I was approached this morning by a man and his wife looking for work. He explained that they were from the Tent City and that he wanted to be clear, he was not begging. He introduced himself and his wife and said they had 2 children. He and his wife were willing to do any odd jobs in exchange for payment as they needed to feed their 2 kids.
When I explained that I had no odd jobs for them to do he asked if there was any food I could spare for his family. I went inside and gathered what I could (we didn’t have much) and I gave it to them. When I handed the bag to him, he was really dejected that all I had given to him was a bag full of granola bars.
I felt bad, but really, we dont have much food in the house (we eat out mostly).
He and his wife made their way down 20th to the corner of 20th and Cherry where, as I drove off to work, it appeared that they were still asking people and possibly even trying to flag down cars.
3 questions:
– I haven’t been by the empty lot behind the gas station over on cherry and 22nd in a while, I am assuming that Tent City is back? If so…
– There were flyers passed out before Tent City moved into that lot earlier last year and on it, it said that the inhabitants of tent city were not supposed to be roaming around asking for stuff. Were there flyers passed around this time Tent City moved in? If so, I must have missed it. and…
– Did anyone else speak to these individuals? They were in my yard at 8:30am, and I’m sure they were going to be making the rounds.
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Tent city did return to the vacant lot on 12/29/07:
http://www.centraldistrictnews.com/news/2007/12/18/tentcityreturns
Their code of conduct was the same as before, and included provisions that they wouldn’t panhandle or otherwise ask neighbors for support. Of course in this case, the folks you talked to may not have actually been tent city residents, but just using it as a part of their pitch. I have to say that on our block it hasn’t been a problem so far.
But if you want to contact any of the official sources, here’s the info:
Share/Wheel (organizers) – 206-448-7889
Cherry Hill Baptist (sponsors) – 206-328-0894
Clay Thompson (City of Seattle) – 206-684-7794
…yes tent city is back!
I was approached by a woman claiming to be from tent city and asking for food. Unknown to her, I’ve met her three or four times in the past two years, so I just spoke to her by name and informed her that I knew she wasn’t with tent city. My experience with people actually in tent city is that they follow the code of conduct and, as was said earlier, others take advantage of them being here.