15 arrested at City Hall today protesting sweeps of homeless camps

Fifteen people protesting the sweeps of homeless encampments in Seattle parks were arrested Monday morning after they blocked Cherry Street on the north side of City Hall in Seattle by pitching a tent in the street and standing in the road.

The protesters, who included homeless people and their supporters, including at least two clergymen, were arrested before 9:35 a.m. The 15 were interviewed and released, according to police spokesman Sean Whitcomb. He said it will be up to the City Attorneys office whether to file charges of pedestrian interference.

The last to be arrested was Dana Sutliffe, with the Real Change Organizing Project. She yelled, "Stop the sweeps!" as she was led away. Sutliffe said she is from Norway, and "to see people on the street here is just an atrocity for me."

John Moorehead, a homeless man who works construction jobs, said he participated in the blockade because "my camps have been raided three or four times when I'm trying to get ahead. How can you get ahead when they're taking your stuff?"

The Rev. Rich Lang, pastor of Trinity Methodist Church in Ballard, was wearing his clerical vestments when he was arrested in the rain. He said Mayor Greg Nickels "has chosen the side of the developers and people with financial interests. That's not bad, but he's forgotten the people on the lower rung."

"It's my understanding everybody was cooperative. It went fairly smoothly. This was a planned event," said Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson.

After the last person was arrested, officers took down the tent that was blocking traffic.

Protesters chanted, "Sweep Nickels, not the homeless," referring to a homeless sweeps policy initiated by Nickels. Sunday night, the homeless, their supporters and activists pitched tents in front of City Hall in protest.

It was the third annual overnight protest campout, and organizer Timothy Harris said advocates are frustrated, calling the policy unfair and inadequate.

"We feel it's time to make the strongest statement we can, and say that we withdraw our consent from the way the city is being run," said Harris, the executive director of Real Change. The group publishes a namesake newspaper on homelessness issues.

Alex Fryer, a spokesman for Mayor Greg Nickels, said the sweeps policy tries to balance the needs of the homeless with protecting the parks.

"We do a lot of outreach to folks who are in the park," Fryer said Sunday evening. "We really make sure that we tell them about shelters and give them referrals [for services]. But these encampments are very rough on the parks. As a matter of policy, we simply can't have encampments like these in our public spaces."

At Sunday's campout, some of the tents that filled the plaza on the west side of City Hall bore messages such as "How many paychecks are you from being homeless?" and "Whom would the Dalai Lama sweep?"

A kiosk sported hundreds of colored plexiglass chips, some of which memorialized the 270-plus homeless people activists say have died outdoors or through violence in King County since 2000.

In April, Nickels signed an order allowing the city to expel camp inhabitants with 72 hours' notice and an offer to help them obtain city services, including shelter and drug and alcohol treatment. Belongings left behind are to be stored at a warehouse and discarded after 60 days if not claimed.

The city also promised to fund 20 additional shelter beds — a number Harris called woefully inadequate.

The policy also provides that anyone warned to move on at one camp won't get the same courtesies if they're found at another: They will be expelled without a three-day grace period and won't be allowed to retrieve their belongings. Harris called those provisions inhumane and punitive.

City officials have estimated that between 100 and 300 people live in roughly 25 camps around Seattle. Two weeks ago, the city swept through several squatters camps in a stretch of city parkland on the west slope of lower Queen Anne Hill.

Some of the camps had apparently existed for years, and at least three dozen people were displaced — most leaving before the 72-hour notice expired. City workers hauled away 21 tons of belongings and rubbish, including syringes, mounds of alcoholic beverage containers and old mattresses.

Jack Makovsky, a 48-year-old construction worker, said he camped in Woodland Park for a few weeks after arriving in Seattle from Butte, Mont.

He stayed in a shelter one night, he said: "Bedbugs up the wall, crack addicts in the bathroom at 2 in the morning — I said, 'That's not me, man.' "

Makovsky said he now lives in an old Ford conversion van, which he often parks in Ballard. He said he works remodeling jobs steadily — making about $8.20 an hour, cash under the table — but would rather save up for a new tool kit than pay rent.

Harris said the city's offers of help for the displaced homeless campers are short in both substance and foresight.

While the city is funding the 20 additional shelter beds for those driven from the camps, 140 emergency-shelter beds available to the homeless every winter will fold up as milder weather arrives, Harris said: "It's a bit of a shell game."

According to Real Change and other homeless advocates, there are about 5,000 total shelter and transitional housing beds available in Seattle. Most of those are used by families. Harris said about 1,000 beds are available for single homeless men and women.

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com; Drew DeSilver: 206-464-3145 or ddesilver@seattletimes.com Reporter Keith Ervin contributed to the story.