The city of Aberdeen worked with Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) on Wednesday in order to move the structures the homeless residents had previously built, or assembled to make themselves homes on State Street.

Homeless residents there were notified last week, according to Laina Moore, behavioral health navigator for Aberdeen, Hoquiam and Cosmopolis.

City staff, including Aberdeen Code Enforcement, and WSDOT cleared tents, structures, items many housed individuals might call garbage, and other stuff from the north side of State Street. The move for the homeless people is temporary and they would be allowed to move back, once the area from where they were moved is clear.

Moore, pointed to the green and black tents Rose Abbott, and others from Destination Hope and Recovery, were helping build for the residents who were displaced from their former homes on State Street. The homes were constructed with pallets, tarps and other strong material.

“It’s a health and safety thing, yep, absolutely,” Moore said as she pointed to the state and city staffers who were using shovels and construction vehicles to clear out the area.

Moore, who sounded empathetic to residents temporarily displaced from the land they’ve been allowed to live on, explained what was happening as a rat was seen scurrying across the mud near one of the Chehalis River Bridge stanchions.

“Pretty much like we did last time, we cleaned up and are setting up new tents provided by the city,” Moore said. “People will be allowed to re-setup, but as you can see with all the rats we’ve got to clean up because it’s a hazard down here. Bubonic plague has come back to San Francisco because of the rats. We don’t want the bubonic plague in our neighborhood. People shouldn’t have to live that way.”

There were at least a couple more rats running around as the WSDOT and city workers operated their vehicles and dug shovels to clear out the muddy area underneath the bridge.

According to Moore, no employee on the clean-up process faced any conflicts from the people living there.

“It’s been very peaceful,” Moore said about the 30 or so people living on State Street, before noting she heard there were protesters but she hadn’t seen anyone. She also said she heard business owners in close proximity to the encampment who are frustrated with theft and destruction they’ve dealt with.

Brandon Snyder and Krista Bradshaw, an engaged couple who have been living on State Street for about a year, had a different viewpoint of having what was the home torn to pieces they shared with another person and their chihuahua Little Bit. According to the couple, they didn’t receive enough time to properly move.

“They only gave us a couple days. I think they came over on like the 21st and told us they were going to kick us all out of our homes,” Snyder said. “We only had so much time to pack up all our stuff. Most of us lost a whole bunch of stuff that they’re just bulldozing and throwing in garbage bags. We literally lost everything and gotta start all over.”

Bradshaw backed up Snyder’s claims with more detail that shares another struggle — being inundated with useless garbage from other residents, which is a practice they’ve dealt with for a while. Many housed people have voiced their opinions on the garbage down at the state-owned State Street property and a little bit south on the city-owned River Street encampment and seem to think it’s mostly from the homeless residents. While a good chunk is, some isn’t.

“Other people that live in houses and stuff come down here and dump their garbage from the back of their trucks because they don’t want to go to the garbage dump and pay for the garbage,” Bradshaw said. “We have so many people come down here. They keep coming back down here and doing it. … They use our dumpsters and all kinds of stuff. All of us lost everything.”

Bradshaw said during the summertime she and other homeless residents prepare for wintertime. She has a problem with the timing of this temporary move. Why? The rainy season started Saturday.

“We get our places prepared for wintertime so we’re not cold in there and they just tear our places down,” Bradshaw said. “So now we have to work on getting prepared for winter again but winter’s here. If they were going to do anything they should have done it during summertime, not when winter’s out and it’s cold out and rainy out, you know? A lot of us have lost a lot of our tarps and shelter and everything. Those tents (they’re building) are nothing, dude. They have Velcro’d doors. And me and (Brandon), two people cannot be comfortable in that tent, not even a little bit. Those are made for plants, not human beings. That’s what they give us.”

According to Bradshaw, there have been roadblocks to alternative options for where to live and she blames the city.

“It’s very stressful. Those are our homes, they’ve all we’ve got,” Bradshaw said. “Sure a lot of us need to get off our (butts) and go do something about it, but some of us don’t have hope anymore. We don’t have that drive anymore, you know? They just try so hard and they don’t get anywhere with it so they stop trying. (The city and WSDOT) just took all we had, everything. Our beds, our home. That’s home to us.”

