Police evict homeless group from Fife motel. Several relocated to shelters.
Fife police on Wednesday cleared a Pacific Highway motel of several dozen people who occupied rooms for six nights.
All occupants left the Fife Travelodge motel voluntarily, police chief Pete Fisher said.
It is unclear how many were living in the motel rooms. Tacoma Housing Now said there were 43 individuals staying in the now 18 rooms considered part of the occupation.
Officers were wearing masks and protective suits as they oversaw the people pack up and leave the motel. Both entrances to the motel were blocked off by police vehicles during the evictions.
No arrests were made, but all options are open as the police department continues to review the incident as a criminal investigation, Fisher said.
“We are doing a criminal investigation, and we’re gonna work our way through that,” Fisher said. “There’s the humanitarian piece, but we can’t allow civil unrest and illegal occupation of our businesses.”
Tacoma Housing Now, a homeless advocacy group looking for permanent housing solutions, booked 16 rooms on Christmas Eve. The first day was paid for, but the group refused to pay or leave for the following six days.
Fisher said the police were prepared to evict people on Monday, but the owner and the department came to an agreement to extend the response.
“The public has clearly said they expect the police department to de-escalate situations and certainly not escalate low level crimes like misdemeanors,” he told The News Tribune. “We were in agreement that we were going to be an extension on the initial call to now we have done that we have had everyone now removed or in the process removed from the property, peace way and without incident.”
Motel manager Shawn Randhawa thanked the city for its response, but said there was no agreement to wait to evict the occupants.
“We never had the agreement to extend the response. There was no agreement,” he said.
Tacoma Housing Now spokesperson Rebecca Parson said they wanted to send the room bills to Tacoma and Pierce County. The organization wanted the county’s allotment of federal CARES funding to be used.
Pierce County’s $158 million from the federal government has been fully allocated and expected to be spent by the end of Dec. 30, Communications Director Libby Catalinich said. Nearly $17 million was allocated to programs for Housing Stability and Homelessness.
The Low Income Housing Institute offered 10 tiny homes to relocate 20 adults plus children, but Tacoma Housing Now rejected the offer.
When the offer was rejected, Fisher said officers began to evict the occupants.
Parson said the offer would not have housed most of the people because they are not couples, families or women. She also said most of the people wanted to remain together.
“Our residents want to stick together,” Parson said. “They have been living together for years and they have a community.”
Executive Director of LIHI Sharon Lee said they are working to house two individuals from the motel in separate tiny homes with heating and insulation after the eviction.
While there were discussions of motel vouchers being offered, Fife’s city manager Hyun Kim said they had to switch gears after “some potential threats of violence.”
“We received information that there were people who were going to take justice into their own hands,” Kim said.
Instead, the Tacoma Rescue Mission offered more than 43 beds for occupants. Kim said the city has transported several people from the motel to the Tacoma Rescue Mission.
Five from the homeless advocacy group have tested positive for the coronavirus since Tuesday: two residents and three organizers. Parson said no COVID-19 testing was made available to occupants.
“We have positive COVID-19 cases, and cops are helping spread COVID by doing this,” she said.
Those who have tested positive for COVID-19 have been admitted to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s COVID-19 temporary care center, the city manager said.
“This is the successful conclusion to this episode in Fife,” Kim said.
For six days, Tacoma Housing Now provided access to hygiene and beds for people with serious medical conditions like terminal cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Parson said.
“We heard that people would rather get arrested because at least jail is warm,” she said. “Even though we didn’t want it to end this way, this is still a victory because they were off the streets for six nights.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 3:35 PM.
