Another year for Camp Second Chance? Meeting tomorrow, and how to comment if you can’t be there

(Camp Second Chance entrance, photographed December 2017 by WSB’s Leda Costa)

Early reminder that tomorrow (Tuesday, March 20th) brings the city meeting about whether sanctioned encampment Camp Second Chance will be able to stay on the city-owned Myers Way Parcels for another year. The city’s initial policies about sanctioned encampments stipulates that they can stay at any one site for up to two years. C2C actually has been at this site for more than a year and a half, as it originally moved onto the city-owned land without authorization in July 2016; the city later decided to open and fund sanctioned encampments, and retroactively designated C2C as one of them. Nonetheless, the city is considering renewing the permit through early next year, and a meeting for comments is part of the process: 6:30 pm Tuesday at the Joint Training Facility (9401 Myers Way S.). If you can’t be there but have comments about the proposed renewal, e-mail them to homelessness@seattle.gov (with Myers Way in the subject line) or call 206-727-8496 by April 5th. C2C is currently home to about 50 people, according to what was reported at the most recent meeting of its Community Advisory Committee.

29 Replies to "Another year for Camp Second Chance? Meeting tomorrow, and how to comment if you can't be there"

  • george March 19, 2018 (2:10 pm)

    who care if they are there but i think they should be required to clean that ugly mess up

    • WSB March 19, 2018 (3:15 pm)

      Their camp is not an “ugly mess” – trash pickup is provided and used. Maybe you’re referring to the unsanctioned area across Myers Way (I’m awaiting a city update on last week’s cleanup work in part of that area)?

  • HBB March 19, 2018 (4:43 pm)

    WSB, I haven’t seen any signs of cleanup work in/near the unauthorized encampments. In fact, there’s been an abandoned car up on blocks on the shoulder for a few days now.

    This is not really anything new–the place is a magnet for unauthorized dumping, which happens on a more or less daily basis–but if you are under the impression that the city has been hard at work on cleanup, I’d encourage you to take a look for yourself. 

    • WSB March 19, 2018 (4:50 pm)

      Shoulder of 509 or Myers? As noted in original coverage, they were clear the work was not going to be happening on “the plateau” or even in “the grotto,” but on part of the slope over 509. I’m still waiting for the postmortem.

  • JoB March 19, 2018 (4:53 pm)

    there has been a massive cleanup on the hillside beneath the church property on the 509 side of the hill… 

  • flimflam March 19, 2018 (5:11 pm)

    it will get its second year – they all do. this is just a formality.

    pretty amazing to think that this all started by breaking a lock and illegally squatting in this space. reading that many camps have free wi-fi too, courtesy of SPL…as per article in the times.

    i assume my free wifi and garbage pickup is coming soon? also, my property taxes forgiven as they are “excessive” and “unfair”….

    • WSB March 19, 2018 (5:24 pm)

      The wi-fi in the Times story is via portable hotspots loaned through the Seattle Public Library, and they are available to any member of the public.

      • Concerned March 19, 2018 (6:11 pm)

        So you’re saying I can get a wifi Hotspot down to my work through the public library? 

        • WSB March 19, 2018 (6:21 pm)

          http://www.spl.org/library-collection/spl-hotspot

          Don’t know where “(your) work” is, but I have long carried an older version of this for WSB work outside the home office and it has worked well all around this region and in other states we’ve visited.

          • sam-c March 20, 2018 (9:58 am)

            Yes, I checked one out, one time to take on vacation.  It was nice to be able to check email on the Ipad while we were road-tripping.  Well, as nice as working while on vacation can be.

  • uncle loco March 19, 2018 (7:52 pm)

    I like how they decorated the gate. The no trespassing signs really tie it all together.

    • Sick of the garbage March 19, 2018 (9:26 pm)

      Yes, just like the “No Trespassing” signs that were there when they broke the lock and, you know, trespassed.  But now it’s really no trespassing.  hypocrites.

  • KBear March 19, 2018 (9:14 pm)

    Flimflam, do you need help paying for your wifi and garbage pickup, or are you just being a jerk?

