Homeless and camping in West Seattle parks: 2 encounters

WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham has filed several updates in the past two-plus months about homeless encampments he has been finding, and investigating, while exploring West Seattle parks. Tonight, he writes about two encounters with people linked to them:

homelessmatphotos.jpg

By Matt Durham
WSB contributor

Saturday morning, I discovered a return of an encampment on the northern tip of Camp Long; the encampment was vacant. Human refuse began to litter the forest floor and an obvious declaration of defiance was expressed by the vandalizing of a Parks Department “No Camping” sign.

Sunday morning I cycled past a man sleeping with one eye open, both literally and figuratively. Time passed and I captured him sleeping, unaroused by the sound of my camera.

A trail of clothes, garbage and other belongings led from the encampment to the sleeping man. Within the debris was a pile that included two inoperable Timex watches and a fake string of pearls.

Oddly the man was sleeping just feet from the trail on his plastic shelter; the same shelter that stood on a bluff eighty feet away the day before.

As I departed the area, I stopped my bike near the hollow-eyed man and startled him. As I inquired about his well being he stated, in a frightened tone, that he was “OK.” I asked if he was planning on staying or passing through. Timidly, the man replied he was “passing through.”

Editor’s note: Matt sent that story and photos two days ago, but Tuesday’s robbery/shooting and other stories kept us from publishing it before he sent this next update:

Update by Matt Durham

At 6 pm Tuesday, two men associated with an encampment attempted to lure my nine year old son, Jack, and were deterred as I rounded the bend on my mountain bike.

My two sons and I were biking to the north side of Camp Long when my older son disappeared around a corner in the trail behind some tall shrubs. One of the scraggly-looking men said to my son, “It’s OK, kid. Come over, come over,” as he gestured with both hands to come close.

Normally very social with strangers, Jack withdrew — with great caution — and met up by my side.

The men changed their focus and expressed displeasure with their encampment, saying, “The Parks Department removed our camp.”

I replied, “It’s illegal to camp in our parks.”

They then asked, “What would you do if you were homeless?”

In a final statement, I declared, “Not break the law.” The men moved on without incident.

My sons and I have started cleaning up the northern tip of Camp Long to be more kid-friendly – a project that may take a few years.

Matt’s previous WSB reports on homeless encampments in West Seattle can be found here, here, here, and here.

20 Replies to "Homeless and camping in West Seattle parks: 2 encounters"

  • marty July 3, 2008 (12:41 am)

    What about the motor homes parked at Alki?? Right in the middle of parking needed for people using the water taxi? Seattle parking enforcement will only respond to complaints about multi-day parking in the area. We have residents who park old motor homes for days/weeks in prime spots that commuters need. SPD ignores these folks…

  • FullTilt July 3, 2008 (1:44 am)

    I am not defending these guys. I just want to get that out in the open before I get jumped from hell to high water.

    What are you supposed to do if your homeless? I spent some quality time as a child living in cars, and hotels. My parents held it together how ever delicately. We could have easily been in a park some where, or under a bridge. As a teenager and college student, I lived under a freeway with about 80 other homeless in “The Camp” in LA. It was really the safest place to be. I had people watching over me. Food daily, and a warm place to sleep.

    All that being said, I really don’t want to deal with people camped in parks. I don’t want to go to work and find someone sleeping in my door way. So where do we want these people? Shelters are full to over capacity, mental wards discharge people soon after they arrive. If not camping in the parks, where should these people go? The reason we are seeing them in West Seattle is because the rest of Seattle has done a fine job of pushing them south. When I first moved to West Seattle about 6 years ago, I never saw homeless or pan handlers, now it is a daily occurrence. I see large packs of them roaming around. The economy is going quickly done the toilet, and the amount of homeless people are just going to increase.

    So really, we need to ask ourselves, where do we want these people? They are people after all. We need to remember that. They are not rodents. They are not a “problem” that needs to be dealt with. These are people with no options. No one wants to sleep in a park. No one wants to be under a bridge. Sometimes it is all you have though. So if we are not opening new shelters and temporary housing , we are inviting them to our parks and doorways.

  • soclwrkrinmotn July 3, 2008 (3:48 am)

    The luring scares me, although in the scheme of things, I also know it is uncommon in the homeless community. (Although, it rather like the chicken and the egg: if someone is a registered SO, and they are denied housing consistently, homelessness becomes the only option. And it is far more hazardous to the community, because the whereabouts are unknown.)

