VIDEO: ‘We’re your team.’ Outreach workers, WSDOT, city explain how they’ll ‘resolve’ encampment across Myers Way from Arrowhead Gardens
(Video of Arrowhead Gardens meeting, recorded by John Walling)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“We will resolve this. It’s not going to be tomorrow, it’s not going to be next week, but it’s not going to be next year.”
That was the promise made Tuesday night to Arrowhead Gardens residents by Lisa Daugaard, whose organization is leading the in-person outreach to 48 people living in the encampment across Myers Way from the senior-living complex. She and colleague Nichole Alexander provided granular details of what’s ahead in the plan to move people out of the encampment.
It’s on a site that’s mostly state land, right-of-way for Highway 509 downslope to the east, so Washington State Department of Transportation reps led the meeting, which also was attended by city reps including Councilmember Lisa Herbold and a delegation from the Southwest Precinct.
(L-R at the table, Lisa Daugaard and Nichole Alexander from PDA, SPD’s Lt. Dorothy Kim, Councilmember Lisa Herbold)
Before an hour of Q&A, there was a half-hour of updates, starting with WSDOT officials trying to explain what will make this different from past clearances of the area.
First, Brian Nielsen said a new factor is the state’s Right of Way Safety Initiative – a state-local partnership currently active in five counties; $50 million is allocated to King County, primarily for shelter/housing initiatives. So far, he said, eight large sites have been resolved (here’s some info from last spring), with 324 people placed in housing and more than three-fourths of them still there. He said the program’s focus is to “transition people to safer housing” that is “well matched to an individual’s assessed needs,” because people shunted off to “congregate shelters” usually wind up living unsheltered again.
Nielsen said the list of 48 people on whom outreach workers are focusing is “closed,” and that new people who show up are “turned away.’ He also clarified that the 48 people are those living closest to Myers Way, “on top of the hill,” not necessarily people living closer to 509. He said the notices we showed earlier today – warning that vehicular access to the site will be blocked starting today (Wednesday) – were actually posted Friday along with no-parking signs.
(Photo courtesy Diane Radischat)
After the access blocking, they’ll turn to a focus of identifying and tagging abandoned tents for removal, while outreach providers continue their work. After people are moved into housing, WSDOT will move onto the site. Nielsen warned that it’ll be “difficult” to secure so they have to figure out a strategy for preventing “re-encampment.” Some vegetation will be removed to improve sightlines. They won’t be able to “fully resolve the site until” they have enough housing for everyone.
So, bottom line, no definitive timeline – they won’t be able to “fully resolve the site” until they have enough housing for everyone who’s there. But Nielsen implored the residents “to trust in the process …Our initiative takes time.” He said they’ve seen a 90 percent acceptance rate for services because they take time to know people and place them per their needs.
To provide more details on that, the microphone went to Daugaard from PDA (Purpose Dignity Action). She said her organization’s work has evolved since 2020, when they noticed the “enormous growth in visible encampments adjacent to where people were trying to live and do business .. and it was not viable.” They figured out what it would take to get people to go inside, and they are still operating four facilities, mainly downtown. “This is where many of the people who are living here are going to go.” PDA reps go into a situation that is “chaotic, dangerous sometimes, where people have very little trust … Often the folks who are out there have been kicked out of other places … so many people living in encampments now are chronically homeless and not welcome (in various places).” She says PDA has done this 24 times since fall 2020, often in larger places, like 85 people in City Hall Park, 65 in the Dearborn I-5 cloverleaf. “When we started it was like this (site is now) … when we ended, there was nobody living there.” She said this could have been done sooner – if housing was availabl, but there’s more coming online next month.
PDA’s Alexander explained how the boots-on-ground outreach works. She and her team are often there toting wagons, every morning Monday-Friday, to talk with the people there – “We know this site is hard for everybody and we want to appropriately plan for each person” so they go to see what people are like, what their living circumstances are, “so we can start to plan” for that person’s needs. Sometimes SPD or WSP might be with them, as was the case when they put up the postings. “We don’t want anything to take anyone by surprise.”
Next to speak was Lt. Dorothy Kim, second-in-command at the SW Precinct. “Although it does take a long time … I believe it’s a stronger process than we had before … The end is in sight.” Right now SPD is answering 911 calls and “responding to criminal activity.” Lt. Kim said the May murder at the site is not solved yet but is still an “active investigation.” 22 stolen vehicles have been recovered in the area, including two with gunfire damage .. officers believe many of those vehicles “have eluded officers when they tried to stop them” – Several recent arrests were made for suspected crimes including stolen vehicles, domestic violence, and failure to register as a sex offender As police say at every community meeting: “Call 911 when you see criminal activity.” SPD will work with State Patrol going forward, as with the 2nd/Michigan site by the 1st Avenue South Bridge, and after this is cleared, they’ll be sure to have proper documentation so they can enforce trespassing laws and be sure the site is not “re-encamped.”
Then Councilmember Herbold spoke briefly, noting that the PDA team has been successful in West Seattle before, including the South Delridge sidewalk encampment cleared two years ago.”This is an approach that addresses a person’s underlying needs … medical, substance use, mental health …” She acknowledged the frustration with the time it has taken but she assured everyone that this process works.
