Photo courtesy of Al Taylor
A KOMO 4 News reporter interviews Scott St. Clair about the tent city controversy while Mike Stickney listens and a KOMO cameraman films.

Community has plenty to say about tent city

Outside City Hall June 12, tent city supporters sang “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine” as the out-of-town media plied their craft. Inside, Council Chambers was packed. The crowd buzzed before the Woodinville City Council meeting was called to order. Thirty-five speakers participated in the hour-and-forty-minute public-comment portion of the meeting, 25 of whom commented on tent city, some of whom came from Bellevue, Kirkland, Finn Hill and Bothell. Nineteen thanked the City Council for supporting city residents by taking tent city to court and by providing security for the neighborhood impacted by the homeless encampment; six spoke in support of tent city.

Jeff Glickman, speaking on behalf of Concerned Neighbors of Wellington, said, “Woodinville is an incorporated city, which means we have municipal codes that we’ve all agreed to and by which we must all abide. We welcome all guests to our city and they are subject to the same laws as are our citizens. While you are a guest, we expect you to be a responsible member of our community and this includes respecting and abiding by our laws.

“Unfortunately, the church (Northshore United Church of Christ or NUCC) and tent city have aggressively and blatantly violated the laws of our city. Breaking our laws is irresponsible, disrespectful, unethical, immoral, all of which are in direct conflict with what your church preaches. You dare to state that you are above the law. … I am embarrassed for the church and its congregants. The church has chosen to harm, damage and trod upon the city and citizens of Woodinville.”

Sherry Joyner said, “ I want to thank you so much for how you handled tent city in 2004 when they applied (for a permit here in town). You rolled out the red carpet. You were more than generous with them. You offered them city property and you gave them security. We treated them in a wonderful way and I appreciate that you did that. I also appreciate that you’ve held them to their word this time around, to the agreement that was worked out in 2004.”

Joyner is referring to the city’s recent lawsuit against camp organizers and Northshore United Church of Christ about, in part, the breach of a 2004 agreement that the groups signed with the City of Woodinville stating that tent city would not return to the city unless there was sufficient time for a full permitting process.

Kirkland resident Scott St. Clair said to the council, “Thank you very, very, very much for persevering in the face of persecution. By showing the political will to not be bullied by Tent City 4 (TC4) supporters, you’ve demonstrated statesmanship.

“I know I speak on behalf of countless residents of not only Woodinville, but the Brickyard neighborhood where I live, Bothell, Finn Hill, Kirkland, Bellevue, and many areas of unincorporated King County, all of whom have experienced the unlawful presence of TC4 accompanied by high-handed threats of legal retribution, a refusal to work cooperatively with local authorities and citizens, ideologically driven inflexibility, an arrogant unwillingness to consider anything but the tent city model, and just plain rudeness.

“And all this we’re supposed to accept as the free exercise of religion? I’m sorry, but I search my Bible in vain for any endorsement of this type of behavior.

“… Yet communities and citizens who question, oppose, or raise doubt are immediately smeared as monsters and haters-of-the-homeless, a classic ‘defame your opponent’ tactic most often employed by those who lack – and know they lack – the moral high ground themselves.

“Woodinville and others have been accused of being ‘hostile’ and of engaging in ‘hypocrisy.’ Yet, I submit ‘hostile’ is SHARE breaking the law and bullying its way into neighborhoods. ‘Hypocrisy’ is aiding and abetting in this lawlessness … especially anyone who claims to be a moral leader, a person of faith, a follower of Christ … and most especially, anyone whose name is affixed to a contract … including those who won’t come to grips with the reality of serious historic problems that are a direct and proximate result of the presence of TC4 in a community.”

Representing Tent City Solutions, Steve Pyeatt said, “I commend the City Council for the hard work they’ve done in supporting and protecting their community. You guys have shown great compassion in the past, to the tune of $100,000. I can’t say that many people would be willing to put that kind of money out for somebody. But you made a deal; the deal should be honored.”

Karen Morris spoke on behalf of the Lake Hills area Crime Watch group. Morris is the designated contact person for neighborhood crime incidents so she is familiar with what neighbors reported during the time tent city was located at B’nai Torah in Bellevue. She said all of the problems were very unusual for her small neighborhood. Crime did increase. These are crimes that she knew of:

• A man from the Bellevue tent city was arrested twice in Kirkland, once for drinking in front of the library, once for various behaviors and threats at the Kirkland Teen Center, including threatening to kill a staff member;
• Two car prowls within one block of tent city;
• Two incidents of vandalism of a mailbox, the first by stretching a condom over the flag;
• Five arrests of TC residents for outstanding warrants;
• Four incidents of feces found at a small neighborhood park, complete with bus schedule as wiping paper, and sometimes in the vicinity of liquor bottles;
• A bag of prescription drugs found lying over the fence of a neighbor’s yard (Police determined it belonged to a TC resident.);
• A man exchanging a small packet with young boys and receiving money from them (The person reporting this recognized the man from a TC meeting.);
• A wallet with driver’s license was found at TC, which turns out to have been stolen in Seattle. The credit cards were stolen and used;
• A TC resident reported items stolen from him; and
• A TC resident was contacted or arrested three times in two days for thefts from a business and employee break room at a neighborhood shopping center.

