Olympia’s Poor Peoples Union begins replicating Dignity

Looks like Olympia, Washington’s Poor Peoples Union (PPU) beat London’s Homeless Front UK (HFUK) to the punch in their effort to replicate and adapt the Dignity model.

Here’s the front page story from Sunday’s Olympian followed by the PPU’s Declaration of Victory.

HFUK is delighted, of course, by the victory of our brothers and sisters in Olympia, Washington. We wish them many more victories along the way to building the green, sustainable, urban village that will improve not only the quality of their own lives but the quality life in general for all the citizens of Olympia, Washington.

“Olympia’s tent city looks to Portland camp as model”

Subtitle: “Dignity Village, once illegal, now close to signing 10-year lease on site”

Matt Batcheldor
The Olympian

PORTLAND – Aaron Smith flew and bummed rides to get from Homer, Alaska, to the outskirts of Portland, walking for miles to reach his destination. In the middle of the night, he planted his tent on a little plot the locals call Dignity Village.

Smith, 19, awoke to the sight of sunlight filtering through the makeshift houses and tents on a 0.7-acre plot of what might be the nation’s only tent city allowed on city property.

The camp provides a model that residents of Olympia’s tent city hope to follow. As Olympia decides what to do with the tent city here, it can look two hours to the south to see one that has evolved from an illegal encampment to being close to signing a 10-year lease on city property.

Dignity Village is home to 60 people in their late teens to late 60s, most of whom were homeless when they arrived. It has a communal kitchen, propane-heated showers, four portable toilets and an office with six computers with Internet access, as well as a telephone and a mailing address.

Smith, who says he had been homeless off and on for a year and two months, said he found
out about Dignity Village on the Internet. It’s a place to stay while he looks for work in Portland, as the rent in the city there is too expensive, he said.

“It’s an alternative between that and being homeless, sitting in a doorway somewhere,” he said.

The location has its flaws.

The constant drone of low-flying planes from nearby Portland International Airport fills the camp. To the north are piles of rotting leaves at Portland’s compost station; to the south is the state prison. It’s 2 miles to the nearest grocery store, and rain leaves big puddles, one of which the campers called Lake Dignity.

Still, camp residents say it’s a good alternative for people who can’t get into shelters because there’s no room or want to avoid shelters’ strict rules, echoing comments by residents of Olympia’s tent city.

The camp is self-sufficient; it pays its power and sanitation bills and gets building materials and money from donations. Only the front office has electricity.

Elsewhere in the camp, “Light, cooking, heat either comes from a 12-volt car battery or propane,” said Laura Brown, vice chairwoman of the camp.

The site began as a collection of tents, similar to Olympia’s, and now contains mostly structures made of discarded lumber, plywood sheets and the like. New residents sleep in a tent under a tarp-roofed shelter; longer-term residents have makeshift houses, one with a rooftop deck.

Dignity Village history

Police rarely have to visit the site, said Sgt. Brian Schmautz, spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau.

“They’re pretty self–contained,” he said. “They do kind of their own law enforcement deal.”
Police records show officers have made 82 runs there since October 2001, shortly after the camp moved to its current site. The number of runs has fallen each year, from 24 in 2001 to three last year.

It wasn’t always this way. The first year of the tent city, in 2000, consisted of a series of showdowns between residents of the then-illegal camp and the Portland police.

Police evicted the campers, who moved to another city site. The cycle of evictions and moves continued, attracting the city’s and news media’s attention.

Political support for the tent city grew, and in September 2001, the Portland City Commission voted to allow the campers to stay for 60 days on part of the leaf-composting site, Sunderland Yard. More than five years later, they’re still there.

Campground status

In 2004, city commissioners voted to legitimize the site by giving it campground status, bringing the makeshift houses and tents into its zoning codes. Dignity Village is about to sign a 10-year lease.

It is the only government–sanctioned tent city on city property in the United States, said Michael Stoops, acting director of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C. Tent cities elsewhere, including in Seattle, have met the same fate as Olympia’s: local governments have attempted to shut them down.

