HOMELESSNESS UPDATE: Camp Second Chance at capacity, City Council committee told

| Myers Way | West Seattle news

(Seattle Channel video from this afternoon’s committee meeting)

Starting 56 minutes into the video above, the City Council’s Human Services and Public Health Committee got a briefing this afternoon on the state of the city’s emergency response to homelessness. We took notes on the West Seattle-specific information, mostly related to the city-sanctioned Camp Second Chance on Myers Way. The briefing was led by the city’s director of homelessness George Scarola, who said they’re now ramping down the daily homelessness-related meetings in the city’s Emergency Operations Center after four months. Key staffers will now meet three times a week and have conference calls the other two.

City briefers said that Camp Second Chance is now “at capacity” with 58 residents – three more than when we last visited for the Community Advisory Committee meeting on June 4th. Though a capacity around 70 was expected, all 50 of its tents (some being replaced by “tiny houses” as donor-funded structures become available) are now occupied. The city’s three newest sanctioned encampments, including CSC, have 160 residents total. In a citywide stat, overall, the committee was told, the city’s SPD-led Navigation Team has made almost 2,000 contacts with a total of 630 people who are “living homeless.” (The slide deck used in the briefing was not included in the meeting agenda, as most such presentations are, so we’ll be asking for it tomorrow, to add here.)

White Centaur June 15, 2017 (1:13 pm)

The encampment seems to be going great! I have a question about the nearby RVs. After they did parking enforcement at the place where RVs were parked near the First Ave/509 bridge (WSDOT property, I believe it was), the amount of RVs on Meyers Way about doubled. I know that isn’t part of the encampment, but was that discussed at all? It’s getting really busy along that stretch Meyers, and I’ve seen a couple additional RVs parked on Fourth Ave SW in White Center . Wondering if they have a plan to find a true home for RVs instead of just making them move every 72 hours or whatever.

Randy B June 16, 2017 (10:46 pm)

Is there a specific entity to be contacted regarding trash pickup, etc? For the past week there has been a pile of trash 10-15 yards long on the east side of Myers Way. Directly across from that (On the west side of Myers) a camper was put up on pallets about a month ago and was torn apart piece by piece over the course of a few days. To this day, the shell of the camper, along with the insulation and other remnants of the trailer remain there.

I walk down Myers every weekday to catch the bus and am constantly disheartened by the things that I see.

I have taken photos and documented the things I see to send to “Find It Fix It,” but none of my submissions have been paid any attention.

Who is it that we need to contact to have the trash and the shell of this camper removed? How can we contact the contractor who supposedly does a weekly clean up per Camp Second Chance?

Thank you in advance!

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