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What's happening at the Jungle & how you can help


The short summary

At the beginning of this month, the City of Olympia announced the beginning of a regional effort to begin working towards the closure of the Jungle. A few weeks later, the first steps towards its closure are unfolding. On Monday, May 18th, the City of Olympia announced the start of the creation of a list of the people living at the Jungle. The notice states that everyone on the list will be offered shelter or housing before the camp is closed. The catch – the list will be closed on May, 28th, only 10 days after being open and years before the Jungle is expected to be closed. After this date, no one new can be added to the list – meaning that, at this time, anyone who moves into the Jungle after the closure of the list is not guaranteed to receive an offer of shelter or housing prior to the closure of the camp.


Driven by pressure from and a lack of adequate support and resources from the Department of Commerce/State of WA and the fear of having the obligation to shelter and house more people than our community currently has the resources for prior to the camp’s closure, these first steps are far from aligning with established best practices for encampment resolution. Additionally, the provider community was not informed prior to Monday’s announcement, nor was feedback sought from the providers working closest with the Jungle.  As such, these steps have caused great concern across the community among those who wish to see a plan and a process that is transparent, collaborative and committed to ensuring that everyone living at the Jungle is connected with the housing, shelter and resources they need before the camp is closed.


Some important background

The Encampment Resolution Program (ERP), formally known as the Rights of Way (RoW) Program is a program funded by the State of WA that began in 2022. The purpose of the program is to support participating municipalities in their efforts to “resolve” (i.e close) camps by connecting the people living at them with shelter and housing.


Once a camp is designated as an ERP location, a By-Names-List (BNL) is created. A BNL is a list of everyone who is living at the camp and should also include information about each individual’s needs and barriers, in relation to housing and services. For an ERP camp to be closed, every person on the list must first be given an offer of shelter or housing that reasonably meets that person’s needs.


Typically, and in alignment with evidence-based best practices, a BNL should remain open and be regularly updated until the closure date of the camp is near. For the first 3 years of the RoW/ERP program in Thurston County, BNLs for RoW/ERP camps were kept open until a few weeks prior to the camp’s closure. This is considered a best practice, because anyone who is not on the BNL is allowed to be displaced without an offer of shelter at the time of the camp’s closure and who is staying at any given camp changes constantly, if not daily. So, keeping the list open until the closure date is near helps to ensure that 1) the list remains as accurate as possible throughout the time the camp is open 2) that as many people as possible who are living at the camp while it’s open are able to be on the BNL 3) that as few people as possible are displaced without an offer of shelter or housing at the time the camp is closed.


For a camp to be designated as an ERP location, the municipality that owns the property the camp is located on must ask the Department of Commerce to designate it as such. The City of Olympia, and regional partners, have requested that the Department of Commerce designate the Jungle as an ERP location. The Department of Commerce has since given the City of Olympia the go-ahead to begin creating a BNL for the Jungle, with the intention of supporting it as an ERP location.


What's happening now

On Monday, May 18th, the City of Olympia posted notices at the Jungle to announce the beginning of the creation of a “By-Names-List” for the camp. However, this notice also announced a deadline of May 28th for new people to be added to the BNL – 10 days from the posting date.

It is expected to take years to close the Jungle, because even though people from the Jungle will be able to be offered beds at ERP-funded shelter and housing projects, the number of available ERP beds in our County are extremely limited, with only a handful opening each month. There are also no new plans and no additional funding, at this time, for creating new shelter beds.


Concerns with the timeline

There are some serious problems with closing the BNL on May 28th


1)      10 days is not enough time to build an accurate BNL responsibly. Even if most people living at the Jungle are able to get on the list, it is inevitable that some people who should be on the list, will not be. It is also not enough time to gather all of the information that should be captured for each person on a BNL or share the information and have the conversations with participants necessary to ensure that they have a good understanding of what is going on, what they can expect going forward, what they need to do to maintain their status on the list or how their information will be stored/protected/shared


2)      Closing the list so far ahead of the closure date means that the list will be outdated within a few weeks and that many people will not be on the BNL, even if they have been living at the Jungle for a long-time. These folks, because they are not on the BNL, will not be guaranteed an offer of shelter or housing before the camp is closed, which greatly increases the chances of a mass displacement of people from the Jungle at the time it is closed.


