Witness to King Tide in Olympia

Above: A famous image painted on the side of Childhood’s End Gallery in downtown Olympia, Great Wave off Kanagawa, is a likely future for Olympia. A recent city study found that sea level rise will greatly increase wave hazards along Olympia’s shoreline in the future. Budd Inlet experienced an estimated 16.9 foot king tide on Friday. 

-January 31 Meeting of Elected Officials to Discuss Sea Level Rise Planning

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

While the Friday morning king tide was not as dramatic as in the past, the sight of high water steadily rising to the edge of the boardwalk at Percival Landing still provided an opportunity to witness the possible future of downtown Olympia.

Not as high as the predicted 17.3 foot level, tidal activity was somewhat uneventful and did not require the type of emergency city response seen for past events.

Still, Olympia area community members walked along Percival Landing and gathered at the Harbor House to witness the event.

Donuts, cookies and coffee helped foster a sense of camaraderie amid uncertainty.

Under a nearby shelter on Percival Landing, Eric Christiansen, City of Olympia’s water resources planning and engineering manager, observed the tide as it peaked at 8:40 a.m. 

The atmospheric pressure was a little above normal so it came in two to three inches under predictions, he said. Pending verification, Christiansen estimated that the tide rose to 16.9 feet.

“We’re fortunate – we didn’t see water in the streets or in the parking lots,” said Christiansen.

Above: The Capitol Building in Olympia, Washington is witness to the rising waters of Budd Inlet around the Oyster House restaurant in downtown Olympia on Friday morning. At far right is the nine story Capitol Center Building, also known as Views on 5th, currently proposed to be redeveloped and expanded. It stands in a flood zone.

Olympia, located at the southernmost tip of Budd Inlet, experiences one of the largest tide ranges in Puget Sound. Portions of the city’s downtown area and the Port of Olympia are built on fill, creating an estimated 4,000 feet of land north into Budd Inlet.

Many of these areas are susceptible to flooding, and in fact, are sinking. Add to that, Olympia is located in a region that is expected to see a ten to twenty percent increase in annual maximum precipitation by the end of the century.

In 2011, the City of Olympia funded a study to develop an engineered response to sea level rise. The study examined impacts to the downtown area for sea level rise amounts up to 50 inches. 

At 17 feet, water is seen in the streets of downtown Olympia, particularly on Sylvester Street near the Oyster House restaurant. Over 17 feet, water is seen in downtown area parking lots.

Interviewed by Little Hollywood last week, Andy Haub, City of Olympia water resources director, said that improvements were accomplished last year around areas that see the worst flooding such as the parking lot around Budd Bay Café on Percival Landing and around Olympia Supply on Seventh Avenue, which is a solid six inches below a 17 foot tide.

“The work at Columbia and Seventh Avenue has been completed. The stormwater pipe system in that area used to convey a lot of runoff from upland areas such as portions of the Capitol Campus to the low lying area by Olympia Supply. The flows would then struggle to get into Capitol Lake when lake levels were high. We needed to pump the flows, or risk flooding. Now, the upland area has been pipe directed to the outlet as a pressurized system. The flows can’t bubble up out of the street drains - it’s a sealed pipe system. We still need to pump, but only the minor flows in the immediate vicinity of Olympia Supply.  It’s a far more manageable and a far lower risk of flooding,” he said.

An open house and community workshop on January 18, 6:00 p.m. -8:00 p.m. and will be held at The Olympia Center, 222 Columbia Street NW, in downtown Olympia.

Haub referred to the city’s recently completed sea level rise response planning science review document which will be reviewed at an upcoming meeting of local elected officials on January 31.

The meeting for elected officials will be held at Olympia City Hall in council chambers from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Due to time constraints, public comment at this workshop will be limited to written form.

The document was compiled in October 2017 by AECOM, the consultant used by the City of Olympia, the Port of Olympia and the LOTT Cleanwater Alliance to identify climate hazards impacting the city. It focuses on the three primary climate hazards that will impact Olympia in the future: sea level rise, coastal storms and precipitation.

The document does not make recommendations on adoption of a specific climate change scenario and planning efforts into the city’s sea level rise response plan.

