FOLLOWUP: $3 million West Seattle RV ‘safe lot’ could be open by summer

| Safety | West Seattle news

(‘Site plan’ from city permit filings)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Two and a half weeks after we broke the news of a West Seattle site proposed for up to 72 RVs and 20 tiny houses [7201 2nd SW, map] – after which, our followup inquiries were largely met with “too soon to comment” – more details are finally emerging:

This week, Mayor Katie Wilson referred to the plan, saying toward the end of this post about homelessness-related issues, that “we are exploring every potential administrative and legal tool we have to accelerate the expansion of emergency housing and shelter, including by speeding permit approvals for projects like the upcoming RV Safe Parking program in West Seattle.” (“Speeding permit approvals” was foreshadowed by her non-site-specific executive order last month.)

Meantime, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority has revealed the cost and timeline for the project, which is on a state-owned site that WSDOT has used for storage and which also has been the site of illegal encampments, saying here that “The Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) has been awarded the $3.3 million dollar contract to open the site at Washington State Department of Transportation’s (WSDOT) Glassyard site by summer 2026.” LIHI also operates West Seattle’s first and until now only tiny-house village, Camp Second Chance (9701 Myers Way S.), housing 79 people as of late January.

KCRHA also confirms what we reported the permit filings show: “The site will provide 72 parking spaces for vehicle residents, and 20 tiny homes, adding the capacity to serve 92 households.” Their update says “this project has been underway for some time now”; though the current filings did not appear in the city system until mid-January, there are filings from last June seeking review of the site for water/sewer access to serve what those documents outlined as slightly different numbers of RVs and tiny houses. (That review, never finalized, suggested building a 1,500-foot-long, foot-wide water pipe under West Marginal Way to serve the site.) Not all details about the current plan are finalized, though; a WSDOT spokesperson answered our initial inquiry by replying that WSDOT was “in continued negotiation” with LIHI about leasing the Glassyard property and “we do not have a definitive date for when the leases will be complete at this point.”

The city first publicly identified the site as a potential “transitional encampment” location more than a decade ago., Not long after that, a city-owned lot adjacent to the site was proposed for a relatively small RV lot, an idea relatively quickly scrapped. Some of the same questions that have recently surfaced about this are similar to what community advocates asked 10 years ago, such as whether West Seattle’s existing RV residents can get priority for spots at the new lot.

Paul February 13, 2026 (12:18 pm)

This is good news, however, that location is not very good for “living”, as there is limited bus service and virtually no stores within walking distance. I fully support this type of development, but I feel it should have easy access so people can try to get back on their feet.

KD February 13, 2026 (2:42 pm)

There is literally bus service across the street from this plot of land, with the Rt.#131 that runs quite often as does the Rt.#132 (a bit of distance walking from under the 1st.So.Bridge to the next stop on South Park line side) but the #131 runs right there.. ‘bus service’
- Firefighter February 13, 2026 (5:04 pm)
  
  As the original poster said – “limited” bus service. Very accurate of them. Just because “a bus” stops occasionally “across the street” does not make reliable bus service.
- Foop February 13, 2026 (7:09 pm)
  
  Please tell me what you define as “quite often”anyone who describes a bus with 30 min frequency this way does not ride transit regularly.
West Seattle resident February 14, 2026 (11:39 pm)

Great Paul, while you’re shooting down plans to improve things can they come park the RVs in your front yard until the city comes up with something you do like? Maybe step up and volunteer to drive these people the grocery store instead of just complaining this spot doesn’t have stores. Some of us already have the RVs lining the streets we live on and welcome something more humane where these people can get services. You’re letting perfect be the enemy of good.

waikikigirl February 13, 2026 (12:54 pm)

I’m curious to know the success rate of Camp 2nd Chance since their existence for their residents finding their way into a stable job and home/apt., is there a website that shows this?

CarDriver February 13, 2026 (1:18 pm)

Is the 3million just to build? Operating costs will be on top of this?

WSB February 13, 2026 (1:37 pm)

That’s one of the followup questions I already have sent.

