Thanks to Michael for the tip. A second West Seattle RV encampment is posted for clearing starting this week. Six RVs and trailers on Myers Way north of the Joint Training Facility have been orange-tagged, and “No Parking” signs are up along Myers from Olson to 99th [map]. They set the city clearing/cleanup operation dates as starting Thursday (September 19):

That’s one day after the clearing/cleanup work is scheduled to begin at the SW Trenton encampment on the north side of Westwood Village (which is now down to 4 RVs/trailers, from the previous 6, with the sweep looming). The east side of the posted Myers Way area abuts the greenbelt area cleared by the state and city one year ago; we’re checking with the city to see if this is strictly a roadside sweep.

For those wondering about the big emergency response early this morning on Myers Way: A 60-year-old man was injured and had to be extricated from his RV after a van hit it. The call around 6:20 am on the east side of the 9700 block of Myers Way, across from Camp Second Chance, first came in as an “explosion” – but that turned out to be the sound of the impact. The damaged RV was still there when we went by later in the morning – as was an SPD parking-enforcement officer. SFD tells us the victim was taken to a hospital by private ambulance. The van driver was apparently unhurt (we haven’t yet clarified their status otherwise).

Last Thursday, Kathleen sent these photos of a “parade” of tow trucks she saw heading from Myers Way toward Highway 509. After a few inquiries, we finally found out today where they were towed from. It wasn’t an encampment cleanup/mitigation, we were told, but it was a cleanup – involving a Seattle City Light parcel along Myers Way.

SCL spokesperson Jenn Strang told WSB, “This has been a collaborative operation between several city entities to secure the City Light property along Myers Way. We removed vehicles that were sitting at the bottom of the hill and are also closing in on removal of trash and debris in the next few weeks. Once cleared, it will be secured with ecoblocks to prevent further dumping in the area. A total of 10 vehicles, plus a stripped-down frame, were taken off the property.” (We have a followup question out regarding which specific parcel this involved – maps show SCL property on both sides of Myers, close to the city-limit line.)

(WSB photo, Wednesday)

For months, the operators of tiny-house village Camp Second Chance (9701 Myers Way; map) have tried to get city help clearing an unauthorized encampment just outside their gates. The area where the encampment was set up had originally been considered a parking area that was unofficially part of CSC, but at some point they were reportedly told it was city right-of-way and that they could not regulate or maintain it. So, over the months, people with tents and RVs set up there; three weeks ago, one of those RVs caught fire. Community groups that do volunteer work at CSC also voiced concerns about the outside-the-fence encampment making it difficult for them to safely access CSC. Finally this week the encampment was cleared (including what remained of the burned RV). CSC manager Joaquin Barnett with camp operator LIHI told the camp’s Community Advisory Committee, “Moving forward, all participants that have vehicles were given parking passes which indicated that are LIHI participants, these parking passes are noticable on the inside of their vehicles, on the front dash board behind the front window.” We didn’t hear about the operation until it was over, so we subsequently asked Lori Baxter, spokesperson for the city’s homelessness response, about what had been done:

On Tuesday, the City’s Unified Care Team (UCT) conducted an encampment resolution near Camp Second Chance along Myers Way. Five vehicles, including one burned-out RV and four abandoned vehicles, were impounded from the site, and crews removed approximately 10,000 pounds of debris.

Offers of shelter were made to five individuals who were living unsheltered at the site, resulting in three accepted referrals.

UCT coordinated with Camp Second Chance in advance of the site resolution regarding deployment of no-parking signs in front of the tiny house village site. Temporary parking restrictions in effect there from December 1 will remain in place through December 8. The Unified Care Team will continue monitoring this site in an effort to keep it clear of any re-encampments.

If you’re not familiar with the area, this is city property on the west side of Myers Way, south of the Joint Training Facility; the encampment cleared this past summer on mostly state-owned land was on the east side and further north. Camp Second Chance has more than 50 tiny houses and usually is sheltering ~70 people.

One week after state and city crews started clearing the encampment site between northeast Myers Way and southbound Highway 509, Governor Jay Inslee visited this afternoon to see what had been done so far.