    • Concerned March 20, 2018 (10:12 am)

      I’m not Flim Flam and since I’m getting squeezed with all these taxes…. uh, excuse me, “progressive revenue”, then maybe I can use some of the resources that are said to be opened to the public. Especially since I pay into said resources. 

  • Katie March 19, 2018 (9:52 pm)

    Personally, I’m just grateful to be in a situation where paying for internet and garbage pickup is easily affordable to me. Maybe count our blessings rather than begrudge people who have so little, getting so little?

  • 1994 March 19, 2018 (10:48 pm)

    Drove south this afternoon on the 509 and the hillside still is FULL of trash. What a horrible sight! 

    The city/county allowing these homeless camps is a crime and a public health and safety concern.

  • s March 19, 2018 (11:12 pm)

    Stop picking on FlimFlam. I feel the squeeze too. From all sides. I understand the frustration when you see others get it for free, and you’re the one paying for it via property taxes. But what I wanted to say is I think the library is very smart to provide a hotspot. Very good SPL.

  • JoB March 20, 2018 (8:35 am)

    1994..
    yes there is still trash.. but not below the fence at the top of the hill that borders the eastern edge of the church… where they said they would be focusing cleanup.  i point out the fence because that stretch of hillside is deceptive and the fence is how i figured out where they would be focusing their current efforts…

    some of the illegal campers on the hill have requested a dumpster or trash pickup at the bottom so that they can clean up the mess left by others..

    maybe  we could put pressure on city hall to provide that so  the hill cleanup would go much faster.

    • West Seattle Hipster March 20, 2018 (9:24 am)

      Or, Camp Second Chance could take the initiative to clean up the hillside and surrounding areas, and proactively work to keeping it clean.  Might improve their reputation and standing in the community they have chosen to live in.

      • Ms. Sparkles March 20, 2018 (12:25 pm)

        Amen West Seattle Hipster!  I agree with you.

        I’m tired of what I perceive is the prevailing idea that we owe people on the fringes a home and amenities without asking anything in return.  Yes people have a right to exist, they need to live SOMEWHERE…. but those who provide should have a greater say in where and how.  And when those receiving can’t or won’t follow basic rules, then the consequences should include being sent out of the city limits. 

         

         

        • CAM March 21, 2018 (4:11 pm)

          I’m pretty sure indentured servitude has been declared illegal. 

  • Jethro Marx March 20, 2018 (9:19 am)

    I know many in Seattle harbor ill will towards the people on the margins of society, and it’s something of a hobby to cast aspersions on them and make wild assumptions and generalizations about how they got where they are and what criminal activities they fill their days with, but if we’re talking about garbage, we oughtn’t both complain about it being spread about and also attempts to ameliorate the problem. We all produce garbage, and a moderate amount of money spent providing dumpsters or pickup or whatever is a reasonable way to address the immediate problem.

     And if we kicked camp second chance out, it wouldn’t do anything other than leave a vacant patch of ground and leave the residents looking for another home, which wherever it was would be complained about.

    • Concerned March 20, 2018 (10:34 am)

      QUOTE :

      and it’s something of a hobby to cast aspersions on them and make wild assumptions and generalizations about how they got where they are and what criminal activities they fill their days with

      Concerned : yes, most of the homeless are just down on their luck and law abiding citizens.

      ‘ll make sure to tell all the police officers who’ve actually dealt with The Jungle just how incorrect they are that the majority of them are where they are because through making bad decision after decision after decision, they’ve burnt all their bridges. Or that the amount of felons, sex offenders and other criminals per capita is far higher than the general population. 

      • Jethro Marx March 20, 2018 (2:47 pm)

        I don’t know why we would think police officers’ assessment of life on the margins would be incorrect; I’d be inclined to believe them, if they were known to be more or less honest. But you know them: what did they have to say about whether or not we ought to provide a place for the marginal dwellers’ trash to be collected? Because that’s what I thought we were talking about. If we want to deal with the negative effects of having a huge unhoused portion of Seattlites, we’ll have to treat the symptoms as well as address the underlying causes.

