Tumwater Educators Strike, School Delayed

Above: A young member of the Kressin family gives second grade teacher Lauren Roberts, center, a big hug Tuesday morning outside Peter G. Schmidt Elementary School. Kristina Kressin and her children came to show their love and support for the teachers. 

Teacher Lauren Roberts wants lower class sizes and language in her contract that addresses safety issues

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

Tumwater school children met their teachers and brought them cookies and snacks at Peter G. Schmidt Elementary School on Tuesday.

Teachers, crouching low, gave out big hugs while laughing and exclaiming how big their students had grown over the summer.

But instead of all these greetings happening in the classroom, they were out on the picket line outside the school.

School was scheduled to start on Wednesday, but that will be delayed for the Tumwater School District.

Day by day, Washington Education Association union members from across Washington State have been able to bargain agreements, but Tumwater School District and Tumwater Education Association (TEA) members have not.

“There will be no school September 5th due to the TEA decision for a teacher strike,” read the Tumwater School District website on Tuesday. 

“Both the district and TEA bargaining teams are coming to the table on September 6th to continue working to reach an agreement. If you have an appointment scheduled at any of our schools, it will need to be rescheduled when schools reopen. We will communicate Wednesday when we have more information.”

No negotiations were ongoing on Tuesday.

Above: Members of the Tumwater Education Association and children strike outside Peter G. Schmidt Elementary School on Dennis Street in Tumwater Tuesday morning.

Parent Kristina Kressin of Tumwater says her soon-to-be third grader, TJ, 8, is a smart little boy who has had the best teachers at Peter G. Schmidt Elementary School.  

“He has had the best teachers who have made sure he is challenged - they've gone above and beyond and have helped him encourage other kids. The teachers deserve to get paid like everybody else. This school district made the top ten in all of Washington but are not being paid as much as those in Olympia and Thurston County.”

With her four year old daughter starting kindergarten next year and a five month old son, Kressin says she wants all her children to have the same teachers.

“I was going to be the mom who homeschooled her kids, but then I met his kindergarten teacher and fell in love.  I would really like to keep the caliber of teachers we have here. This is our home and I don’t want to lose our teachers because they can’t afford to live here.”

Peter G. Schmidt Elementary School second grade teacher Lauren Roberts of Tumwater says she is on strike in support of lower class sizes and language in her contract that addresses safety issues. 

She has been an educator for 12 years and is passionate about her classroom children.

“We do everything in our power to make sure their day is the absolute best that it can be and sometimes that’s hard. And most of the time, it’s the best thing in the whole entire world. It’s so fun. I wouldn’t do anything else but I also deserve to be paid fairly.

“We have a lot more kids these days. Some come from challenging home lives and they are not always ready. Some of those behaviors come out in the classroom. We love them through and through but it’s sometimes hard for the other kids in the classroom to see those outbursts.”

She said there have even been injuries.

“It can take its toll emotionally on a teacher and on a classroom. Those kids who act out end up being some of my favorites but we also need language in our contract that supports teachers during those challenging times.”

Roberts was asked what that support would look like.

“It would look like somebody covering the classroom for ten minutes so I can remove myself or help a kid take some time out, not as punishment, but to recognize that there may have been a trigger for something and we need to do something else. Maybe we could look for it in advance. Luckily at Peter G., our admin is so supportive of this and works really hard with us, but having that language in our contract helps protect us and helps us say, ‘No, we really need this.’”

She said that this year, she will have 24 children in her classroom.

“We’re in public education, so we are going to teach these kids, all of them. Our contract from before says that 24 kids is our trigger limit, so if I get a 25th kid, I get overage pay. We have five second grades right now. Three of us are at 24 kids and the other two are at 23. Those are really high numbers. Really, if we had one more teacher, we’d all be at 19.5 kids, which is a reasonable number. In the high schools, the class sizes are even higher.”

According to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tumwater is 277 out of 295 statewide districts for student to classroom teacher ratio.

