Nickelsville Forced To Move

This is the new home for Nickelsville-at the corner of  45th Street and 15th Avenue. I also took a picture of the parking machine near the University Christian Church parking lot. This machine is owned by the church and is a source of revenue for it. Parking is one of the issues at the center of the controversy.

Click here to see what the local media has to say about the move.

People have been talking for several weeks about the fate of the homeless community Nickelsville that resides on the corner of Northeast 50th Street and 15th Avenue Northeast. The issue still is not decided but part of it is: Nicklesville will move out of their current location and move down the street to the parking lot owned by University Congregational United Church of Christ. This parking lot is located just a few blocks away at the corner of 45th Street and 15th Avenue.

A man named “Bo” talked to me about the situation on Monday afternoon and said that, “the Church (University Christian Church) decided that it would be better if we moved on.”

The University Congregational United Church of Christ picked up where the University Church left off and deliberated with its members before finally letting Nicklesville move to their parking lot for a few months.

Bo believes that the city was putting pressure on the University Church to move Nickelsville off of its property.

“When the city is really breathing down the neck of the church members, they really have to ask themselves what it’s worth,” said Bo.

Bo says that it will be no problem to move to the new site and acknowledges that the parking lot is smaller and that the community may need to downsize.

In the mean time, as Bo says, “We just have to wait and see and deal with the new place when it comes.”

Obama vs. McCain…Who Cares?

I stopped by Nickelsville again this week and wanted a to pursue something different than the moving out issue that has dominated this blog thus far. I wanted to find out if anyone in this community cared about the recent presidential election. Who did they want to see as the new president of the United States? Obama or McCain? I found out some interesting things.

Just like last week I talked to a man named “Bo” about the issue at hand. He was very passionate about politics and he dominated the conversation. He said that we have come very far towards reaching equality with Obama’s victory. Besides that, he really had nothing positive to say about this election, or politics in general.

Bo told me that politicians never think about homeless people or those who have a low socioeconomic status. He said that regardless of who becomes president, him and and his friends, “will never see the cheese.” Bo also told me that many people in this community are apathetic towards politics because it seems that politicians never do anything to help them out.

After talking with Bo, I wanted to do my own research into what policies Obama and McCain proposed to help fight poverty in this country.

When I went to Obama’s website I found a whole section on poverty, while McCain’s website had no such section.  You can check out Obama’s thoughts on poverty by clicking here.

Obama wants to expand the access to jobs and raise the minimum wage,  among many other things. He seems to care about a lot of the issues that Bo and his friends deal with every day.

In a way Bo is right: Why should he care about people who don’t care about him? Sadly, this a thought that many people have in this country today.

Church Parking May Be Source Of Problem

My plan this week was to go to the church and talk to a representative about what was going on with the Nickelsville moving situation. I read in the UW Daily on Thursday that the Nickelsville community may be forced to leave before their original January 1st, 2009 deadline. All of the doors were locked at the church, so I went across the street to see if I could get some of the resident’s opinions on this issue.

When I go there, I talked to a woman named Sandy, who said that Nickelsville was the best home that she ever knew. She was grateful that she didn’t have to take down her tent every day as she had done in some of the other places that she had lived. When asked where she had lived before, she said, “It was illegal, so I can’t tell you,” with a chuckle. She didn’t have anything to say about the moving situation however.

She led me to a man named, “Bo”, who I talked to about the moving situation. He told me that the church was going to have a vote among their congregation to decide once and for all whether Nickelsville should stay or go. Bo also said that some members of the daycare center at the church were complaining that they could not park anywhere because of the pink tents. Then I knew: Parking was the center of the controversy. Not only were there not enough parking spaces-but the church wasn’t making any revenue from the parking lot either.

Bo said that the pastor was fighting to keep the Nickelsville in the area, but that he had to let the democratic process take its course among his congregation. Bo said that in the mean time they were going to look for a permanent piece of land for them to build temporary housing (because permanent housing is too expensive.)

Bo also said to me that the neighborhood around them has had no problem with Nickelsville and that the lease said that the community is relatively low maintenance. Bo said this was because Nickelsville is different than other homeless communities.

“The people who live here are victims of Capitalism,” said Bo. “They are not professionally homeless. They are just trying to get back on their feet. A lot of people have gotten jobs because they had a place to leave their things. This community is doing a lot of great things.”

I believe this community causes no problems and is a wonderful thing for these homeless people-maybe even the best thing they have in their lives right now.

They must stay-at least until January 1st anyway.

Next week’s blog post will be about politics and getting some reactions from the Nickelsville residents on Obama and McCain. So stay tuned!

The Rainy Season Is Upon Us And Nickelsville Needs Help

Outside it is raining. It is raining hard. There is no doubt that the people of Nickelsville need our help. I talked to a man named Richard Gilbert who says that his community needs all the help it can get during these rainy winter months.

“When it rains we get puddles of water inside of the tents,” said Gilbert. “We are trying to find people with pickup trucks to get palets and raise the tents off of the ground.”

Many of the tents are at such an angle, because of the tilt of the parking lot, that enables water to come in and sit at the base of the tent. No tent was protected from the rain.

When I walked around Nickelsville, every tent was covered in water and only a few had wood underneath to raise them above the ground. I noticed that Gilbert had a nervous look on his face, as if he were worried for the months ahead.

“We’re struggling,” said Gilbert. “But I was born in Seattle and I live here. This is my home.”

Gilbert also expressed anger toward Mayor Greg Nickels, who recently said in an interview that a lot of the people in this commmunity have homes to go to.

“Everybody in here (Nickelsville) is homeless,” said Gilbert. “A lot fo people do not have homes to go to and that is why they are here.”

I plan on going next week to the church to get information on how they are working with the city to keep this community on its parking lot.

