Here is a short testament to the quiet effectiveness of a Seattle community for homeless men and women and the open mindedness and tolerance of Capitol Hill. Tent City 3 just finished a two-month stay providing housing for around 100 people on the grounds of St. Mark’s Cathedral and we never heard a peep about it until this article from the Seattle Courant.
The tent city now moves on to Cherry Hill Baptist Church for two months in the Central District.
Not every community is always so welcoming of programs like Tent City. Capitol Hill typically hosts Tent City 3 twice a year — once at St. Mark’s, the other later in the summer at St. Joe’s. Tent City 3 is coordinated by the Share/Wheel organization:
SHARE/WHEEL’s Tent Cities are democratically organized. They operate with a strict Code of Conduct which requires sobriety, nonviolence, cooperation and participation. Security workers are on duty 24 hours a day. Litter patrols are done on a daily basis.
It’s not that Capitol Hill is so open minded it is just that it is business as usual up here. Homeless folks have been camping out on the Hill for as long as I can remember. Sleeping in backyards, in the parks, in abandoned buildings and on the street. How the heck would anyone notice a Tent City?