Seattle crews trashed nearly everything, homeless advocates complain

Among the 21 tons of debris removed last month from a homeless camp at a Queen Anne park, only a single bicycle and a BB gun were deemed salvageable by city crews.

The rest of it was sent to the landfill, prompting a protest from homeless advocates who say the wholesale trashing of the 44-person encampment violates a new city of Seattle policy of salvaging such personal belongings.

The dispute arises from the sweep of a homeless camp in a greenbelt near Queen Anne's Kinnear Park, part of a more aggressive effort to police illegal camping in city parks.

Dewey Potter, a spokeswoman for the Seattle Parks Department, said city crews had trouble determining what was salvageable among items soaked with rain, dirt or urine.

Better and more training will help crews in future "cleanup actions" decide what is salvageable and worth $25 or more, which is the cutoff point at which possessions should be preserved, Potter said.

"It's fair to say we have some improvements to make," she said.

After protests last year, in the wake of the sweep of a greenbelt along Aurora Avenue North, Mayor Greg Nickels' office created a policy requiring advance notice to be posted at targeted camps and for belongings worth at least $25 to be bagged and stored.

But Tim Harris, publisher of Real Change, a nonprofit advocacy magazine, said the recent sweep of a greenbelt near Queen Anne's Kinnear Park violated that policy.

He noted that the city of Fresno, Calif., and the California Department of Transportation recently had to pay $2.3 million to settle a class-action lawsuit on behalf of homeless people whose belongs were tossed during sweeps of homeless camps.

"There's well-established legal precedent that you can't just do a search-and-seizure and throw the stuff away," said Harris.

"They'll eventually [lose] legally, but it will take two or three years, and in the meantime these people don't have the stuff."

Doug McKeehen, an advocate for the homeless who works at the Aloha Inn transitional-housing facility, said losing personal belongings has a "horrendous impact" on a homeless person trying to find a job or stable housing.

"They see the time the city takes their stuff as a defining moment in their lives: Before the city took our stuff and after the city took our stuff," said McKeehen.

The camp — a smattering of tarps and cardboard tents tucked among vine-covered maples — was mostly empty Friday.

A longtime resident of the encampment who gave his name as Joe said his clothes, a bike frame, an air mattress and perhaps a sledgehammer were tossed during the May sweep.

"It's really hard to remember what you have and don't have," said Joe, who said he was 67.

Joe said he polices the camp — "no drinking, no funny stuff, no crapping. We're clean" — and is befuddled why the city would crack down without helping provide other housing. "I tell the city, if you can't accommodate us with reasonable housing, leave us alone."

Potter said it was the city's duty to ensure parks are safe and usable for all citizens, and that the city spent about $40 million a year on homeless services.

During the May cleanup, about five duffel bags of belongs were bagged and tagged by date, Potter said.

But a crew chief in charge of determining what was salvageable "found they were so contaminated with urine she had to back away, and the bags were tossed," said Potter.

The annual One Night Count of the homeless in King County in January found 2,631 "unsheltered" people sleeping outside or in cars.

If shelters or transitional housing are included, there are an estimated 8,600 homeless on any given night in the county.

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com