Gilbert wanted me to tell everyone I knew that the people of Nickelsville need donations, and they need everyone’s help to get them through the winter. He stressed that they are more powerful with numbers and that people need to realize that they need help.

When I got there Saturday afternoon, there were a lot of people playing music and cooking food. Gilbert and many others really appreciated that and it would be nice if I could get a group together to do that.

Anyone interested?

Out By October 31, 2008?

Nicholas Trost
October 24th, 2008

Last week’s story gave us a look at how Nickelsville affected the University Food Bank. At the end of my interview with Bill Lowie from the Food Bank, I realized that the real story was across the street and posted on the fence.

What I read was astonishing: Nickelsville had until Oct. 31, 2008, to vacate the premises of Northeast 50th Street and 15th Avenue Northeast. Who was making these innocent homeless people leave a community that had just begun to establish itself in the U-District? I’ll give you one guess. You got it: Mayor Nickels and the City of Seattle. Except this time the city does not want to get its hands dirty.

Something was not right. I decided to ask around to see how the City of Seattle could force Nickelsville to move when they had been given every right to be there by the University District Church right across the street.

The spokesperson from the camp, Aaron Coyler, believes that the city has no right to force them to leave. But he did acknowledge that the church does have that power.

“We are hoping to stay until January 1st, but the church still has not said anything about that”, said Coyler.

For me, this is what seems to be going on: The church was asked by the City of Seattle to get a permit so that Nickelsville did not have to move out of the church’s parking lot. The church is now trying to make the City of Seattle happy by getting the community a permit to stay. Updates will come next week.

I plan on looking into what the city has to say about this in my next post. Until then, let’s hope those pink tents stay pitched.

Nickelsville Creates More Work For University Foodbank

Welcome back to the second week of my Nicklesville blog! This week had some interesting surprises…

When I stopped by Nicklesville last week, everyone moving in seemed to be in good spirits. The goal of this week’s investigation was to check around and see if positive vibe was with everyone in the area.

I started with the University District Food Bank to see how this new homeless community was affecting their efforts. I hoped to gain a better understanding of how accepting people were of this new neighborhood-especially organizations like this one that help out the homeless already.

When I got to the food bank on Friday afternoon, that place was packed and the air was stuffy. I had to bend my knees in order to fit through the doorway and I when I got down the stairs, I realized that the food bank looked like a mini grocery store.

I had to wait in line, not to get food, but to talk to the spokesperson for the food bank, Bill Lowie.

At the time, Lowie was in a heated argument with a man who was begging for more food. The place was so busy so I just went behind the desk and asked him some questions.

My first question was brought on by the assumption that Nickelsville created more work for this food bank because without Nickelsville it was busy. The winter months are also on the horizon.

Lowie said that Nickelsville has created more work for him and his other employees at the food bank but that he couldn’t complain too much.

I mean what can he say?

“Nickelsville has increased our workload by about 5% here at the foodbank,” said Lowie. “But nothing we can’t handle.”

Perhaps the most interesting part of the conversation was when he said that that Nickelsville was going to be gone in 72 hours.

I immediately then ran over to the Nickelsville parking lot to ask some questions.

Everyone I talked to said that the City of Seattle was giving this homeless community until October 31st to sort things out. My next post will be exploring this issue.

Stay tuned!

As a side note: Nickelsville was in the news again. Check out this link to look at what was said about the community in Real Change.

Nickelsville: A Brief Overview

Nickelsville: If you don’t know what it is – you are about to find out.

Thursday night marked the first night of a new community in the U-district: Nickelsville. The name parodies the Hoovervilles set up in the 1930s during the Great Depression. This new community promises to be a mainstay in the U-district-at least until January 1 anyway.

This new community started three weeks ago down in West Seattle and city officials have forced them to move numerous times. The community now resides in a church parking lot on the corner of Northeast 50th Street and 15th Avenue Northeast.

The parking lot was full of pink tents that were donated by an anonymous patron.

TV trucks were by the parking lot when I got there so I knew this was attracting attention. After moving my way through the trucks and wires I instantly caught up with the spokesperson for the camp, Aaron Coyler. He stressed the importance of Nickelsville to the future of the homeless community in the area.

“We hope Nickelsville can help create a community in the future that will house 1,000 homeless people, with social services on site, and the resources to build permanent housing,” said Coyler.

Coyler also stressed how dedicated he must be in order for his plan to work out, saying, “I am going to stay here until that time comes.”

Where has Mayor Greg Nickels been in all of this?

This is the same question that Coyler has been asking for a couple of weeks now.

“He has ignored us,” said Coyler.

This was the point in our conversation where I could feel his anger. The way he said the word “Nickels” proved to me that issue could get out of hand if not attended to. I want the Mayor to take notice. Friday marked my first day toward obtaining that goal. Together, we can get him to take notice-and maybe even care.

About this blog

What are all of those pink tents doing on the corner of 50th and 15th? Who lives there? How long are they going to stay?

These questions will provide the framework for my blog. This new community in the U-district, dubbed “Nickelsville”, has many people asking a lot of questions. This blog will serve as a resource to educate the general public and those in the University community about what this community stands for and why they choose to live like this.

Every week I will go to Nickelsville and interview people who live there so as to learn more about why this community has settled so close to us. I seek to demystify the common misconceptions about this place. I want to go deep into that community to talk about issues ranging from the security of the site, how government intervention is lacking and eventually what the future plans are for all of these pick tents.

I will be linking to news organizations that are writing about this community and I will also be taking pictures to give you updates on how all of these pink tents are holding up throughout the cold winter months.

Lastly, I encourage you to join me in the fight to get Mayor Greg Nickels to care. The Mayor has denied every request for an interview and the people of Nicklesville are hungry.

Let’s get Mayor Nickels to feed them.