City plans to clear encampment between South Lake Union and Seattle Center

SEATTLE — City officials say they plan to do outreach and remove a growing tent encampment from a sidewalk that connects South Lake Union to Seattle Center.

The encampment has expanded from one tent to around a dozen on Harrison Street over the entrance to the highway 99 tunnel,and has prompted concerns about public drug use from people who walk and drive past the area.

There’s children out here walking around, keep the kids away from this - this isn’t for kids to be seeing, we know that,” said Tim, a homeless man who is now living in the encampment. "I just want to get indoors, I’m tired of being out here on the street, everyone is.

Tim said he’s spent the last three years in different encampments around South Lake Union and has had difficulty jumping through the hoops of getting into housing.

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“We tried, we did assessments with coordinated entry, we had phones, we lost phones, we just could not get it done,” he said.

The city’s Unified Care Team said it will be conducting outreach and plans to clear the encampment in May. For now, the city has provided trash bags to people in the encampment to help keep the area clear of garbage.

While city outreach teams engage with people in the camp, and members of the group ‘We Heart Seattle’ stopped by on Wednesday to share information about low-barrier employment options.

“It’s called incrementalism, just a baby step in the right direction is what these folks need,” said Andrea Suarez, the director of We Heart Seattle.

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Suarez said people in the encampment seemed open to connecting to employment resources and expressed a desire to get into housing, including a sanctioned camp or tiny home village.

“It should not take weeks or months to connect people to services like hoteling, sanctioned camps, or tiny homes,” she said.

Suarez added letting encampments grow on sidewalks like this is a hazard for people living in tents and the community.

“There is obviously an open-air drug scene here, there’s a dealer here, and users are using this here as a revolving door,” she said.