Decision to Strike

The last thing Tumwater Education Association union members wanted to do is strike, said Tumwater Education Association president Tim Voie, but that’s what happened as of 12:01 a.m. September 1.

On August 27, voting 91 percent in favor, Tumwater Education Association members authorized a vote to strike if a contract agreement wasn’t reached by August 31. An agreement was not reached.

The Association’s goal was to start school on time with smaller, safer classes. The union is also calling for the Tumwater School District to pay its teachers competitively in order to attract and retain high quality teachers.

In accordance with the McCleary Decision to fully fund education, the Legislature increased state funding for public school by billions, including $2 billion to increase educator salaries in the 2018-19 school year.

As of Tuesday evening, nearly 6,000 Washington Education Association members are on strike in nine Western Washington school districts.

For more information about the negotiations and the Tumwater Educator Association, go to Little Hollywood and read the August 25 story, “Tumwater Educator Union Members Rally,” at http://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com/2018/08/tumwater-educator-union-members-rally.html

Chambers Prairie Grange Starbucks Open Soon

Above: Luis Smith of Shelton steps back to check the position of a tree he just planted at the site of a new Starbucks at the former Chambers Prairie Grange on Yelm Highway in Tumwater. Opening day could be as soon as September 20, said property owner Tom Schrader.

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

A new Starbucks in the former Chambers Prairie Grange in Tumwater may be open for business as soon as September 20, said property owner Tom Schrader earlier this week. 

The 108 year old building is located at 1301 Yelm Highway on the corner of Yelm Highway and Henderson Boulevard.  

Bought by Schrader from the Washington State Grange in 2015, the building had sat neglected and unused for years, but still retained its historic character and structural integrity. 

After a series of messy misunderstandings between Schrader and the city, Schrader’s original vision of lightly converting it to a neighborhood cafe and bistro began to disappear. 

Property rezones, negotiations and compromises between the city and Schrader are documented in several articles by Little Hollywood.

Earlier this week, contractors working for Starbucks were busy working on the inside and on a large outdoor deck jutting from the opened up western side of the grange. 

Meanwhile, Schrader was busy outside planting several liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree) with two employees. 

Although several large trees were cut down, Schrader said he left 26 trees on the property. Two stormwater retention ponds were created to mitigate the impact of new impervious surfaces and make up for the work performed by the large Douglas firs and maple trees that were on the property.

The property now has 30 parking stalls. The drive thru lane, a non-negotiable feature for Starbucks, can accommodate nine vehicles before traffic starts spilling out onto Yelm Highway. 

The drive thru access points provide both left and right ingress and egress on both Yelm Highway and Henderson Boulevard.

In a nod to the former grange’s roots as a community center for farmers, Schrader has placed authentic, rusty farm equipment on the property, sourced from Rochester.

In past interviews, Schrader said numerous national businesses contacted him about the high-profile corner, but chose Starbucks because it is a coffee business where people also enjoy meeting. 

Above: With Tomás Wilson of Shelton, Tom Schrader loads up another liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree) to plant on site. 

A Brief Chambers Prairie Grange History

Historically, granges served as the community center for social, agricultural, educational and political activities for farmers.

According to the state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, the Chambers Prairie Grange No. 191 was first organized in 1906. Grange members built the wooden, one story 5,668 square foot building through donated work on land donated by the Wickie Family.

The Chambers Prairie Grange, completed in 1910, was one of the first in Thurston County. It is not on any local, state or national historic register. 

When Schrader bought the grange, he quickly announced his vision for it to be a neighborhood café and bistro. 

Wanting to save the building’s historic character and integrity, Schrader received a successful rezone of the property from single family low density to community service.

Because the building sits in the city’s right of way and the city has future plans to expand the intersection, city staff made some development concessions with Schrader in support of his efforts to save the building. 

Intent on building a new 4,000 square foot building after entering into negotiations with Starbucks, Schrader declared that the building could not be saved and began dismantling the interior. 

City staff told Schrader he would have to conform to land use regulations for new construction if he was going to destroy the building. 