         As to your (I think) sarcastic generalization cast as .Concerned (and then who’s saying the next paragraph?) “most” homeless people aren’t anything. They’re a non-homogeneous group of individuals with varying lives that ended up on the margins. They are individuals, whereas your laundry list of bad guys is just a cherry-picked list of unsavory types who may also end up on the margins of society, rather than a representative sampling of who is homeless.

         The solution to homelessness is pretty simple: Housing. The solution to the underlying causes of a homeless epidemic is more complicated, but I think we can rule out jailing people and saddling them with a debt snowball of fines they have no hope of paying as possible solutions.

  • j March 20, 2018 (9:58 am)

    Just prior to this cleanup someone made a massive pile of bags full of waste. That garbage was then carried back up the hill by the illegal campers on their back and in stolen shopping carts. 

    It’s good to see they had a dumpster delivered before making that same mistake again. 

  • HBB March 20, 2018 (10:27 am)

    I haven’t been down 509 since this past Sunday, but on that date the hillsides around the church property were still covered in garbage. I suppose it’s possible that some was collected (there is something like a 1/4 mile stretch of trash piles along that slope), but overall, it’s still a pretty astounding mess in there. 

    As usual, there were numerous piles of trash along the shoulder of Myers Way this morning. What is the deal with the giant pile just north of the Camp Second Chance dumpster? There is almost always a giant pile of trash there, which typically includes a significant amount of the purple trash bags the Navigation Team distributes in unauthorized encampments. 

    • WSB March 20, 2018 (10:38 am)

      At some of the monthly advisory committee meetings I’ve covered, trash-pickup inconsistencies have been brought up. I’m going out to take pix of various other things around the peninsula right now so will spin through there to see.

  • Concerned March 21, 2018 (2:52 am)

    JM: I don’t know why we would think police officers’ assessment of life on the margins would be incorrect; I’d be inclined to believe them, if they were known to be more or less honest.

    Concerned :Well since your last sentence attempts to plant a seed that they might not be honest, considering in the context in being told their experiences with nothing to gain from telling me and having other officers who were also involved later corroborate the story with specifics, I’d  say yeah, they’re being more or less honest. 

    JM: But you know them: what did they have to say about whether or not we ought to provide a place for the marginal dwellers’ trash to be collected? Because that’s what I thought we were talking about.

    Concerned : That’s interesting, because I thought it was quite clear that I was replying to a direct quote that you wrote. 

    JM: If we want to deal with the negative effects of having a huge unhoused portion of Seattlites, we’ll have to treat the symptoms as well as address the underlying causes.

    Concerned : The homeless make up a fraction of 1% of the Seattle population and yet we’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years (one figure stating a billion dollars in the last decade) and what’s been accomplished? 

     JM: As to your (I think) sarcastic generalization cast as .Concerned (and then who’s saying the next paragraph?) “most” homeless people aren’t anything. They’re a non-homogeneous group of individuals with varying lives that ended up on the margins.

    Concerned :  Again in the context of replying to your specific statement. If you think that the majority of homeless people are there because they’re simply down on their luck or that there isn’t a much higher crime rate and criminals per capita within the homeless population then you’re mistaken. 

    You can try to distract with non homogeneous speak and living on the margins which sounds like the same rebranding as progressive revenue and shared prosperity. 

    JM: They are individuals, whereas your laundry list of bad guys is just a cherry-picked list of unsavory types who may also end up on the margins of society, rather than a representative sampling of who is homeless.

    Concerned: There are people who are homeless because they are a victim of circumstance, but in not going to pretend they are the rule rather than the exception to the rule. 

    The majority of homeless people are where they are because they burnt all their bridges with friends and family through bad decision after bad decision after bad decision. 

    JM: The solution to homelessness is pretty simple: Housing. The solution to the underlying causes of a homeless epidemic is more complicated, but I think we can rule out jailing people and saddling them with a debt snowball of fines they have no hope of paying as possible solutions.

    Concerned :and after 100s of millions of dollars if not more, this city has nothing to show for it expect almost a 50%rise in homelessness in 2 years. But the shady homeless advocates are making out well. 

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