Bdubbs February 13, 2026 (2:18 pm)

All for it, BUT access comes with contingency. Drug & alcohol assessment, if necessary, treatment and monitoring, requirement to not be charged with any violent or property crimes, and requirement for cleanliness of their plot. If they qualify based on those terms, they can stay. In return we will also provide access to services like job training/searching, mental health, etc. This is respectful and fair. We are all part of the same community and the housed & unhoused BOTH have rules to follow. That’s how society works. The mentally ill and non-mentally ill have a right to survive among each other – again there are societal norms and rules. We can’t be 100% against people in need of this spot, but they also can’t get access carte blanche. We have to move away from all or nothing politics and make compromises.

Charles Burlingame February 13, 2026 (7:26 pm)

Did you have to perform a “drug & alcohol assessment” to get access to your house or apartment?
- 33 February 13, 2026 (8:33 pm)
  
  I pay for my own house or apartment.When you are getting handouts they sometimes come with strings. Other people are paying these services from money they’ve earned. The homeless don’t have a right to other people’s money without any responsibility or obligation. Here, a large percentage of the homeless population is unable to care for their own needs because of drugs and alcohol. Without any motivation to get clean, they won’t. Addict 101. Your comment implies we should just have a permanent class of addicts living in slums paidfor by others. Time for the homeless to live up to their end of the social contract. We’ve already spent billions on this.
  - Marcus February 14, 2026 (10:13 am)
    
    Finally! Common sense.
- wscommuter February 13, 2026 (9:01 pm)
  
  In the private market, such assessments have no place. But for publicly-funded emergency shelter that is – let’s be honest – heavily aimed at people with substance abuse problems and mental health problems, then yes, in fact, assessments have a role. Your question presumes that folks have a “right” to addiction. What a sad thing to think.
  - Derek February 14, 2026 (8:53 pm)
    
    People do have a right to an addiction. And it’s none of your business what they do in their homes. Show the same outrage for finance bros who do cocaine or be quiet.
    - 33 February 16, 2026 (6:36 am)
      
      Derek – the difference is the cocaine tech bros you reference aren’t living off our money. They pay their own way and then some. They contribute to the economy and presumptively pay taxes. I have no outrage against them (at least not for their addiction) because they’re not living off my hard work. When we pay; we set the rules.

Kyle February 13, 2026 (2:25 pm)

This is great. I do hope they take lessons learned and not allow unsanctioned camps to form in the immediate area from folks who don’t want to follow the rules. This is what happened near camp second chance and it took a homicide at that site on Myers way to be cleared a few years ago.

k February 14, 2026 (7:51 am)

They don’t “allow” unsanctioned camps to form. That’s why they call them “unsanctioned.” Housed people have unsanctioned camps near their homes. Businesses have unsanctioned camps near their homes. Asking an RV safe lot to achieve something no one else in the city has seems a bit unfair.
- Kyle February 14, 2026 (10:24 pm)
  
  Not enforcing = allow. My point is if you have the safe lot, don’t turn a blind eye to unsanctioned ones in the neighborhood. Do you remember the homicide at the one that was allowed to go on for months at Myers way across from a homeless transition site? That’s not on the lot operator, but it is on the city.
  - WSB February 14, 2026 (11:20 pm)
    
    The Myers Way site where a man was killed was state land, not city. And that meant it was up to the state/WSDOT to order it cleared.
    As noted in our coverage when then-Gov. Inslee showed up to declare the encampment “eliminated,” nearby Arrowhead Gardens’ residents pushed for a long time to get the state to take action.
    https://westseattleblog.com/2023/09/video-governor-visits-myers-way-declares-this-encampment-has-been-eliminated/
    - Kyle February 15, 2026 (7:17 am)
      
      My point is adjacent land should have a plan for the responsible government entity, not to allow an encampment to get to that point. Why make the same mistake at a new site that already has had unsanctioned camps that also last for months.

Rob February 13, 2026 (4:28 pm)

Hopefully, there will be a work requirement, whereby the aid recipients are responsible for keeping the lot clean and maintained. They should also be required to do several hours of community service each month, cleaning litter and/or graffiti or helping maintain parks and/or highway medians.

