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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.

Seattle Offers Help Before Rousting Car Campers Near Gas Works Park

Car camper Jennifer Smith prepares for her move to a woman's shelter. She's one of several homeless men and women who were asked to leave the area near Gasworks Park.  Her RV will be parked safely in a church parking lot in Lake City.
KUOW Photo/Joshua McNichols
Car camper Jennifer Smith prepares for her move to a woman's shelter. She's one of several homeless men and women who were asked to leave the area near Gasworks Park. Her RV will be parked safely in a church parking lot in Lake City.

Danny Fletcher lives in a motor home on North Northlake Way near Gas Works Park. He says he feels safer in that than he does sleeping in a shelter.

“It’s more comfy, I have a bedroom, I’ve got a kitchen, I have a living room, and it’s all separate rooms," Fletcher said. "It’s an actual house for me, you know?”

But neighbors have been complaining about campers like this.

In response, the city has given overnight campers through Thursday to move. But it offered help first.

It sent in social workers like Compass Housing Alliance’s Frank Scarabino to help the campers transition to more stable housing.

Scarabino said they think of their vehicles as life rafts on a rough ocean.

“What we are asking the people in the vehicles to do is to jump in the water – sink the raft and trust us and swim to shore," he said. "Give that security up for something that we may think is better for something that they're not sure is better. That’s asking a lot of any person.”

[asset-images[{"caption": "Danny Fletcher, right, poses with Graham Pruss, a homeless advocate. Pruss is one of several people who have tried to connect people living in their cars with more stable housing options. Fletcher plans to keep his vehicle, though. He hopes to move it a little further east when push comes to shove.", "fid": "119477", "style": "placed_wide", "uri": "public://201507/graham_pruss_and_danny_fletcher.jpg", "attribution": "Credit KUOW Photo/Joshua McNichols"}]]Fletcher says he’s not ready to give up his motor home. But Scarabino had more luck persuading Jennifer Smith, who was camping next door to Fletcher.

She’s moving plastic crates full of clothes into the social worker’s car.  

“I’m going to Mary’s place. The women’s shelter,” she said.

She was aware of the deadline.

“They’ve given us until the 30th to move so I’ve been sort of pressured in time to find a place to go,” she said.

The outreach effort found her the shelter spot. 

“Yes, they actually reserved the room for me so I could move in, today’s the day," she said. "And I am a little nervous.”

Smith will get to hang on to her RV. While she’s at the shelter, it’ll be parked safely in a church parking lot up in Lake City.

 
[asset-images[{"caption": "Temporary signs give campers a clear indication of the approaching deadline. Campers claim to have been verbally asked to move sooner. Camper Danny Fletcher says he'll move his vehicle by the legally posted deadline - and not a day sooner.", "fid": "119481", "style": "placed_wide", "uri": "public://201507/sign.JPG", "attribution": "Credit KUOW Photo/Joshua McNichols"}]]
Correction 7/30/2015: An earlier version of this story said the campers had through Wednesday to move. They have through Thursday, 7/30/15.