It’s one of 30 state highway/freeway-adjacent sites statewide addressed by the Right Of Way Safety Initiative, which Inslee declared “is working.” (Also cleared as part of the initiative was the infamous 2nd/Michigan encampment by the West Seattle side of the 1st Avenue South Bridge.) Before the governor’s arrival, we talked with reps from several departments and agencies to get some numbers.

First: Though outreach workers had previous said more than 50 people were identified as living at the camp, they ultimately revised that number to 36, saying the camp was often “very active” with visitors and they eventually settled on a lower number of residents after early-morning visits gave them a clearer picture. Of those, 30 have been placed in housing, according to outreach workers. Some of that is hotel-room-type housing, some is permanent supportive housing, some is temporary shelter – 1 person was even placed at Camp Second Chance, the (usually full) tiny-house village a short distance south on Myers Way.

The original vehicle count on the site was 43, and three of those were confirmed as stolen. About half the vehicles remain on site, now abandoned and – at least the ones we saw close-up – uninhabitable. We’re told notices have been sent to their registered owners, giving them 15 business days to retrieve them, or else they’ll be either towed or demolished on site.

Another number: 1,000. That’s how many hours the governor was told that workers have put in on the site. Regarding what’s going to be done to keep it from being re-occupied, we’re told the concrete barriers along Myers Way will be put back in place, and a fence will be put up from the north end of Myers Way down to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints property south of the encampment.

Aside from the abandoned, not-yet-removed vehicles (and boat), the site appeared mostly clear, except for small debris like screws and nails visible in the dirt as we walked around. The governor also paused during the tour to make a statement and answer media questions, during which he declared, “This encampment has been eliminated,” adding that the initiative isn’t just about getting “squalor” out of sight, but also about getting people into housing:

Among the next steps is a followup meeting with residents of Arrowhead Gardens, the senior-living complex across the street, which campaigned for many months to get action taken. Resident rep Diane Radischat was there to talk with Inslee:

The followup meeting is planned for September 25th.

1:05 PM: As reported here, WSDOT announced Thursday that notices had been posted at the northeast-side Myers Way encampment advising the people there that site clearing would start this week. So we went by about an hour ago to see what was happening. In view from the street were predominantly law-enforcement vehicles and officers – both Washington State Patrol and Seattle Police – as well as a few junk-hauling-type trucks and one heavy-duty truck with traffic barrels/cones (and signage).

Also notable since the last time we went by a few days ago, fewer RVs. We’ll be checking with WSDOT later today to see if there’s an update on what was done today and what’s next. The WSDOT announcement Thursday had said the plan for this week was to “begin cleaning and repairing the site, removing excess vegetation, and making other modifications at the site to help prevent resettlement.” The agency also said more than 80 percent of the known occupants of the site – 52, per previous updates – had “been matched with shelter or housing that will work for them.” If you missed the original explanation of how the placement process works, it’s in our report on the most-recent community meeting about the encampment, held in July at Arrowhead Gardens senior-living complex on the other side of Myers Way, where residents say they’ve been beset by crime and safety problems as the now-being-cleared encampment continued to grow in recent months.

P.S. The last major clearing of this site happened five years ago.

ADDED 3:14 PM: Here’s what WSDOT spokesperson James Poling told us after we requested an update: “The site was vacated by 9 a.m. this morning, thus allowing WSDOT crews and contractors to begin site cleanup and restoration work shortly afterward. Contractors had begun towing some abandoned vehicles off the site during lunchtime hours. I would expect to see rearrangement of the concrete blocks along Myers Way sometime in the next 24 hours (pending equipment availability). This site is more than 20 acres on varying terrain, so this cleanup will likely be more than a week(s) rather than days.”

(July photo courtesy Diane Radischat)

WSDOT has just announced that the long-in-the-works clearing of the encampment on the east side of Myers Way is imminent:

After two months of state partners actively working with service providers, local partners, law enforcement and neighbors, WSDOT crews posted a notice to vacate the encampment at Myers Way this morning. Service providers with KCRHA (REACH and PDA/CoLEAD) have offered services and housing that would reasonably match the needs of the people on site. Over 80% of those who were staying at the site have been matched with shelter or housing that will work for them; many have already moved to those accommodations. Outreach workers will continue to help everyone who has accepted housing to move off site over the next several days. Next week, WSDOT will begin cleaning and repairing the site, removing excess vegetation and making other modifications at the site to help prevent resettlement.

