Nickelsville Hits a Bump in the Road

You’ve probably read and heard in the media that back on January 29^th Nickelsville Staffperson Scott Morrow was given a vote of “no confidence.”  Essentially, what happened was that one of the elected camp leaders failed to enforce Nickelsville rules against verbal threats and harassment made by her partner.  In addition, a number of Nickelsville “old timers” got into housing in December.  While that’s good news for them, it left the camp with a large population of new-comers who were easily intimidated by this strong-willed couple.  When Scott asked to take the leadership out to breakfast to discuss solving the rule enforcement issue he received the boot the next day.  The camp was given five days to name a new sponsor, but was apparently unable to find support.  Neither our religious sponsor, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, nor the property owner, Coho Realty, were comfortable working with the new leadership and were on the brink of terminating their contract.  The following Saturday documents were quietly circulated among Nickelodeons to bar the individuals at fault for not enforcing the camp rules and a separate document reinstating Scott as their Staff person and he came back.

This is the kind of information that you can’t get in the Seattle Times – their actual printed newspaper reported Scott got canned, but not that he got rehired (although they did put that news on their obscure online political blog.)

Since this drama all parties have sat down and figured out ways to avoid the problems that led to this in the first place – thank you Coho Realty, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, and the Low Income Housing Institute!

Progress on Encampments in Seattle

It’s been slow in coming, but encampments are finally being recognized for their value in easing the crisis in shelter space.  This good news follows on the heels of the depressing 21% increase in the number of homeless people found in the One Night Count of the Homeless in King County the third week in January.  Mayor Ed Murray has announced that the city will be gaining an additional three homeless encampments.  Not only did the City Council add $100,000 to the budget for encampments modeled on the self managed encampments already in existence, the Mayor’s Committee on Homelessness recommended another $200,00 be spent on city encampments. 

This Thursday, February 26^th,  at 5:30 PM a Hearing on an Encampment Ordinance that the Mayor thinks is needed next is happening in the Seattle City Council Chamber.  We like the Mayor’s boldness and courage in planning to do this.  The big disappointment is the redlining of the land for Public Encampments in only industrial/business areas of the city (not residential areas) and the determination of bureaucrats to require tracking of encampment residents (see above visit to Olympia) in exchange for funding.

Come to the hearing and say hello – Nickelodeons will be there!