Schrader purchased the adjacent property from The Farm Homeowners Association and received a rezone for that property in 2016. 

Through negotiations with the city, a developer’s agreement was hammered out and Schrader moved forward with his new plans. 

For more photos and information about the history of the Chambers Prairie Grange, the building’s purchase by Tom Schrader, and related land use discussions with the City of Tumwater, go to Little Hollywood, https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com and type key words into the search engine.

Tumwater Educator Union Members Rally

Above: Jillian Emerson, 17, and Jessica Bowerman, 17, will be seniors at Black Hills High School in September. They rallied in support of their teachers and others represented by the Tumwater Education Association outside Tumwater School District offices on Saturday afternoon.

“I really believe that with the numbers we have right now, over 90 percent of our members will vote to strike,” says Tim Voie, Tumwater Education Association union president.

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https:/janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

“The last thing we want to do is strike,” said Tim Voie, Tumwater Education Association president at a rally held outside Tumwater School District offices on Saturday afternoon.

Inside, union representatives were working on a contract while Voie and union members were outside calling for lower class sizes and professional pay and respect.

Many families are on vacation squeezing out the last bits out of summer or shopping for back-to-school clothes and supplies while educator union members around the state are bargaining for fair wages.

In its January, 2012 McCleary decision, the Washington State Supreme Court ordered the state to fully fund K-12 public schools as required by Article IX of the Washington Constitution.

This past June, the court ruled that the state is in compliance with the McCleary decision. The Legislature increased state funding for public schools by billions, including $2 billion to increase educator salaries in the 2018-19 school year.

Although the money is there, pay raises at the local level in each school district need to be negotiated.

An educator for 26 years, Voie is a teacher at Secondary Options, Tumwater’s alternative high school. This is his fifth year as president of the Tumwater Education Association.

The Association has been in negotiations with the Tumwater School District since May. 

“At that time, they offered us a 3.1 percent pay raise. Then we spent the summer watching districts around the state get significant pay increases. We believe that the teachers of Tumwater should get a fair portion that the state allotted in the McCleary decision for teacher’s salaries.”

The 3.1 percent figure, Voie says, is an imaginary number.

“So many districts have flown past that percentage that the district finally agreed yesterday that the 3.1 percent number is a non-factor. Now we’re trying to bargain a contract to get us to an equal footing similar to our like-sized districts from around the state. What we’re finding is that in order to attract and retain great teachers, we’re going to have to offer a salary that’s going to do so,” said Voie.

“Right now, the offer the district has put on the table will not be ratified by our membership when we present the numbers to them. We’ve got a strike authorization vote for Monday. I really believe that with the numbers we have right now, over 90 percent of our members will vote to strike. That doesn’t mean we’re on strike then. We’ve still got until August 31 to work on it. That’s when our current contract expires, so we so could vote to authorize a strike and we could keep working on negotiations.”

There are about 6,000 students in Tumwater and about 400 certificated staff. Members of the union include not just teachers, but psychologists, counselors, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, and nurses.

Tumwater Education Association negotiators include five certificated members and one representative of the Washington Education Association.

Voie was asked if Tumwater union members have ever before reached this point of contention.

“Not to this point. We went to mediation a couple of years ago and had to use a mediator to settle but we’ve never reached a point where a strike was imminent. We’re there now. Again, that’s the last thing we want to do. That’s not good for anybody, but neither does settling for a salary that we think doesn’t value and honor the teachers.” 

Above: Tumwater Education Association members rally on Saturday.

Jillian Emerson, 17, and Jessica Bowerman, 17, both students at Black Hills High School, spent their Saturday supporting their teachers and Tumwater school district staff.

Amid noisy, supportive horn honking by cars driving past the rally, Bowerman said she moved to Tumwater from Minneapolis when she was in the eighth grade. She says she wants to be an engineer.

“I really like math and took calculus last year,” she said.

Emerson, who has attended Tumwater schools since kindergarten, says she wants to go into the medical field, perhaps as a physical therapist.