Two weeks ago, in its previous update, WSDOT had said that one-third of the known 50+ people on the site had moved into housing. The last community meeting about the situation was in July, around the same time WSDOT said RVs and other vehicles needed to be removed before they blocked off access. (As is clearly visible to passers-by, some remain.) Three months have passed since West Seattle/South Park City Councilmember Lisa Herbold said the city and state – both of which are property owners in the area – were working on “resolution” of the encampment situation, following incidents including a murder. Even before that, Arrowhead Gardens residents across the street had been pleading for something to be done, citing crime and safety concerns at their senior-living complex.

Thanks for the tips. The no-parking signs along the city’s portion of Myers Way are there because clearance work has begun on the encampments on the east side of the street; City Councilmember Lisa Herbold had said in her newsletter last Friday (as reported here) that she was told “resolution” was planned. Today, two readers told us in mid-afternoon that they had seen city vehicles and tow trucks in the area earlier; we went out immediately to look but the crews were gone, while vehicles and campers remained along the northeast end of Myers. Subsequent inquiries to city and state contacts haven’t yet yielded any information. But during the Camp Second Chance Community Advisory Committee meeting that just wrapped up, camp managers confirmed that clearance work had happened earlier today. They expressed gratitude – declaring “it was a great day for cleanups along Myers Way” – as the unsanctioned camping causes problems for their attempts to maintain order at their site on the west side of Myers. The clearance work also caused some chaos outside their gates, they said, as some east-side campers and their possessions migrated across the street. While outreach workers have been working with the east-side campers, none will wind up at Camp Second Chance, as its 64 tiny houses are fully occupied, the managers said. We hope to find out more about the east-side situation tomorrow and will check in the morning to see if crews return; the “no parking” signage carries dates running for another week-plus past today.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

West Seattle’s only tiny-house encampment is under new management. Camp Second Chance is still operated by LIHI, which has the contract to run it on city-owned land at 9701 Myers Way South, but in recent months, its on-site managers have changed. The new managers met with the CSC Community Advisory Committee for the first time this past Tuesday night. The online meeting was the first in a few months because of logistics challenges that resulted in previous cancellations.

The new managers who talked with committee members are Daniel Weiss, the LIHI program manager accountable for four tiny-house encampments including CSC, on-site manager Michelle Yellow Robe, and case manager Ashley Freeman.

Currently, the site has 64 tiny houses, six of which are empty and undergoing maintenance, and 65 people, including some couples sharing a tiny house, plus 10 pets (seven dogs and three cats). Freeman is the lone case manager at the moment, with an open position for a second one; the task of assisting more than 60 people with needs including housing and job searches “can be overwhelming at times,” she acknowledged. But people continue to be placed in housing, she said, some to LIHI apartment buildings, but others to a variety of housing options all the way down to “rooms for rent.” LIHI can assist in placement of clients by paying their first/last months’ rent and deposit.

Weiss said the new managers have been stressing that “we want to help them keep moving along and get into permanent housing.” Yellow Robe added, “It’s a program, a stepping stone, not just a place to stay (indefinitely).”

That understanding isn’t shared by all, they said, particularly police whose help they have sought with removing problematic people from CSC. This issue surfaced last fall, as we reported in coverage of October’s Community Advisory Committee meeting. LIHI’s Josh Castle said CSC had required some police responses recently after a client assaulted a staffer, punching them in the face. He said police refused to remove the client from the site, insisting it was a landlord/tenant issue and that they couldn’t “evict” someone. When we followed up on the previous issue last fall, city homelessness-response spokesperson Linda Robson told us, “Legally, for purposes regarding evictions, tiny houses are considered emergency shelter, not housing.” But Castle said SPD has refused to help them in situations like this, at other LIHI tiny-house encampments as well as at CSC. In this situation, Castle said, an arrest would have been most appropriate, but “we just want them to leave the village.” Yellow Robe added that beyond the safety risk of having this person remain at CSC, it sets a bad example for others staying there – “The other clients are watching this and they think it’s a free for all.” One committee member suggested LIHI take the issue to the City Attorney’s Office.

