SEQUIM — At just one-tenth of an acre in downtown Sequim, Seal Street Park’s small space has become a hub for activities and routines.
It features benches, a Tiny Olympic Library, a water fountain and a through way from West Washington Street to business parking, apartments and the Sequim Civic Center. It’s also the only “Busking Spot” in the city under a pilot program initiated by the Sequim Arts Commission where musicians can play acoustic instruments for gratuities.
In recent years, though, Seal Street Park has become an area of concern for business owners and residents as a few unhoused individuals have taken up residence in or near the park and have allegedly committed various crimes. Now city staff said they’ll seek a vote from city council members next month to shift a portion of Seal Street Park from being designated as right-of-way to a parcel.
“If someone starts calling an area a park, that doesn’t change the legal description of it,” Sequim Public Works Director Paul Bucich said. “That doesn’t mean it’s a real park.”
Not a park
Seal Street Park has a sign above it with its name, but the “park” label is incorrect, as of now, staff said.
Bucich said that, through their research, Seal Street was given to the city more than 100 years ago and later closed off to through traffic on Washington Street for safety concerns.
Seal Street was established as a city park in 2003 as part of a Downtown Revitalization Project. There were also plans in the city’s 2011 Downtown Plan to enhance Seal Street and install a crosswalk from the Civic Center to Seal Street.
“But it still falls in the realm of right-of-way, where it has limitations to what we can and can’t do,” Bucich said.
“With people sleeping in there, it’s been designated as a pocket park for so long, we’ll need to pull together a legal description and take it before city council, and officially move it off the public right-of-way and into real property.”
He reiterated that it will just be the non-street portion of the property they’ll look to change.
Once it goes through the legal process in Clallam County, it can then be managed by the parks department, he said.
Bucich said he feels the city would be in its legal right to make the change.
Currently, “No Camping in Park” signs are posted at Carrie Blake Community Park, and after the June 2024 U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, cities are allowed to prohibit camping on public property.
Bucich said it’s likely they will plan to prohibit camping in Seal Street Park because they wouldn’t pursue the parcel change otherwise.
The city has a similar pocket park with Heritage Park, a Clallam Transit bus stop deeded by the Co-op Farm & Garden in June 2001 to the city. City council members requested background on that property as well during the Aug. 11 council meeting.
Concerns
Actions to resolve complaints and nuisances involving Seal Street Park date back a few years.
In March 2023, merchants met with police leaders about their concerns, but more than 2 1/2 years later, concerns remain.
At the last three Sequim City Council meetings, members of the Women’s Resiliency Group, a support group for women recovering from various abuses or difficulties that meets at The Ramen Shop, 138 W. Washington St., have asked for more police patrols and for signage to prohibit smoking, vaping, drug use, camping and storage of personal possessions due to ongoing safety concerns.
Group members also sent a letter to city council members in May in which they said they do not discriminate against unhoused people, but they don’t feel safe meeting at the shop due to the presence of the people meeting in Seal Street Park.
“We have had frightening experiences on numerous occasions with these campers,” group members wrote. “When they piled their belongings on our stoop, and were asked to remove their belongings, they urinated and defecated on our stoop, more than once.”
Group members said they have been verbally threatened, had individuals attempt to enter their space through locked doors, seen frequent drug sales and drug use nearby, and are concerned about children and teens interacting with the people in the park.
“It’s been a tough six months,” group co-leader Annie Hogenboom said.
She added that the group decided on Aug. 18 to disband with hopes to regroup in the future.
Calvary Chapel Sequim Pastor David Rivers, coordinator for The Ramen Shop, spoke to the city council on Aug. 11 and said the nonprofit has served more than 4,000 meals in three years. It has a pay-what-you-can policy.
Its mission, Rivers said, brings the broader community together with the disadvantaged and unhoused, but the park “has become a stronghold for two men who are not only breaking the spirit of that space but also creating real danger.”
He said after providing countless meals and encouragement, they’ve refused “to take any meaningful actions to change their situation.”
Rivers said one man is a registered sex offender camping off and on in Seal Street for three years, and he’s been seen interacting with children and using drugs with minors.
Sequim Police leaders confirmed that the man has been traveling out of the area in hopes to expunge the charge.
Rivers said people have felt unsafe in the park leading to fewer visitors, and the “two men reinforce every negative stereotype people already have, making it harder for others to receive compassion and care.”
“I’m not here to villainize unhoused people,” he said. “I serve them every day, but we cannot allow two individuals — capable of working, unwilling to change — to jeopardize the safety of children, the dignity of our community, and the mission of organizations like ours.”