“I love all my teachers. They deserve fair pay. We’ve lost some good teachers to other districts because of the pay. I don’t want them to go on strike. My dad is a bus driver and I want my dad to work. I definitely support what the teachers are asking for,” said Emerson.

Olympia Education Association Bargaining Session on Monday

Adam Brickell, president of the Olympia Education Association, was at the rally in support of the demonstration. Brickell represents about 700 union members.

Brickell, a speech and language pathologist, works with special education students with speech delays. He’s been an educator for 22 years and has held his position as union president for almost six years.

Brickell says Olympia is still having good, constructive talks at the bargaining table. His union is not considering a strike and his members are out supporting others. 

The Olympia Education Association has an all-day bargaining session scheduled for Monday. He hopes they can get a temporary agreement so they can ratify it at their general membership meeting on August 29.

“Everyone is bargaining right now and trying to wrap things up before school starts, so you’re going to see a lot happening in this next week,” said Bricklin.

Above: Jennifer Hyer-Long, a physical education teacher at Tumwater Middle School, with her son, Chase, who is almost 13 years old, on Saturday afternoon. Holding her homemade sign, Hyer-Long said she has lived in Tumwater since the fourth grade. 

Justice Sought for Yvonne McDonald

Above: Family and friends of Yvonne McDonald gathered with hundreds of community members at West Central Park in Olympia Thursday night. McDonald died amid suspicious circumstances on August 7.

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

The life of Yvonne McDonald was honored and remembered by family, friends, and community members at West Central Park in Olympia Thursday night.

McDonald’s death on August 7 under suspicious circumstances has shocked the community.

Hundreds of people, many bringing bouquets of flowers, filled the park on the corner of Harrison and Division in west Olympia. As the sun went down, candles were lit, hugs were shared, and stories about McDonald were told from the heart.

McDonald, 56, was found alive and partially clothed with significant injuries to her body on Olympia’s westside the morning of August 7.

At about 7 a.m., Olympia Police and the Olympia Fire Department were dispatched to a report of a woman lying in the yard of a private residence in the 900 block of Division Street NW.

According to a press release, fire personnel provided immediate medical care to McDonald and she was transported to St. Peter Hospital. There, she received further medical treatment but died that evening at the hospital.

Above: Hundreds of community members gathered to support the family of Yvonne McDonald on Thursday night in Olympia.

Without going into details, McDonald’s eldest niece, Talauna Reed, said her aunt’s death has left the family with many questions about what happened and the answers they’ve received so far aren’t “lining up.”

She described McDonald, an African American woman, as a ball of energy who knew how to draw a crowd and stand up to bullies. Born in Houston, Texas, she lived in Washington State for over 40 years.

McDonald valued education and instilled her beliefs into her many family members and nieces, many of whom spoke at the vigil.

Reed said McDonald was known to talk a lot and would debate anything, a comment which elicited laughter from family members.

“She liked to be heard, and that was ok, because of what she stood for. It was amazing….She didn’t have kids, and I wanted to be just like her. 

“Yvonne taught me to push forward…and persevere, liking what you do and how you do it. My aunt embraced her beauty, her African American culture, and her intellect…she was beautiful,” said Reed.

McDonald had worked for several state agencies, including the Department of Ecology and the Department of Employment Security. She also worked for the Sentencing Guidelines Commission and South Puget Sound Community College. 

She received her Masters of Public Administration from The Evergreen State College.

One of her faculty professors, Peter Bohmer, said he learned from McDonald as much as he hoped she learned from him. She was his student in the master’s program in the fall of 2000.  

Bohmer said she was an independent thinker, an outstanding student, and the most outspoken in class. He said one of her favorite books was The People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn.

“She would know paragraphs by heart, particularly about labor movements, civil rights, and reconstruction. She had really, really strong views, particularly about economic and racial justice. She was a big believer in labor movements as helping improve the dignity of all people,” he said. Bohmer said she later worked as an organizer for unions. 

