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1. DP
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   Interesting things about the City Council Committee's official visit to Nickelsville.

   1) Their finest hour

   I must say that the folks who represented Nickelsville to the City at this meeting were impressive. Some of them were a little intimidated by all the publicity, I could tell, but they held up well under the pressure. Unlike other media events I've been to, this one was very genuine. There was none of that obnoxious hype and speechifying that usually goes on.

   2) A word shy of the whole truth

   Notwithstanding my comment above, I think there was a little bit of fudging on the part of some NV folks. Their common refrain was that NV is nothing more than a short-term way station for folks. Turnover was high, everyone there was on his way to greener pastures, etc . . .

   I believe that the majority of Nickelodeans do in fact see Nickelsville that way, as a stepping stone to something better. But there are certainly some others who have come to see the pace as a more-or-less permanent home. ("Hey, I'm unemployable and I know it. So what? I don't like the rules the government wants me to play by. I'd rather be out here in the fresh air.")

   No matter what you do, NV is always going to have a certain percentage of folks who actually prefer living on the margins of society. I don't have a problem with that; I really don't. I just think people should deal with it realistically, starting with the citizens of West Seattle and the City Council.

   3) Don't judge a reporter by his cover

   I wasn't at NV under cover. I have no need to go under cover there, of course. Because I will always fit right in.

   It amuses me to think that many Nickelodeans are more generally "presentable" than I. On the day of the Council visit, I mistook no less than three Nickelodeans for people on the City Council staff. Conversely, I was mistaken by at least one visitor for a camp resident. Five minutes into a conversation, Council member Sally Clark asked me: "So . . . how long have you been living here?"

   Haw! I knew that would happen. My grandpa would've been proud of me.

   (Grandpa used to slouch around the streets of his little town in the shabbiest old clothes. They would've kicked him out of the bank if he hadn't owned it.)

   4) Priorities Normal: All Fruhcked Up

   The Council was duly informed by one of the camp reps that there are four children living at the camp. If the Council hadn't been explicitly told this, they probably would've figured it out from the swing set — or maybe from the kids running around during the tour.

   To my amazement, the fact that there are little kids living in a camp built on swampland did not seem to faze any of the Council members present. The Council members just asked a couple of routine questions ("Do they go to school?" --"Not right now. It's summer.") and then moved on.

   You know, if I were a Council member being informed of this situation, I would have detailed an aide to get in touch with the parent immediately after this meeting. Getting those kids a place to stay would've become my new priority. Call me old fashioned . . .

   Strangely enough, the Council members asked more questions about pets in camp than they asked about kids in camp. That one, I really do not get.

   5) Plumbing 101

   The Council members were sympathetic to the idea of getting water and electricity to the camp. They also seemed cool with the idea of putting shacks up on the property and generally turning the encampment into a permanent thing.

   Your humble correspondent is cool with that, too. I say, if you're gonna let people live there, you might as well treat 'em like human beings. Of course I don't like the fact that there are no "social services" nearby (if you recall, this was one of the main complaints against the Sunny Jim site) but, on the other hand, I can't think of any open space where there are such services available. Perhaps, once the place has become established, the City will see fit to putting some kind of office on or near the site where residents can go for one-stop shopping of all social services that might benefit them.

   6) Go ahead, punk. Roast my weenie!

   At the end of their sit-down discussion with the Council committee, the Nickelodeans gave an open invitation to any member of the Council to come and stay a night with them in camp. This took the visitors a bit off guard, I think, and there was nervous laughter all around. In a comment that betrayed a quaint naiveté (not to mention the Council folks' discomfort at the thought of actually staying the night in a place like Nickelsville) one of them blurted out: "Yeah. Ha ha. We can bring our sleeping bags. We can roast some weenies and marshmallows!"

   Ha ha ha. Oh, go own, City Council! (Just for that crack, you're going to be assigned to do the next dumpster run.)

   ************************************************************************************

   As a final observation, I should add that the Council members (Licata in particular) seemed to ask a lot of incredulous-sounding questions about the way decisions were made by the camp residents. I think the visitors had a hard time grasping the concept that you can actually get something accomplished in Seattle without spending millions of dollars and enduring endless political gridlock.

   Watch and learn, City Council. Watch and learn.

   ************************************************************************************

   And now I have a confession to make. Remember the cookie I showed you in Part I of this report? Well that cookie was baked by one of the Council members (Sally B. I think) and it was actually intended for the Nickelodeans. But when the all cameras were turned off and no one was looking, I took that cookie out of the bag and ate it myself.

   Wow, DP! I mused as I noshed dreamily on a butterscotch morsel. Stealing cookies from the mouths of homeless folks! It's a new low, even for you.

   —So I guess this is what journalism has come to in the 21st century, huh?