Asked what sea level rise projections the recently completed Downtown Strategy is based upon, Haub said that it doesn’t call out a specific projection.

“Our various planning work has relied on the same projections for several years now. It’s from the National Research Council’s study of potential West Coast sea rise. The numbers are pretty much the same, but we can also add in the likelihood that Olympia is subsiding at eight to twelve inches possibly by the end of the century,” added Haub. 

Besides other factors that make Olympia especially susceptible to sea level rise, the sinking of Olympia could contribute an additional four inches of sea level rise by 2030, six inches by 2050, and twelve inches by 2100, says the study.

Above: Thad Curtz, former chair of the City of Olympia's Utilities Advisory Committee, speaks with Judy Bardin, a former member of the city's Planning Commission, in the Harbor House on Friday morning. Olympia area community members gathered at and around the Harbor House to witness the king tide and catch up with each other in real time.

Editor's Note, January 7: The location for the January 18 sea level rise meeting has been corrected. It will be held at The Olympia Center.

Editor's Note, January 9: A sea level rise open house and community workshop will be held January 18. An elected officials workshop will be held January 31 in Olympia City Hall, council chambers, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The story has been corrected and Little Hollywood apologizes for the confusion. Meetings are often cancelled and locations changed. Go to the City of Olympia's sea level rise planning website for the latest information.

Little Hollywood has written many stories about previous king tides, storm surges, Olympia’s sea level rise planning, projections, and flooding in downtown Olympia. For more stories and photos, go to Little Hollywood, www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com and type key words into the search engine. To find stories on Facebook, go to Little Hollywood Media. 

Mistake on the Lake Redevelopment Public Hearing Tuesday

Above: The proposed redevelopment of the nine story building best known as the “Mistake on the Lake” in downtown Olympia will be getting a public hearing on Tuesday, January 9, 6:30 p.m., at The Olympia Center, 222 Columbia St. NW, in downtown Olympia. Photo was taken from the Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial on the Capitol Campus looking north in July, 2017.

-Hearing on Tuesday Evening Could Attract Hundreds 
-Sea Level Rise, Flooding, Traffic, Other Concerns About Project

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

The proposed redevelopment of the nine story building best known as the “Mistake on the Lake” in downtown Olympia will be getting a public hearing in front of a city hearing examiner on Tuesday, January 9, 6:30 p.m., at The Olympia Center, 222 Columbia St. NW, in Rooms A and B, in downtown Olympia.

No, the building is not going away anytime soon. Instead, public comment will be taken about a proposed mixed use redevelopment project submitted by applicant Ken Brogan in 2016 to provide 140 market rate apartments, a ground floor restaurant, and retail space. 

A nearby one story building will be demolished and two new mixed use buildings will be constructed. The two new buildings will meet the current 35 foot height limit for that area and with some exceptions, reach higher.

The 100 foot, nine story building was built in 1965 as a bank before Olympia had a planning commission. It later served as an office building for the Washington State Department of Corrections and has been vacant since 2006.

The area proposed to be redeveloped is located between Fourth and Fifth Avenue, bounded by Sylvester Street and Simmons Street near the present day Heritage Park Fountain on what is called “the isthmus,” although it really isn't an isthmus. 

The narrow strip of land was created from fill in the early 1900s and is located in a flood zone between Capitol Lake and Budd Inlet.

The city owns two acres on the western part of the isthmus that the city purchased for a park and cleared of vacant buildings. 

The city issued a “determination of non-significance” for the proposed project and received approval from the city’s site plan review committee on November 29, 2017. 

In support of its case, city staff submitted a packet with 25 attachments to the city’s hearing examiner. After hearing the case and public comment, the hearing examiner will review the city’s findings and issue a determination on the land use approval permit at a later date.

While many are looking forward to the redevelopment project, many others have hoped and worked for years toward the building’s demolition to restore the scenic view north to Budd Inlet and the Olympic Mountains. 

The community has grown weary of the building’s blighted presence and past pie-in-the-sky proposals for redevelopment, but given strong feelings the community has about the building, hundreds of people could attend Tuesday’s hearing. 