They maintained their friendship until her death, enjoying deep conversations.

“Yvonne McDonald will be missed. Yvonne McDonald presenté,” he said.

Lanessa Inman, racial justice director of YWCA Olympia, thanked the community for holding space in support of McDonald and her family. YWCA Olympia has a mission of eliminating racism and empowering women.

“Yvonne’s life deserves justice…this (vigil) needed to happen,” said Inman. She said her heart sank when she first heard the reports of what happened.

“Black women, brown women, and indigenous women are murdered or disappear or just vanish. They are silenced and there is complacency, and we were adamant that that would not happen….We have a lot of work to do in this community,” she said.

In a written statement issued earlier this week, Olympia Police Department Chief Ronnie Roberts said the death of McDonald has raised many concerns and questions in the community.

“When a member of our community dies under suspicious circumstances, it leaves us all shaken and understandably in need of answers. There is currently much that we do not know and cannot know yet. There is also information that we will not share out of respect for Ms. McDonald’s family and her personal and medical privacy,” said Roberts.

Olympia police detectives have been assigned to the case and Roberts said the detectives are in communication with members of McDonald’s family.

The Thurston County Coroner’s Office conducted an autopsy and the results are pending. The coroner has not yet determined the cause of death.

A Facebook site, Justice 4 Yvonne, has been established. Fundraising efforts in support of the family for expenses related to McDonald’s death are also underway.

If anyone has any information that may be useful, contact Olympia Police Department Detective Al Weinnig at (360) 753-8300 or aweinnig@ci.olympia.wa.us

Above: A vigil for Yvonne McDonald of Olympia was held Thursday night in Olympia.

Unhealthy Air Quality in South Puget Sound

Above: In a photo taken from Madison Scenic Park, the Washington State Capitol Building in Olympia is barely visible through the smoke Wednesday morning. 

Unhealthy air quality throughout South Puget Sound is making many people feel dizzy, head-achy, and short of breath this week. 

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

Dizzy and head-achy? If you woke up Tuesday morning in South Sound feeling like you were experiencing a lingering weekend hangover, you were not alone. 

For many, those symptoms, along with a shortness of breath, were related to poor air quality. The conditions that adversely affect public health continued on Wednesday.

According to the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency (ORCAA), which serves Clallam, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, Mason, Pacific, and Thurston counties, air quality reached unhealthy levels due to wildfire smoke around the state and Canada.

ORCAA monitors air quality stations in Aberdeen, Cheeka Peak in Clallam County, Lacey, Port Angeles, Port Townsend, Shelton, South Bend and Yelm.

At 11:00 a.m., the Washington Air Quality Advisory (WAQA) level reached 191 in Lacey. According to a chart legend, a range of 151 – 200 is considered unhealthy. A range between 201 -300 is considered very unhealthy.  

Yelm registered a level of 44, within the “good” air quality range of 0-50.

By 4:00 p.m., the WAQA reading for Lacey was 155.

The Washington State Department of Ecology created the Washington Air Quality Advisory (WAQA) information tool to advise the public about air quality levels. It advises the public on measurements of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particle pollution and fine particles and sulfur dioxide.

The data is collected and reported to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The WAQA bases its advice about air quality on lower levels of fine particles than the Environmental Protection Agency's national information tool, the Air Quality Index (AQI). Both use color-coded categories ranging from good to hazardous.

Studies show that certain levels of particles such as smoke and dust in the air can cause illness and death.

For more air quality information, go to: https://ecology.wa.gov/Research-Data/Monitoring-assessment/Washington-Air-Quality-Advisory  or https://www.orcaa.org/air-quality/current-air-quality/

Just Housing, Homeless Camp Residents Organize

Above: Michelle, a former medical assistant, lives at the Nickerson encampment for the houseless off Eastside Street in Olympia. She has gastroparesis, a digestive system disorder, and other chronic illnesses. 

By Invitation, Little Hollywood Visits Nickerson Camp

By Janine Gates

Little Hollywood

https://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

“I had two closets full of shoes!” Michelle laughed, but then paused. “It almost makes me want to cry,” she added.

