Tent City 4

via The Woodinville Weekly WRITTEN BY DON MANN

Approximately 150 concerned citizens filled the Bear Creek United Methodist Church last Wednesday for an informational meeting about the arrival of Tent City 4 to church grounds beginning July 24.

Tent City 4 is a self-governed homeless encampment of not more than 100 residents that resides by invitation on the grounds of various Eastside faith-based institutions for 90 days at a time before moving on.

Funded by donations only, Tent City 4 is managed by non-profit organizations SHARE/WHEEL (Seattle Housing and Resource Effort and Women’s Housing Equality and Enhancement League — the largest shelter- providing organization in the Pacific Northwest.

Having already invited TC4 to stay on its grounds, Wednesday’s meeting was informational only — an effort to educate and assuage the concerns and fears of the local community, some of whom were opposed to the idea in no uncertain terms.

BCUMC pastor David Orendorff began the meeting by reading the printed agenda and reminded the assembled throng of the church’s vision statement: “Growing in love for God and neighbor through worship, study and service.”

“Then why are you doing this?” a male citizen yelled.

The outburst appeared to irritate the pastor.

“You will have a turn, sir, and let’s go down to the ‘shared values’ portion of the agenda where it says ‘In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you.’ So if you want me to yell at you, you yell at me,” he said firmly.

It set an uncomfortable tone, one that did not disappear when Orendorff asked the group to stand up and make a circle around the room according to their stance on the issue: Those who were “absolutely supportive” were directed to one area, those who were “not quite sure” were directed to another area, and those who “really don’t want this to happen at all” were directed to yet another.

The pastor then requested those with opposite viewpoints to “just stand next to each other for a minute,” but his invocation was not well received. (For the record, approximately 80 people were in support, 40 were not sure, and 30 were opposed.)

Bear Creek United Methodist Church made the news perfectly clear: Photo by Don Mann.

“I’m here for a meeting and this is a waste of time,” one woman blurted from the crowd.

“I want to know their addresses, if they live within one mile from this church,” she yelled, pointing toward the supporting group.

“If they’re not from this area, then their opinions are not valid!”

The pastor, now aggravated, bellowed: “I said the rules were ‘You shout at me, I shout at you!”

“Shout all you want!” the woman spouted.

At that point, maybe 10 minutes into the meeting, the pastor called for a prayer.

“I need to pray because I’m getting irritated,” he said into his head-held microphone. And then he prayed.

Following the flare-up, the meeting continued with civility. Orendorff asked those who lived within a mile of the church to stand up, and perhaps half the crowd did so.

Following that, he introduced his panel speakers.

Chris Aakre, chair of the TC4 interfaith steering committee, spoke first, and provided background information to the locals: TC4, currently located on the grounds of Lake Washington United Methodist Church, was scheduled to move to Mercer Island on July 24 but a lawsuit against their city council alleging they did not not follow their permitting process was upheld, but is now in a costly and lengthy appeals process. This created an emergency situation for TC4 that was not of their doing, Aakre said.

“We are now doing our best to be good neighbors and fulfill our mission,” he said.

Bruce Thomas, the well-respected voice and resident camp advisor for TC4 and a working member of the group since the Eastside encampment began in 2004, then was handed the microphone.

“We’ve been in Bellevue, Issaquah, unincorporated King County, Redmond, Kirkland and we’ve been in this particular (Woodinville) neighborhood three times previously,” he said. “The opposition to our operation frankly surprises me because nobody has ever been hurt,” he said. “We understand the concerns of our neighbors who don’t know us yet. We plan on being good neighbors and we will be good neighbors and thanks for giving us a chance.”

Bill Block, project director of the Committee to End Homelessness in King County (CEHKC) then took the mic.

He cited a litany of statistics regarding homeless people in the county and told the crowd that TC4 is “very exclusive about who it lets in.”

The spokesman also said he could tell by the crowd that it was the first time TC4 was coming to its church: “The first time the hall is packed and the second time there are two people asking how they can help.”

But perhaps the most compelling voice of all came from former Woodinville Police Chief Kent Baxter, now a King County sheriff who recounted the bumpy history between TC4 and the city.

“There were a lot of people that were upset about us hosting a tent city,” he said. “But there’s been new legislation passed in 2010 that spells out churches have the authority — and the duty — to host these types of encampments.”

Baxter was fully in support of TC4 and stuck his neck out.

“I challenge you to get on Web sites to educate yourselves and hopefully that will calm your concerns,” he said. “I was chief of police for Woodinville for four and half years and I was right in the sights of it when it first came to town in 2004,” he said. “As far as actual crime, it’s very minimal — in fact it’s less than the crime we see otherwise. We had like six calls and most of them came from Bruce to hand over a warrant arrest because they run checks on people and don’t let them in if they have warrants. That makes our job easier. They manage themselves, they have rules, and they follow those rules.”

Jim Kimbrough, an elderly congregation member of Woodinville Unitarian Universalist Church —less than a mile down Woodinville-Duvall Road from BCMUC, which has hosted TC4 three times — then took the mic with grace, poise and knowledge.

He said there was a packed house at his church before the first time they hosted TC4.

“We had plenty of people who had doubts about the wisdom of this, including our minister,” he said. “The level of trust that we established with these people was such that I was able to persuade the board to give them a key to the church.

“We gave Bruce a key and we’ve never had a problem. These are very responsible people and I’m sure as you go through this process you’ll come out feeling as positive about the experience as we did.”

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