Tent City 4 To Move as Planned—For Now

City officials say the long-planned relocation will only last until they can find a more "appropriate" site.

Image via City of Seattle

By Erica C. Barnett

After several days of frantic negotiations, Tent City 4—a self-managed encampment of more than 100 homeless adults and children who have been laying the groundwork for months to move from the Seattle Mennonite Church in Lake City to the site of the former Lake City Community Center—will be allowed to move. Temporarily.

"After gathering all the facts, I directed the Human Services Department to offer Share/Wheel a short-term lease at the Lake City Community Center for the next one to six months until a more appropriate location can be selected," Harrell told PubliCola in a statement. "Share/Wheel has accepted, and this agreement is effective immediately, so all residents who rely on TC4 can access its services without interruption."

The city has planned for months hand control of the land over to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, which planned to lease the community center land, which is slated to to the encampment. But as PubliCola reported exclusively on Wednesday, encampment residents and organizers learned at the last minute that the move had been scuttled by city officials, including District 5 (North Seattle) City Councilmember Cathy Moore and Mayor Bruce Harrell, thanks at least in part of a late-breaking email campaign by opponents of the encampment.

Moore's office did not respond to requests for comment.

Tent City 4, like other sanctioned encampments that have existed across Seattle for most of the past decade, never stays in one place permanently. It's part of a compact with host sites like the Mennonite Church and the people living around the sanctioned encampment. Encampment residents and a church representative said that going back on their commitment to the community was not an option—which was not a problem until last week, when city officials suddenly began raising objections.

Despite this longstanding commitment, as of late Friday, Moore, Harrell, and KCRHA CEO Kelly Kinnison continued to insist that they were working on a deal that would allow the encampment to stay at the Mennonite Church. According to sources involved in the discussions, Harrell told Tent City 4's supporters that he had just learned about the purported issues with the encampment's relocation this week.

After it became clear that the city's posture had changed toward Tent City 4, a group of 23 elected officials, including 18 state legislators and one City Councilmember, Alexis Mercedes Rinck, wrote a letter urging the city and KCRHA not to renege on their deal.

"Displacing more than 100 people now—without the support that has made Tent City 4 a stable and accountable presence_ undermines both the residents who’ve worked hard to rebuild their lives and the neighborhood that has stepped up to be part of the solution," they wrote.

"To be clear: the situation we face today is the direct result of process failures by the City of Seattle and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. It is unacceptable for the burden of these decisions to fall on the people who live in and care about Lake City—including the residents of Tent City 4—who have acted in good faith, met every expectation, and done their part to support a dignified transition."

It's unclear what will happen after the agreement to allow Tent City 4 to relocate to the community center site expires. Nor did the mayor's office or Moore explain what they found "inappropriate" about allowing the encampment to move to the former community center, which is slated for redevelopment into mixed-income affordable housing.

As of Friday, the city was discussing two possible replacement sites—one at the former Thunderbird Treatment Center in Rainier Beach, and another at a site formerly occupied by LIHI in Interbay. Either location would likely require support from the district council member for the area; Mark Solomon, who represents South Seattle's District 2, reportedly said the Rainier Beach site was unacceptable, which leaves Interbay or potentially a site to be determined at some point in the next few months.

The sanctioned encampment has been controversial in the past, but now has a long record of being a good neighbor; Peter Lagerwey, from the Mennonite Church, told PubliCola they were "fantastic" neighbors.

“We’re sorry to see them go and we would invite them back in a heartbeat," he said.

Rinck said she was "relieved" at the decision. Tent City 4 residents said that if they didn't find a new location by today, they would be forced to set up an unsanctioned encampment on public land.

Although Tent City has been doing outreach since February, holding a public meeting and handing out hundreds of flyers to people who live around the new site, Harrell said they shared responsibility, along with the city and KCRHA, for the situation.

"Everyone involved in this process can do more to ensure future moves are streamlined and effective," Harrell said. "Improving coordination among the City, KCRHA, and Share/Wheel will allow for strengthened community engagement and more effective process timelines that lead to better outcomes and remove uncertainty from similar situations going forward," Harrell said.

Harrell also said other parts of the region should do more to help people like Tent City's residents (who, just to reiterate, spent months laying the groundwork for their relocation to the city of Seattle-owned community center site.) "We also continue to expect partners across the region to do their part to offer and advance solutions that support those living unsheltered," Harrell said.