Above: The applicant’s drawing of the proposed redevelopment from a southwest viewpoint.

While the city works to develop a sea level rise plan, it continues to allow the development of several new projects, including the proposed Views on 5th, within an area that is expected to be inundated with water from sea level rise.

In recent history, several city council members who supported a massive proposed development called Larida Passage on the isthmus in 2009 were voted out of office, replaced by those who supported the vision of a park. 

“We could be stuck with this nine-story eyesore for another fifty years,” says Jerry Reilly of the Olympia Capitol Park Foundation, a non-profit that has been working to get the building demolished.

“The plan to place residences in a high hazard earthquake liquefaction zone is foolhardy. Moreover, it is extremely short sighted to build apartments in a flood plain that will be regularly inundated during the high tides that will come with sea level rise. The project will constrain and make more expensive future efforts of the city to protect downtown from sea level rise and to maintain the vital transportation link to the west side, a cost that will be borne by all Olympia taxpayers. Finally, the height of the building violates the historic view corridor established by the Olmsted Brothers and Wilder and White in the design of the State Capitol Campus,” says Reilly.

Reilly is disappointed that the city has not kept all its promises.

“In November 2015, Olympians passed, with a 60 percent vote, creation of the new Metropolitan Park District and taxing authority, in part, based upon belief that this would enable to city to buy and remove the existing building.”

City Determination of Non-Significance Appealed

Local attorney Allen Miller met a December 26 deadline to appeal the city’s determination of non-significance.

Miller, representing several former governors, former City of Olympia mayor Bob Jacobs, the National Association of Olmsted Parks, Friends of Seattle’s Olmstead Parks and others, states that the State Environmental Policy Act checklist ignores the architectural history of the Capitol Campus, blocks views from the Temple of Justice and is in the shoreline jurisdiction.

His says the building should be removed and replaced with a civic space due to community desire. His 161 page appeal details concerns related to sea level rise, liquefaction, and the need for transportation and utility corridors.

The Behind the Badge Foundation, also represented by Miller, asked the city to avoid making a decision that would change the landscape of the area. The Behind the Badge Foundation was involved in the creation of and maintains the Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial on the Capitol Campus. The memorial faces a stunning view north toward Budd Inlet and Puget Sound.

Friends of Seattle’s Olmsted Parks said replacement of the old tower with a new tower would perpetuate an existing visual obstruction to historic views from the Capitol Campus. 

The city responded to this concern in its application to the hearing examiner saying that the reuse of the tower is consistent with the nonconforming structure provisions in city code.

“Although not required by municipal code, the project includes efforts to reduce the visual impacts of the tower from the Capitol Campus. The applicant proposes to reduce the bulk of the rooftop mechanical equipment area and wrap the building in a glass curtain wall so that it will blend in with the surrounding colors of the sky and water,” says the city in its staff report to the hearing examiner.

Above: Looking south, a relatively tame storm surge from Budd Inlet to the north spilled over onto Sylvester Street in downtown Olympia in March 2016, reaching 4th Avenue and the Oyster House restaurant. The nine story Capitol Center Building and another vacant building, above, are also in the flood zone.

Addressing sea level rise concerns from Budd Inlet, the city says the project will be required to comply with the sea level rise requirements in current code. Regarding flooding associated with Capitol Lake, the project proposes to use dry flood proofing measures, which will be reviewed with the building permit application.

The traffic impact analysis anticipates that the project will generate 1,072 weekday daily trips. The weekday morning peak hour will experience an increase of 85 trips, and afternoon peak hour will experience an increase of 65 peak trips. This is intended to be offset by the addition of a turn lane on Simmons Avenue, says the city.

The city says the transportation impact analysis submitted by the applicant adequately addresses anticipated impacts to traffic and that the proposal is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan’s growth strategy for downtown.

Staff refers to the city’s 2016 Parks, Arts & Recreation Plan that discusses the Heritage Park Fountain and isthmus parcels.

“While the plan acknowledges that there is some community support for continued land acquisition for park features on the isthmus, it does not establish policies to do so. Instead, it looks to outcomes of the Community Renewal Area process and Downtown Strategy to help determine the appropriate city involvement in revitalization of this site. The plan supports the redevelopment and continual removal of blight in the isthmus area.”

