A few community members have expressed concerns in the past month about campers on 14th Ave NE and 16th Ave NE just south of NE 125th St. There are a number of folks who seem to be living in these campers. Some community members have expressed concern over the campers while others have asked that we respect the privacy of those who are living in the campers and in their cars.
What do you think about this issue? You can respond in the comments anonymously.
not cool, man, not cool. i’m sure if the cops showed up, they wouldn’t allow it.
I feel for folks forced to live in their cars, but this isn’t a good thing. They need to move on.
Moving on is one thing, however where do folks go? Would the churches in the area be willing to allow folks to overnight in their parking lots, say until 8:00 a.m. every morning? John Ryan
I agree about the churches opening up their parking lots to accommodate these unfortunate people. The only question is, will this create another fight like the churches have had trying to help tent city dwellers. I an quite sure the people would rather live in a stationary dwelling, but with the economy the way it is, I feel that it will only get worse as time goes along.
This has been going on long before the drop in the economy. It leads to the decline in property values and the quality of the neighborhood. Would you like this on your street?
Pushing these folks from our neighborhood to some other neighborhood does nothing to solve the underlying reasons these folks are in the conditions they are in. They just move to other streets in other neighborhoods.
I don’t have any easy answers or quick solutions, but these are human beings. I would prefer not to talk about them as if they were disposable.
We can’t ignore the fact that there are more people that need to live this way. Someday it could be one of us. Is it illegal to park somewhere for a few hours or overnight?
I think that if there is no litter/garbage, they are quiet, no illegal activity, the campers are not concentrated in one area, and not a lot of people coming and going then we should practice a little tolerance.
Have you tried talking to them?
I read that there was evidence that crime decreased around some of the tent cities.
I’ll take a camper on my street if you will take a camper on your street. You can let one of them know that I live at 11508 20th Ave NE.
Also John’s post of seeing if a church would be willing to let someone park in their lot is a good idea too. The Lake City Christian Church (LCCC) is progressive and housed the tent city a couple times. One could suggest to a camper person that they check with LCCC about parking there.
Ooops LCCC is at 125th and 20th.
For heaven’s sake go talk to them! These are our neighbors, in the Biblical sense as well as the physical sense.
One could well turn out to be your child’s teacher, or a checker at the QFC. Whoever they are, they are not trash to be picked up.
If the vehicles are abandoned, you can report them after 72 hours here:
https://www.seattle.gov/police/forms/Abandoned_Vehicles.htm
Any resolution should benefit both the campers (because we might be joining them soon), as well as the owners, renters, or guardians.
As long as there are no problems with them, I say let them be. We’ve had campers, off and on, over on 127th for a year or two with no problems. They are quite reclusive so you may find it difficult to actually talk to them.
Thank you for frank and honest comments.
We are working to find a way to appropriately address neighborhood concerns about and for campers. We may discuss this at the next Pinehurst Community meeting (May 4th at 7 PM at Amante Pizza) or we may hold a separate meeting.