West Seattle’s Westcrest Park is one of six sites where the city is planning “hygiene stations” to help unsheltered people stay healthy. From the announcement today:
Building on the 1,900 new sites across the City to help individuals experiencing homelessness, the City of Seattle announced the deployment and maintenance of six hygiene facilities throughout the City, which augment the more than 128 Seattle Parks comfort stations that remain open for hygiene needs. This expansion of resources is a continuation of ongoing work by the City and County to bring critically needed resources to those most in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beginning tomorrow, the City will deploy and maintain 14 toilets and 6 handwashing stations near City Hall Park, Lake City Community Center, Jefferson Park, Westcrest Park, Cal Anderson Park, and Benvenuto Viewpoint. All areas are in close proximity to individuals experiencing homelessness. This is in addition to the more than 128 locations in parks throughout the City, available to all residents, and are currently being serviced by Seattle Parks and Recreation. The new facilities will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days per week. Daily maintenance will be provided including sharps disposal, waste removal, and supplemental cleaning.
In addition to the portable toilets, the City expects to soon deploy at least four hygiene trailers with showers, toilets, and hand-washing stations. Currently under procurement, the trailer locations and staffing will be determined by Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) in partnership outreach teams and other departments and Public Health – Seattle & King County.
The announcement – which you can read in its entirety here – also says:
SPU has partnered with HSD’s Navigation Team and local stakeholders to address public health and safety in unmanaged encampments. Increased litter and trash collection services will be delivered at unmanaged encampments over the next several weeks. In addition, the SPU encampment trash program that delivers trash bags and collects them, currently in 14 locations, will increase to 16 sites by March 31, 2020. SPU will also increase their pump-out services for RVs, expanding their initial pilot of two events per week.
We asked the city where exactly in Westcrest Park the hygiene station would be placed, since it’s a sprawling park; the reply was that it would be “installed on the SPR property across the street from 9063 Henderson Place SW.” That maps to one of the entrances on the west side of the park.
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