After providing notice, Bellingham has not yet cleared homeless tent encampment
The City of Bellingham had not taken any action to remove a homeless tent encampment in the lower parking lot of Frank Geri Softball Fields as of Monday afternoon, nearly three days past the Friday deadline the city gave residents of the encampment to move.
The city provided notice early last week that residents of the encampment had to move themselves and their belongings by 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 5. The city’s legal notice said that remaining on the property could subject people to being arrested for trespassing, or a civil citation for littering.
As of Monday afternoon, Feb. 8, several dozen tents and make-shift shelters remained set up at the encampment near ball fields.
“We established a deadline of 4 p.m. today (Friday, Feb. 5), 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.
City officials did not respond to an updated request for comment Monday on what actions, if any, the city will be taking against the encampment, or where the people in the encampment will go.
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 in the area for homeless people. Volunteers estimated that between 90 to 120 people were living there.
Early on Jan. 28, more than 100 law enforcement officers in riot and tactical gear from four different agencies and Bellingham public works crews with heavy machinery and large dumpsters arrived to clear the area a day before the city’s deadline for the homeless encampment to leave.
Protesters used wooden pallets to block officials from clearing the encampment. The barricade also allowed volunteers time to help the residents gather their belongings and leave.
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. Five people, at least three of whom are homeless themselves, were arrested.
That same day, volunteers helped the encampment move to the lower parking lot near Frank Geri Softball Fields off of Puget Street.
Several days later came the city’s notice for the new encampment to vacate the parking lot.