K February 13, 2026 (6:27 pm)

Yes, it’s always easier to get stable employment and complete worker retraining programs when you have a mandatory full-time volunteer job. Not to mention any substance use treatment programs or meetings some folks might want to do. Who needs to spend time setting up a future when that time could be spent cleaning up the freeway?
- Rob February 13, 2026 (10:14 pm)
  
  I didn’t say full time. I said several hours per month. I work 50-60 hours per week, volunteer coach youth sports on weekends and clean and maintain my house that I pay for. Are you saying I should then be taxed so the people getting free housing don’t have to clean and maintain their housing? Could they not do some community work 1/2 day on one weekend per month. A job would give them dignity, purpose, and possibly job skills. Just throwing money at people only exacerbates their ensblement and addiction.
  - Foop February 14, 2026 (10:02 am)
    
    Rob, many of these people work already, those folks just don’t make punchy headlines that you’ll click on. They just aren’t as blessed as you to make enough money to cover their needs.
bill February 13, 2026 (7:24 pm)

All this in addition to hours spent slowly commuting on busses and foot to jobs, food purchase or food banks, satisfying supervisory red tape? Yeah, picking up litter tossed out of BMWs and Lexuses is sure to ensure success for these folks and teach them the valuable lesson: Don’t be poor.
Danimal February 16, 2026 (2:04 pm)

This is utterly ridiculous. You’re making houselessness and poverty punitive. You literally don’t care about them. All you care about is yourself, and how this [literally doesn’t] affect[s] you, except for the fact you’re some libertarian goof that doesn’t want to pay any taxes in the first place. You don’t have the right to dictate to people who are struggling how they should live their lives, especially since you don’t want people telling you what you have to do. You don’t know their family situation, their employment situation, their health and medical situation, none of it. And it’s none of your business, quite frankly. The hypocrisy is astounding. Every single time.

K February 13, 2026 (5:21 pm)

Damn, my housed neighbors don’t even meet the requirements listed by some of the commenters here.

33 February 13, 2026 (8:41 pm)

Yeah – they get more freedom because they pay their own way and take care of their own bills and debts. And pay taxes and services for those on the taking side of the equation. So yeah – your housed neighbors who can pay their own rent or mortgage get some more leeway. And rightfully so. They earned it.
- Lagartija Nick February 14, 2026 (10:13 am)
  
  @33 We live in a sales tax state where EVERYONE, including the unhoused, pays taxes. There are no “takers” here.
  - spooled February 14, 2026 (11:51 am)
    
    Yes, they might be paying some sales tax, might. They are NOT paying property tax or vehicle registration and insurance. Yet they demand to exist for free on our curbs or in the greenbelts. That looks like taking from my perspective.
    - bill February 14, 2026 (4:18 pm)
      
      So Spooled, if you are paying less property tax and vehicle tax than your neighbors you must be taker too, right?
    - Spooled February 14, 2026 (6:56 pm)
      
      My property and vehicle tax burden is dictated by state, county, and local assessors. To a lesser degree by the voters. My only influence is to vote and to drive what I want. However, I AM paying, while the curbside campers are not. I believe that was “33”s point earlier.
    - k February 14, 2026 (8:18 pm)
      
      You don’t pay property taxes for your on street parking, just like your housed neighbors don’t pay extra taxes for your on street parking, and homeless people don’t pay taxes for their on street parking. There’s no inequality here; they’re getting the same benefit everyone else does. Renters don’t pay property taxes, and there are plenty of housed people who register their cars in other places (one WSB commenter loved to brag about it) or fail to register or get insurance entirely (as another WSB commenter opines in every article about hit and runs).
      
      You are asking for a separate, more draconian set of standards for homeless people than the standard housed people are held to, which is unfair.
- K February 14, 2026 (11:04 am)
  
  You don’t know my neighbors.

