PORT TOWNSEND — The city of Port Townsend has provided notice for residents of a homeless encampment behind the Department of Social and Health Services building that it will be closing the encampment effective Nov. 3.
The encampment is populated by 30 people, according to Michael McCutcheon of Reach Out, who provides meals and other basics to the residents every week.
The city cited public health, safety and consistent code enforcement as its reasons for the decision.
“First and foremost, safety and sanitation have been challenges there and continue to be so,” City Manager John Mauro said.
Those points were made clear when Good Man Sanitation, which contracts with city, removed its portable toilets from the site on Sept. 4.
“The equipment was getting damaged and their staff were in unsafe, unsanitary situations,” Mauro said.
The toilets have since returned to a different location at the encampment.
Conversations about the encampment already had reached a critical point when representatives from East Jefferson Fire Rescue (EJFR) and the Port Townsend Police Department addressed safety concerns at an Aug. 4 city council meeting.
At the meeting, EJFR Community Risk Manager Robert Wittengberg spoke about a walk-through he had done at the site.
“We did find a number of areas of concern,” he said. “Particularly, some tent locations that had actually burned with unreported fires. That raises some concerns, for not only the materials there — there were some propane tanks around that particular burn — but also any kind of injury that could occur to residents there, or expansion of that fire into other tents or into the woods or the other structures in the area.”
At the meeting, Port Townsend Police Chief Thomas Olson noted that the site required regular and time-consuming visits. Calls this year are likely to double over calls last year, he said. Many of the calls were serious in nature, he added.
Mauro announced the decision to close the encampment in his regular report at the Sept. 15 city council meeting.
Residents were among the first to be notified of the decision, he said.
“The theme here is, ‘What is the city’s role and what are we good at?’” Mauro said. “We’re not social service providers.”
Mauro named Discovery Behavioral Health, Jefferson County Public Health, Believe in Recovery, Dove House, Reach Out and EJFR’s Cares Team as partners the city is relying on to support the residents through their transition.
“We wanted to do work together and coordinate around both dealing with the public health and safety issues on the site, but also find ways to bring services to those who need and want them, and that’s not in our wheelhouse,” he said.
“Jefferson County Public Health remains committed to supporting residents at the local encampment to minimize health and safety risks,” Apple Martine, public health’s director, wrote in an email. “Our team is actively engaged in collaborative efforts with other service providers, community partners, and residents of the encampment to improve conditions and ensure the well-being of all people living there. This requires a unified approach to respectful engagement and evidence-based interventions in supporting this community.”
Several residents expressed their feelings Monday about the encampment and the impending move-out date.
Damian Eldritch, a two-year resident of the encampment, said he found the location and the ready access to services on the site to be accommodating.
“The DSHS being here for services, the porto-potties, service is pretty good,” he said.
Eldritch learned of the city’s decision a few days ago.
“The feeling is, ‘What’s next life?’” he said.
He doesn’t have a plan, but he will improvise when the time comes, he said.
“Putting my thumb out, tap dancing, putting a leg out, pulling up (my pants), showing a little knee,” Eldritch joked.
Eldritch recently was featured in Port Townsend director Gabe Van Lelyveld’s documentary “Damian and Michael.” He cracked jokes throughout the film’s runtime.
In the encampment, things are no different.
Eldritch said he checks in on his fellow campers on a daily basis, often doing what he can to get them laughing, in spite of often difficult circumstances.
Aaron Speer came to the area from King County in 2023. He has lived in Sequim near the John Wayne Marina, in Port Townsend’s Kai Tai Lagoon Park and has resided at the encampment for about two years, he said.
“Sucks that we’re going to have to move and not looking forward to having to figure that out,” he said. “It was kind of nice staying here. It was convenient.”
Speer tried to rally up support from the residents to maintain the sanitation at the encampment, he said.
“I pick up trash along the trail here all the time,” he said.
Speer expressed some degree of acceptance.
“I guess I kind of knew it probably would end at some point,” he said.
Speer has no plan for where he will go or what he will do come Nov. 3.
McCutcheon regularly provides services to the encampment.
On Monday, he was serving hot soup, breakfast sandwiches and packaged snacks off the back of his truck.
He was also having conversations with residents, inquiring what their plans were for moving.
One man was just waking up and spoke with McCutcheon from bed, with his head poking upside down through the tent door.
The man, new to the area, originally from France, asked again and again why the city is making its decision.
McCutcheon recounted his take on the reasons to the man: Public health, trash, human waste, unreported fires and the city’s plan to develop the adjacent Evans Vista property.
Most of the current residents do not spill over onto the Evans Vista property, but some do and some have in the past, McCutcheon said.
The city has received state and federal funding to put infrastructure on the property to eventually support 320 or 321 units of housing, but that project will take time, Mauro said.
“They are related,” Mauro said. “Right now, we have an imminent health and safety issue that’s not getting better and really a duty to act in coordination with our partners to help people and help mitigate part of that risk.”
Beyond encroaching into the Evans Vista property, the city has responded to adjacent private property owners’ requests for support, Mauro said.
McCutcheon said he is responsible for the encampment’s current location. He brought people to the location from Kai Tai Lagoon Park and behind Penny Saver Mart because the land is a utility easement, he said.
“That’s why I brought the people here because, one, I like them all being together, we can provide services, we can deliver lunch,” McCutcheon said.
Eldritch and Speer both noted a strong community connection among the campers. McCutcheon said being together in one place is preferred for multiple reasons.
McCutcheon said he didn’t ask permission, but he was asked to help move people out of Kai Tai Lagoon Park and behind Penny Saver by city officials.
Mauro noted that, last spring, the city council developed code that would allow for temporary outdoor encampments, with the required infrastructure.
“A site can be identified and permitted in certain zones,” Mauro said. “Some of the reasons we go through the zoning process is, are there sufficient facilities, water, sewer? Is it a safe location? Is it managed?”
Port Townsend Municipal Code 17.62 provides for a number of solutions, including emergency outdoor shelters and tiny house villages.
“We said, ‘This could be an emerging issue and need in our community,’” Mauro said. “In our role as developer of code and what’s allowed, this is an avenue. If a social service provider or agency or group wants to go down this path, here’s where it’s allowed and what you need to do.”
“I can’t say that it’s the city’s responsibility to take care of these people, but it’s the people’s responsibility to take care of these people,” McCutcheon said.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynews.com.
