Seattle homeless camp installs SWIMMING POOL for roaming ‘residents’
Residents of a Seattle neighborhood are enraged drifters who live in an encampment and have spent summer days installing an inflatable pool to enjoy between fentanyl hits.
Highland Park homeowners — many who are older — say the addition of a pool to the area feels like a slap in the face after months of raising concerns.
Video taken by KOMO near Seattle shows a woman sitting on a poolside bench smoking fentanyl in broad daylight.
“These people come in and trash the whole place. Someone told me they hooked up a hose and filled a pool with it,” says Herb Egge, who lives nearby.
Egge and other residents of a retirement home across from the camp say they fear being shot or robbed by one of the homeless.
The encampment witnessed a recent murder, but officials in the crime-ridden city are dragging their heels in removing it, despite the outcry of law-abiding taxpayers who live nearby.
“If I hear the shooting, I’ll stay downstairs and away from the windows,” Cheryl Galyeam said. “There are times when I had to get on the floor in the middle of the night.
Residents of a Seattle neighborhood are enraged drifters who live in an encampment and have spent summer days installing inflatable pools and smoking fentanyl
Video taken by KOMO near Seattle shows a woman sitting on a poolside bench smoking fentanyl in broad daylight
“I thought, ‘oh my god, what now?'” said Cheryl Galyeam (pictured) in reference to the pool
Residents say they are not sure where the pool came from or how it was filled with water.
The logistics don’t matter to the residents who share their concerns – and anger – about the growing encampment along SR 509 and Myers Way.
“This is all ridiculous,” Egge said.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, what now?'” Galyeam said in reference to the pool.
At first they said it was just a couple of campers. Now the number is more than a dozen.
“And they don’t pay anything and stuff like that, but we have to pay to live here,” said another angry neighbor.
Since camp began, Egge said his own vehicle has been broken into several times and someone even drilled into his gas tank.
‘I never dreamed that I would have to worry about things like this at the age of 72, but times have changed,’ the man tells KOMO News.
“Especially as the elderly, we shouldn’t have to worry about our belongings or our lives,” he continued.
Highland Park homeowners — many who are older — say the addition of a pool to the area feels like a slap in the face after months of raising concerns
“These people come in and trash the whole place. Someone told me they hooked up a hose and filled a pool with it,” says Herb Egge (pictured)
At first they said it was just a couple of campers. Now the number is more than a dozen
The residents added that many elderly people regularly hear gunshots coming from the encampment and keep their curtains drawn constantly.
“It’s not safe,” Galyeam said.
Fears have only grown since May, when a man was killed in the encampment.
“We thought, ‘Oh wow, there’s been a murder there.’ They’re going to give us some attention now.’ They didn’t,” says Diane Radischat, who lives in Arrowhead Gardens.
‘We want the solutions and we know what the problems are. If you’ve had the same problem repeatedly in different locations, you know what needs to be done.’
To talk with KING 5 in May, Radischat said that she and the others in the complex do care about the homeless crisis and that both concerns could exist at the same time.
“We are just as concerned for their safety and well-being as we are for our own,” she said.
“We criticize the situation. We don’t criticize people. Those are two different things,” he said.
The residents added that many elderly people regularly hear gunshots coming from the encampment and keep their curtains drawn constantly
In a letter Radischat shared to KOMO, the Seattle mayor’s office said they are working on plans to address the encampment.
The effort requires the cooperation of the Washington State Department of Transportation and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.
“We recognize that this has been a long and often frustrating process for Arrowhead Gardens residents, and we are pleased to be moving closer to a solution for the location,” the letter read.
“The Unified Care Team is also discussing with WSDOT possible near-term activation strategies after site resolution to help prevent repopulation,” it continued.
Residents’ concerns stem from the area’s ongoing homeless and drug crises.
In June, a fire broke out in two tents in the camp after a man using a fire pit left his tent unattended
Seattle: Shown here is a man openly using a hypodermic needle while lying on the sidewalk
In early July, DailyMail.com reported that a July 4 parade had to be diverted to avoid a fentanyl-riddled homeless camp for “everyone’s safety”
In early July, DailyMail.com reported that a July 4 parade had to be diverted to avoid a fentanyl-riddled homeless camp for “the safety of everyone.”
The parade in Burien, just south of Seattle, was modified to avoid a homeless encampment of up to 20 tents, according to local media.
Like the residents of Highland Park, Burien is unable to remove the encampment due to the bureaucracy surrounding the process.
Some business owners in the city also told local outlets that they had lost customers because they no longer felt ‘safe’.
Last month, the Seattle City Council voted not to pass legislation that would have allowed the city’s attorney to prosecute public drug abuse cases.
The move would have brought Seattle into compliance with the state’s new drug possession law, making the crime a gross misdemeanor.
Afterwards, pictures emerged of homeless people openly abusing drugs on the city streets within hours.
One shows a man using a hypodermic needle to inject drugs into his hand while standing outside a liquor store.
The council’s bill failed to pass by a 5–4 vote, with council members Alex Pedersen, Sara Nelson, Debora Juarez, and Dan Strauss voting in favor of the bill.