The city did apparently take action on another problem, RVs and junk – not associated with CSC, accumulated along Myers Way adjacent to it. Weiss said he had filed a Find It Fix It report and cleanup/dispersal followed. Meantime, the camp is working on a new gate/fence in front to improve security. Committee members asked if the camp had any specific needs at the moment with which the community could assist; Freeman said she was looking into planning some activities such as an Easter dinner and egg hunt. Weiss said in general they are looking to bring in “more community partners” to provide services.

The Camp Second Chance Community Action Committee‘s monthly meetings are usually on second Tuesdays at 6 pm, online, open to all; email Josh Castle at LIHI to get on the announcement list – – and/or watch for the meeting info in the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar.

Here are Camp Second Chance updates from this past week’s Community Advisory Committee meeting:

CAMP STATUS: CSC manager Scott Harris said 72 people are at the 9701 Myers Way S. [map] tiny-house encampment, plus four dogs and three cats. Case manager Marjorie Johnson said eight people had left the camp in the preceding month – seven to permanent housing, one to stay with family members. It’s been a “constantly busy” month, she explained, with more than 20 people still awaiting housing, including 15 people who’ve applied to the Dockside Apartments in Green Lake, now owned by LIHI, which operates CSC and other tiny-house encampments around the city.

CAMP INFRASTRUCTURE: Harris said they’re still working on an upgrade of the video-monitoring system, which currently has more than a dozen cameras. Asked what’s done with the video, he said it’s kept for a week. In ensuing discussion, LIHI’s tiny-house program manager Christina Comer said the video is available to police on request. The city-provided shower trailer is connected to the city sewer system but still needs a few pump-outs each week because a design problem is keeping the connection from “easily flowing.”

FOLLOWUPS: No one in attendance asked about recently discussed problems, so we did. First – the person described last month as refusing to leave CSC has finally departed. Second – regarding the case of a double-murder suspect who had been at CSC earlier in the year and allegedly assaulted a woman while there, Comer said referrals to CSC come from the city’s HOPE Team, and background checks are not required – except to ensure the referred person is not a registered sex offender (that was a condition dating back to community concerns years ago).

DONATIONS: With winter approaching, Harris said CSC can use donations of mittens, gloves, warm socks, warm hats (particularly beanies). You can drop items at the main entrance any time.

NEXT MEETING: The committee will meet again online at 6 pm Tuesday, December 13th. All are welcome. We’ll have video/phone info in our calendar listing.

Is a tiny-house encampment emergency shelter or housing?

That question has posed some problems for Camp Second Chance, according to discussion at this week’s monthly meeting of CSC’s Community Advisory Committee.

Camp staff said they’d been trying to kick out one person who had refused to follow requirements for staying at CSC – including chores and working with case managers – and who also had parked several derelict vehicles in and around the 9701 Myers Way South site. Two of them were towed hours before Tuesday night’s online meeting. “Four or five” others had been tagged by Parking Enforcement. The person had been the reason for three of the five 911 calls made by the camp in the past month (the other two were medical), said CSC manager Scott Harris, but he has holed up in a tiny house and refuses to leave. That’s where the question of “shelter or housing” came in – Harris said police were contending the camp was housing and so trying to remove the person would be a form of eviction. We’ve asked the city’s homelessness-response spokesperson for clarification on what tiny-house encampments are considered to be, and are still awaiting the answer.

Other updates:

CSC currently has 73 people – all its tiny houses are occupied, and any that become open are immediately filled. Case manager Marjorie Johnson said 17 of them are awaiting permanent housing at the buildings now owned/operated by LIHI, which also runs CSC and other tiny-house encampments. Ten are awaiting units at Dockside in Green Lake, four have applied to Boylston on Capitol Hill, and three elsewhere. Johnson hopes they will all be housed by the end of November. The day before the meeting, two people who had been at the camp since 2019 left for Dockside, and she said that was such a happy departure that she cried. She also finally has help – newly hired case manager Jenn Hunt was introduced.

