These community groups condemn Bellingham homeless camp removal, demand no more ‘sweeps’
More than a dozen local community organizations have come together to condemn the way the city of Bellingham handled the removal of a downtown homeless tent encampment late last week.
The group has also asked that the city create a permanent policy banning homeless encampment clean-ups and offer residents of the previous downtown camp services and options for temporary and permanent housing.
The city on Feb. 2 posted a deadline of 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 5, for people to remove themselves and their belongings from a new homeless encampment in the lower parking lot of Frank Geri Softball Fields off of Puget Street. The city’s legal notice said “As of the date below this property will be subject to clean up efforts by the city. Remaining on this property could subject you to being arrested for trespassing ... and could subject you to a civil citation for littering.”
“We established a deadline of 4 p.m. today, and posted notice of it on site, for people to leave the Geri Field parking lot. We never said there was a planned dispersal action today. We do not provide details of our operations, especially knowing there are hostile protesters who wish to disrupt our efforts, as evidenced by our experience at City Hall on Jan. 28,” Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood said in a prepared statement sent Friday to The Bellingham Herald.
The city did not answer questions about where the people in the encampment are expected to go if they can’t go to Base Camp, a homeless shelter operated by Lighthouse Mission Ministries on Cornwall Avenue, or if law enforcement agencies will be involved if people do not leave.
The group condemning the city’s actions is made up of the Whatcom Human Rights Task Force, the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center, Community to Community Development, Imagine No Kages, the Birchwood Food Desert Fighters, Sunrise Bellingham, the Bellingham Unity Committee, the Whatcom Democratic Socialists of America, the Bellingham Deaf and Disability Justice Collective, Indivisible Bellingham, the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship Social & Environmental Justice Committee, and the Riveters Collective.
“As a group of local grassroots community organizations concerned with justice and human rights, we come together to publicly condemn the openly militarized use of force displayed in sweeping the encampment at 210 Lottie St. on Thursday, Jan. 28th,” a Thursday afternoon news release from the group states. “We call on the Mayor to reverse the course of escalating violence and intimidation and immediately cancel the sweep of the encampment at Geri Fields that is scheduled to take place on or before Friday, Feb. 5.”
A homeless tent encampment, known as Camp 210, started in November on the lawns of Bellingham City Hall at 210 Lottie St. and the Bellingham public library at 210 Central Ave. Camp 210 was an occupied protest over the lack of shelter available for homeless people. Volunteers estimated that between 90 to 120 people were living there.
Early on Jan. 28, more than 100 law enforcement officers from four different agencies dressed in riot and tactical gear showed up with Bellingham public works crews, heavy machinery and large dumpsters to clear the downtown homeless tent encampment a day before the city’s deadline for the homeless encampment to leave.
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.
At least four people were arrested and three law enforcement officers were assaulted but unharmed by the time protesters left around 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 28, according to city officials.
That same day, volunteers helped the encampment move to the lower parking lot near the ball fields.
.jpeg "FullSizeRender (17).jpeg")
Following guidelines
The group of organizations demanded in Thursday’s news release that the city follow the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention interim guidance for service providers and local officials regarding homeless encampments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The guidance says that all partners who work to help homeless people should be involved in the planning and response to the pandemic and in helping homeless people stay safe during the pandemic.
It also says that providers and officials should allow people who are living unsheltered or in encampments to remain where they are. The CDC guidance states that clearing encampments causes people to break connections with service providers and increases the potential for infectious disease spread.
People who are staying in encampments should have their tents or sleeping quarters 12 feet apart from any other tent or sleeping quarters.
“Instead of compounding the harm that has already been done to the residents of the encampment by subjecting them to further violations of their basic human rights, we call on the city to offer them options for temporary shelter, either at their current location or at another location to be mutually agreed upon, with the provision of electricity, water, and sanitation facilities adequate to serve residents’ basic needs,” the grassroots organizations’ press release states.
In addition to asking the city to halt all camp cleanups and develop a permanent policy banning them, the organizations are also asking that Camp 210 residents be offered public services and options for temporary and permanent housing that accommodates the needs of people who are disabled or struggling with mental health or addiction issues, according to the news release.
Housing options
The city is encouraging homeless people throughout the city to go to Base Camp, which has space for up to 200 people. Lighthouse Mission Ministries has also opened an overflow shelter at its former Drop-In Center at 1013 W. Holly St. The space can accommodate up to 39 men during the cold, winter months.
While there is space at Base Camp, BOP (Bellingham Occupied Protest) Mutual Aid said in a previous statement that it is not an adequate alternative for some of the people residing at Camp 210. The shelter’s capacity is not large enough to house everyone staying at Camp 210, and campers say they have been kicked out in the past or have had traumatic or disrespectful experiences and don’t feel safe to return, the statement said.
“Reasons are varied for why people can’t or won’t stay at Base Camp,” Lighthouse Mission Executive Director Hans Erchinger-Davis told The Herald in an earlier story. “Everything from our basic rules not allowing for criminal activity, to people preferring the solitude of a tent, or people maybe having conflict with a fellow guest.”
The city has also said it is working to increase shelter options in collaboration with multiple partners and advocates for the unsheltered.
Northwest Washington is expected to face colder weather next week, with a chance of snow overnight Sunday into Monday morning. Starting Monday, daytime temperatures will be 5 degrees or more below normal, and overnight lows will drop into the 20s.
The persistent rain is expected to ease after Monday.
The city and county did not respond to questions Thursday regarding whether warming shelters or emergency weather shelters will be opened in anticipation of the region’s upcoming inclement weather.
This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 7:25 PM.