Olympia’s tent city took over a city lot Feb. 1 to protest the first day of the pedestrian–interference ordinance, which bans sitting and lying on parts of city sidewalks. The organizers, members of the Olympia-based Poor Peoples Union, said they also wanted to bring attention to the homeless issue and rally for a permanent tent city similar to Dignity Village.

After city officials’ repeated demands that the campers leave, Olympia police broke up Camp Quixote eight days later. The tents were moved to a site at Out of the Woods homeless shelter in west Olympia. The owner of the site, the Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation, says it will allow the camp to stay there for three months.

Inspiration for camp

Rob Richards, an advocate for the homeless who helped found the Poor Peoples Union, said Dignity Village was the inspiration for Camp Quixote.

“I think the No. 1 thing that inspired us was just the sense of community that people have,” he said. “It was a group of people that were together a long time that pulled together.”
Richards envisions a permanent camp such as Portland’s, with structures, not tents. He wants to have a commune that grows food and is self-sufficient. He said it might take two years to find a site. In the meantime, the group met last week with a half-dozen churches about moving the tent city to another church site after it leaves its current grounds.

Differing viewpoints

The city of Olympia continues to oppose having a tent city at any site, and advocates for the homeless disagree about whether tent cities are a good idea.

City spokeswoman Cathie Butler said tent cities sap resources that would be better spent on transitional and permanent housing and that solving homelessness is a regional concern, not just Olympia’s.

“There’s a reason that structured housing is preferred,” she said. “You can have amenities like toilets and running water and basic life essentials.”

Portland leaders have declared Dignity Village a success. John Doussard, a spokesman for Mayor Tom Potter, said, “Tom’s been a tremendous supporter of Dignity Village. Very much a fan. He’s always been a fan.”

Potter ran for mayor in support of the village in 2004 and defeated then-City Commissioner Jim Francesconi, an outspoken opponent of the village.

Francesconi did not return a call seeking comment.
Stoops said that within his organization, the National Coalition for the Homeless, leaders disagree about the usefulness of tent cities. He supports them.

“It’s actually a growing movement, and I think it’s homeless people wanting to take more control over their own lives,” he said. “There’s not enough shelter or housing slots available in any city.”

Brown said most people use the camp until they can find traditional housing.

What residents say

In Olympia, camp resident Kandace Jones praised the safety of the city’s downtown tent city during a City Council meeting Feb. 6.

“As temporary as it might be, it’s safe,” she told the council.

Camp Dignity’s residents also praise their camp’s safety and effectiveness.

Brandy Morgan, 37, said she came to the camp two weeks ago, after her husband began a sentence at the penitentiary next door for felony possession of a firearm. He is set to be released Feb. 23, 2008, she said.

Morgan said that without an income, she found herself on the street. She said she’s working to get back on her feet and that the camp is a safe place that gives her peace of mind while she looks for work.

Resident Mark Riche, who said he has been homeless intermittently for 20 years, found a place to stay through the Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program. He’s moving into a house that offers free rent for two years, and he hopes to restart his carpentry career.

For tent cities to be useful, “The big part is just getting them started … without the government shutting them down,” he said.

Gaye Reyes, 62, who has been at Dignity Village for six years, had some advice for Olympia.

“I want to encourage Olympia to allow this,” she said. “Give them at least a year and ask them, ‘How did they do?’ ”

Matt Batcheldor covers the city of Olympia for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-704-6869 or mbatcheldor [at] theolympian [dot] com. On the Web

Dignity Village’s Web site is www.dignityvillage.org. Resident Tim McCarthy is in charge of the site, which is maintained at the camp by McCarthy and other residents.

Olympia’s tent city

RULES: No drugs, alcohol, theft or violence.

GOVERNMENT: Leaders of the Poor Peoples Union say the tent city is run by majority vote.

HISTORY: Camp Quixote began when its residents pitched tents on a downtown city lot Feb. 1 to protest the pedestrian-interference ordinance.