Above: The northwest view of the block from the sidewalk near Simmons Street, across from Bayview Market as seen on January 3, 2018.

Above: The applicant's drawing of the northwest view for the proposed Views on 5th project.

“In a perfect world, this parcel would become a public space and this horrendous building would be demolished. In lieu of that, I hope the City of Olympia will send this ill-advised proposal back to the drawing board. I am not against development at this site. However, development should be scaled to fit its setting, and this is simply not the place for a massive tower. It never was,” writes Sam Wotipka of Olympia, in his comment letter to the city.

One person who is excited about the redevelopment project is Kevin Stormans, president of Stormans, Inc. and owner of Bayview Thriftway, which is located kitty-corner to the site.

“We will be able to provide them with grocery services without having to get in their cars, helping to reduce their carbon footprint and impacts on traffic all around the city....While previous development proposals for the site have not been perfect, they would have been much preferred over the current situation, and the latest Views on Fifth proposal represents our best chance to revitalize the area and address nearly all of the legitimate concerns most members of the community have about developing this area,” Stormans wrote the city on December 20, 2017. 

Little Hollywood last wrote about the project,“Mistake on the Lake Redevelopment Plans Underway,” on July 14, 2017 at https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com/2017/07/mistake-on-the-lake-redevelopment-plans.html

For more information and previous stories and photos by Little Hollywood since 2009 about the Mistake on the Lake, aka the Capitol Center Building, now Views on 5th, Larida Passage, Ken Brogan, Jerry Reilly, Behind the Badge Foundation, the isthmus, sea level rise issues, the Downtown Strategy, Community Renewal Area, flood elevation requirements, downtown flooding, king tides and storm surges, go to www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com and type key words into the search engine.

For more information about the project from the City of Olympia, contact Nicole Floyd, senior planner, (360) 570-3768 or nfloyd@ci.olympia.wa.us.

Happy New Year 2018

Thurston County Swearing-In Ceremony: Hugs, Handshakes and Smiles

Above: Newly sworn-in City of Olympia councilmember Renata Rollins, left, and her partner, Walker Lynn, were all smiles after a ceremony Thursday afternoon for Thurston County's November election winners. Rollins is a social worker and community advocate with experience working on homelessness and downtown safety issues.

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

It was all hugs, handshakes and smiles at a swearing-in ceremony Thursday afternoon for Thurston County's November election winners. 

The event, held at the Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, was open to the public.

Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall administered the oaths of office for Thurston County treasurer, port commissioners, city and town councilmembers, school board directors, fire commissioners and more. Guest speakers included U.S. Congressman Denny Heck (D-10) and Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler.

According to the final tally, the number of registered voters in Thurston County was 176,312 and the total ballots counted were 60,478 for a voter turnout of just 34.3 percent.

The newly elected officials, many of whom had never run for public office before, worked hard for their positions, and now have a whole host of pressing issues to address.

Above: Phoenix Wendt speaks with Lacey city councilmembers Cynthia Pratt and Carolyn Cox. Pratt ran unopposed for reelection and Cox won her election against Ken Balsley with 54.87 percent of the vote.

Houseless issue advocate Phoenix Wendt eagerly worked the room, speaking with new Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater city councilmembers. Wendt, a resident of The Jungle of Hope, Olympia's largest homeless encampment, said she will be looking to the cities of Tumwater and Lacey for help in finding solutions for the region's houseless residents.

For the City of Olympia, new councilmembers Lisa Parshley and Renata Rollins, along with Councilmembers Clark Gilman and Jim Cooper who each won their races, will likely change city conversations and priorities. All their wins were by significant margins.

Renata Rollins won her election for Position 6 against incumbent Jeannine Roe with 53.8 percent of the vote. 

Rollins, a social worker and community advocate with experience working on homelessness and downtown safety issues, says her priorities will be to protect and expand affordable housing, take climate change seriously, stand up for equality and stand up to hate groups.

Lisa Parshley won her election for Position 5 against candidate Allen Miller with 62.28 percent of the vote. The seat was open because Councilmember Julie Hankins chose not to run for reelection.

