Volunteers helping homeless community members in the Tri-Cities believe that Richland closed two parks to push them out at one of the most dangerous times of the year.
Temperatures were just above freezing early Friday morning, climbing to about 50 degrees when Richland police closed off parts of Columbia and Wye parks just before noon.
Volunteers who were serving meals that morning told the Herald that cars were towed and they believe at least two people were arrested.
Richland officials did not confirm if anyone was arrested, but acknowledged that at least one car was towed.
They said the closure was the result of significant damage to the park, in part as an “unintended consequence” of “unpermitted actions” taken to attempt to help the homeless community. They told the Herald they would be doing an inspection in the coming weeks.
Volunteers disputed the city’s account of serious damage and safety concerns. They said they had only heard of one instance of a tree being cut down and that people had been told to stop using wood in the barbecue pits to keep warm.
There did not appear to be widespread damage or vandalism visible from the parking lot in the area on Friday, but within a few hours city employees had erected bright orange temporary fencing stretching from the Wye to Columbia Park West.
All of the parking spots were blocked by cones, with the exception of spaces for boat trailers at the marina. Boaters were still using the launch ramp and docks.
Those same volunteers said they had no idea these sudden closures were coming even though they’re regularly in contact with the city’s parks department. One questioned if the sudden decision to close the parks was related to a city parks tour scheduled for Saturday.
‘Nothing left’
Dillion McCord didn’t have much to his name, but he lost all of it, including his beloved dog when his car was towed from the park. The car had recently broken down and he was trying to find a way to get it fixed. He said the city had not put a tow-away warning sticker on the car in the days before taking it.
McCord said he let people know he was running to the store and was leaving his dog in the car, which he’d been living out of, because it was too cold to walk her that far.
“When I got back there was another car parked where mine was sitting at,” McCord said.
He was devastated to learn his dog had been taken to the animal shelter.
“I don’t have the money to get her out, that’s the hardest part right now,” he said. “I feel like a person who doesn’t have anything else to take away from them.”
McCord sat distraught on a curb down the street near the Kiwanis building parking lot that evening trying to work with the city to get his belongings back, but he didn’t have a way to go get them.
Nearby more than two dozen other people had gathered, many with their belongings in tow, trying to make sense of what was happening.
Most were baffled, they said, because those portions of the park weren’t being used as an encampment, it was just a place they came together to share meals.
McCord said he was told he could come get his car and wouldn’t be charged, but with it not running he wasn’t sure what would happen to it or how long that offer would be good for.
Volunteers were working to at least try and find a sleeping bag for him, as temperatures were already beginning to drop.
‘Pushed out’
The park closure comes after what volunteers described as months of worsening difficulty working with the cities.
Back in March, Richland leaders said they’d worked out an agreement with one group, Camo Dave Ministry, to stop feeding the homeless community at Columbia Point Marina.
City officials seemed to have encouraged him to move the meals to the Wye park, according to discussion at a city council meeting.
One commenter was upset he was being allowed to serve meals to homeless people at any of the parks.
It wasn’t a new initiative, a group of mothers and grandmothers have been doing similar outreach at Keywaydin Park in Kennewick for years. They were inspired by another woman who had been doing it on her own before that.
Since that March meeting though, the Camo Dave group has had issues with the health department, according to social media posts.
Another group that sometimes works with Camo Dave, but isn’t part of his ministry, was also serving people at the Wye.
A volunteer for one of the groups says that most of the people doing meal outreach have had similar issues recently, they’re being told the food has to be prepared in a commercial kitchen and health department standards for preparation.
None of the groups are selling food or advertising the event, they’re just trying to feed people in need, they said.
They said it’s not just Richland, Kennewick and Pasco also have gotten harder to work with.
The volunteers feel like they’re being pushed out by the cities. They move to a new area when asked, just for police or city employees to show up and push them somewhere else. Each time, the people they’re trying to be helped are pushed farther away from the services they need.
