WENATCHEE — At least a quarter of former residents of a homeless camp on South Columbia Street found places to stay in local homeless shelters. Another quarter moved across the street, and the rest have been scattered throughout the city.
The camp, believed to be one of the city’s largest ever, officially organized last fall. On Thursday, residents received a 72-hour notice to vacate a stormwater facility property owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation following a complaint by BNSF Railway about debris on nearby train tracks.
The department also placed boulders around the property to deter future encampments from being set up and is coordinating with BNSF on actions that would help prevent safety issues in the future.
The Wenatchee Rescue Mission has taken in six women and four men from the camp — about 25% of the 40 or so individuals who were living at the camp. Four of the individuals chose to place their tents in spaces at the mission rather than stay in the dormitory style beds inside.
“We came here because that way we don’t have to worry about moving out stuff,” said Vanessa Alcantara, who was one of the individuals to originally organize the camp. “People don’t understand; this is like out home, You have stuff that would go in a home basically — not as much stuff, but pretty much that way. It gets pretty tiring having to pack up and leave.”
Alcantara said she and her boyfriend (Glenn Wilson, who was managing the camp) picked the Wenatchee Rescue Mission over other local shelters because they had an offer to stay there.
The mission’s executive director, Scott Johnson, spent months building trust with the camp’s residents. He said the mission’s ability to handle pets was also crucial to convincing some folks to come down to the shelter.
Johnson said WSDOT donated four kennels to the mission, one of which is currently set up. He’s accepting donations for items like blankets and dog beds.
“We want to try to make it comfortable for the dogs,” he said. “Those are their family members — regardless of what people might think — that’s their family.”
The mission still has beds for about 10 men and six women. Johnson said he expects more people in the near future. “I think at some point they’re gonna realize that it’s kind of the last straw — where are they going to go?” Johnson said.
Johnson — who worked with homeless populations in Los Angeles for decades before moving to Wenatchee — said the removal went better than ones he’s seen in the past.
Washington State Patrol was onsite for security as WSDOT employees cleared the property Tuesday and Wednesday, but there were no confrontations with camp residents.
David Bierschbach, WSDOT North Central region administrator, said crews removed 10.5 tons of garbage from the camp.
“WSDOT appreciates other agencies, service providers and local shelters for their coordination and for offering assistance to those involved in this difficult situation,” Bierschbach said.
Stuck in place
Stephanie Brown, who was staying at the camp, has pitched her tent across the street from the WSDOT property with about a dozen or so others. The fenced lots just behind Brown and others’ tents on South Columbia Street are being considered for a low-barrier homeless shelter by the cities of Wenatchee and East Wenatchee.
“I’m planning on going somewhere else. It’s just the ride who was going to do this is having fuel pump issues,” said Brown, who has a 1989 Toyota RV she was previously living in. She and a few others will move to public land once she’s able to get a tow for the RV.
Brown is counting down the days until she resolves an active court case and can move to Western Washington to be with her 9-year-old son.
“I don’t plan on being here very much longer,” she said. “I just got to get back to the other side and get my life back in order. “
Red, another former camp resident who declined to give a last name, is also living across the street from the WSDOT property because of car issues. He was working on fixing his 2000 Dodge Durango, which he said needs a proper fuel pump, on Wednesday afternoon.
Bierschbach, with WSDOT, said the department is not responsible for cleaning up other’s property when asked if tents across from its property would be removed.
Extending invitations
Gary Steele, who runs the People’s Foundation’s emergency cold-weather shelter, said although the shelter saw an increased demand after homeless camps were broken up in previous years, that has not yet happened this week.
The shelter’s staff drove by the camp Tuesday evening to invite those who were still there to stay at the shelter. Steele said
“They stated that (Tuesday) was their last night at the encampment and no one took us up on our offer,” Steele said. “We will continue to drive by the encampment each evening for the remainder of this week and invite them to the shelters accordingly.”
The cold-weather has been at capacity or close to it since opening in mid December, but Steele said his staff work with the Gospel House and the Wenatchee Rescue Mission to take any overflow demand. Barring any freezing weather, the cold-weather shelter will likely close on March 10.
A trickle-down effect
Lighthouse Christian Ministries, whose services include the Gospel House and Grace House shelters and a daily soup kitchen, has seen reverberations from the camp’s disbandment.
Director Shawn Arington said he’s seen more people from the camp come into the soup kitchen. The Gospel House has about 30 beds open and the Grace House, which caters to women and children, has about 35 beds open.
“We are ready to house anybody that comes to us that wants to be housed,” Arington said.
Neither of Lighthouse’s shelters are able to accommodate pets (although service animals are allowed). Arington said when they’ve waived that rule in the past, they’ve had issues with untrained pets attacking other pets and people getting hurt breaking it up. Lighthouse also can’t guarantee couples will have a spot next to each other, but Arington said the shelter does section off areas to keep families with children together.
The YWCA has also seen the impacts of the camp’s disbandment, although it hasn’t yet had anyone from the camp stay at its emergency shelter for women and children, which currently has three top-bunk beds available. Executive Director Rachel Todd said the YWCA was able to help one former camp resident get connected with other services in the community.
“We have had an influx of folks from other avenues of the community, and I think it is because the folks from the camp that needed to be dispersed are taking up other resources in the community,” Todd said. “So it’s like a trickle down.”
She added that because the YWCA wasn’t aware the camp was being removed until the weekend, their ability to respond was limited since the shelter only admits people Monday through Friday. In the future, she’d like to see more coordination among local governments, police departments and service providers.
“I’m sure things moved at a pace where certain types of outreach and communication were not doable,” Todd said, “But I think that we can use this as a learning opportunity to say okay, what could we have done to provide better service to this group of folks.”