Longtime CAC member Grace Stiller said her program Weed Warriors is continuing its work at the Myers Way Parcels – the city-owned land that includes CSC’s site – and again will have grant-funded stipends for campers to join in the restoration work.

The camp’s shower trailer is not yet connected to the sewer system, apparently because of a design issue with the trailer. They’re also working to get the trailer electrified, as the fire marshal frowns on the current use of propane.

NEXT MEETING: Online, 6 pm November 8th. All are welcome – this is a city-mandated forum for questions or concerns about CSC.

-Tracy Record, WSB editor

The expanded-capacity Camp Second Chance in southeast West Seattle [map] continues to operate at capacity. That’s part of what the tiny-house encampment’s Community Advisory Committee heard at its online meeting Tuesday night, facilitated by case manager Marjorie Johnson.

CAMP STATUS: 75 people right now, including 10 couples – so its 65 tiny houses are all occupied. Eight pets – four dogs, four cats. Four 911 calls were made in the past month – two medical, two police. Two people had to leave the camp “for violence.” In August, 15 people in all exited the camp – 12 were “abandonments” (meaning they just departed of their own volition, likely back to the street); 2 went to jail; 1 went to permanent housing. 15 IDs and 20+ Social Security cards were procured in August; she has applications out for apartments for more than a dozen campers. Right now there’s a woman at the camp whose two children are with her mom since CSC doesn’t allow children, and Johnson just found out that the woman has a chance at a Section 8 voucher. Also, there’s housing available in Everett, and multiple possibilities for people over 62. One client – “one of our originals” – received an emergency-housing voucher and gave it back because “they’re making over 80 percent median income and don’t need the voucher any more.” (That means CSC got the voucher back to use for someone else.) The camp has a full-time mental-health/chemical-dependency counselor; several tiny-house villages are partnering with Therapeutic Health Services for this kind of support. Johnson said she’s gotten housing for 42 people in the months she’s been at CSC. She had mentioned Dockside at Green Lake, acquired by LIHI to convert quickly into affordable permanent housing; camp operator LIHI‘s Josh Castle said it’ll have almost 100 studio apartments. Move-ins will start “in a matter of weeks.” LIHI has more than 3,100 units of permanent affordable housing in six counties, Castle added. The rapid-acquisition program has been a game-changer, he said. “We hope to be able to do a lot more of that.” One more note from Johnson: Another case manager has yet to be hired but they have a prospect. When that person’s on board, they’ll be able to share the caseload.

CAMP NEEDS: Hygiene items, towels, blankets, pillows, socks, jackets, shoes are among the perennial needs, said Johnson. “We’re getting some of those things but we can always use more.” They’ve had a fair amount of turnover since the 24 new houses were added over the summer, and winter is coming, so it’s time to prepare. The “donation room” will be empty shortly as they transition the space they use to store donated items. The topic of a gift registry came back up – “makes it easy for us to give,” said committee member John Walling of nearby Arrowhead Gardens – and will be looked into.

CONCERNS: One attendee brought up a perennial issue, safety along Myers Way, as there’s no sidewalk for people and streetside fencing pushes pedestrians dangerously close to traffic. Committee member Grace Stiller observed that not only is it a safety issue but potentially a liability issue for adjacent property owners (primarily the City of Seattle). Stiller also brought up “derelict vehicles” that are parked near the camp but not officially on its site. She’s concerned not only about how it looks but also about people working on those vehicles, leading to vehicle-fluid runoff, especially problematic with creek headlands there that eventually feed into the Duwamish River.

KUDOS: Amazon sent volunteers to a Weed Warriors – Stiller’s environmental-stewardship nonprofit – project that removed invasives. “They did a fabulous job,” said Stiller. On Saturday, October 15th, for Orca Day, they’ll have an activity, 10 am-2 pm, at the Myers Way wetlands. LIHI’s Castle said the nonprofit gets lots of offers for volunteer groups to help out and they were glad to have something like that to occupy one group. “We really appreciate you hosting these volunteers.”

NEXT MEETING: They’re hoping the Community Advisory Committee can go back to second Tuesdays next month – online until further notice – so that date would be October 11th.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

After a short hiatus following the departure of its longtime chair, the Camp Second Chance Community Advisory Committee regrouped Tuesday night online and heard a progress report on the camp’s expansion.