Parshley is a veterinarian specializing in oncology. She says the environment, homelessness, and living wage issues are tied together and are her priorities.

As for the Port of Olympia, the budget, cargo contracts and related decisions are expected to remain the same with the reelection of Port of Olympia Commissioner Bill McGregor.

Port of Olympia Commissioner Bill McGregor narrowly won reelection to his District 2 seat with 50.74 percent of the vote against candidate Bill Fishburn, for a final difference of 802 votes.

Above: After the swearing-in ceremony, the newly elected officials gathered on the stage at the Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia.

Amtrak Derailment Spurs Appeal for Blood Donations

Above: Lynette Manning, donor service recruiter at Bloodworks Northwest in Olympia, answers questions from Amos Wood, who arrived to donate blood in response to the Amtrak train derailment near Olympia on Monday morning.

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

The public response for blood donations in the aftermath of the early Monday morning Amtrak train derailment near Olympia has been overwhelming but much appreciated by local blood donor centers.

There continues to be a special need for O-type blood and AB plasma and platelets.

At 5:00 p.m., donor service recruiter Lynette Manning at Bloodworks Northwest, 1220 Eastside Street SE in Olympia, was busy. She said the office had accepted about 200 donors on Monday. 

While the office was still packed with dozens waiting to donate blood, potential blood donors lined up outside but were not turned away. Instead, Manning was busy scheduling appointments for donors to come back throughout the week and fielded a lot of questions about donating blood.

Amos Wood arrived and scheduled an appointment for Saturday. 

At first he wasn’t sure he could donate blood because he has a fresh tattoo, but Manning assured him that as long as the tattoo was done in a licensed facility in Washington, Oregon, Idaho or California, there was no problem. 

“The rules have changed about that,” she added.

A woman said she just had a biopsy that day and wondered if she could donate blood. Manning questioned her. Did you have blood drawn? Did you receive tissue from someone else? The woman said no to both questions, so Manning told her it wasn’t a problem.

Little Hollywood asked Manning what she wants people to know about donating blood.

“With tragedies like this, although it’s very sad and a surprise, it’s helpful for people to do this on a regular basis because a lot of the blood that’s being used for today’s patients is blood that we collected days and weeks ago. It’s great we get this kind of turnout but it’s really important to get consistent donations coming in. We need about 800 donations a day in order to keep up with the needs for Western Washington. Bloodworks Northwest is the sole provider for blood for over 90 hospitals,” Manning said.

Bloodworks Northwest has donor centers from Bellingham, Washington to Eugene, Oregon.

According to news sources, the train derailment resulted in at least three deaths and more than 100 injured. Thurston County first responders were involved at the scene and the injured were taken to local hospitals.

Blood donor appointments can be made online at schedule.bloodworksnw.org or by calling 1-800-398-7888. Information about center locations and times can be found at bloodworksnw.org.

The Jungle of Hope: Olympia’s Largest Homeless Encampment

Above: David and Kathleen Bellefeuille-Rice were among dozens of volunteers who helped on Saturday to clean up The Jungle, a wooded area between Martin Way and Pacific Avenue near 3200 Pacific Avenue, where an estimated 150 – 200 people live. The cleanup continues on Sunday.

CleanUp Efforts Underway this Weekend

  

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

Editor’s Note: Little Hollywood was provided an extended, in-depth tour of The Jungle on Saturday. Photos of specific areas and individuals were taken with permission. Interviews were also granted to Little Hollywood with permission that the information could be shared. Little Hollywood has chosen to use discretion in revealing some names and information in this and future articles.

Dave, 49, is a lifelong resident of Olympia, born at the old St. Peter Hospital on the westside and is quickly slipping through the cracks of society’s safety net. 

Waiting for Social Security payments that could qualify him for about $800 a month, he has a blood vessel that puts pressure on his brain, occasionally causing seizures. He’s going to counseling, which is the start of a long paper trail, but isn’t optimistic that he’s going to get the help he needs. He said it took a friend of his who had lupus ten years to qualify and start receiving payments.

