SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Dori: Vagrants return to Northgate camp a week after pricey cleanup
Jan 16, 2019, 4:14 PM | Updated: 4:16 pm
Seattle's Navigation Teams cleans up a homeless encampment in Northgate in January 2019. (Carolyn Ossorio, KIRO Radio)
(Carolyn Ossorio, KIRO Radio)
Remember that huge homeless encampment next to Northgate Mall that the city spent a fortune getting rid of last week? Well, guess what — they’re back.
The cleanup was a huge affair. It shut down part of I-5. They filled a dump truck with all of the trash from the encampment. Extra cops were brought in to supervise.
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Less than a week later, the vagrants are starting to return to the encampment.
I hate to say this, but some cities have gone to really extreme measures to clean up homeless encampments. One is, in areas where people camp out, instead of having grass, they bring in jagged rocks to deter people from putting down sleeping bags and tarps. I saw this in San Diego.
It may sound cruel, but do you know what else is cruel? The city’s Navigation Team offered services to every single one of the Northgate encampment residents — including shelter and rehab — and only one person accepted the offer.
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