   Posted 10 months ago #         

2. dobro
   Member Profile

   

   Interesting post, but I'm still baffled by people who, no matter how many positive or encouraging things they might say about inhabitants of a homeless camp, still have to put in the BS about some people "want" to be here. Like this imaginary quote...

   "Hey, I'm unemployable and I know it. So what? I don't like the rules the government wants me to play by. I'd rather be out here in the fresh air."

   What are these government rules that you're supposed to play by if you are unemployable and you know it? If you are unemployable and you know it, maybe having a community to be with is better than sleeping under a bridge and hoping no body comes along and beats you up. What the h*ll is wrong with that?

   Here's another possibility to consider about people who may appear to "want" to be there. Believe it or not, some people might consider it a good thing to stay on in a place like NV and help it exist in an organized way to help other homeless folks as they do come and go. If it exists as a community it needs some institutional memory and people that are dedicated to doing the daily, thankless jobs to keep it safe, drug free, and organized. That doesn't happen if everybody is just coming and going. You might consider people like that to be doing an important, altruistic service to people in need. Maybe its not just the fresh air.

   Posted 10 months ago #         

3. Diane
   Member Profile

   

   thanks for sharing; where is part one?

   Posted 10 months ago #         

4. JoB
   Member Profile

   DP...

   i still don't understand why you think a place that wants to be a community should function more like a bus station

   Posted 10 months ago #         

5. DP
   Member Profile

   

   Dear JoB-ro:

   I'm not the one who says NV should be like a bus station, and the fact that you would utter such a thing suggests that you didn't read my post very carefully. (Your assignment for today is to reread the post, paying particularly close attention to Item #5.)

   (dobro, you do understand the concept of the rhetorical quote, right? Because sometimes I think you really don't get stuff like that.)

   I'm also not the one who says it's a bad thing for some people to want to stay in NV indefinitely. It's the NV reps themselves who say it. And they say it knowing full well that it's not true. Why? Because they, at least, are savvy enough to know that they HAVE to say it.

   Just think about it, for a second . . . If someone came before the Council and said . . .

   (and I'm going to make a rhetorical quote again here, dobro, so prepare yourself) . . .

   . . . anyway, if someone said to the Council:

   I like it here so much, I think I'm just gonna stick around. —then what do you think the reaction would be? There would be an instant backlash, both from the camp authorities and the public. Whoever said such a thing to the City or the media would never be allowed to represent the camp again.

   Clearly, if you create a narrative in which people are using NV only as a stepping stone to somewhere else, you can get money and public support. However, if you create a narrative in which NV is seen as being a permanent home for people who could get a place of their own but choose not to, then you're committing political suicide.

   People and politics being what they are, you can't allow for too much grey area — who knows this fact better than WS Bloggers? — so even if there are folks who are at NV permanently (which there are) you have to pretend that they're not there.

   Otherwise: no funding for NV.

   Don't blame me for this hypocritical little fact of life. Personally, I'd rather live in a world where camp authorities felt free to say: (rhetorical quote again, dobro) We estimate that X% of the people here will never move on. — then at least we could deal with that issue openly.

   But for now, that's not the world we live in. Therefore, the camp authorities will continue to fudge.

   (I didn't read that in a book somewhere, dobro. It's just something I figured out on my own.)

   Posted 10 months ago #         

6. DP
   Member Profile

   

   Diane,

   Here's Part 1 of the Nickelsville Shuffle piece:

   http://westseattleblog.com/forum/topic/dp-report-070811-doin-the-nv-shuffle

   Posted 10 months ago #         

7. JanS
   Member Profile

   

   DP...do you honestly feel that if there are people who can afford to actually rent a place, that they would choose to live in this camp? Really? I find that hard to believe. I know if I was in those circumstances, I doubt I'd prefer to sleep in a small tent, on the ground. Just sayin'

   Posted 10 months ago #         

8. JanS
   Member Profile

   

   If we all decided that there should be no funding for NV because of our personal quoibles, how would that would help the NOW, the REALITY of the people who are there NOW? That's the reality. There are people who are there now. As it was explained to me, there are people who live in the "should" world, which I suppose is all well and good to a point. Yes, I'm sure we all feel that there should be things different for the camp.Those people go through life grousing about how things should be, but never really diving in. It's not a perfect world. And then there are the people in the REALITY world...dealing with what is, and how to make it work to the betterment of things. I live in that last world, and , unfortunatly, find myself in a place where I can't help this camp as much as I could. That saddens me.

   Posted 10 months ago #         

9. JoB
   Member Profile

   The reality for those who qualify for subsidized housing...
   wait lists 3-5 years

   if you entered the camp the first year...
   how long would you have to stay while waiting for your slot?

   if you didn't qualify for subsidized housing because you can work... and you worked at poverty level wages and saved every penny you could,

   how long would it take you to save up enough money to fund transportation, moving costs including outfitting a home, first & last and deposit and a reasonable safety net so you didn't find yourself back in Nickelsville the following month?

   Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps doesn't happen overnight..

   Posted 10 months ago #         

10. DP
    Member Profile

    

    Why do we have to take this simplistic view that everyone who's homeless is that way because "the system" screwed them up? As if they're all these poor benighted souls who bear no responsibility whatever for their condition.

    You're not doing people any favors by treating them that way.

    Based on my experience I believe that so-called hard-luck cases fall into three broad categories:

    1) People who just can't get a break. Period.

    2) People who can get a break but won't use it if they do get it.

    3) People who will make good use of a break — just as soon as they can get one.

    I can also tell you that there is upward and downward mobility between these categories, and I myself am an example. Between the ages of 18 to oh, about 30, I resided comfortably in Category 2. During this period, I wasted many breaks that were given to me, sponged off the system for many years, and even spent some time being deliberately homeless.*

    Around about 1990, I became thoroughly disgusted with myself and went out and got a steady job. Now I'm an upstanding citizen, but that doesn't change the fact that I was a bum for a large part of my life.

    During that time I associated with many people who were bums, like me, along with a few miscreants and the odd career criminal. That's when I learned about the different kinds of poor people, and that's when I learned that the proportions of "deserving" and "undeserving" poor are pretty much the same, whether you're talking about Nickelsville or any other 'ville.

    (What are those proportions? Who knows? —Ask a sociologist, not me.)

    But yes, Jan, I can tell you with absolute assurance that there are people at NV who, if handed six months' rent money today, would stay right there in Nickelsville. By choice.

    I can also tell you with assurance that there are people at Nickelsville who would test higher than me on an IQ test. And yet, for reasons which neither you nor I will ever understand, they choose to remain permanently unemployed.

    However, that does NOT mean that I don't think NV should be funded. I think NV should be funded. Fed, plumbed, and wired.

    But at the same time I would appreciate it if some people here were just a little more realistic about NV and the folks living there.

    Homeless people are neither saints nor sinners. Except for being homeless, in fact, they're pretty much just like the rest of us.

    Isn't that the point some of you have been trying to make all along?

    ************************************************************************************

    *During my homeless period I spent little time "on the street" because I knew how to milk the system for benefits. Not that it's all that hard . . .

    Posted 10 months ago #         

11. Diane
    Member Profile

    

    thanks DP for link to #1; enjoyed reading both, and the pics

    Posted 10 months ago #         

12. revy
    Member Profile

    

    when parents first check in nk we make sure to mention that kids will have to be in school with in 2weeks unless their already are. or they'll have to leave.

    Posted 10 months ago #         

13. JanS
    Member Profile

    

    yes, DP, just like the rest of us. They aren't perfect, they make mistakes. But for any of us to blatantly say that if a home camp doesn't do what I want them to do, I'm against funding..then, hey, maybe I misunderstood something you said. I'm betting , too, that I will agree with you that there are people there who simply don't know how to make it any better for themselves, have maybe given up on themselves, and think that this is the best that they will ever do. That's truly a shame. But at least it's there for them. I don';t live in a utopian world. I do understand that there are people like that. I also believe that NV will try to not be that. That doesn't mean that the turnover will be ever few days. Some will take longer than others to get back on their feet, or find a group home, or do whatever it is they do. NV is not a social service agency, as someone else said. They can lead to the sources, but can't force people to take advantage of them ( the old horse and water thing). I would not be able to tell you who at NV is more permanent than others if I were to walk through there. Neither could you. And I appreciate that you were "homeless" by choice at a certain point in your life. Many are not by choice now. A difference. There are probably more stories there than you could tell in a month of Sunday's. Is it a perfect environment? no. Does it run perfectly? No. Will the powers that be there accept help to become more perfect? YES! Use your expertise to help them...don't just bring it here :)

    Posted 10 months ago #         

14. dobro
    Member Profile

    

    Thanks for your condescending concern about my ability to recognize rhetoric, but I do , in fact, know what rhetorical quotes, questions, etc are. I referred to your quote as "imaginary", which it also is since you made it up yourself (I'm assuming you didn't read it in a book).

    My point stands.

    One question: Did you meet any folks in your journalistic odyssey that would fit the description I suggested that might stay on to help maintain and sustain a place like this to help other people?

    Posted 10 months ago #         

15. JanS
    Member Profile

    

    I wanna know if he met any of these mythical people who have money (to rent a home, buy food , etc.) but still choose to live in NV? ;-)

    Posted 10 months ago #         

16. JoB
    Member Profile

    dobro...

    You are right.

    There are a few people who could just barely get themselves out of Nickelsville but choose to stay on a little longer to become more financially stable and to help others..

    They are the people who have done the majority of the work to create every improvement that exists in that camp.

    And yes, I happen to know that DP talked with a couple of them:)

    Posted 10 months ago #         

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