By Martin Barrett
For two years, the tent encampment around Burien City Hall slowly expanded. Beginning with just a few it grew to 15+ tents. Eventually, it filled the total 15-foot parameter around the SW, West, and NW space eligible for camping.
City Hall tent encampment
When Cydney Moore and Charles Schafer suggested and encouraged those campers to disregard options for help and instead sent them to the toxic dog-poop yard on 152nd and 4th Ave.; the majority of the 15 campers transferred their belongings to that location. This dog-pooping area was more than twice the size of the eligible space at Burien City Hall. Within a few days, the number of campers grew to 20-plus. Next, the city added a portapotty, and now the number is over 30, filling all the available space.
Dog poop park encampment
On June 1st, 2023, Burien Cares will assume a lease on the dog-poop yard, restoring it to its designated purpose. The lease conveys control of the land to private hands. Burien Cares has said they will not allow tent campers on their property.
Notice of eviction
Tuesday night, the City Council is scheduled to address the issue of where to move the campers in response to the falsely-based demand by Dow Constantine and King County that Burien is responsible for finding a place for tent campers who have been evicted from private land. The city owns the land currently leased by Burien Toyota for overflow vehicles. This land is being proposed for use as a newly sanctioned tent city. This land is at least four times larger than the current tent encampment site. If past trends indicate future results, we can expect to see 100 or more tents on this site.
City owned lot
Blow is a link to another story about this issue:
DOW CONSTANTINE VS. BURIEN: Showdown looming in #Burien over another homeless encampment in the center of downtown that's starting to spiral out of control. The sweep signs indicate it's scheduled to be cleared on May 31. The city leased out the land to non-profit Burien… pic.twitter.com/PXhe3bccrI
— Jonathan Choe Journalist (Seattle) (@choeshow) May 30, 2023
