‘We’re just doing what we’ve got to do,’ resident says after homeless camp’s removal
Buster B. had planned to move a day before the city of Bellingham said it would clear a homeless tent encampment near City Hall.
He connected with a friend who was able to help him rent a U-haul and the pair left to pick it up early Thursday morning, Jan. 28. But when he returned, he found the downtown Bellingham streets blocked by dozens of law enforcement officials.
Lonnie A. Brooks said he had expected city officials to clear the camp on Friday, Jan. 29. He said Thursdays’ events were horrifying.
Buster, 38, and Brooks, 55, were some of the first people to pitch tents on the lawns of the Bellingham Public Library at 210 Central Ave. and City Hall at 210 Lottie St.
Camp 210, which started in November, was an occupied protest about the lack of shelter available for homeless people. Volunteers estimated that between 90 to 120 people were living there.
Clearing the encampment
The city of Bellingham notified residents and volunteers of the encampment that they would have to remove their belongings by 4 p.m. on Friday. Instead, city public works crews showed up on Thursday morning to clear the encampment with heavy machinery, large dumpsters and law enforcement from the Bellingham Police Department, Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office, Washington State Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, all dressed in riot and tactical gear.
There were more than 100 law enforcement officers on scene. Officers were also stationed on the rooftops of the Whatcom County courthouse on Grand Avenue, on top of the Whatcom County Civic Center Annex Building on Commercial Street, and in the windows of both sides of City Hall. The sheriff’s office also had an armored vehicle on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse.
Protesters, who were mostly dressed in black, used wooden pallets to create barricades to block officials from clearing the encampment. The barricade allowed volunteers time to help the residents gather their belongings and leave.
Four people were arrested and three law enforcement officers were assaulted but unharmed by the time protesters left around 3:30 p.m. Thursday, according to city officials. Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood said he had authorized the clearance of the tent encampment a day early after he received “credible information” that outside groups were coming to gather in the city on Friday.
This was the scene Buster returned to and what Brooks woke up to.
Buster had planned to leave a day early and not be part of the protest.
“So they mumbled Friday and ended up doing the thing on Thursday, which was really uneasy to a lot of people and came out of nowhere,” Buster said in an interview with The Bellingham Herald Friday.
Brooks said city officials could have come to Camp 210 and talked with the residents, rather than clearing them a day earlier than planned.
“They ain’t breaking our spirits, you can see it. Every one of these people will just rebuild,” Brooks said in an interview with The Herald Friday. “We’re just going to keep moving forward.”
‘Everyone deserves housing’
Volunteers helped Buster, Brooks and other residents of Camp 210 move their belongings to the lower parking lot of Frank Geri Softball Fields, off of Puget Street. By Friday, more than 30 tents had been erected at the new location.
In a statement sent to The Herald on Saturday, Jan. 30, Fleetwood said the city undertook a significant effort Thursday to end the encampment downtown.
“We understand the impact of this effort is deeply felt in our community, generating a wide range of reactions. We remain firm that our response was necessary to protect the safety of everyone involved and remain actively engaged in follow up this weekend, both in our public safety response and in our active efforts to increase shelter,” Fleetwood said.
He said the new encampment in the lower parking lot of the Civic Athletic Complex created another situation to be addressed, but would not require “as substantial” of an effort to clear as was required on Thursday.
Fleetwood said overnight camping is illegal in city parks without a permit. The city will follow its existing policies and ask campers to leave the new location, Fleetwood said.
“The city will not sanction nor support this encampment. As you will recall, Camp 210 had over 60 significant calls for service due to violence, theft, drugs and mental-health related issues. Neither Camp 210’s organizers and/or residents demonstrated the ability to operate an encampment safely,” Fleetwood said.
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In a statement posted to their Instagram page Saturday morning, BOP (Bellingham Occupied Protest) Mutual Aid said that while the city may have forced a change of address, it has not changed their goals of getting housing for everyone who needs it, regardless of past trauma, mental health or addiction challenges.
“Everyone deserves housing and everyone deserves community. Camp 210 is more than an address, it is a movement,” the statement said.
BOP Mutual Aid’s statement encouraged people to volunteer their time, donate food or money and to call city and county officials. It also asked people to write the city and ask that it turn on power and water to bathrooms that are located nearby in order to prevent a public health crisis and so basic survival needs could be met.
“The attack on Camp 210 was violent, immoral, and an abuse of power. We are outraged and disappointed in our city, who we have met with over and over again and shared our goals and our demands and are constantly met with passive mumbling and minimal action,” the statement said. “We are also resilient and believe that housing for all isn’t just a wild dream but an attainable goal.”
Trying to survive
For Buster, his needs are immediate. He said he wanted a shower, a bathroom, and for people to move from the parking lot to the fields, because he’s worried someone will get hurt being that close to a road. He also said he’s lost some of his belongings, and had some stolen, due to the removal of the encampment downtown.
He said it would be nice for people like himself to be able to walk up to a window somewhere and access housing and services. He said a lot of the people staying at Camp 210 do not qualify for the services that are available in the community.
Buster said he stays at Camp 210 “because of a community that accepts a lot of these people I know. And we all tend to help each other get through and things like that.”
Buster said in the future he would like a shop where he could continue his work of building bicycles, which he’s done for a while. He said he likes helping people and is a rock for some in the encampment who don’t have any other consistency in their lives.
He said if people in the community have questions, they should come down and talk to the residents of Camp 210, rather than assuming anything.
“Everyone’s different, everybody’s an individual. Even in the same tent, two different people can have two different wants, two different needs, two different dreams,” Buster said. “I have different goals. I want to be cleaned up, be cleaner, so I feel better about myself every day. I still don’t quite know what to do about that because there’s things I have to do, especially right now, since I’m here. ... I’ll feel better about myself when I get set back up.”
Brooks said he was going to do what he could to help others out and take things day-to-day. Everyone at Camp 210, he said, is back to where they were before the city cleared the downtown encampment.
“I got a tent right down there, it’s home for now. I just want to get myself together, get a job and vehicle and do what I got to do to survive,” Brooks said.
He said no one knows what will happen, and there are fears the encampment could be cleared again. Brooks said he wanted to know why the mayor thought the law enforcement presence on Thursday was necessary. He said money spent on that could have been used to help the people staying at Camp 210.
Volunteers had been negotiating with the city for several months but declined the city’s offer because it could not house everyone who was residing at Camp 210.
Brooks said he wants officials and agencies to be held accountable. He said the city should be trying to help its homeless residents, rather than picking on them.
Brooks said the people living at Camp 210 are friendly. He said the encampment has been given a bad reputation, and it’s led to harassment from some driving by.
“Why? All we’re doing is trying to survive, trying to get something for everybody — homes,” Brooks said. “We’re people. A lot of people don’t want to be like this. We want jobs, homes, but we’re just doing what we’ve got to do to survive.”
