Growing Seattle Homeless Encampment Sets Up Swimming Pool, Terrifies Elderly Neighbors With Gunfire, Thievery

A growing homeless encampment at Seattle, which now includes its own swimming pool, is leaving the neighborhood angry and fearful as violence and theft become more commonplace, highlighting the struggles of Seattle and other major American cities in dealing with the homelessness epidemic. The encampment consists of more than a dozen recreational vehicles occupied by individuals who have made a small community near a working construction site at the Highland Park neighborhood of Seattle. Neighbors — many of whom are senior citizens — are making their frustrations known as the city fails to respond. “All of this is ludicrous,” a retiree who lives in the elder-community apartments across the street from the encampment, Herb Egge, told Seattle’s KOMO television station. “These people come in and totally trash the place. Someone told me they hooked up a hose and filled a swimming pool with it.”Mr. Egge estimates that more than 15 recreational vehicles are currently parked at the encampment, with more coming each week. He often reports hearing gunshots coming from the area and fears that a bullet may fly through his window at any time. Mr. Egge’s car has also been broken into multiple times, and someone recently siphoned gas from his vehicle by drilling a hole into the gas tank. “I never dreamed I would have to worry about things like this when I was 72, but times have changed. As elderly people, especially, we should not have to worry about our possessions or our lives,” Mr. Egge told the outlet.Another resident of the elder community, Cheryl Galyeam, told KOMO that she is fearful of the homeless encampment and often thinks she could be killed. “When I hear the shooting, I stay down and away from the windows,” she said. “There are times I’ve had to get on the floor in the middle of the night. It’s not safe.” One homeless man has already been killed. Residents have expressed frustration that even as theft and now homicide are becoming the reality in their neighborhood, the city of Seattle continues to fail them. “We thought, ‘Oh wow, there’s been a homicide there. They are going to give us some attention now.’ They didn’t,” a resident of the same elder community as Messrs. Egge and Galyeam, Diane Radischat, said. “We want the solutions, and we know what the problems are. When you’ve had the same problem repeatedly in different locations, you know what needs to be done.”The Seattle mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ms. Radischat told KOMO that she recently received a letter from the mayor’s office saying that the state transportation department, as well as county officials, are aware of the situation and are planning to help soon. “We recognize that this has been a long and often frustrating process for residents at Arrowhead Gardens, and we are pleased that we are moving closer to a site resolution. The Unified Care Team is also discussing with [Washington State Department of Transportation] possible short-term activation strategies following site resolution to help prevent repopulation,” the letter stated. Seattle’s mayor, Bruce Harrell, has continued the practices of his predecessor, Mayor Jenny Durkan, in clearing out homeless encampments despite his campaign promise of “helping” individuals off the streets, not forcing them. Ms. Durkan took an aggressive approach with homeless encampments in the city, even though they persisted like the one at Highland Park. Over the course of her tenure, she used civil and police resources to clear homeless encampments across the city, despite objections from her more liberal supporters. She defended her actions to the television station KUOW, saying she did so because of the prevalence of “shootings, human trafficking, and other violence crimes.”At New York, Mayor Adams has taken a position even more aggressive than Ms. Durkan, asking that police detain homeless individuals and confine them to mental health facilities — even against their will, if necessary — should those individuals act “in a manner likely to result in serious harm to self or others.”

Growing Seattle Homeless Encampment Sets Up Swimming Pool, Terrifies Elderly Neighbors With Gunfire, Thievery

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