Encampment on Seattle Public Schools property cleared

SEATTLE — An encampment sitting just feet from Seattle’s Broadview-Thomson K-8 school was cleared Thursday.

A sign posted up at the park next to the school states the site is closed and it will remain that way for a few weeks while the land is being restored.

A KIRO 7 crew was there when the final campers were ushered out and belongings that were not claimed were hauled away.

Tents, along with needles and plenty of trash, were being tossed.

A man named T.J. was seen grabbing a few prized possessions, and he told KIRO 7 that he did not know where he would sleep Thursday night.

“There you go. One day you have stuff and then you don’t,” said T.J., who lived at the encampment.

Close to 50 campers were told about the clearing earlier in the week and some said they would find a spot on the street.

The city said roughly 15 of the campers were referred to a nearby tiny house village for shelter.

“It’s refreshing to see that the city is now turning the tide on this,” said Anthony Loungie, who lives nearby.

For Loungie, the day could not have come soon enough as he has watched the encampment grow for more than a year just outside of the school’s playground.

“I think this is great. Our kids deserve to have a wholesome place to have an education,” Loungie said.

Why did clearing the encampment take so long? A Seattle Public Schools spokesperson said while it is their land, handling encampments is not their area of expertise.

The district was relieved to finally get help from a local nonprofit, the city of Seattle and King County in clearing the camp.

KIRO 7 was able to talk to Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan who said, “They deserve to have better conditions.”

Durkan said that after some initial hiccups, cooler and more collaborative heads prevailed.

“We’ve never been able to do this work without being collaborative, and I think the school district, there were some different goals there at the beginning but everyone had the same goals once we were able to sit down and talk,” said Durkan.

The mayor said with more people living unhoused since the pandemic, the city has struggled to secure enough shelter. She said Bitter Lake though is proof, saying the city can commit to protecting the public space while meeting a need that is only growing.

“More and more people are becoming homeless. It’s getting harder and harder to keep up with rent, with what like the expenses,” said T.J.

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