Ballard man defends tactic to counteract homelessness after finding corpse

The manager of a Ballard business being criticized for its alleged treatment of homeless people’s possessions tells KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson he wasn’t trying to be inhumane, but instead taking precautions after finding something shocking in a similar situation last year.

“About two months ago I found a dead body in the same location, which was kind of a shock,” says Craig, manager of the business. “Somebody had dumped a body that was determined to be a heroin overdose and so in this neighborhood this is very common, so we don’t just start dissembling garbage because there could be somebody in there. So we approach it with a very cautious manner.”

Related: ‘Smell of ripe humanity’ forces Ballard business owner to consider moving

The Seattle Weekly reported that a garden hose was shooting water down from a fence at Mac’s Upholstery in Ballard onto a collection of tarp-covered objects, seemingly belonging to a homeless individual. Neighbors questioned the humanity involved in the tactic, with one calling it “actively cruel” and a “failure of human decency”

Craig says they originally tried to make contact with anyone who might be inside the trash heap, but had no response. The motivation for turning water onto the pile was to “arouse somebody in there to get a dialogue started to see if we could rectify the situation of the trash being on the property.”

“The hose was a second step in trying to get a response out of anybody… that could be in there and as of this date, nobody has witnessed anybody coming in and out of this pile of garbage for three days,” he says. “…This was a way to try to get some response in a non-threatening manner. Water never hurt anybody. Kids have water balloon fights all the tie. To try to get a response, that we could get a dialogue started.”

Craig says he is charged with cleaning up trash (alcohol bottles, needles, etc.) near the business on a daily basis. He said at around 5 a.m. on Nov. 19, he found a tipped shopping cart in the parking lot, with garbage that had fallen out.

“When I tipped the shopping cart upright, a body rolled out of it and I immediately called 911,” he said. “…It took my breath away. When the realization came that it was a human body, I was in shock.”

Craig believes there are two groups of people in Ballard: There are the true homeless, which he says are his main source of donations, and drug addicts who made a choice to take drugs and live on the street. He says the crisis is escalating and doesn’t seem to have a plateau.

“It just keeps getting worse and worse and worse,” he says. “I think the government of this city has dropped the ball and on the news they’re still acting like they’re running down the field and they don’t realize that the ball’s back at the other end of the field.”

Craig admits that there is frustration but says the stream of water was pointed at the edge to arise somebody, not the middle of the pile.

“It was not meant as … an aggressive motion,” he said. “It was intended as a passive motion to try to get the attention of whoever had put it there.”

Dori wasn’t buying the idea that the hose was entirely used to start a dialogue.

“It sounds to me like you were doing what people might do with stray cats that are going through their garbage: You turn a hose on them and hope that they get away and hope that they associate something unpleasant with digging through your stuff,” Dori said. “That’s what this sounds more like to me than starting a dialogue.”

To that, Craig responded: “If that was the result of what happened out there I would be happy with that.”