Truth is best February 13, 2026 (10:55 pm)

Folks don’t seem to know that very few RV dwellers will agree to move into this place, in part because they will have to sign over and decommission their vehicles (i.e., you can check in with your vehicle but you cannot leave with it.) There are long-standing issues of poor management of sites run by LIHI. I am acquainted with a number of folks living in vehicles in West Seattle and most of them are saying this…especially the ones who are working (but don’t make enough to pay apartment rent) and sober and just want to be left alone. They will never agree to move to this “RV concentration camp.” (Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger.)

spooled February 14, 2026 (10:11 am)

That’s fine. Then they must register their RV and move it every three days. Or find a more accommodating location elsewhere. I agree with you that most RVs won’t take the safe lot. For the clean/sober ones just scraping by this lot may be a step backwards. The criminals certainly will not go but it may give the city leverage to crack down on the scrapper thieves and their piles of bicycles.
- K February 14, 2026 (2:10 pm)
  
  Housed people don’t move their cars every 72 hours, and rarely pay for the proper permits for their PODs, or to park their boat trailers and other over 72″ vehicles. Why is it such a problem that we let homeless people get away with the same things housed people do every day?
  - Kyle February 15, 2026 (7:40 am)
    
    Actually an empty car does get fined and impounded if not moved or the proper tags paid for. An RV never gets impounded, even as trash, stolen bikes, buying/selling of illicit goods and other community impacts pile up that are far greater that an empty car parking too long. And the RVs in Highland Park are not some new phenomenon. It’s the same expired licenses plates for years, there is no plan for permanent housing or change from them.
    - K February 15, 2026 (2:42 pm)
      
      RVs do get impounded, when the situation ticks the right boxes, and there are some cars under tarps on 40th between Fauntleroy and Morgan that would LOVE to teach you a lesson about the kind of parking housed people get away with. Bring a ruler to measure the carpet of moss growing up around them because they haven’t moved in so many years.
    - Kyle February 15, 2026 (7:03 pm)
      
      What are the right boxes? I can give you the license plates of 10+ RV’s in Highland Park right now that NEVER get impounded no matter how many times they’ve been orange tagged. They have over 30+ violations and still never get towed. To your point on people using the street for long term car storage, yes that is bad too and should be dealt with. Equating it to the same community damage as the bike hoarding/drug selling RV is not the same. I’d love to hold both groups accountable, but this article is about a safe lot for RVs and when it opens I hope they put a stop to the community damaging RVs in the neighborhoods.
    - K February 16, 2026 (6:11 am)
      
      Abandonment. That’s the box. Same standard cars are held to.
      
      Equating RVs to bike hoarding and drug selling is biased and unfair. Most RVs aren’t doing anything but parking. And, again, housed people sell drugs from houses and steal and hoard as well. There are two car farms within a block of the Barton RVs, and others further into the neighborhood. And yes, those suck for neighbors, which is why there’s an ordinance prohibiting it, which is not enforced.
      
      You keep trying to paint RVs and homeless people into this corner that allows for a separate, higher standard. But everything people in RVs do, people in houses do, and if the rules aren’t enforced for housed people, it’s only fair to not enforce them for the homeless either. No double standards.

Dumping ground February 14, 2026 (8:25 am)

How can this be stopped. Is there any group trying to fight this RV park. This is going lower our home values and bring nothing but crime and drugs. Why is this area between white center and w Seattle akwayus targeted. I bet homeowners in beach drive would be outraged nut we’re suppose to accept it because we don’t have the financial clout of richer communities. Ic this goes through no one will want to buy our homes in the future

spooled February 14, 2026 (10:14 am)

The RVs are ALREADY all over Highland Park and the area at the bottom of Marginal Way/Dallas Ave/Highland Park Drive. The same gang of them has bounced around for the last five years or longer. They swept 16th in front of the college again Thursday and none of them moved more than a mile. If the lot opens I HOPE it give the city the chance to say “take it or get the hell out!” (I know it won’t but I can hope.)
West Seattle resident February 14, 2026 (11:26 pm)

Do you live in highland park? Most weeks there are 10+ RVs parked around 16th Ave SW and neighboring streets. The RVs are already here reducing our home values. It’s far better if they are put in a city run lot where they have access to services.