We first mentioned more than a year ago that West Seattle’s only sanctioned tiny-house encampment, at 9701 Myers Way South since 2016, was in line for an expansion. After the addition of tiny houses, it has 64, and all but four of them are occupied, said CSC operations manager Scott Harris. That means 75 people are living at CSC now – 62 men, 13 women. (Harris noted the population also includes 4 cats and 8 dogs.) Before the expansion, it was generally around 50 people.

Many of the new residents were referred at the same time. The camp has seen four abandonments from among those recent referrals – people shown to their units, who then left, saying they had to go get their stuff, but never returned. Harris says that’s rare, and if it happens, they hold the unit vacant for two days to give the person a chance to show up, but then it’s given to someone else. Case manager Marjorie Johnson said they try to reach out to those who “abandon,” in hopes of encouraging them to come back. (They even call hospitals and the Medical Examiner.) She said it can be overwhelming sometimes for a person who’s been in a community elsewhere to suddenly have to deal with more support, new neighbors, a new place to stay.

The new tiny houses aren’t the only additions and changes to the camp as part of its expansion. A new icemaker arrived earlier this week, in time for the current mini-heat wave. Water tanks were moved to the front of the camp and Seattle Public Utilities is installing fencing around them. They’re near the new hygiene trailer (funded by a budget amendment from West Seattle/South Park City Councilmember Lisa Herbold last year), which has an attendant on weekdays but is yet to be hooked up to sewer lines; it’s being pumped out every few days until that happens. An emergency-exit gate is being added near the kitchen tent. The new freezer has been malfunctioning but it’s under warranty so they’re working to get a repair specialist out to fix it.

New security cameras have been installed and four more remain. Josh Castle from LIHI, which operates the camp and other tiny-house villages around the region, said cameras are standard for sites like this. In addition to monitoring areas inside the camp, cameras also monitor the parking area outside the camp, which has seen a few vehicle thefts, Harris noted.

That’s not the only way in which that area is being monitored. It was noted that city Parking Enforcement Officers have been ticketing cars for parking there. Community Advisory Committee member Grace Stiller said one camp resident had to go to court to argue against the ticket. Camp managers said they had talked to the city about this problem before and thought they had it resolved until a PEO showed up again last week.

Case manager Johnson provided an update on her work. She has continued working on housing placements and says the camp is down to 7 longtime residents – “more than 2 years” – and she’s working closely with them. Her recent work includes seeking housing for people at apartment buildings recently opened by LIHI, including the Dockside in Green Lake – for which she’s put in 16 applications – and the Frye. Three people are waiting to move into the Harvard and she’s hoping that will happen by December 1st. She added that CSC is having monthly all-village meetings, and that a fulltime mental-health therapist is now on duty at the camp as of this week. Overall, she said, “Just as fast as they’re coming in, I’m moving them out,” and in a few cases where people don’t want to move, she’s working with them to find out why. Fauntleroy Church continues supporting campers with bus passes and hygiene items. They’re hiring to get help for Johnson, too, as CSC moves from “tiny house village to tiny house metropolis,” as Castle termed it.

Asked if they need support for the weather extremes, Harris said “we can always use bottled water and Gatorade.”

GROUP LOGISTICS: The CAC remains without a chair since founding chair Willow Fulton’s resignation earlier this summer. It has room for more members too. Seattle’s sanctioned tiny-house villages are all supposed to have CACs, as required by the city, so even though the leadership change led to a short hiatus, there was no question that it would resume. Their meetings are meant for getting camp updates to the wider community as well as providing a venue for asking questions and surfacing concerns. Now the task for the group is “to get it back to a robust level,” said Castle. Next meeting is TBD.

Here’s what we heard at this month’s meeting of the Camp Second Chance Community Advisory Committee, held online last night:

ADDITIONS: Lots of renovation/addition work under way at the city-sanctioned encampment that’s been on the city-owned Myers Way Parcels for nearly six years. 15 of the 26 new tiny houses mentioned last month have arrived, reported camp manager Scott Harris; none are connected to electricity yet. The new kitchen and shower facilities are in place; the latter is being set up for ADA accessibility. The laundry room is finished and awaiting washers and dryers. New appliances also are on order for the kitchen – refrigerators and a freezer. Two shipping containers are expected as well, one for campers’ storage and another to be used to hold donated items. A new security structure was expected today, replacing the old one.

