Seattle begins encampment cleanup as property owners pursue claim against city

Seattle crews are clearing a homeless encampment after a recent shooting and years of safety complaints prompted the city to issue an emergency order closing the site.

The large encampment is in a wooded area along 42nd Ave. S, between Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and I-5.

Crews began clearing the camp Wednesday, starting with the removal of multiple abandoned RVs. They are also removing wooden structures and large amounts of garbage.

Cleanup is expected to take several weeks, according to an email from the city on Wednesday.

The property owners said they have spent months asking the city for help.

Notices the city sent to four owners of three properties said conditions at the encampment threatened health and safety, citing outdoor camps, garbage, fuel tanks, and outdoor furniture.

The notices warned that owners who did not clear the camps faced fines of $150 a day for the first 10 days, followed by $500 a day.

The city is offering housing options to people living in the encampment.

Property owners had filed claim against the city

A group of Seattle property owners recently 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 Ave. S. A man was shot in that area last month.

“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 last month. “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 last month. “Please reach out to the City Attorney’s Office for more information.”

KIRO Newsradio reached out to the City Attorney’s Office in late September and again on Wednesday but did not hear back.

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Frank Lenzi is the News Director for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here.