As Camp 210 cleanup looms, Bellingham, Whatcom councils look at more housing for homeless
As Bellingham officials plan to dismantle a three-month homeless encampment downtown at the end of this week, homeless advocates said people will suffer because they have nowhere to live.
Markis Dee, a member of the Whatcom County Homeless Strategies Work Group, said that shelter and services are needed urgently for people who are living on the streets and can’t access the shelter space currently provided.
“These are the ones who have been bounced around by the cops all year,” Dee told The Bellingham Herald in an interview Tuesday, Jan. 26.
“There’s lots of people who just need a job and a place to lock their stuff up. You’ve got to do something with these people who have been left out to die,” Dee said.
He suggested the immediate purchase of the 100-square-foot “pallet shelters” such as those made by the Everett company Pallet.
Those shelters could be available faster than the two dozen 8-by-8 sleeping cubicles from a Ferndale company that were erected recently at Swift Haven in the Civic Athletic Complex, Dee said.
Whatcom County Council members discussed buying 25 more of those cubicles this week, but in the 8-by-12 size to accommodate couples and families.
Camp 210
About 100 homeless men and women and their supporters are living in a tent village called Camp 210 near the Bellingham Public Library and City Hall, 210 Lottie St.
Another 100 to 200 people visit the site daily for food and other services provided by volunteers and “head back to the bushes,” Dee said.
City employees have reported harassment from campers over the past several weeks, and there have been incidents such as arson and assault since it began around Veterans Day.
“Is there violence? Yes. Is there a large number of mentally ill? Yes. These are the people who have been left behind,” Dee said.
Talks at impasse
Mayor Seth Fleetwood said at an online City Council meeting Monday, Jan. 25, that the city has “actively engaged” with protesters but that conditions at the camp were deteriorating and negotiations are at an impasse.
“It was never intended that this was going to become a permanent encampment,” Fleetwood said.
A decision to end the encampment was announced Tuesday, following a demonstration Friday, Jan. 22, where streets were blocked and several protesters burst into City Hall, and a hatchet attack that night.
Meanwhile, attempts to find more shelter space continue despite criticism from dozens of people who addressed the council Monday night, Fleetwood said.
“We’re doing this solid work and it’s not easy but we’re making progress. So the assertions that were so profoundly overstated tonight, with language suggesting that we are not doing anything and we don’t care, is really unfair,” he said.
Restrooms, trash
Several speakers Monday night ridiculed city officials for not servicing portable toilets or collecting trash at Camp 210.
Public Works Director Eric Johnston told The Herald in an email that the city told Sanitary Service Co. to end its services on Lottie Street “out of an abundance of caution” for the safety of its workers and others.
“The city will continue to service (portable toilets) and trash receptacles intended to help people experiencing homelessness at several other locations throughout the city,” Johnston said.
“In addition, the city will continue to provide support with our partner organizations and agencies for sanitation and shelter locations in our community,” he said.
Shelter space
Anne Deacon, human services manager at the Whatcom County Health Department, discussed shelter space for people without a home at a County Council committee meeting Tuesday.
“We are tasked with addressing a national issue with local resources,” Deacon said at the online meeting.
More than 500 beds are available daily through the winter, including at the Lighthouse Mission’s shelter called Base Camp, and through motel vouchers, Deacon said.
“We cannot accomplish what we wish we could,” she said. “There’s nobody who can’t be housed who wants to be housed. I understand that Base Camp isn’t the best for everyone. There is nobody that we have refused, but they have refused us.”
Dee said that some people avoid a specific shelter for several reasons.
“I’m not going to say it’s a bad choice if you’ve been raped at a place that you don’t want to go back,” he said.
“I have sadly heard of sexual assaults happening to people on the streets and in encampments, but Lighthouse Mission is a safe place for anyone in need of refuge,” Hans Erchinger-Davis, executive director of Lighthouse Mission Ministries, told The Herald in an email Thursday, Jan. 28.
“There has never been a report of a sexual assault occurring at Base Camp or any of our programs in our history,” Erchinger-Davis wrote. “I have been here in management positions for 14 years and certainly would have been notified if a sexual assault report had been filed with us or the Bellingham Police Department. If someone has knowledge of a sexual assault in one of our programs, they should notify us and Bellingham Police.
“We take the safety of our guests and staff very seriously. We have staff on duty 24/7 at Base Camp and also utilize security cameras to monitor any potential threats.”
Possible solutions
Bellingham City Council member Michael Lilliquist discussed the need for more shelter on his public Facebook page.
“The city is still open to an additional low-barrier shelter on land we have leased from the (Port of Bellingham) for this purpose, with 25 more tiny houses the city would supply, and with credentialed social services the city would pay for — but we have yet to receive a “yes” from the collective that speaks for the campers at City Hall,” Lilliquist said Tuesday.
“They have been holding out for a larger shelter, around 75 people with no barrier to entry,” he said.
Teri Bryant, director of homeless services for the Opportunity Council, said “our mental health system struggles to meet the need, just as our housing systems struggle,” in a series of statements on the social media site Reddit.
“Given this truth, there are community mental-health care providers in the field,” with acronyms such as MCOT CORS, IOP, PACT GRACE and LEAD.
In addition, a new Crisis Stabilization Center is almost complete, she said.
“Each of us have civil rights, and that includes the right not to engage in the mental health system. There will be times when barriers to access to support have been removed completely and the person who is suffering will choose not to connect. This is why human services professionals are important. They walk alongside, expose ambivalence, and assist to connect when the person is ready. Some will not be ready even though society thinks they should be,” Bryant said.
She said she can understand why someone who is on the streets would turn down shelter at Base Camp, which has rules for civil conduct and doesn’t let couples stay together.
“There lots of reasons why people don’t feel like that’s an option for them,” Bryant told The Herald in an interview Wednesday.
“If I’m cold and my boyfriend is what’s keeping me sober, I might not go there,” she said.
Dee said buying more Pallet shelters is a logical and relatively inexpensive first step.
“It’s the mandate of the government to promote the general welfare and provide these shelters,” he said.
This story was originally published January 27, 2021 at 4:45 PM.
