltered by a roadway to sheltered by a roof, the transition can be difficult. Part of the Mission’s work, then, becomes proving to people in the Jungle that their future can change.

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