Bellingham crews remove Geri Fields homeless encampment
Bellingham officials began removing tents and belongings of about two dozen people camped at the Frank Geri Softball Fields in the lower Puget neighborhood early Tuesday, March 16.
“It’s been going well” and without organized opposition, said Eric Johnston, Bellingham public works director.
About two dozen community volunteers helped the campers to gather their belongings and move.
Temperatures reached a low of 29 degrees at 7 a.m. Tuesday, and campers shook frost off their tents and tarps that covered makeshift shelters.
“One of the misperceptions is that we are throwing away everything. We are not,” Johnston told The Bellingham Herald in an interview at Geri Fields.
“Personal belongings that meet our criteria are being retained and stored. The site was gridded out so we know where the campsites were,” Johnston said.
Personal property can be claimed later, he said.
About 20 employees from the Public Works and Parks and Recreation departments began dismantling the camp at 8 a.m., as the city promised repeatedly in recent days, including at City Council meetings and in statements at the city’s website.
Four police officers in regular duty uniforms kept watch as city workers gathered campers’ belongings for storage and removed trash and debris.
“We appreciate the help from people helping people,” Johnston said.
Some volunteers were visibly distraught, and wouldn’t speak to reporters.
Rio Story, who lives on Bellingham’s north side, said she saw a call for volunteers on Instagram and came to help.
“These are people who deserve the same compassion and support,” Story told The Herald. “These people are being displaced. What are they supposed to do?”
Story said the city should be redirecting more funds to social services and using empty buildings for housing and shelter.
Meanwhile, the City Council took its first step Monday toward approving a one-tenth of 1% sales tax to fund low-income housing and mental-health services and other aid.
Mayor Seth Fleetwood told the City Council in the online meeting Monday that social workers and others have been working to find shelter and services for the campers at Geri Fields.
Outreach teams talked with many of the campers on three days last week and a few found housing, Fleetwood told the Council.
“Five guests have come back to Base Camp from Geri Fields in the last 72 hours,” Lighthouse Mission Ministries spokesman Dave Brumbaugh told The Herald Wednesday, March 17.
Monday night’s count at Base Camp showed 138 people staying overnight and room there for 52 more, Brumbaugh said.
Campers were seen loading belongings into moving trucks last weekend, and new encampments have begun at Laurel Park in the Sehome Hill neighborhood and near Waypoint Park downtown, Fleetwood said.
“Many campers tried to relocate and they’re being hounded by cops as they go,” homes advocate Markis Stidham told The Herald.
Stidham, an appointed member of the Whatcom County Homeless Strategies Workgroup and a board member of Serenity Outreach Services, condemned the planned ouster of campers.
“I feel it is very important to also add that we are still in a pandemic emergency after a year,” Stidham said in a text message Monday. “All emergency sheltering and funding should be available right now to solve tomorrow’s more difficult problems.”
Serenity Outreach Services’ board addressed the impending city action in a post late Monday on its Facebook page.
“We feel the homeless encampment sweeps must be addressed as it relates to us as a nonprofit, as community members, and as tax-paying individuals. The sweep goes against recent CDC guidelines, Whatcom County Health Department guidance, and (a) recent 9th Circuit Superior Court ruling,” the Facebook message said,
“Continuing to sweep campers during the pandemic, and also in winter weather without providing adequate shelter is dangerous, traumatizing, and technically illegal,” it said.
Some Serenity Outreach Services members took a donated box truck to Geri Fields and helped collect campers’ property.
“This is violence — no matter how you slice it — displacing people in the cold,” Stidham said in an interview Tuesday at Geri Fields.
“These people still have nowhere to go,” he said.
Homelessness and the city’s housing crisis have been a focus of debate through the winter, as city and Whatcom County officials have worked to provide more temporary shelter, secure permanent housing and provide health care and other services for some of the area’s lowest-income residents.
Several dozen tents and temporary shelters of pallets and other material were erected Jan. 28 at Geri Fields, after a previous encampment was dismantled and its occupants ousted from the lawns at City Hall and the Public Library.
Five people were arrested in an hours-long confrontation Jan. 28 between police in riot gear and masked protesters.
This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 8:20 AM.
