Shelter advocates prepared to start tent city at county headquarters in protest

A crowd surrounded the steps of King County’s headquarters in downtown Seattle Thursday afternoon to protest the county’s lack of funding for a homeless shelter.

Seattle Housing and Resource Effort (SHARE) provides housing at 15 shelters in Seattle. It previously relied on funding from the county, but two years ago that funding was cut off. Now the homeless organization is in dire financial straits and is demanding the county step in to help.

Related: History of Seattle and its tent encampments

If not, the crowd is prepared to set up a tent city at the doorstep of the county building. Calling it Tent City 6, the protestors aim to set up camp on the plaza of the King County Administration Building.

SHARE has gone about $75,000 in debt since losing the county funding. Its employees haven’t been paid for a month.

Representatives from King County’s Department of Human Services said they didn’t cut SHARE’s funding, rather, they allocated it to other organizations more effective at moving people from the streets to stable housing. The County has also tried to focus on funding shelters that serve people outside the inner city, like newly-funded shelters in Snoqualmie, Renton, and Federal Way.

But Trey Neuzum, a SHARE volunteer, says it isn’t all about numbers.

“We like to help people any way they can, but we don’t want to force feed them social services,” said Neuzum. “The people that come in – sometimes it gives them a feeling of comfort because there are places where you have to go in and they require a lot of different things from you. You have to get a social worker, you have to meet with them once a week.Things like that. Some of our people aren’t ready for that.”

Neuzum admits SHARE doesn’t have the resources to provide comprehensive services like mental health or drug treatment. But, he argues that Seattle still needs the emergency shelters SHARE provides for people in crisis, where clients can find a safe place to sleep.

“Does it make any sense to put people back on the streets because we’re not taking more people off of the streets? I mean, that sounds counterproductive to me,” said Neuzum.

Unless the county provides $10,000 a month, said Neuzum, it can’t keep open 15 indoor shelters for 300 people, or the three tent cities it manages. Those shelters and tent cities are located within the City of Seattle. The city paid SHARE $610,932 this year to provide overnight housing for 250 people.

City officials say that SHARE will be in breach of contract if it closes the shelters within the city. SHARE argues that it receives the city funding only as reimbursement for services.

Meet Walter– he's been with SHARE for 4 years– Walter is sleeping by the King County Admin building tonight pic.twitter.com/tm3wFmdIQw

— Henry Rosoff (@HenryKIRO7) April 1, 2016

Information from KIRO 7 contributed to this article.