    But overall, I have to ask the same question: well, where are they to go? Few people “choose” to be homeless.

    It is becoming sadly common to encounter homeless camps in West Seattle, and that includes youth encampments. West Seattle is comparatively quiet, low traffic, and if I were in that situation–and I was homeless for much of my youth/young adulthood–I would go to West Seattle/White Center, too.

    And the issue is only going to become larger, because the city and county are cutting back on existing social service programs–and new ones? Forget it. The ten year plan to end homelessness is not going to be any municipality’s focus in this economy.

  • Babs July 3, 2008 (5:49 am)

    Thanks FullTilt, people must be reminded that the world does not revolve around them. Many people out there are just several paychecks from this also but of course do they ever really see how it could be?
    Yes, some of these folks have issues and problems. But then again most do not. Stop looking for the “out of sight, out of mind” attitude. Stop lookng down. Look at. We need to work as a group in this city, in this nation, to help our own.

  • TheHouse July 3, 2008 (6:48 am)

    I’m going to take this one to the forum ….way too much to discuss.

  • pam July 3, 2008 (6:50 am)

    It is a tough one, isn’t it. People have legitimate fears when they walk through the park and see someone they aren’t expecting. It’s difficult too to help those ‘homeless’ sign holders under the bridge when we’ve seen them all pile into a very nice truck together at the end of ‘their shift’. I don’t have an answer – perhaps some empathy from our mayor for the position these people find themselves in would help create a safe place for them to sleep. I fear with the direction our economy is going a lot of us are going to be seeing more of this, one way or the other.

  • Dave July 3, 2008 (7:06 am)

    Easy, throw them in jail, or give them a one way bus ticket to San Francisco, they love the homeless. Or can’t we nail these freeloaders for ecological destruction by one of the thousand “Green” ordinances this fine city passes on a weekly basis? If they can’t pay force them to patrol city hall with a note book writing down names of all the employees drinking bottled water? It would build self esteem while atoning for their wonton destruction of our city parks! Win / win for all!

  • changingtimes July 3, 2008 (7:10 am)

    That was greatly said fulltilt!! i agree with you 100%! just remember people how fortunate you are for what you got!

  • reynarook July 3, 2008 (7:20 am)

    Approximately 8,400 people are homeless any given night in King County according to SKCCH’s One Night Count, of those 30% are Veterans. What are we suppose to do with the homeless, build affordable supportive permanent housing. That is a big number, but it is not an insurmountable number. We are the richest country in the world and we have people living in tents and sleeping on the streets. We need to pressure our representatives in the city, state and federal governments to build that housing.

  • P July 3, 2008 (8:20 am)

    Not sure how many people saw the KING 5 report on the Level 3 offenders that are living basically homeless, because there is no place for them to move, they cannot stay in jail, so the only other place is under a bridge, in a park etc. Dave, since when is being homeless a reason to be thrown in jail? I am not saying that luring a child is ok, but the general comment about putting homeless people in jail is not a valid comment. I recently experienced one of the camps that moves around from church to church, and I have to say that everyone in the camp was very friendly and nice. Maybe we need more space for people to set up a camp like setting until they can get on their feet? Also, I realize many of the homeless people have many more issues, which as a reminder, most of the public service agencies are taxed to the limit and have no further funds to assist these people.

  • Meghan July 3, 2008 (8:23 am)

    Nice attitude, Dave. Yes, let’s throw them in jail (at huge taxpayer expense) or give them a ticket to San Francisco (and just keep the problem going elsewhere). It’s disgraceful that the richest country in the world overall (though not for the average person since the top 2% control almost 50% of the total wealth) can’t find a solution to the growing problem of homelessness. If we spent less than half the money we’ve poured into Iraq on opening shelters and places where people could get help (financial, education, mental health services or a combination thereof), we could pretty much solve the problem in a few years. If everyone knew that anyone who panhandles had other viable choices, they could refuse to give to them without feeling guilty. And the panhandlers would have little choice but to seek help. What a concept! It’s not easy, but it’s doable. And we as a society need to wake up and start petitioning our leaders that it’s our collective priority!