Michelle, a former medical assistant, has lived at the Nickerson homeless encampment, a wooded, 2.5-acre property located on Wheeler Avenue off Eastside Street in Olympia, for about three months.

She has always worked, and is waiting for her Social Security disability benefits to start.

From Pierce County, Michelle became homeless after a divorce, but says she is healthier now in spirit than she was while married.

Her decline into chronic illness began after colon surgery in August, 2014. She has gastroparesis, a digestive disorder in which the stomach cannot empty itself of food in a normal fashion.

Then she suffered her first heart attack in July, 2015.

She needs regular colostomy supplies but has no address for them to be delivered. Instead, she uses sanitary pads as a heavy duty, makeshift bandage for her stomach so she doesn’t soil herself. She is in pain, which perpetuates vomiting.

“I’m used to being the one who takes care of others, but I’m resourceful,” she says. “I grew up on a farm in Lewis County.” 

Michelle is just one of nine residents at the Nickerson Camp who has a story, illustrating how easy it is to slip into a life of homelessness and lose access to the everyday conveniences of modern life.

Above: A meal of ravioli at the Nickerson Camp.

Nickerson Camp History

The city recently bought the Nickerson encampment area for use as a future park.

Camp residents were served a 72 hour notice of eviction on July 12. The area has been a homeless encampment for many years, but this was the first time this specific property had been served with such a notice.

Last month, Olympia city council members put off the eviction until further notice.

It was the same evening the council declared homelessness a public health emergency and the optics didn’t look good to take action on both actions on the same night.

Then, on July 24, the city announced the proposed locations of two city sanctioned sites for the homeless. A council finance committee met July 31 to discuss financing options for those sites and other homeless response efforts.

Councilmembers will hold a study session on August 21 to discuss those financing options, which include current operating and capital budget monies, and the possible use of Home Fund sales tax dollars, parks funds, and emergency reserves from the city’s operating budget.

City manager Steve Hall says the Nickerson site is not an ideal site for a permanent camp due to the environmental sensitivity of the area. In reality, hundreds of Olympia residents are living in wooded areas around Thurston County and all of them are environmentally sensitive.

Residents of the Nickerson Camp are interested in being part of the solution.

Prior to the eviction notice being served, they had collected numerous bags of trash to take off the property. The bags have been removed by members of Just Housing, an all volunteer advocacy organization, without the assistance of the city. 

With boots-on-the-ground, the group works directly with the homeless on daily and long-term solutions to local homelessness issues and urges councilmembers to adopt realistic, cost-effective approaches to managing the city’s unhoused residents.

Above: Tye Gundel of Just Housing takes a call while sitting at the Woodland Trail trailhead near the Nickerson Camp. 

Tye Gundel of Just Housing visits the Nickerson camp and other homeless encampments several times a week. She not only listens to residents, she washes their laundry at laundromats, brings needed supplies, and facilitates communication among residents, councilmembers, the faith community, and other community social service providers.

“City staff and councilmembers are gradually taking steps to embrace some of our ideas,” Gundel said diplomatically this week.

Gundel has suggested numerous goals, policies and procedures regarding local homelessness since the group started its work advocating for open 24/7 restrooms in November 2016.

Recently, the group created several half-inch binders, one for each city councilmember and some for staff, chock full of solid local research and practical strategies. Gundel gave them to councilmembers prior to their July 24 study session on homelessness.

For example, Just Housing provides suggestions for regulating camping rather than imposing an outright ban.

One approach includes a “shelter-in-place” plan to working with existing encampments, in addition to the creation of alternative legal and safe encampments, like the two recently proposed emergency housing locations.

People will camp even if it is banned, because some people have no other choice, says Gundel.

The study session fell flat, as Just Housing and other community social service providers were not offered a seat at the table and the material did not appear to be used.

Now, as the days inch toward cold weather months, councilmembers are increasingly interested in making sure community partners and social service providers are included in future conversations.