Dave is homeless, and has been a resident of The Jungle, Olympia’s largest homeless encampment in the wooded area between Martin Way and Pacific Avenue adjacent to the former Desire Video business at 3200 Pacific Avenue, for the past two and a half months.

The Jungle, a 1906 classic novel written by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair, portrayed the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in Chicago and similar industrialized cities.

In Olympia, however, The Jungle is spread out over ten acres and several parcels belonging to three separate property owners. Three of the ten acres is a sensitive wetland in the Woodland Creek watershed.

A major cleanup there is underway this weekend. Instead of the area being known as The Jungle, word is out that it is now called the Jungle of Hope.

Sponsored by Just Housing, a local housing advocacy group, the Socialist Party USA – South Sound Organizing Area, and United Love in Action Coalition, the cleanup event called Jingle of Hope continues on Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 

As volunteers gathered at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, the temperature was a bone-chilling 35 degrees. Volunteers signed liability waivers and were urged not to touch anything they didn’t want to, but to summon assistance from others who were trained to deal with sharps and other hazardous materials.

Wheelbarrows, gloves, rakes, shovels, and sharps containers were distributed. Groups were initially dispatched to specific areas in groups of three, but as the morning wore on, more volunteers arrived to help, leading to an all-out cleanup of several areas.

A huge dumpster, paid for by Indivisible Thurston County, is on site for the entire weekend.

A local business, Kell-Chuck Glass, arrived early and offered their truck to help sort and return shopping carts on the property to area businesses. By the end of Saturday, they had returned about 120 carts. There are about 180 left.

Grassroots Efforts

Event coordinators reached out through social media to spread the word about the cleanup of the camp, which is home to an estimated 150 to 200 people who have nowhere else to go.

Volunteers arrived and offered their cars and trucks to take loads to the landfill. Jungle of Hope residents also helped.

The amount of debris is massive as years of discarded trash, human waste and needles have accumulated on the property. Part of the area was a former housing site that burned down in 1969, remnants of which are still clearly visible.

Above: Tye Gundel, left, and Chelsea Rustad help coordinate cleanup activities at The Jungle on Saturday morning.

Of the cleanup effort, “one property owner is supportive, one has not been able to be reached, and the other, when contacted, allowed volunteers to use the former Desire Video parking lot to stage and coordinate the event,” said Chelsea Rustad, one of the coordinators of the cleanup.

“It’s been interesting because the first question people usually ask isn’t how they can help or what to bring, but whether we have permits. Permits of this nature don’t exist because survival camping is illegal in Olympia, even with the property owner’s permission, and that’s besides the fact that some of these people will die from exposure if they are forced to vacate their homes in the middle of winter. So there was also an opportunity to advance understanding of the city’s ordinances and how they are designed to perpetuate houselessness,” said Rustad.

“My stance and that of the Socialist Party is that legality is not morality, and helping human beings survive is more important than whatever oppressive laws happen to be on the books at that time. We also recognize that many municipalities intentionally criminalize the state of being houseless so that they can push this vulnerable population away using the police force, and dehumanize them by getting the general population to see them as criminals.

“Overall, I feel it’s not my place to judge why anyone ended up where they are. They were asking for help, and to be seen as human beings. Taking direct action to help them without talking over them or putting myself in the spotlight was the very least I could do,” she said.

Above: Tye Gundel of Just Housing, left, uses a pair of grabbers to pick up several needles discovered by Jungle cleanup volunteer Joanne McCaughan.

The homeless who live there could also be called domestic refugees. They pitch their tents and create flimsy shelters out of tarps and pallets, enduring year round weather extremes. Mazes of paths run through the property. The terrain is uneven and undulates with ravines. It would be easy to get lost at any time of day or night.

Many residents of The Jungle face medical challenges, unable to get proper medications, and lack support of family. Many are lifelong Olympians. Some are mentally challenged or addicted to drugs or alcohol. Some have been kicked out of group homes that have failed them or are escaping domestic violence. Others are new arrivals, down on their luck. Some are veterans, mothers, elderly and disabled.

Until recently, a 21 month old child lived in The Jungle, amid the unsanitary trash and debris and needles.

