What’s New with GSC?

The 3 camps we formally support have all recently moved.
Here are their new locations and some of their immediate needs and concerns:

Tent City 3 (TC3) 
University Congregational United Church of Christ
4515 16th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105

TC3 is in need of tents, batteries, protein based foods and general beverages.

Camp Unity Eastside 
Blessed Theresa of Calcutta Catholic Church 
17856 NE Woodinville Duvall Rd, Woodinville, WA 98077

 CUE’s current location does not have power so they are in need of propane.

Camp United We Stand (CUWS) 
Haller Lake UMC 
13005 1st Ave NE Seattle WA 98125

UWS is requesting beverages of all types. We will be bringing them some bowls and cups this week. While these are the camps we formally support we also entertain requests from other encampments.

Funding 
Our board has submitted grant requests and hopes to hear back on these soon. We have submitted a grant request to the Fales Foundation to fund replacing tents in TC3, CUE, and UWS. We have also submitted a grant proposal to the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, and we are planning a big push for donations through the Seattle Foundation’s “Give Big” campaign.

MTI Van
The van visited TC3 in both January and February, and our next visit is planned for May 14th.

Communication 
Don’t forget to check out our blogs.

Other Topics of Interest 
We need Facebook support. If you have not already send us a friend request and please like and share our posts.

Here are some ideas the board is considering. These are just thoughts for now, but let us know if any of these items is of particular interest to you. These are just ideas for now.

• Building a storage shed so we can hold more donations 
• Helping facilitate micro loans for campers who have ideas for their own businesses 
• Crowd Funding to support a defined initiative. We sure would love to update or replace the TC3 shower trailer. 

If you would like more detail on any of these topics please contact Info@GreaterSeattleCares.org and we will respond.

Thank you all, and thank you for caring about the camps!

SHARE's troubles, redux

SHARE has established Tent City 6 around the King County Administration Building, in protest of King County's decision not to fund encampments (although they did establish a contract with Bill Kirlin-Hackett to "find hosts" for Tent City 4 in early 2015), as well as not to fund organizations that have anything to do with encampments.

Details are on SHARE's website.

I stopped by there early this afternoon to talk to the people there. There were 2 people sitting at a table (the "front desk"), and they seemed to know what was going on. Evidently things are going well so far. There are some funders who are concerned, and who may assist SHARE in covering its debts.

SHARE's information packet included letters from King County and from the City of Seattle, as well as details about SHARE's current financial situation.

This seems a typical SHARE solution -- a highly visible political protest about political decisions.

About Tents

It occurred to me that King County's objection to tents as shelter is well answered by Judge Thomas J Mahon's statements to the City of Seattle in 2002, during the lawsuit Seattle filed against El Centro de la Raza and SHARE: "Tents are a well-established form of shelter, with a long and distinguished track record extending back at least 4000 years."

Tents are still used as primary shelter in many parts of the world:

Afhganistan

Now, that's a tent city.  Photo by Mubeen Rahman.

And still used by the United States Armed Forces:

Photo by the U.S. Army

As I stated in my last post on this matter, I think King County is clearly in the wrong on this matter.

That said, I agree that Encampments -- Tent Cities -- are not any kind of a solution to homelessness. What they are is a solution for survival while the residents gather resources to re-enter housing. That is their purpose in this time of a crisis in homelessness.

So, what about SHARE?

Many people say that SHARE has mismanaged what money it has. And that's possible. Yet, we can add the numbers, and we can discover that SHARE is correct: they have not been paid for all the things they have done, and they cannot continue to operate in the red. They need some permanent funding sources to the extent of about $10k a month. The spend about $150k on both Tent City 3 and Tent City 4, and they spend about $40k on Tent City 5 (not all costs are covered by the City).

The encampments are paid for entirely by donations. The encampments are necessary for people to survive. Their choices are simple: sleep in the open, or sleep in an encampment. Which is the better choice?

Given the reality of homelessness, what should be our response?

Camp Dearborn receives another eviction

Camp Dearborn is staying at 2314 E Spring St, at Umoja Fest Peace Center.
Yesterday, they and the primary tenant received a notice of eviction. A picture of it is shown (it's posted on the FaceBook page of the External Affairs Coordinator, Troy Morgan.

About Camp Dearborn

I stopped by their camp this afternoon, and they seemed fairly well organized. The camp was peaceful. I introduced myself, and asked a few questions.

So, Camp Dearborn, having split from Nickelsville, is still following somewhat of a Nickelsville model of governance structure, but not the Nickelsville model of governance style.

So, they have an Arbitrator, a Chief of Security, and an External Affairs Coordinator, elected by the camp.

They've decided that their rules are... not set in stone at the moment; they want some flexibility. So they've decided to call their rules "guidelines." So I asked the obvious question: What happens when someone refuses to follow the guidelines?

Their response: we'd bring it to the camp, democratically, and if the person refuses to follow the guidelines, we'd eventually have to kick them out.

So I asked about their needs. They said, "Water."

I could see, neatly stashed in a box, 5 empty gallon-sized water jugs. With about 20 people in camp, the need for water would be a no-brainer.

They probably also need food. I could see a propane grill, and they mentioned their meal calendar was bare. Which we can see after looking at it.

So, in 9 days they have to leave again. The City of Seattle seems to be stuck on repeating the past. This is approximately what happened with Tent City 3 16 years ago. They moved around a lot because the City of Seattle, despite the lip service it pays to "sheltering the homeless," doesn't seem to really like the homeless doing things for themselves.

Tent City 4 is moving February 6

Tent City 4 is moving to Mary Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Sammamish on February 6, 2016. Moving an encampment is hard. It's the hardest thing SHARE/WHEEL's tent cities do.
They're likely to need some help. I know, it's still a couple of weeks away, but if you can, plan to help.

Tent City 4's phone number is 206-618-3901. SHARE/WHEEL's phone number (ask for Marvin Futrell or Scott Morrow) is 206-448-7889.