One week after word that another “remediation” is planned for the Andover RV encampment, it’s getting more advance attention.
West Seattle/South Park Councilmember Lisa Herbold and citywide Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda – a North Delridge resident – visited the encampment today with other officials, including King County Regional Homelessness Authority CEO Marc Dones, and local volunteers. We learned this when Herbold mentioned it to her colleagues during the council’s weekly Monday afternoon “briefing” meeting.
Herbold said she also has a meeting ahead with the mayor’s office about what the encampment residents need as the city gets ready to enforce the 72-hour parking rule. After the council meeting, we asked her via email for more on what the encampment visit was about. Her reply:
I organized a visit to the Andover site for the Regional Homelessness Authority director Marc Dones and some of their staff, along with REACH outreach workers and St. Vincent De Paul outreach workers who regularly serve the residents, as well as members of West Seattle Mutual Aid (neighbors in the area who volunteer their time to help the residents). Councilmember Mosqueda also joined us. A resident in one of the RVs has been in touch with my office and I also have regular contact with the outreach workers who have been working with the residents there already for several months if not longer. I wanted the KCRHA to hear directly from the people living in their RVs at Andover as they consider how to develop the RV Safe Lot program. I also want to be able to share some of what I could learn from both outreach workers and RV residents when I and CEO Dones meet with the Mayor’s Office again this week to discuss planned enforcement of the 72-hour parking rule at this location.
Residents need free or low-cost repairs for vehicles that are inoperable, dumpsters, as well as case management to help residents with stolen IDs and accessing services.
The Regional Homelessness Authority is now the agency responsible for addressing homelessness, rather than a patchwork of city and county departments, though government entities provide funding.
The upcoming remediation was mentioned by Southwest Precinct commander Capt. Martin Rivera during his guest appearance at last Thursday’s Alki Community Council meeting. When the Andover encampment came up, he assured attendees, “They’re going to start moving those RVs out of there.” He later broadened his comments to other (albeit unspecified) encampments in the area, saying that “our whole purpose lately has been to get those encampments moved, and four or five of them are going to be acted on.” We noticed this afternoon that some of the RVs on Harbor Avenue have been orange-tagged; we had heard a parking-enforcement officer radio in a few days ago about being out on that detail. The RVs there come and go more often than the ones on Andover, where there’s been a steady presence going back six-plus years.
P.S. This is likely to be one of many topics Mayor Bruce Harrell is asked about during his virtual visit to the District 1 Community Network‘s June meeting, 7 pm Wednesday, June 1st. (Watch our calendar for the link.)
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