This past week, Olympia area evening temperatures dipped into the 20s. Around the wetland portion of the property, the temperature is at least seven degrees cooler.

Several volunteers were asked how they heard about the event and why they came to help.

“We felt like this community needed to be supported…we feel responsible. We need to work together to make a community that is clean and safe and livable for all of us,” said Joanne McCaughan. She and her husband Doug arrived early to deliver several wheelbarrows and tools and work for as long as they could hold out.

“For me, as a Christian, it’s part of the Gospel. The Gospel says that everyone deserves a home. It’s that economic justice that Jesus talked about, and the prophets talked about, and the dignity of all people. I believe God is concerned about the dignity of all people,” said Kathleen Bellefeuille-Rice of Holy Wisdom Inclusive Catholic Community Church.

“And we were invited! That’s the other thing,” her friend Saima Scott interjected. “Phoenix came to us and asked for help. When someone asks you for help, you can’t just ignore it, you know? I mean, what do you do?”

Above: Phoenix Wendt is a resident of The Jungle and started the idea for the Jingle of Hope cleanup effort. She has also created a new group, United Love in Action Coalition. She provided Little Hollywood an extended tour of the Jungle of Hope. In front of her is The Thinking Tree.

Phoenix Wendt, 35, is a resident of The Jungle, and started the idea for Jingle of Hope. She most recently formed the United Love in Action Coalition. Her efforts looking after The Jungle’s most vulnerable residents and maintaining safety and order has been met with appreciation and praise from others. She was busy along with others on Saturday coordinating supplies and cleanup efforts.

Wendt has lived in The Jungle since early June. She introduced me to residents and showed me debris strewn areas with specific names like The Mansion and The Amphitheater, trees with special names like the Thinking Tree, and a path named Blackberry Lane.  

One area is comprised of residents who were cleared out by code enforcements officials from behind the Veterans of Foreign Wars building on Martin Way near Applehill Court. 

“About sixty-five percent of our residents have chronic conditions like lupus, multiple cancers in various stages, and mental health issues….I can’t work because of cancer and other medical conditions and I’m not letting go of my people,” said Wendt, who is working to get 501(c) 3 nonprofit status for her new organization.

The area has been an encampment for decades but attracted more attention when Wendt distributed a flyer earlier this month to Olympia city councilmembers during a council meeting suggesting that the property was being cleaned and prepared for the building of tiny homes for the local houseless community.

Near or at the same time, the city, in response to recent complaints about the encampment, sent courtesy notices to the property owners informing them of the encampment on their property and requested that they correct the situation within 14 days.

Just Housing says that courtesy notices have historically led to the eviction of an encampment, but in this case, the next step is up to the property owners, who have asked the city for more time to figure out how to proceed.  

“We are trying to work with the city, the property owners, the area businesses, and our houseless neighbors in The Jungle to come up with a humanitarian path forward that addresses the concerns and needs of all parties involved. This is a complicated situation with many moving parts,” said Tye Gundel, a spokesperson for Just Housing.

Just Housing is also working with the city to work on possible revisions to the city’s existing houseless encampment ordinance.

Interviewed early on Saturday, Kevin Neiswanger, general manager of the Mullinax Ford dealership, welcomed cleanup volunteers to use their restroom, eat their donuts, and get some hot coffee.

He says residents of The Jungle are pretty respectful. 

“They come over and use the facilities and grab a cup of coffee. Sometimes we chat. We don't mind that. There's good people over there. I haven't had any issues with them,” he said.

He also said he doesn't want to see the residents kicked off the property in winter.

“That's not cool,” he said.

How to Help: The cleanup will continue on Sunday, December 17. Tents, trash bags, canopies, winter clothes, gloves, socks, bedding, hand warmers, food and drinks, first aid kits and more are being accepted by Just Housing. 

For more information, go to Just Housing at https://www.facebook.com/JustHousingOly or attend a Just Housing meeting from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. every Monday at the POWER office at 309 5th Avenue SE, Olympia. To contribute monetarily, Just Housing uses a PayPal account at https://paypal.me/justhousing. 

Above: A child's stuffed animal lies amid debris and leaves in the Jungle of Hope.