CURRENT CAMP POPULATION: 39 as of meeting time, with one intake in progress. The camp also is home to three cats and one dog. Two 911 calls were made in April, both for medical assistance. One person is moving into permanent housing this week. Case manager Marjorie Johnson is getting some help, though she wasn’t sure yet if that person will be working part time or full time.

RESTORATION WORK: CAC member Grace Stiller‘s organization Weed Warriors continues working with CSC on restoration of the natural area around the camp, with current projects including a walking trail as well as blackberry-root removal.

The Camp Second Chance Community Advisory Committee meets second Tuesdays, 6 pm, online. Email c2ccacchair@gmail.com if you’d like to get notifications.

There’s long been talk of adding more tiny houses to Camp Second Chance in southeast West Seattle [map] – the sanctioned encampment on the city-owned Myers Way Parcels has room for them. At tonight’s monthly Community Advisory Committee meeting, details finally emerged. Camp Second Chance will be adding 26 new units in the next several weeks. Twenty of them will represent added capacity, at the north end of the camp, where a large canopy – recently lost to wind – once covered the tiny-house-building operation that has since become the Hope Factory in Georgetown/SODO. The other six will replace existing tiny homes that have fallen into disrepair. More big news at tonight’s meeting: The water and sewer service has been worked out. It will be hooked up to the new hygiene trailer once the kitchen is moved to a new concrete slab, where it will have a sink with hot water. The kitchen move will in turn facilitate a new laundry building, with three washers and three dryers. Another site improvement: Community Advisory Committee member Grace Stiller‘s group Weed Warriors has led a project to clear more area, creating a walking path near the camp. Finally, two stats from the past month: Nine people moved out, going into permanent housing, and the camp had three 911 calls, all for medical problems.

The Camp Second Chance Community Advisory Committee meets second Tuesdays, 6 pm, online. Email c2ccacchair@gmail.com if you’d like to get notifications.

ORIGINAL TUESDAY NIGHT REPORT: After five years as a city-supported tiny-house encampment, Camp Second Chance in southeast West Seattle is still trying to get water and sewer connections.

That was the hottest topic at tonight’s monthly online meeting of the Camp Second Chance Community Advisory Committee. The longrunning utility-line effort reportedly had cold water thrown on it by Seattle Public Utilities. Camp manager Scott Harris said SPU reps did a survey that showed the nearest hookups are on the Seattle Fire Department Joint Training Facility site to the north, and said that running the lines to CSC would be too costly. Harris said that didn’t seem like the final word on the matter, though. Committee members are going to contact West Seattle/South Park Councilmember Lisa Herbold to see if she can help them get the utilities at the camp, since she had pursued funding in the city budget last year. In the meantime, water will continue to be delivered to the camp.

Harris said January was busy at CSC, with 14 people moving out into housing. The camp’s currently down to 38 people (about two-thirds of its capacity). They’re doing maintenance right now on some of the tiny houses.

The camp had one person who tested positive for COVID in the past month; that person was one of the 14 who have since left CSC for housing.

Camp operator LIHI is looking to hire a fulltime organizer, and has similar job openings at other tiny-house encampments. Anyone interested can check out the listing here.

The Camp Second Chance Community Advisory Committee meets online at 6 pm on second Tuesdays; next meeting will be March 8th.

ADDED WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: A clarification from SPU spokesperson Sabrina Register:

The property falls within Water District 20 (for water) and Valley View Sewer District (for sewer), so Seattle Public Utilities does not have the legal right to serve that property. We’ve talked with the General Manager of Water District 20 who indicates they want to serve the parcel with water and are working with Camp Second Chance on what it would take to make the connection to their system.

One of the hygiene (shower) trailers that SPU manages for people experiencing homelessness will soon be deployed to Camp Second Chance, through 2022 funding approved by the City Council.

Aside from which utility serves it, the encampment is on city-owned land (known as the Myers Way Parcels).