Then the floor opened to Q&A from the dozens of residents filling the room.
First person asked the outreach workers if they are aware, when they enter the camp, of who’s using drugs and who has weapons. Alexander said they definitely work with some people who are active substance users and “many of us have lived experience with that.” Regarding weapons, Daugaard noted, “People are living in conditions where they have to defend themselves – often you need to thoughtfully evaluate if a person has a weapon, have they ever had to use it for self-defense,” perhaps they’re armed because they’re trying not to be victimized.
The next question also was for them, regarding how much of the site they routinely visit. Alexander replied, “We definitely get our steps in … we go in from top to bottom, all the way from the corner to the church, to the gravel lot where there were some campers … ” They cover a lot of ground and do find ‘hidden’ folks.
Some people offered comments rather than questions, such as a woman who said she’s from Los Angeles, which has a longstanding problem with homelessness, but here she is hearing suspected gunfire often. “If I wantee to go through this kind of thing, I could have stayed in LA.”
Then, a reminder that this isn’t the first encampment across Myers Way (here’s our coverage of a clearance five years ago). “You’re going to go through all this work, put up barriers, no trespassing signs, then more people are going to move in, what are you going to do to prevent that?” That got applause. WSDOT’s Nielsen insisted it would be different this time, with plans to secure the site and work with law enforcement; he said none of the sites they’ve cleared in the past year have been re-occupied. That includes 2nd/Michigan, Lt. Kim noted. A WSDOT rep who hadn’t spoken until then, Ron Judd, said they’d come back for a conversation with residents about different ways to use the site to keep it from reoccupation. A few minutes later, AG resident and meeting facilitator Diane Radischat called him on that, saying they had asked WSDOT before to do something useful with the site “and you guys simply blew us off.” Judd reiterated that it’ll be different this time.
Another resident observed, “There’s a certain percentage of people who don’t want your help, what do you do with those folks who say go away, we don’t want you?” PDA’s Daugaard insisted – to skeptical groans from the residents – that it’s a very low number, “not zero,” but 10 percent maximum. She said they work intensively to figure out “what can we do for this person?” and ultimately, “We’re not going to lose that many people.” Councilmember Herbold jumped in to say, yes, some people have not accepted offers in the past, but this program has access to resources that weren’t being offered before, particularly housing that is more than a cot on the floor in congregate shelters. Alexander added that they don’t just contact someone once and give up if they’re not initially receptive, they go back again and again.
A subsequent question focused on some of the site activities that have drawn double takes recently, and wondered why this intervention wasn’t available sooner. After explaining that they just got the assignment a few weeks ago, Daugaard declared, “There won’t be a pool there when this is over.” Some people living outside like this do hard-to-believe things, she agreed, but “The reason we do this work is that … it needs to come to an end.” She also tried to make the residents understand that “You’re winning. There are many, many other encampments that could qualify for this work, but we’re not going there, we’re going here – for right now, we’re your team.”
Property manager Jackie Williams warned, “We’re going to hold every last one of you accountable,” saying the encampment has affected the complex in myriad ways – they were cited for a rat infestation that the encampment likely worsened, for example. And worse: “We’re calling the police because we need help – nine times out of 10 they don’t do anything – (encampment residents/visitors) come here and steal my residents’ cars out of the garage, siphoning gas – come do a day in the life of a resident, understand what they’re going through.” Cheers ensued.
And a resident followed to say, “I did not move here to hear gunshots shot at my window every night, I did not move here to see prostitution (at all hours) – we want to know, when was the last time your house was shot at … they’re the ones you are giving all the aid to, when are you going to care about us?” She was one of several residents to make similar complaints.
What about the encampment resident who was reported to have declared she’s not going anywhere? Daugaard said that at the start of a project like this, that’s what they often hear – often they have an “extreme” life experience that the outreach workers have to get to the heart of. But, to the previous person’s point, Daugaard continued, “this IS us caring about y’all – we don’t HAVE TO do this work – we are doing this work because you deserve to have a response that works – we will figure out what needs to happen.”
Other concerns and questions included environmental damage to an area that contains Hamm Creek’s headwaters, thefts from patios and gardens – “so many things have been stolen around here, we can’t afford to replace them” – and whether people are required to get drug or mental-health treatment before they can be housed (short answer – required, no, encouraged, yes; the housing into which they move people isn’t permanent, but is meant for “eight to nine months”).
Perhaps the most unusual question of the meeting was a personal question for the women from PDA: What degrees do they have? Alexander said she had just completed a master’s and was going for a dectorate, adding that her background also includes teenage motherhood, nine years in recovery, and 10 years in prison. Daugaard: “I’m a lawyer, I just have a JD.”
Shortly thereafter, the meeting concluded with all the officials – including several who didn’t speak – staying to talk one-on-one with residents.
WHAT’S NEXT: As noted, vehicular access to the site is supposed to be blocked off starting today; we’ll be checking the area to see what exactly is to be done. Outreach work will then continue, and when everyone’s placed, WSDOT closes the area and cleans it up. “We are focused on resolving this site,” WSDOT’s Kris Abrudan repeated.
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