Amazing Grace Lutheran Church in Aberdeen will host a homeless encampment this winter. Set-up in the church parking lot is slated to begin on Saturday.
On Monday night, Amazing Grace leaders told a group of about 20 residents who live near the church on the 100 block of East Fourth Street that providing space for an encampment should go much more smoothly than the first small encampment located there in the summer of 2015.
“We made mistakes then, but we’ve learned a lot since,” Pastor Val Metropoulos said about the earlier encampment. “We’ve had 18 months to study.”
Several of the people there are involved in the Broadway Hill Neighborhood Watch program, which is composed of residents living in the same neighborhood as Amazing Grace. Some people who will be living in the camp this time around were also at the meeting. There is an application process involved for campers to be included and space is limited.
Both groups expressed concern about crime and safety. There will be increased patrols by police, she explained.
Metropoulos said it’s expected that hosting the encampment during the winter would eliminate many of the problems that arose in better weather, such as increased activity around the camp and a large number of visitors inside the camp.
Amazing Grace was the first church in the Harbor area to provide an alternative to living in the streets for a small number of people after homeless people living along the Chehalis River were moved off private property. They are in tents but have portable heaters and restrooms, access to a kitchen area and showers.
One of the neighborhood people complained about the smell. People trying to camp alongside the location was another issue. Cooler weather could help in both cases, it was theorized.
The encampment will be in the church’s parking lot again. Recently, squatters along the river were asked to leave and many of these people have been loitering in other parts of the city, including the downtown business area.
A Neighborhood Watch group also formed after the encampment opened there last year. No crimes in the surrounding neighborhood were attributable to the campers, however.
Further, the Aberdeen Police Department tracked crimes before, during and after last year’s Amazing Grace encampment and found “nothing significant that we could contribute to the camp being there,” according to a written statement from the Aberdeen Police Department.
A past camper said they had to contend with people opposed to the encampment. Some would pull up and honk their car horns or throw things over the fence.
“We’ve done nothing wrong,” she said. “We have jobs. But we just can’t afford a home.”
While there are shelter beds, some of the people can’t stay there because their works days end after shelter curfew. Or, some women have sons too old to stay with them in the women’s shelter, Metropoulos pointed out.
It was decided during the meeting that a member of the incoming encampment will be assigned to meet weekly with the Broadway Hill Neighborhood Watch to allay concerns of people living in and near the camp.
The pastor urged people to contact police, if a situation appears to require their assistance.
State statute allows such encampments to exist for up to 90 days as long as health and safety codes are followed.