FUTURE: The Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation will allow the camp to be on land it owns for three months. The camp could move to another church site afterward. The congregation has been told by the city of Olympia that it needs a conditional-use permit to maintain the camp.

Portland’s Dignity Village

RULES: No violence, theft, alcohol or drugs or constant disruptive behavior. Everyone must contribute 10 hours a week working in the camp.

GOVERNMENT: The camp has its own democratic government, and all residents must sign an agreement and can be evicted if they don’t follow rules, a camp leader says.

HISTORY: Camp Dignity began when eight homeless people pitched five tents on public property in downtown Portland in December 2000.

FUTURE: The camp is on the verge of signing a 10-year lease.

GET INVOLVED

People are invited to share their thoughts about Olympia’s tent city at 7 p.m. Monday at Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 2200 East End St. N.W.

Poor Peoples Union declares victory, prepares for next stage

Olympia, Washington — The Poor People’s Union (PPU) won a standoff with city officials last month. Despite ongoing objections, the PPU won the right to re-establish the tent city, Camp Quixote, on a new site. According to one of the organizers of Camp Quixote, Rob Richards, “This is a major victory. We get to stay together. We get a place for now, and dialogue has been opened for a permanent site. We developed leadership, organization, and a plan. Now we’re getting ready for what comes next.”

On February 1st, the day that the City of Olympia banned sitting, panhandling or performing on public sidewalks, the PPU set up a tent city in downtown Olympia. Over the next seven days, the encampment grew to 50 people with 25 tents, a kitchen, portable toilet and communal hall. Throughout that time, residents organized trash brigades to clean up the neighborhood, made decisions collectively, and banned drugs and alcohol. Support came from throughout Olympia.

During the standoff, as poor people organized to demand their rights, local government and police threatened to destroy what was built. According to a PPU press release, “Our crime is acting independently and effectively, being organized, and caring for all the people of this community especially each other — those without permanent shelter ?” Tim, Organizer with the PPU, emphasized the importance of the tent city, “This is about basic human rights. This is like the civil rights movement for poor people. People are isolated out in the woods — out of sight, out of mind. But here together we’re safe and able to accomplish a lot.”

On February 6th, the city manager and police chief entered the camp and gave a verbal order to disperse. At the City Council meeting that night, City officials made it clear that they were not going to change their minds: the camp had to go and could not be set up anywhere else. The City wanted the camp community to simply scatter and disappear.

The day after the city council meeting, Carol Harmon, a PPU member, was arrested on a five-year-old warrant after she vocally challenged the city council about their threats to shut down Camp Quixote, “I’m one of the homeless people you’re trying to run out of town, but I’m not going anywhere.”

City officials, concerned primarily with development and tourism, sought to defend property over people. The city government showed little concern for poor people who have a right to housing. On February 8, the City distributed fliers: on one side it promised the arrest of Camp Quixote residents and on the other listed phone numbers for shelters. Many at the camp felt insulted and suggested that the numbers were a PR gesture. According to Kandace Jones, an organizer with the PPU, “They gave us a bunch of numbers for referral services. Most of the numbers are for places that don’t have any available space and some of the numbers don’t even work. They don’t care about us.”

She when on to say, “The goals of Camp Quixote are to get people and the City to realize that there is no option left for us. We want land that’s ours, that we can build on, that the people can run. Real democracy — not this sham and police threats. We are people.”

Jesse Shultz, a PPU member, explained further, “We have millions living on the streets around this country. We have rights. We are here to demand our rights: the right to freedom of assembly, to housing and to live. If you structure society in this way, you should expect [tent cities] like ours.”

The American people have to demand that this country provide adequate housing for all people — but the fight is also bigger. Homelessness in this system is incurable. It results from the elimination of jobs by corporations looking for the cheapest labor and using automated production that eliminates the need for workers. The fight for housing is an important part of building a movement for a new society based on human need, not private property and corporate profit.