Seattle Clears Ballard Encampment Next Steps

Seattle crews removed a homeless encampment in Ballard on May 13, weeks after Mayor Katie B. Wilson had delayed an earlier clearing in the neighborhood to allow more time for outreach and shelter placements. The city’s Unified Care Team has said encampment work is prioritized based on hazards, sanitation, access to public space and other site conditions. Businesses and property owners in Ballard said the latest removal answered immediate complaints about safety and trash, but left open the question of where people moved next. City officials have paired that enforcement with a broader pledge to add shelter capacity this year. ### Which Ballard encampment was cleared this month? KOMO reported that Seattle removed an encampment near 9th Avenue and Northwest 48th Street, north of Leary Way, on May 13. People at the site were given a day’s notice to move belongings from the street and from a plywood-and-tarp structure, the station reported. The Ballard area has seen multiple encampment disputes this year. KIRO 7 reported that Seattle crews also cleared a large encampment off 41st Avenue Northwest along the Burke-Gilman Trail on Feb. 12, after a month-long extension ordered by Wilson. The station said at least 30 people had been staying there before that sweep. ### Why had Mayor Katie Wilson delayed an earlier Ballard removal? (komonews.com) Wilson said on Jan. 14 that she visited a Ballard encampment that had been scheduled for removal and decided to extend the deadline to assess whether the city could improve outcomes for people living there, neighbors and local businesses. She said at the time that “meaningful progress on homelessness means finding solutions that bring more people inside, instead of moving them from place to place.” (kiro7.com) On Feb. 10, Wilson said the extension helped one woman secure a place in a tiny house village and helped five other people at the encampment obtain housing or shelter. In the same statement, she said the city had identified “significant safety hazards” at the site and would post notice for the encampment to be cleared within 48 hours. ### What does Seattle say happens during a removal? (wilson.seattle.gov) Seattle’s Human Services Department says outreach and offers of storage and shelter are provided at all 72-hour removals and, on request, at obstruction or hazard removals. The city says its encampment inspections and removals are carried out under its Multi-Department Administrative Rule, and it publishes site journals with dates, locations and belongings-storage details on its homelessness reporting pages. (wilson.seattle.gov) The Unified Care Team told KOMO it had made seven visits this year to tents or encampments on 9th Avenue between Northwest 47th and Northwest 49th streets. KOMO also reported that crews moved a line of parked RVs from Leary Way while trying to connect people with housing and services. ### What are Ballard businesses and advocates saying now? (seattle.gov) Bruce Drager, chair of the Ballard Community Task Force on Homelessness and Hunger, told KOMO that removals do not solve the underlying problem because people “have nowhere else to go.” Daniel Hammer, president of Sutter Hearth and Home, said he believed Ballard receives people pushed from other neighborhoods and asked where they go after a clearing. (komonews.com) KIRO 7 reported a similar pattern after the February clearing. The station said six people received housing, but many others moved their tents about two blocks away. One unhoused resident told the station the process amounted to “musical chairs,” while a nearby resident said people often cycle among a handful of Ballard locations. ### What is the city’s longer-term plan from here? (komonews.com) Wilson said on Feb. 10 that the city would continue using the Unified Care Team to manage public spaces while changing practices to emphasize earlier outreach, flexibility when placements are imminent, and responses based on neighborhood impact and public safety concerns. She also said she was determined to add 1,000 new units of shelter or emergency housing in 2026. (kiro7.com) On March 24, Lee Momon, the Unified Care Team’s interim director, told the City Council’s Human Services Committee in a quarterly report that the team tracks encampment removals, outreach coordination, public-health hazards and restoring public spaces. On May 7, Wilson’s office said the city had secured a South Park site for a 90-unit tiny house village as part of that shelter expansion effort. (clerk.seattle.gov) (wilson.seattle.gov)