Rivers later said he is not “OK with what’s going on in the park” and he’s banned both men from the shop for alleged offenses.
Unhoused
One of the men in the park, Matt Johnson, said he is not in the park by choice.
Johnson said he is a widow with four children, two grown, and two who live with other family members. He also lost his Sequim home, leading him to Seal Street in July 2024.
Johnson said he is connected to outreach services through Peninsula Behavioral Health, and he’s awaiting an apartment that he can afford through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). That wait could take years in Sequim, though.
In a July 28 report to city council members, Sequim Police Chief Mike Hill wrote that the wait list is shorter in Forks, but a person from Sequim may prefer to stay in the area rather than moving to another city.
As for shelter options, Hill wrote that he’s been told some unhoused individuals prefer to be by themselves, even outside, than sleeping in a room with strangers.
“We can make transportation arrangements if someone wants to get to a shelter,” he wrote.
Wendy Sisk, Peninsula Behavioral Health chief executive officer, confirmed that her staff go at least once a week to Seal Street Park, but she would not go into more specifics due to privacy concerns.
She said her staff also respond to local calls from merchants and law enforcement about the park.
“We’re coordinating with community partners, helping to remove barriers to housing, helping people to improve their income, again, to help them get into housing,” Sisk said.
“We do have a presence there, and we’re responding to the community’s needs as much as possible and trying to engage people in making positive changes in their lives.”
Hill wrote in his report that he’s been told by unhoused individuals that Seal Street Park is convenient as it’s “near food, restrooms, public transit, a free small library, and is a known spot friends and family can find them to visit with.”
He and Deputy Police Chief John Southard have started weekly downtown patrols, Hill said, and through their conversations he’s learned that most people who stop by only visit and leave, and that from his observation, the Ramen Shop has people from all walks of life visit.
Johnson said he’s stopped sleeping in the park at the request of police officers and moved a few blocks away with the space owner’s permission. He’s also aware of the optics of being unhoused in a highly visible area at Seal Street.
During Sequim Lavender Weekend, Sequim Prairie Nights and other events, Sequim Police leaders report that Johnson and the other unhoused man will leave to respect the events happening.
At the time he was interviewed, Johnson said he had been 44 days sober of methamphetamine.
“Right now my biggest goal is to stay sober and clean,” he said.
As for his efforts, Johnson said “steps being taken aren’t always visible.”
Action plan
Following the 2023 merchants meeting about Seal Street Park, Sandra Allen with Peninsula Behavioral Health said something similar. That “just because you don’t see something doesn’t mean something isn’t happening.”
She added that reporting people’s behaviors may reveal something staff haven’t seen and they can communicate that it isn’t appropriate.
Sequim Police leaders, including Hill, then deputy police chief, encouraged residents to call every time they see something, whether it’s an emergency (911) or a non-emergency (360-683-7227) so that officers can assess the situation for possible intervention.
Hill shared in his recent council email a “Strategic Action Plan” that states the police and city staff will do the following:
• Enhance visibility of law enforcement during known meeting times to prevent undesirable activities.
• Continue collaboration with social services to address the underlying causes of congregation at the park.
• Encourage timely reporting of incidents to enable prompt police response and follow-up.
• Signage considerations.
Hill shared that “if access to the park is restricted, people will go elsewhere, often to locations with similar resources.”
“This may or may not solve problems, or it may just move existing issues to a new location,” he wrote.
Hill said he’s spoken personally to some of the members of the Women’s Resiliency Group about their concerns and noted they have phoned police twice in the past year. He encouraged them to continue doing that, but he was told about concerns of retaliation, which he called “understandable.”
Hill said they are also aware of the meeting times so they can be more present to deter poor behavior and deal with violations. Hogenboom said city council member Vicki Lowe sat outside one of their meetings after hearing the women’s concerns. She said it meant a lot to group members.
From July 23, 2024, through July 23, 2025, Hill said Sequim Police responded to 12,831 incidents, with 132, or 1 percent, in the 100 block of West Washington Street, where Seal Street Park is located.
Twenty incidents were about or made by one person with known behavioral health issues, Hill wrote, while a majority of calls in the 100 block of West Washington Street related to perceptions of social order, not crime.
Those included 25 officer-initiated traffic stops, 12 suspicious person reports, 11 unwanted people (loitering around a business), 10 officer-initiated citizen and business contacts, and seven attempts to contact (i.e. seeing a person needing assistance).
For more information about the city of Sequim, visit sequimwa.gov.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be reached by email at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.