Concerns with lack of transparency, communication and collaboration with providers

It is also important to note that the provider community, including the providers working closest with the Jungle, were not told when the notices would be going out, what the process would look like or what the deadline for closure would be – nor was input from providers working directly with the camp sought prior to moving forward with this action. Especially with the short timeline, the absence of transparency, communication and coordination has contributed greatly to confusion around and concerns with what is happening. It also does not instill trust that the response is being implemented with care and thoughtfulness or that providers and the community can expect the municipalities involved to be transparent and collaborative with providers throughout this process.


Concerns with requirements for staying on the BNL

Another serious concern are the expected requirements for people on the BNL to stay on the BNL and the impacts of those requirements. The Department of Commerce is wanting to require that people check in weekly with the City of Olympia to stay on the list and has stated that anyone who is absent from the camp for an extended period of time – regardless of the reason—should be removed from the list. This includes people who leave the camp due to hospitalization, treatment, incarceration or because they were a victim of violence. If enacted, these two requirements guarantee that dozens, if not more, people who make it onto the list by May 28th will be removed before they receive an offer of shelter and will no longer have that guarantee of an offer before the camp’s closure. Again, this ensures that more, not less, people will be displaced without a connection to alternative shelter or housing at the time the camp is closed.


Why are things happening this way?

The City of Olympia is not solely responsible for setting the timeline for the BNL and is not responsible for the potential requirements to stay on the BNL described directly above. The requirements to stay on the BNL will come at the direction of the Department of Commerce. Additionally, though the City of Olympia is also not wanting the list to remain open for long, the deadline of May 28th came largely from pressure from the Department of Commerce to close the list as soon as possible.


The motivation to close the list as soon as possible has nothing to do with the established best practices or the desire to ensure that as many people as possible are sheltered, as opposed to displaced, throughout this process. Rather, it comes from the fear of the list growing and fear of having the obligation to offer shelter to more people prior to closure of the camp.


So, what can you do to help?


Right now, advocating with local leaders and the State for a different approach is the greatest way you can help.


Ask the Department of Commerce and the State to:


  • Support keeping the BNL open until the last tent comes down – or at least until the closure date of the Jungle is near

  • To not set requirements for remaining on the BNL that greatly increase the chance that people who should remain on it are removed AND to not restrict access to the Jungle – people living unsheltered in our community need a place to go.

  • To provide the resources and support needed in our community to support a plan for the Jungle that will ensure as many people as possible are connected with the shelter, housing and resources they need and that as few people as possible – if any—are displaced


Contact for the Dept. of Commerce and WA State

Nathan Peppin -- Director of Homelessness on State Property, WA State Dept. of Commerce

Governor Ferguson's Office - governor.ferguson@gov.wa.gov

Legislators - Find your legislators at leg.wa.gov


Ask the City of Olympia, Thurston County and the Regional Housing Council to:


  • Support keeping the BNL open until the last tent comes down – or at least until the closure date of the Jungle is near.

  • Hold the line with the Dept. of Commerce and advocate strongly for them to allow for the BNL to remain open and to not set requirements for remaining on the BNL that greatly increase the chance that people who should remain on it are removed

  • Ensure transparency, communication, coordination and involvement of both the Jungle community and provider community, particularly those working closely with the Jungle, throughout the remainder of the development of the plan and through its implementation


Contacts for the City of Olympia


City of Olympia City Council: citycouncil@ci.olympia.wa.gov

Jay Burney, City of Oly City Manager: jburney@ci.olympia.wa.gov

Debbie Sullivan, City of Oly Asst. Manager & Project Lead for the Jungle: dsulliva@ci.olympia.wa.gov


Contacts for Thurston County


Leonard Hernandez, Thurston County Manager: leonard.hernandez@co.thurston.wa.us


Contact for the Regional Housing Council


Register to give public comment during the RHC's next meeting on May, 27th at 4:30


Ask everyone to slow down

to take the time to develop a full and comprehensive plan before continuing to take significant and impactful steps towards the closure of the Jungle and

to move at the pace needed to ensure that as little harm as possible is caused and that the response to the Jungle is one that truly supports our community and doesn’t just make things worse in the long run.


More to come, thanks all <3



 
 
 

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