In the meantime, Gundel will continue her efforts.

“I have had some great meetings with folks about structure and organizing the camp. 

We are also continuing to look for a partner for a camp. So far, two churches are interested. Our next step is to arrange a meeting with some representatives from the churches, the city, the camp, and some of our folks to go through more of the details of how we should move forward,” said Gundel this week.

Nickerson Camp Residents Speak to Little Hollywood

Above: Micky Nelson, 34, a resident of the Nickerson Camp, has twice addressed Olympia city council members during public comment time, and has ideas for organizing the camp.

Little Hollywood visited the Nickerson Camp property, by invitation, with Gundel in late July and last week.

Many residents of homeless encampments do not want to or cannot live in an enclosed shelter or camp-like environment.

Mickey Nelson, 34, moved from Texas to Washington State in 2009. He and his girlfriend, Jackie Taylor, 39, have lived at the Nickerson Camp since January, making them the longest, consecutive resident campers on the property.

Nelson is a jack-of-all-trades and has worked in construction, remodeling, steel fabrication, welding, auto body, detailing, lawn care, dog services, and cook.

Nelson has back issues which began with a motorcycle accident, then a car accident, in which he was a passenger, three months later. He is on state disability and is reapplying for Social Security. He says he has a long standing mental health history and is a participant of Capital Recovery Center programs. 

Capital Recovery Center is a community nonprofit, peer-supported agency that has special programs such as Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH), a point of contact for adults experiencing homelessness who also suffer from mental illness.

Nelson says the camp is on good terms with its housed neighbors, and one neighbor brought them trash bags. He credits Taylor for cleaning up the camp, almost single-handedly. Trash is gradually taken off the property by individuals with Just Housing, without the assistance of the city.

“Evicting us off the property would push us back into downtown, or on other city property,” he said. “Since we have been here, foot traffic and noise has gone down. It’s a safe place for the sick, youth, pregnant women, and domestic violence victims.

“We are looking to be a camp that has a positive impact on society. Not all of us have the desire to live indoors because we’ve been homeless for so long. We have to do the best we can with the best we have.”

Nelson hopes to start a nonprofit whose mission it would be to purchase property for homeless people to camp on and use as a safe place.

He is co-director of InReach, an organization organized by the homeless community. In collaboration with James Joy of The Jungle, Olympia’s largest homeless encampment of about 200 residents, Nelson is creating a practical survival guide for the houseless. The guide would be updated every six months.

“I’ve done so many bad things in my life as a kid. Doing this is my way of atoning for the people I can’t ask forgiveness from, for whatever reason. I’m making it up to the universe,” he said. Nelson has an eight year old son and a 21 year old cousin living elsewhere.

“I want this world to be better than mine was,” he said.

Jackie Taylor, sitting nearby, was born and raised in Olympia, and patiently waited to tell her story. 

To relieve her stress and anxiety, she likes to bicycle at night.

“I don’t do daytime. I can’t be around traffic and people,” she says.

She says the state department of social and health services provides outdated information, such as telling women who are homeless to go to Bread and Roses, a former shelter for women that has been closed for years.

It is her goal to create a donation supply drop off center at the Nickerson Camp, similar to the one at The Jungle.

She also wants a more organized camp. All the area camps are currently self-managed through peer-support but Taylor wants the city’s support in establishing a resident list and process for approving people as new residents.

Taylor brainstormed a Nickerson resident code of conduct and her wish list for the camp: it must be clean and sober, no theft, no bullying, and no violence. She would appreciate it if the city would provide the camp a small dumpster and a porta-potty with a sink.

“This is my safe haven – a small community where people follow the rules and help out. I don’t want the city to spend a lot of money,” said Taylor.

Taylor says the Just Housing organization has been supportive of their work. “You couldn’t ask for anyone better,” she said.

Little Hollywood often writes about homelessness issues, and unsheltered, street dependent individuals. For more information about these issues, go to Little Hollywood and use the search button to type in key words.

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