Last-Minute Rug Pull Leaves Lake City's Sanctioned Encampment, Tent City 4, With Nowhere to Go

Residents say they plan to move on Saturday, with or without a new lease.

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Image via Seattle Mennonite Church

By Erica C. Barnett

Back in February, SHARE and WHEEL—the shelter providers and homeless advocacy groups that have run self-managed tent cities in Seattle for many years—began doing outreach about plans to relocate Tent City 4 from its current location at the Seattle Mennonite Church in Lake City to the site of the former Lake City Community Center four blocks away.

Ten tent city residents fanned out across the neighborhood, knocking on doors and handing out about 500 flyers notifying residents about the move, and the group held a well-attended community meeting where only two people objected to the new location, according to several people who were present. One of those, a woman who worried that the community would block access to a farmer's market, withdrew her objection after realizing it would not. "We had nothing but a positive response," WHEEL organizer Michele Marchand said.

By design, Tent City never stays on one site for more than a year—a commitment that helps mitigate community concerns about their presence. Their lease at the church ends on Saturday, May 17, and all 104 residents, including families with a total of 17 kids, plan to leave that day. Until last week, they planned to sign a lease with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to move to the community center site, with Journey Christian Church serving as the "faith sponsor" at the new location.

Last week, however, something changed, according to several people directly involved in planning the move, and the city decided not to give KCRHA control of the land. (KCRHA had planned to add Tent City 4 to its master lease agreement with the city, which hands authority over city-owned properties to KCRHA for the duration of the lease. Previously, the city's Human Services Department would sign agreements with providers directly for the use of city-owned land.)

In response, the homelessness authority informed Tent City representatives that their lease would not be on the agenda for a KCRHA governing board meeting on May 15, as previously planned. That means that the relocation they've been planning for months won't go forward—and they'll have to move somewhere else, potentially to public land where they do not have formal permission to be.

Lisa Edge, a spokeswoman for the homelessness authority, said, "KCRHA and Seattle Human Services Department continue to receive community input and are reviewing it."

Several people involved in the negotiations say Seattle City Councilmember Cathy Moore, whose north Seattle district includes Lake City, is behind the sudden reversal; one said she became "apoplectic" when she learned the encampment was moving to a new site in her district last week and reached out to KCRHA to stop it from moving forward.

Moore is a member of the KCRHA's governing board of elected officials, which—thanks to the elimination of a separate implementation board late last year—now makes all major decisions for the homelessness authority. (Previously, the implementation board approved such leases). The sudden shift, according to SHARE/WHEEL's Anitra Freeman, came "in spite of [Moore] being really friendly to us in the past."

Moore declined to respond to detailed questions about her role in the decision to deny Tent City 4 a lease at the new location.

Kate Jacobs, a spokesperson for Mayor Bruce Harrell's office, said the city "supports a solution that results in a new location for Tent City 4 that meets the needs of the people who reside there and the broader community." We followed up with additional questions about why the city is transferring control of its own land to KCRHA—a move that effectively shifts responsibility for what happens on city property to the homelessness authority— and will update this post when we hear back.

Several people involved in negotiating the move say Tent City 4 was the target of a late-breaking email campaign directed at elected officials, including Moore and Harrell. In a meeting with Tent City 4 residents last week, Marchand said, KCRHA CEO Kelly Kinnison told the group that "they've been flooded with ... form emails" opposing the sanctioned encampment.

Pete Lagerwey, a member of the Seattle Mennonite Church, said Tent City has only had a positive impact on the neighborhood. "They've been fantastic neighbors," Lagerwey said, picking up trash in the neighborhood and providing 24-hour safety patrols. "We're sorry to see them go and we would invite them back in a heartbeat."

Edge, from KCRHA, said the agency "is committed to helping resolve this issue" and is working with SHARE/WHEEL and the city to "identify a property for them to move to. KCRHA has asked SHARE/WHEEL and the current faith sponsor to consider extending the current lease while the issue is resolved."

But Tent City 4 representatives say they plan to keep their word to the neighborhood and leave on May 17, whether they've reached an agreement on the community center site or not. "Our backup plan, no matter what, is to keep our word and move somewhere else," said Brandon, a resident of the encampment. "That’s non-negotiable."

The Mennonites are supporting Tent City 4's commitment to move on schedule. "They're a poor people's organization and all they have is their own good word and trust," Lagerwey said. "We're not going to extend the lease, because we're going to help them keep their word."

Alison Eisinger, director of the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, called Tent City 4 "a well-organized self-managed group with a long track record" that has moved from one location to another dozens of times without incident. "This is the easy stuff," Eisinger said. "If Seattle can’t figure out how to help 100 people who manage their own shelter move, how is this city ever going to site anything, shelter or supportive housing, anywhere?"