Cleanup begins of homeless encampment beneath I-705 in Tacoma
A city-led effort to clear a large homeless encampment beneath Interstate 705 in downtown Tacoma started Friday after notices were posted to the camp last week.
Two contracted companies, Fairlane Hauling and Cascadia Contracting, began clearing the area early Friday morning. Members of the city’s homeless outreach team, including police officers, connected with people living there to provide shelter.
“The city’s goal is to connect folks to shelter, so we will work with folks until they find a successful way to relocate,” said Allyson Griffith, assistant director of the city’s Neighborhood and Community Services Department.
Griffith said that as of Thursday, city outreach workers connected with 30 people at the site, with varying degrees of interest in shelter, primarily the city’s stability site along Puyallup Avenue, but also tiny home shelters and Aspen Court, the former Comfort Inn.
The city of Tacoma previously estimated that there were between 60-80 people at the site, which is property of the Washington State Department of Transportation.
Richard Fredricks has been living at the camp for about six months with his wife, he told The News Tribune on site Friday. He found out the camp was going to be cleared last week.
“I felt kind of concerned because I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do,” he said.
Fredricks and his wife said they had an opportunity to stay in one of the city’s tiny home shelters, but the transition was harder than expected and the opportunity fell through.
“We weren’t able to keep up with the rules of the tiny home,” he said. “You have to stay there four days a week, which sounds a lot easier than it actually is.”
Fredricks said he and his wife are struggling with addiction, making it difficult to go back to work.
When asked what his plans were next, Fredricks said that he and his wife are still figuring that out, but they want to get back on a methadone program with the health department.
“We were on it and we were very successful with them — I tapered all the way off the program once before, but it’s an ongoing battle with addiction,” he said.
Thomas Kittelson said he’s been living at the site for about a year and has been homeless for around 12 years, by choice. He said he wants to help other people living in encampments.
Kittelson was not surprised when he heard the encampment would be cleaned.
“I knew it was coming eventually,” he said Friday, adding that he has some friends he can stay with.
When asked what resources people living at the site need, Kittelson said more places to stay, like tiny homes and stability sites. The city already runs a stability site along Puyallup Avenue.
“We need more of that,” he said.
The decision to clear the site was made due to “imminent threats to public safety,” according to the city, including frequent fires.
City of Tacoma staff and Tacoma Fire Department Chief Tory Green met with the Tacoma-Pierce County Homeless Coalition last Friday to talk about the plan to clear the camp. At the meeting, Green said the fire department responds frequently to the site. Specifically, the department had more than 1,000 incident responses there last year, half due to fires.
Green said the department has been sending more than one unit to the site for emergency medical calls because crews have felt unsafe and have been threatened. Green said there were also incidents where people have taken equipment off the vehicles when TFD responds to the site.
“If we’re sending three apparatuses to a call where we’d normally send one, we don’t have the resources for the next call available. … So responding to roughly 500 EMS calls with more resources than we normally would when we’re, quite frankly, already under-resourced, it’s impactful. So that’s arguably the risk to public safety,” Green told the Coalition.
Bill Lemke, executive director of NW Furniture Bank next door to the encampment, previously told The News Tribune that he has witnessed the fires that occurred at the site and various other impacts to his business, including broken windows and abandoned vehicles.
“Our building has been shot. Our sign has been shot. We’ve had arrows shot into our parking lot,” Lemke said.
Griffith said the timeline for cleaning up the site can change, but it will take multiple days.
After the site is cleared, temporary fencing will be installed. The city is in discussions with WSDOT to eventually lease the property for use as a parking lot.
Virginia Basher started coming to the camp last year as a volunteer to help people experiencing homelessness. She said she’s built trust with the people living there and has brought hygiene bags for them.
“There’s some great people down here — there are some intelligent people. But they’re stuck. They can’t find a way out. My heart pours out to them,” Basher said.
Basher said she’s been able to help connect people living at the camp to resources and shelter, including a pregnant woman.
“It’s good for humanity to have (the camp) cleaned up, it’s good for the businesses … but I hope to God they find some places for these people,” Basher said.
This story was originally published February 4, 2022 at 2:05 PM.
