Tent City on campus: UW stalls decision

Security and logistical concerns at the University of Washington have stalled the school's decision on whether to allow Tent City 3 to relocate to campus after the proposal won unanimous support from the Faculty Senate in May.

Students were told university administration would reach a decision by the end of the school year in June, but they are now hoping for an announcement before the end of summer session, according to Abigail Pearl, president of Students for Civic Engagement on Homelessness — the student organization leading the proposal. The idea is already popular on campus, with the student government announcing its support in February and the Graduate and Professional Student Senate doing the same in April.

A UW spokesman said the administration is still considering where the camp would be located and if it would interfere with the school and neighborhood's daily operations.

The university has been receptive to the idea so far, Pearl said, but misinformation on homeless camps has caused some students to oppose the idea and campaign against it.

Pearl said some students have claimed that when another homeless camp that is unaffiliated with Tent City, the so-called Nickelsville, was at University Christian Church last winter, reported crime in the University District increased.

But she cautioned against students and neighbors linking crime to homeless or transient populations. "There's always a hike in crime in the winter quarter," she said.

Sgt. John Urquhart, King County sheriff's spokesman, supported that contention.

"We have never had a problem with increased crime in a neighborhood where Tent City is hosted nearby," he said.

Aside from educational value — outlined in a Faculty Senate resolution as promotion of social justice and community outreach — Pearl said hosting the homeless would raise awareness of homelessness in Seattle by allowing up to 100 homeless people to stay on campus for a 30- to 90-day period.

Tent cities are operated and organized by the Seattle Housing and Resource Effort and the Women's Housing Equality and Enhancement League. Urquhart said the groups are well-organized and do a good job of monitoring their tent cities "as far as a strict code of conduct plus strict set of criteria of who can stay there."

Tent-city residents must be sober adults, and panhandling and physical or verbal abuse are prohibited.

Additionally, camps are fenced in, have a single entrance where residents must check in, and residents are checked for sex-offender status and warrants before they're allowed in one of the camps.

"It's a good opportunity for the university, that's how we should look at it," said Amy Hagopian, associate professor of global health at the UW and a faculty adviser for Students for Civic Engagement on Homelessness.

This is the third time hosting a tent city has been proposed to the UW Faculty Senate.

"This was the first serious attempt, and the first student-driven proposal," Hagopian said. Seattle University hosted Tent City 3 in February 2005, and it was the first university in the country to do so.

Since Tent City 3 began operating in 2000, it has occupied more than 30 sites around King County. Now the camp is in the Madrona neighborhood but must move by Aug. 22 and hasn't secured its next location.

An annual one-night count by the Seattle and King County Coalition on Homelessness in January reported nearly 3,000 people in King County are homeless without shelter.

Of that group, nearly 2,000 homeless people were counted in the city of Seattle.

Phillip Lucas: 206-515-5632 or plucas@seattletimes.com