Sound Stories. Sound Voices.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
You are on the KUOW archive site. Click here to go to our current site.
00000181-fa79-da89-a38d-fb7f2b910000KUOW is joining forces with other Seattle media outlets to highlight the homeless crisis in the city and region on Wednesday, June 29, 2017.The effort was modeled after a collaboration by more than 70 San Francisco outlets to focus a day of news attention on the issue and possible solutions.Read more about the Seattle project and check out our coverage below. Follow the city's coverage by using #SeaHomeless.HighlightsThe Jungle: an ongoing coverage project going into the notorious homeless encampment under Interstate 5.Ask Seattle's Homeless Community: KUOW is launching a Facebook group where anyone may ask a question about homelessness, but only people who have experienced it may answer. This was inspired by a recent event KUOW co-presented with Seattle Public Library and Real Change, where residents of the Jungle answered audience questions. No End In Sight: an award-winning investigative project from KUOW about King County's 10-year plan to end homelessness.

Closing the Jungle: 'People are going to get hurt'

Homeless advocates gather outside Seattle Mayor Ed Murray's office.
KUOW Photo/Liz Jones
Homeless advocates gather outside Seattle Mayor Ed Murray's office.

Some homeless people and supporters are pushing back against plans to close the encampment under Interstate 5 known as the Jungle. They interrupted a Seattle City Council meeting this week and say they plan to keep fighting. 

TRANSCRIPT:

The protesters included people who live in the Jungle, or at other homeless shelters, and some concerned citizens, like retired accountant Anne Beach.

Beach: "Why have these people have been treated like animals? They’re not! They’re human beings."

Beach, 65, said she can’t fathom how the city can evict hundreds of people from the encampment.

The protesters briefly disrupted the council meeting Monday, chanting "Stop the sweeps!", then rallied outside the mayor’s office.

The Jungle’s been in the spotlight since two people were killed there in January. City and state officials aim to clear the camp in the coming weeks and help connect people with shelters.

Kevin Newsom has lived in the Jungle a few months.

Newsom: "Where are we supposed to go? Into resources that are already smashed and overflowing?"

He knows the camp is dirty and hazardous – he’s been hospitalized four times recently for bacterial infections.  But like many others, he says affordable housing is impossible to find.

Newsom: "So when you start looking at reality of what’s happening, these tent cities are a must."

Some council members are still questioning the plan. And the eviction date is still unknown. But  Beach – the concerned citizen – said she’s worried for that day to arrive.

Beach: "Some people are going to get hurt, and it’s going to be bloody. I truly believe that."

The group plans to hold another demonstration Friday at Westlake Center.

Year started with KUOW: 2006