It’s a recipe for disaster.
That’s what Seattle parent Serena Evans thinks of the situation unfolding outside Broadview-Thompson Elementary School in the city’s Bitter Lake neighborhood.
A homeless encampment has spilled over onto school property, and despite complaints, the school board refuses to do anything about it.
Parents like Evans are worried about safety and say their children, some as young as 5, are too scared to go in. Others are playing near the edge of the encampment, stepping on condom wrappers, broken bottles, and trash.
“I knew it had gotten bad, but I didn’t realize how out of control it was,” Evans told KIRO7. “To have my daughter running around — not to pass judgment but usually with homeless encampments, there are drugs which mean needles.”
Evans said she’s also seen fights break out near the playground. People started camping behind the school last summer during the coronavirus crisis. It was a small group at first but has now grown to more than 50 tents.
“I get it, homelessness is out of control,” she said. “But now, it’s crossing the line with our kids.”
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Ryle Goodrich, whose 6-year-old son was set to go to Broadview-Thompson, told KOMO he questioned “the judgment of those in charge of keeping your children safe.” He also called on the mayor to come in and clean up the encampment. But that is a lot easier said than done.
The problem is that the mayor lacks the authority to sweep the space because the school is on Seattle Public Schools’s property and not on city property.
Her hands are tied until the school board specifically asks the city to step in.
“They are a separate government,” Mayor Jenny Durkin said. “They are just like the state Department of Transportation or the city of Auburn … They are a governmental entity that owns its own property. They are like other property owners in the city of Seattle in that there’s legal steps that they would have to go through.”
She said the city is willing to help, but it cannot override any decision the school board takes on the topic.
Complicating matters is that some on the school board think removing the homeless would set a bad example for students and argue that letting them stay would provide a teachable lesson in compassion.
In fact, Seattle School Board President Chandra Hampson and Director Zachary DeWolf have demanded that “sweeps never occur.”
“Our students deserve to see the adults behave compassionately and responsibly in the face of a tragically mounting homelessness crisis,” they said in a joint statement. “Sweeps are not a form of compassion nor do they demonstrate responsible adult behavior. In fact, they are decidedly inhumane and irresponsibly set people struggling with homelessness further into the margins.”
But Seattle residents like Tim Gaydos, a former pastor and founder of the Friends of Denny Park, told the Washington Examiner they are shocked by the sentiment.
“When they say we will never ever ever remove these encampments because our children deserve to see adults treating people with compassion, that’s where I’m like, we have totally different definitions of compassion,” he said. “Compassion to me is not putting your kids in the middle of a dangerous place. And at the same time, compassion isn’t just letting (the homeless) stay there and languish. There are rats, trash. They are unbelievable conditions.”
As public pressure mounted, it seemed as though the school board, the city, and concerned parents were at an impasse.
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But late Thursday, the school board sent out a statement saying it is ready to take “immediate steps” to deal with the situation, which include using a different entrance and locking a chain-link fence. What the steps don’t include is the immediate removal of the homeless from the site.
“Because the encampment residents living near the school move between city and district owned properties, simply removing them from district property won’t result in a permanent solution,” the statement sent to the Washington Examiner said. “We continue to coordinate with the city, building staff, and families to implement long-term solutions that prioritize the well-being of our school community and care for unhoused residents.”
The situation is a little different at Edmond S. Meany Middle School, which is also dealing with a growing homeless encampment near the property.
City officials are more hands on in that situation because the encampment is technically at Miller Playfield, which is near the school but on city property.
Officials said Thursday they hope to have the homeless encampment cleared before students show up Monday morning.
Earlier this month, the camp had grown to more than 40 tents, sparking safety concerns about its proximity to the middle school.
Between Oct. 1, 2020, and April 5, 2021, Seattle Fire Department responders have been dispatched to the area 23 times. Fourteen of those times were for “illegal burns or tent fires.”
The Seattle school board said Thursday that it has “been working with the city to encourage a compassionate transition to shelter for people living on adjacent city property, improving signage that highlights camping prohibitions on district property, and creating buffers on school grounds.”
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It added that the city’s outreach providers have offered shelter to those living at Miller Playfield and are “working with individuals to support their move indoors.”
