commentary by Kirby Laney, posted 1 February 2019
On Monday, January 28th, the Fremont Neighborhood Council (FNC) once again offered area residents – and anyone interested in sitting in – a place to discuss the problems of homelessness, crime and drugs in our city. FNC leadership titled this meeting ‘Homelessness in Fremont’ but comments from attendees covered a multiplicity of concerns, including aid for the homeless, discarded drug needles, human waste on sidewalks, and blatant criminal behavior.
Current FNC Board President Toby Thaler led the meeting and attempted to keep the discussion centered on solutions. FNC Board Members Linda Clifton and Matt Gasparich made attempts at motions, neither of which were ultimately adopted. The meeting rarely achieved a focus, beyond open discussion, and while at one point Thaler asked for consensus, which seemed unlikely given the disparity of views, he did assure attendees at the evening’s end that the one-and-a-half hours worth of comments would help the organization in moving forward.
Help The Homeless
Many comments were made on the need to help the disadvantaged in our city, but the form of that help never took a definitive shape. Representatives from the Rotary Club of Fremont asked to be given a role in any projects organized. They also mentioned, at the urging of this columnist, their monthly (second Tuesday) sandwich-making parties. The sandwiches go to the Compass Center for distribution to their clients. This led to a question about enabling.
Is giving food to the homeless, and specifically to those living in tents near The Fremont Troll statue and in Canal Park, enabling? People spoke on either side of this potentiality. A list of possible actions to be taken by the FNC had ‘public meals’ at the top, which gave some a sense of urgency in making a decision. David Ginn, of the future Two Bridges Church, spoke of Community Meals that he wanted to work on organizing, that would feed those in need while also allowing access to service providers and concerned residents anxious to help with permanent shelter.
Rex Hohlbein urged compassion and kindness, and said that feeding and clothing those in need is the only thing to do. Yet, he also acknowledged that societal problems have landed, literally, on the doorsteps of residents and businesses who shouldn’t bear the burden of solving them alone. As one apartment building owner quite picturesquely explained, he’s “tired of dealing with crap, literally,” around his property. Parents from the Woodland Park Co-Op Preschool expressed their continued alarm at the needles being discarded all over the playground.
Several attendees asked for programs that would allow for identification of the homeless population, and their specific needs, to better provide services that would actually aid them – without penalties or criminalization. A community meal would gathering those in need with those who want to interact and assist, and provide warm shelter to those tired of the cold.
Gasparich made a motion for a Zone of Emphasis around the Fremont Troll, to allow more enforcement and patrolling of the area. Others resisted the idea, and moving the campers without a plan in place for relocation. Yet, most agreed that conditions for the campers are unsanitary, and verging on the inhuman if the City allows them to stay.
Stop The Crime
Kaley Bender, of the Friends of The Troll’s Knoll, offered to take e-mail addresses of those who want to join a Block Watch program, and notify city agencies about trash, crime and vandalism.
Thaler spoke more than once of the opioid epidemic, and the need to curb drug use to address crime problems. Theft, needle trash, and erratic, violent behavior can all be traced to drug use. Yet sale and manufacture of drugs are also visible daily.
One neighbor described seeing two overdoses in the camps at the Troll, while he waited for a bus. Responding EMT personnel couldn’t attend to one patient in place because the floor of the tent was dangerously strewn with used needles. In the end, against safety protocols, the patient had to be rolled out of the tent in order to be treated.
As for the actual criminals operating among the homeless, either in the tents or on the streets, Bender observed that as the ‘homeless’ hold Protected Population status, the criminals can simply claim to be homeless – whether or not they actually are – to avoid arrest and prosecution, for all but a ‘serious’ crime. This sorely limits what police officers can do to enforce the laws – or to assist those in danger.
A police officer, at the FNC meeting as a private citizen, reported talking to one unsheltered women who feared a man that she described as stalking her. The officer, who saw the man standing nearby, asked if she wanted to report the threats. She explained that nothing could really be done since the accused stalker claimed to be homeless as well. As the officer observed, many of the homeless are being victimized by one another, with no recourse.
Two attendees spoke of a lack of respect – by the criminal element among the unsheltered for the other homeless, sheltered residents, area businesses and general society at large. Some residents have ceased locking their cars to avoid having windows broken. A few homeowners hang ‘no valuables inside’ signs on their windows. Fear is growing among our children of living in our neighborhood.
Bender mentioned talking to a ‘camper’ the day after the City removed the encampments around the Fremont Troll. Within 24 hours, he started to set up a tent on the grounds newly cleaned and landscaped by neighborhood volunteers. She told him he couldn’t camp there and he asked if she were with the City Navigation Team. She told him she wasn’t and he told her that he could camp anywhere he likes.
While Thaler raised concerns about criminalizing the campers, the very real crimes of vandalism, theft, littering, drug manufacture, rape and prostitution were mentioned by attendees wholly fed up with the shadow growing over our neighborhood. No one spoke of arresting those camping. Some did mention moving the encampments. Most seek solutions to the piles of needles, the irrational, abusive taunts hurled randomly at customers and visitors, and the blatant use of drugs in full view of homes and residents.
“The police are doing their jobs,” stated one resident. A business owner thanked a police officer for walking the neighborhood and making her feel safer just by his presence. Overall conversation seemed focused on the need for more action by other City agencies – and not necessarily any more money thrown at the problem.
Place For A Park
The Friends of Troll’s Knoll have had some success getting the Seattle Department of Parks & Recreation to promise that, if the neighborhood plans and funds it, a park can be built on the east side of the Fremont Troll. Some voiced skepticism that an active park would really discourage camping, but most were encouraged with any plan, even a long-term, five-year plan.
Ultimately, the assembled crowd at the January Fremont Neighborhood Council remained torn on solutions. The only thing everyone in the room agreed upon was that something must be done, and the current situation must change.
For more information on the FNC, visit their regularly updated website (click here,) and attend their public meetings on the fourth Monday of each month (except December,) at 7p at the Doric Lodge #92. For more information on the Troll’s Knoll, visit the Facebook page (click here,) or send an e-mail to fremonttrollsknoll@gmail.com to get on the information distribution list.
Finally, to report illegal dumping and graffiti, call 206-684-7587 or use the City of Seattle ‘Find It Fix It’ App (click here.)
Related Articles
- As The Troll’s Knoll Develops
- by Kirby Lindsay, May 27, 2011
- FNC Highlight Reel: Fielding Resident Concers, But No Park Addition Progress
- by Kirby Lindsay, September 3, 2012
- Fremont Chamber Identifies ‘A Crime Problem’
- by Kirby Lindsay Laney, September 21, 2015
©2019 Kirby S. Laney. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.