By Marta Tahja-Syrett
At the beginning of last month, Union Gospel Mission opened a city-sanctioned homeless camp on Olympia Avenue Northeast and Franklin Street Northeast. According to K5 News, the owners of four nearby businesses responded by anonymously suing the city for supporting the camp.
As reported by Q13 Fox, the business owners believe that the city failed to notify them regarding the site and also didn’t seek out public opinion before moving forward with the project. They also believe that the camp drives away business and attracts illicit behavior.
Just after the official opening of the camp on Dec. 10, Thurston County Judge James Dixon ordered a temporary restraining order, which prohibited new people from entering the site. Later that month the restraining order expired and the camp was allowed to reopen itself to the public, as Dixon saw no reason to further halt the site’s operation.
One local business that is not opposed to the camp’s presence is Metro Body Piercing, located on Fourth Avenue East, close to the site. Manager Dawn Prieto said that the camp is helping to get people out of the woods and is not affecting her business at all. She said her customers tend to be thicker-skinned, which she is thankful for. Prieto also believes that the new tiny home village, called the Plum Street Village project, will be beneficial for the homeless population.
The Plum Street Village project will accommodate 40 to 50 homeless people with its thirty homes. It will be operated by The Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) and receive funding from the city of Olympia. People who are currently staying at the city-sanctioned homeless camp will be prioritized when it comes to the selection of housing at the tiny home village.
Jack Connors-Kellgren is a volunteer at the Emma Goldman Youth & Homeless Outreach Project (EGYHOP)—an organization, run by volunteers, “that provides emergency supplies, services, and resources to homeless people.” He said that several contributing factors may help to explain the recent surge of visible homelessness in downtown Olympia.
Connors-Kellgren believes that rising house prices are a large contributing factor when it comes to homelessness. According to Zillow, the value of houses within the Olympia area rose by 10% in 2018. Homes in Olympia currently have a median value of $317,000, which is significantly higher than nearby towns, such as Shelton, where the median home value is nearly $70,000 less. The Olympia City Council also notes this trend in Ordinance No. 7147, stating that rising home prices in Olympia, and across the nation, are leaving individuals and families without a place to live.
According to the City of Olympia’s website, the rising cost of housing, in addition to the inadequate supply of housing, is having a drastic effect on Thurston County. The Point in Time Census for 2018 found that, within the county, homelessness has increased by 56% since the year prior. These contributing factors are not limited to this area, as they are becoming prevalent throughout the state of Washington.
Connors-Kellgren noted that visibility also plays a role in the recent increase of homeless people in downtown Olympia, as people are coming from other locations within the city. “People are coming out of the woods because they have a place to be,” said Connors-Kellgren. He also said that homeless camps in the area get evicted “with some frequency.”
“All the camps by the Woodland bike trail got evicted, and then, periodically, there’s a pretty big camp on the East side that gets evicted,” Connors-Kellgren said. He noted that evictions happen after sweeps and that “there’s an influx of people that come downtown” after the sweeps occur. “Sweeps” are the destruction and confiscation of property belonging to homeless people, which happens after the property is declared abandoned. According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, property is sometimes declared abandoned “even when temporarily unattended.”
Connors-Kellgren disputed the idea that increases in visible homelessness are caused largely by people moving from places outside of the area. “The population that’s coming in from other places is pretty minor compared with people who have been here for a long period of time.”
Connors-Kellgren’s personal opinion on the camp is bleak. “It’s an improvement in the way that people are allowed to be there, but it’s embarrassing because people are still living outside and don’t want to be,” said Connors-Kellgren. “It’s really the bare minimum and it’s a shame that there’s so much pushback.”
Before the camp was sanctioned by the City, people were already living in the space on Olympia Avenue Northeast and Franklin Street Northeast, according to The News Tribune. Perhaps this is related to the fact that multiple resources, accessible to homeless people, are available within close proximity to the site. The Thurston County Food Bank, located on neighboring Thurston Avenue Northeast, seeks “to eliminate hunger within our community.” The Thurston County Food Bank offers several programs to the public that provide free food, with no address needed to participate in their services.
Also located close by, on State Avenue Northeast, is the Providence Community Care Center. The center is available for people seeking psychiatric services, housing, and substance abuse treatment. Just after its opening in 2017, the Providence Community Care Center was offering its services to more than 200 people per day, according to ThurstonTalk.
With homelessness on the rise locally, the city of Olympia has also begun to implement new legislative measures in an attempt to lessen the burden on those who are currently living without homes. According to the City of Olympia’s website, The Home Fund Measure (Proposition 1) was recently passed. This proposition allows for an additional 0.1% tax on sales, with the money going towards “affordable and supportive housing.” Additionally, “The City reduced impact fees for qualified low-income housing development projects.”