“If all these things went on within a three-month period within a block or two of our home,” asked Morris, “would you be concerned?”

Paul Cowles of Bothell said, “I am tired of dealing with Seattle’s solution to homelessness. … I am so very proud that you are actually holding (the camp organizers’) feet to the fire.”

Gary Manzari is from a Bellevue neighborhood near tent city’s previous location. He told the City Council, “I am very much in support of what you’ve done. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate what you are doing to uphold your ordinance. But again, for the 15th time, I would like to offer an olive branch to Sandy Brown and the Church Council of Greater Seattle. I hope this time it’s not slapped down. We’ve asked many times to help …. We’ve tried to find another model that might work, that might help, that might fit within everybody’s parameters, and we have been turned a blind eye to and genuinely ignored. There is no desire to seek a solution. There is an attempt to maintain the status quo.”

Bellevue resident Jean Gillete said she got to know the inhabitants of Tent City 4 as people when they were at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church. She did not deal with camp organizers, and she doesn’t care about them.

“You had to do what you did,” said Gillete. “I understand that.”

She told the council to remember who resided in the homeless encampment: a father who is working and paying child support he owes, couples, single men and women, veterans.

“They are people,” said Gillete. “They have names. They are not the homeless. I would just ask all of you to not deal with the groups but to deal with the people.”

Christina McMartin said, “I want to thank the Woodinville City Council for treating all of its citizens fairly, for determining this case has nothing to do with RLUIPA (the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act) and everything to do with broken contracts and with all land owners being held equally accountable to the law regardless of their religion. I am proud of my city for standing up for my rights against the attorneys of the political group SHARE / WHEEL.”

“I hope, too,” said McMartin, “that church leaders will take this opportunity to use any monies that they had planned to spend on attorneys and instead, spend it on moving men and women out of tents and into more dignified accommodations where they can better address the roots of their homelessness and have a real shot at a better life. If the churches have the will, I know they can accomplish great things.”

Richard Block said, “The council’s legacy (includes) allowing Ron Sims to dump his problem of tent city in the council’s friendly lap. Tent city is not Woodinville’s problem. Our tax dollars are already in Sims’ pockets. Why isn’t he using those tax dollars to solve his problem with tent city?”

Bill Kirlin Hackett, a member of the Interfaith Task Force on Homelessness, quoted from an e-mail sent by one of his colleagues to Councilmember Mike Roskind, “‘I challenge you as Americans to step up and help those in need.’ … I’d like to ask you to act as Americans, as that e-mail said, but frankly, I don’t look at that as enough of a challenge. I’d like to ask you to act as decent human beings. I’d like to ask you to act as if your own son or daughter or your adult grandchild is in that tent city encampment. I’d like to ask you to grow up and behave like the leaders you are elected to be. Or at least copy what others in nearby cities have accomplished. Figure out a way to behave that isn’t so flat out foolish and harmful, and yes, oh so very un-American.”

David C. Larson said that he supported the council in their decision to pursue legal action against tent city. Tent city does not seem to present solutions. They present only survival needs, thereby only servicing poverty, not ending it, he said.

Douglas Gunwaldsen said when he thinks about tent city he sees a group of people who have been disadvantaged by factors either within or outside of their control. But nevertheless, he said, they take care of each other.

“Tent city is not a perfect solution,” he said. “I know of no perfect solution. … I hope that you will reach out to the people on the other side of the aisle and work together for productive solutions.”

Ellen Murphey said, “Thank you for staying your course of action. I suggest we’re not finished with the process. If SHARE / WHEEL was more transparent, perhaps they’d be better received.”

Cottage Lake area resident Diane M. Condon thanked the mayor and council for getting legal assistance for Woodinville citizens. She said that she was 70 years old, had leukemia and worked full time. She likened King County government and Ron Sims to inept, dysfunctional children. She said putting the homeless in tents and moving them around every three months and giving them their meals and furnishing Porta-Potties was inhumane.

Kathryn Frazier of NUCC said that when the time came for the inhabitants of tent city to be evicted from their current site, she hopes the council thinks about the 70 innocent people they are putting out on the street. Fifty-six people died on the street in 2005, she said.

“I do not want my friends of Tent City 4 being killed, harmed, without shelter …,” she said.

New ruling: TC can stay

The sixty-some homeless individuals who were ordered to leave their current campsite on Northshore United Church of Christ property in Woodinville by midnight June 17 haven’t left.

A week after the June 9 court-ordered eviction, state Court of Appeals Commissioner Mary Neel granted the transient homeless campers a reprieve in the form of an emergency stay. The stay suspends the order to vacate church grounds until an appeal to the June 9 superior court decision is ruled upon.

It is not known at the time of this writing whether the City of Woodinville will appeal Neel’s decision.