The volunteers the Herald spoke with all asked not to be named because they were concerned it could result in retaliation and other outreach efforts being shut down.
They felt like police were trying to intimidate either them or the homeless community members as they brought in some pizza that evening down the road in the Kennewick portion of Columbia Park.
Two patrol cars sat in the parking where dozens of people experiencing homelessness had gathered to try and get information on what was happening.
One volunteer who spent the day trying to help the displaced people said that only a couple people were living near the areas closed off, and they had the most critical needs. For the most part they were just serving meals at the gazebo twice a day and people were leaving after they’d clean up.
They’re now worried that they aren’t going to be able to find the people with critical needs, and that people in need of a meal won’t know where to find them.
“They’re so scared,” the volunteer said. “We’re not going to have this place anymore to be able to connect with them and to help them.”
She’s worried the people they’ve been helping for nearly two years are going to starve or will be put into a more dangerous situation.
“This is probably one of the worst days I’ve seen,” she said. “I don’t see how (this makes the community safer). At least we have rules … These are not criminals and they’re being treated like they are.”
The volunteers say the outreach groups provide a safe time and place for the people they serve to come together, eat a hot meal and be treated with the dignity they’re not typically afforded. In turn, this allows volunteers to build connections and help set people on the path to further help when they’re ready.
She said they feed 50 to 75 people every day. They’ve formed a tight knit community that looks out for each other. That was on display Friday with people trying to help their friends who had lost supplies or were scared and didn’t know where to go.
Others were trying to make calls or going back and forth to the closed park to ensure people knew where to go.
‘Intimidation’
A man going by the name Slim told the Herald that it was now fairly common to have police nearby when they were being served a meal.
“It feels like an intimidation factor. ‘Okay you’ve had time to eat, now it’s time to disperse,’” he said. “There isn’t anywhere to go.”
Slim said he’s became homeless after losing everything, but the shelters don’t allow married couples to stay together, so he and his wife have no place to go without separating.
Tri-City Union Gospel Mission is also a religious organization and requires people staying there to be sober, and their aging women’s shelter is in dire need of a larger replacement. They provide a lot of much needed services, but there are some people who can’t fit into their guidelines.
The Tri-Cities has no detox centers, though both Benton and Franklin counties are working to get a sobering center and other crisis mental health and addiction services up and running.
That means anyone in active addiction has no place to go in order to get help managing withdrawals until they’re sober enough to be able to go to the mission.
After Pasco recently passed a “no sit-no lie” ordinance, Slim said they were forced to cross the river to find somewhere safe. That makes it a lot harder when they’re trying to stay near the services they need, in order to get help and make appointments to try and find work or housing. It also means they don’t have convenient access to the daytime services at the shelter.
“It’s inhumane …. nobody wants to be out here,” he said. “Now you’re going to push them into neighborhoods. We don’t want to do that. We don’t want to encroach on people’s homes. You get pushed further out, you’re away from services at all. Taking away bathroom usage, that’s going to create a nasty problem. Really guys?”
He said being pushed out of an area and losing your belongings just sets you even further back, and now there really isn’t anywhere else to go because each city has pushed them farther away over the past few years.
“It makes you feel a lot more hopeless,” he said. “We’re not out here sitting around, we’re working every day to get off the streets. Whether it’s out there trying to make a living or get on a housing list for anything we can even afford.”
Slim said that while there is drug usage among the homeless community, he has never seen anyone drinking or getting high when volunteers were serving meals. If anything, people try to help out.
When it comes to drug usage though, he said most people don’t become homeless because of an addiction, they end up becoming addicted because they’re trying to cope with the difficulties of being on the streets.
He said some people need mental health care, and many others just had a run of bad luck and lost their livelihood. The people getting together for a meal at the park are just trying to get by.
“You are one life changing event from being out here, and I don’t care what walk of life you’re from,” he said. “It happens so fast when you fall that you can’t catch anything on your way down.”
