Nickelsville moved onto city property near the Duwamish Waterway in 2011. Since then, the self-managed homeless encampment on the outskirts of Seattle has attracted little media attention.
But even though the camp’s residents are largely out of sight, security issues at the camp have caught the attention of city leaders — as well as a neighborhood group that wants Nicklesville residents to find new digs by the summer.
Nickelsville residents contacted Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle Police Chief John Diaz in mid-March asking for more police protection. The Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) failure to respond to their calls for help have put members of the camp at “grave risk,” they wrote in a letter to city officials.
The campers alleged that SPD has refused to help them remove residents who have been barred from the camp for physically threatening or assaulting current campers. Nickelsville residents also made claims that their efforts to have SPD respond to instances of non-residents stealing camp property were unproductive.
Some city officials can think of a reason. Lisa Herbold, legislative aide to Councilmember Nick Licata wrote in an email to Real Change that the police can only remove someone from a property if that person wrongfully interferes with the property owner.
“Nickelsville is squatting, so SPD can’t trespass people off on Nickelsville’s behalf,” Herbold wrote. “If they were instead on the property that they had a permit for, SPD could do so.”
Nickelsville is located at 7116 W. Marginal Way SW, a tract of land owned by the city.
Residents of Nickelsville voiced their concerns about safety in a March 19 letter to Diaz, Capt. Joe Kessler and a community police officer. Nearly 20 campers signed the two-page letter.
The letter, obtained by Real Change, states: “Our rights — as Citizens, as a community, and as an organization — to police protection from unlawful acts of criminals is being ignored by your department.”
Copies were also sent to numerous city officials, including the mayor, Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith, City Attorney Pete Holmes and City Councilmember Nick Licata.
“At this time,” the letter continues, “the Seattle Police Department is allowing individuals to enter our camp and steal our water, firewood, blankets, food and tents.”
In response, the mayor released a statement: “The current situation raises serious concerns about
Nickelsville’s ability to protect the health and safety of its residents. The immediate next step is to increase our police presence through the use of directed patrols from the Southwest Precinct.”
SPD declined to comment for this story. A request for comment from an SPD official regarding the mayor’s response to Nickelsville’s allegations was rebuffed.
“Ask the mayor’s office,” SPD spokesperson Renee Witt said. But the mayor’s office also remains tight-lipped.
McGinn’s spokesperson, Aaron Pickus, wrote in an email to Real Change that beyond McGinn’s statement calling for more directed patrols from the southwest precinct, the mayor had nothing to add.
Safety concerns at the camp also led the Highland Park Action Committee (HPAC) to inform city leaders the group wants the city to ask Nickelsville to choose a move-out date.
Carolyn Stauffer, HPAC co-chair, said the neighborhood group made the request in a March 28 letter sent to Smith, Licata and Jerry DeGrieck, the mayor’s senior policy advisor. Postings on online forums, as well as campers’ admissions that the situation had “degraded,” prompted the request.
Stauffer said that HPAC would like the campers to move out by the summer, but that doesn’t mean the group wants campers kicked to the curb. The group is calling for a dialogue with city officials to ensure that Nickelsville residents have a place to go and that the camp’s many issues are addressed, she said.
“It’s time for someone to rethink Nickelsville,” Stauffer said.
Hounded by former residents
Residents at Nickelsville have been struggling with security for a while.
After sending the letter to SPD and city leaders, the group posted a separate letter on its Facebook page, which was later republished on the West Seattle Blog.
Trace De Garmo, co-head of security at Nickelsville, said the camp’s most recent troubles were caused by people who had refused to leave after being barred from the camp. And some who had left, De Garmo alleges, returned as thieves.
De Garmo said approximately 90 people live at the camp.
In early March, when one barred camper, an alleged meth dealer, refused to vacate the property, residents called 911, De Garmo said. Officers arrived, and they told campers to give the barred resident time to collect his belongings. When police left, campers tried to reclaim camp property including a pallet. The resident began “waving a machete, shouting threats at people,” De Garmo said.
Residents called 911 again, and when a second set of officers showed up, officers told residents they couldn’t do anything because it was a “renter’s dispute” De Garmo said. Campers responded that it was instead a shelter issue, and they needed assistance, he said.
A third phone call, this one to a non-emergency police line, brought more police offers. De Garmo said they told residents “there was nothing to do.”
De Garmo disagrees. He said that the city hasn’t evicted Nickelsville from its West Marginal Way site, where it’s been for almost two years. Due to this, campers’ entreaties to police should be treated the same as requests from residents of other organized camps, such as Tent City 3.
Porta-Potty punishment Absent help from law enforcement, Nickelodeons have tried to cope on their own.
Nickelsville’s Central Committee attempted to push barred residents out of the camp by resorting to an extreme tactic: depriving the barred campers of bathroom access by removing Nickelsville’s four Porta-Potties.
While removing the camp’s facilities for less than 24 hours may have created a hardship, De Garmo said that a Subway and Shell gas station nearby each had bathrooms any campers could use: “We were absolutely left with no other options to protect us,” he said.
De Garmo acknowledged that removing Porta-Potties isn’t a permanent solution.
He hopes the camp can form a relationship with SPD so that police officers give them the service and protection they deserve.