The will to clear out camps is there but not the amount of shelter space needed. Currently, there are only five vacancies at shelters and zero vacancies at Tiny House Villages. There is a 22% vacancy rate in the region’s shelters. The availability of beds at homeless shelters around Seattle is less than previous estimates, according to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA).
There has been no shortage of news on the issue. Meanwhile, other freeway encampments continue to grow, including along the Mercer street on-ramp in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood where a couple is currently building a house alongside the highway. In addition, the Ship Canal encampment has been the site of multiple shootings, fires, theft, and open-air drug use. Govenor Jay Inslee recently toured the site with parents.
Washington is throwing money at homelessness. The state has allocated $50 million to move people from freeway camps into housing. According to KCRHA data, four encampments have already been emptied with 118 people receiving shelter.
There are immediate plans to open 68 new units of housing as part of a state initiative to clear encampments near Washington highways. Those housing units will go to people living in three “priority” encampments near I-5 in Seattle — one that is under the Ship Canal Bridge, and two that are in the Chinatown-International District.
More is needed now but everything is not in place to aggressively move forward. The lack of shelter beds, and the delays in opening new supportive housing facilities, could push back plans to move people living in encampment ways around Seattle highways. Gov. Inslee has said he wants these encampments cleared “as soon as humanly possible.” There is no information new information on where the new units of housing would be located.
In addition to the 68 units of housing anticipated to open, the agency said 45 more units will open soon. A 54 unit project administered by the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) was supposed to open in February but has been pushed due to construction delays.
Frustration around the encampments near the freeways has been escalating, with parents from a Seattle school planning a protest on Friday amid their demands that the state remove the Ship Canal Bridge encampment immediately.