LBD February 14, 2026 (9:26 am)

The number of RV spaces and tiny homes is a great, tangible option and the type of progress I’ve long wanted to see. But it’s a small number compared to the overall totals. I agree there are undoubtedly some who don’t want such an option, but with so many people in need I’m sure there won’t be a shortage of takers. Camp Second Chance has a requirement for participating in responsibilities around the village; I’m sure a similar expectation can exist here. I also know Camp Second Chance has some criteria about who can live there. This new location may or may not be a no barriers option. But those of us with strong opinions (of all sorts) need to step up and participate in the process. Not NIMBY-ism. But things like advocacy for increasing the frequency of bus transportation. I think there are few if any locations with perfect access to transportation and resources; our role is to engage in the process to make it work well.

spooled February 14, 2026 (10:20 am)

“advocacy for increasing the frequency of bus transportation. “Perhaps advocate to make the existing transit safer and more inviting?I just renewed my $30 tabs on a 31yr old car to the tune of $228. Nearly all of that went to transit of one form or another. I think they have enough. It’s just not being applied well.

Amy Thomson February 14, 2026 (12:45 pm)

This proposed encampment is a mile and a half from my house, so I’m very familiar with the area. The nearest grocery store is the Red Apple grocery store 2.5 miles away (Google Maps says it takes an hour to walk there.) Your transit options are limited. As a location for people without cars, it’s very inconvenient. It’s an easy location to set up, because it’s so isolated. There are relatively few people it will impact. That said, it’s gonna suck to be stuck there.
Also, when Nicklesville was in nearly the same location, there was a huge halo of people camping in the greenbelt. That’s very likely to happen again, unless the city cracks down on illegal encampments in the greenbelt.
As a city, we need to do better for our homeless people. Sticking them in the middle of a transit and food desert is not a good solution. While this RV/small house lot is a start, there is much, much more that needs to happen.
Homelessness is a complex problem, needing financial assistance, mental health care, addiction support, and lots of functional low income housing all over the city. I hope that the Seattle city government can find ways to make that happen.

spooled February 14, 2026 (2:40 pm)

They are ALREADY IN the greenbelt!!! They have been in there for years. Look at the NorthWest corner of Highland Park Way and West Marginal Way. Behind the bus stop. North of / across the street from the former United States Seafoods building and Pioneer Industries. Lots of stolen bicycles and a couple motorbikes. Then there are the campers at 7100 W Marginal Wy SW (also city owned) which was ironically going to be a safe lot a decade ago after Nicholsville. I see them burning trash early AM while commuting. And don’t forget the RV in the small sliver of public land on SW Michigan ST just outside the fence for Lineage company. He runs a nighttime chop-shop for motorcycles. Seen some nice ones there. I’m too scared to check out Detroit Ave but Google Maps did it for you! Tell me again how this is going to make the area worse? They’re already there. At least maybe they can be offered the RV lot or trespassed.
- Kyle February 14, 2026 (10:29 pm)
  
  Spooled is right. Tried hiking the greenbelt trails? Get ready to be accosted as a trespasser walking into a camp of drugs and despair. That needs to stop.

SeattleisRaining February 14, 2026 (7:57 pm)

I learned a lot about folks’ various hopes and concerns –pros, cons, and yes buts– by reading these comments. I appreciate the thoughtful dialog. It is no surprise that there are solid points made and to be considered by individuals who see the proposed facility as a viable option and those that don’t or have serious concerns. The various posts are helping to challenge my thinking on this heavy matter. I would make one “aside,” however. I found some of the comments to take a semi-personal jab at another person’s perspective, and said jab to be a bit off-putting. It only served, in my opinion, in making it difficult to sift through what was most valuable in the post. While making analogies is a valid approach, some of the comments seem to take it a step too far, demeaning the other person’s opinion. I get it. I’ve done it. I just find it helpful when what floats to the top is good, thoughtful perspective clean of debris. Thanx all.