  • WSB July 3, 2008 (8:38 am)

    For those interested in supporting the alternatives to park camping, some local churches are involved with helping the homeless, including the small SHARE shelter that returned to West Seattle Church of the Nazarene (42nd/Juneau) earlier this year. We have written about it a few times, most recently the request for community help with providing meals, which I am sure is a request that still stands …
    https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=8114

  • k2 July 3, 2008 (9:02 am)

    sarcasm obviously flies right over peoples heads when the talk about such ‘serious’ issues.

    it’s all fun and games till someone loses a child.

  • J July 3, 2008 (9:12 am)

    reynarook, I was curious about these figures, so I searched and found King County’s 2007 report of the study. I thought others might find it as interesting reading as I did, so here’s the link:

    http://www.homelessinfo.org/ONCreportv2.pdf

    It’s a very interesting document. Because it’s just a one January night snapshot, and because the counting methods change from year to year, it’s difficult to draw firm conclusions–nevertheless, it’s a pretty substantial effort that will help me understand the issues involved for the people who were counted. Some of the people were interviewed, as well. While self-reporting isn’t the most reliable way to get data, it might point the way to further studies needed. They included people who used night-owl buses and hospital emergency rooms as shelter.

    The specific figure you noted that sent me searching was the 30% veterans. I didn’t find that figure in the report, but maybe I overlooked it. The only references I spotted to veterans was that in February of 2007, 3 of 160 people interviewed at emergency food distribution locations reported receiving VA benefits, and in January 2007 interviews of 5680 people in emergency and transitional housing, 408 had served in the military. I make that about 14%. I also wonder if they were able to confirm the service by some means other than self-reporting. I only wonder because panhandlers seem to like to use the veteran label, and…I have no firm evidence they’re not just adopting a role. Maybe they really are veterans. I just don’t have any way of knowing.

    Can you point me to the source of the 30% figure?

    I do recommend people who are interested in this issue read the report. Understanding the data can help us in our quest to help these people.

  • MsBette July 3, 2008 (9:16 am)

    I was a little wary seeing this homeless issue come up again. I thought, uh oh, here we go again! This time, though, I am glad to see some thoughtful insight on this issue. I agree we need housing and tent cities. It will take the City Council AND the citizens to actually allow this to happen. So often these buildings become a controversy because no one wants them in their own neighborhood. I sincerely hope that things change soon.

  • WSB July 3, 2008 (9:17 am)

    J, thanks for the link – the root of that is the Seattle/King County Coalition for the Homeless site, which has a lot of other local info too
    http://www.homelessinfo.org/

  • jai July 3, 2008 (10:09 am)

    Let’s not confuse two separate issues. The homeless encampments that were cleared previously, including but not limited to Camp Long, were utterly dangerous from a public health perspective. I have no problem with someone sleeping in the woods. I have a huge problem by the utter lack of respect that has been shown by those sleeping in the woods for the rest of the community.

    On that note, has anyone been in the woods between Bonair and Alki Way? There appear to be a lot of relatively new trails through pretty heavy brush.

  • islewrite July 3, 2008 (3:49 pm)

    Personally, I’d have no problem with, as Dave calls it, “wonton destruction of our city parks.” But I do draw the line at the mu shu being left all over the place.

  • reynarook July 3, 2008 (9:26 pm)

    J,
    Here is a link to the VA Web Site http://www1.va.gov/homeless/page.cfm?pg=1
    they do a short overview of the percentage of Veterans who are homeless. Many people who served in the Military do not consider themselves “Veterans” because they were not in combat, or they are too distrusting of the VA to admit they Served in the Military. I hope this helps. I forgot to add the SKKCH numbers are for the 2008 count this Jan.

  • MJSeattle July 3, 2008 (10:11 pm)

    I love hearing “We are the richest country in the world” as justification for adopting the economic policies of the poorest countries in the world.

    Doesn’t it occur to anyone that some of our success comes from letting people keep what they earn, rather than taking it by force to give to people they feel sorry for?

    That homeless website tells half the story only. Homelessness is not caused by “institutionalized racism” or “decades of poor social policy”, unless you consider the failed socialist policies that disempower people by encouraging this kind of victim thinking. It *does* have a lot to do with drug addiction, mental illness, and illegitimacy (children without fathers). This is an area society could help more, by doing the opposite things “homeless advocates” suggest.

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