When told the city said it’s for health and safety, Bradshaw dismissed the idea.

And while Abbott was helping to assemble the many tents that now line the block just south of the usual spot for the State Street encampment, she wasn’t happy with what she and other people had to work with in order to make the new homes for the homeless residents.

“If you had a barrier put in the way of your life, how would you feel?” Abbott said. “This is their way of living. The only thing we’re doing right now is telling them they’re doing it wrong.”

Abbott shared her irritation about the new and much smaller homes the displaced residents will have to use.

“You give someone 50 square feet and then tell them they have to work with 25 of it, how would that make you feel?” Abbott said. “There’s a lot of people down here who have lived down here for a long time and everything’s just been brushed by. This is their way of life and it’s been allowed for how long? And now you’re gonna sit there and say ‘well now that I’ve decided that I don’t want to look at it, you can’t do it anymore.’ If that was a legitimate issue and concern being in the placement where they’re at right now they should have never been allowed there (on State Street.)”

Abbott called Wednesday’s move “just a Band-Aid for the people who complain.”

“It’s like allowing a kid to get in trouble for something five times and then the sixth time saying ‘you should have never done that once, but I was OK with it all the times you did it. I just didn’t say anything about it until it became a real issue.’ This isn’t solving a problem, this is just extending it. And those tents are used to grow marijuana. Why are we gonna tell people you can live in it? I’m only 5-foot and I lie down in there and I have no room.”

A serious problem Moore pointed out for the people living at the encampment on State Street is the city has a need that hasn’t yet been filled.

“We don’t have shelters and we can’t move them out without having some place for them to go,” Moore said.

Moore then pointed the finger at the people standing in the way.

“We’ve got to get the community to quit saying, ‘not in my backyard,’ and start saying ‘we’re here to help. We’re here to help people down on their luck.’” Moore said. “People are in addiction for a reason. You don’t turn to drugs for the fun of it. You don’t move out on the streets just for shits and giggles. Usually, folks are coming from severe trauma and mental health needs when they wind up like this. We need to do better and we need to have facilities.”

Moore, who was once homeless herself, shared an idea she described as tiered living for people recovering from homelessness.

“You’ve got that crisis living, you’ve got a return to the community after going into treatment, supportive living and then you’ve got graduated (living) where people learn how to live again because you forget how to clean house, you forget how to grocery shop, you forget how to be human (after) living like an animal,” said Moore. “And that’s literally, you’re in your animal brain, living like an animal when you’re like this on the streets. I was homeless for three years. I get it. It’s not that easy.”

Moore isn’t alone on the need for a shelter. On Sept. 19, Aberdeen City Administrator Ruth Clemens presented information about the city’s Homelessness Response Committee’s meetings and recent community surveys to create a homelessness strategy to the Grays Harbor County Board of Commissioners.

The point to that subject is to come up with the next long-term objective of the city’s homelessness initiative is to “work toward permanent shelter options,” as well as tweak city codes related to homelessness and expand its voice on legislation, according to The Daily World.

“I think you understand that our immediate need right now is a shelter,” Clemens said, not mincing her words. “That could be used not only by the unhoused here in Aberdeen. We believe every city would be using it if there was an available shelter. We are one of the few counties with this issue that doesn’t have a shelter for people to go to.”

Contact Reporter Matthew N. Wells at matthew.wells@thedailyworld.com.

Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World Rose Abbott, of Destination Hope and Recovery, assembles a small tent that will be used to house one or more homeless people. The city-provided tents, which multiple people say aren’t big enough, are lined in a staging area while city and state workers clean up the grounds where the State Street individuals actually live. One problem an engaged couple pointed out is their home they built and prepared for winter is now gone, so now they’ll have to prepare for Grays Harbor’s rainy season, which started Saturday.

Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World A city of Aberdeen Code Enforcement staffer watches a construction vehicle scoop up remnants of unhoused people’s self-constructed homes from the State Street encampment underneath the Chehalis River Bridge. The area is being cleaned up for “health and safety” reasons. The homeless people who live at the encampment were moved temporarily Wednesday and they’ll be allowed to move back.