Aberdeen Mayor Bill Simpson said he would investigate the possibility of extending eviction notices for homeless people living in camps along the Chehalis River after outcry from community members on both sides of the issue at Wednesday night’s City Council meeting.
The mayor made his decision in front of nearly a full house, some there to support the homeless and some there to support their eviction. It was standing room only in the council chambers.
About 20 campsites along the north side of the river near the empty Stouffer Lumber building are home to some of Aberdeen’s homeless. Eviction notices were served March 11. The notices were issued by the city, but on private property, with the city’s code enforcement officer citing the trash in the area as a safety hazard.
The notices, posted to tents or handed out directly to campers, mandate that they leave the area by March 31.
The Rev. Sarah Monroe, founder of Westport-based Chaplains on the Harbor, spoke before the council on behalf of the homeless people she’s been helping in the area for the last year-and-a-half. She urged the council to extend the eviction to allow campers to find a new place to live, or for the city to provide an alternative.
“We’re all responsible for each other,” Monroe told the council, as voices muttered “amen” from the crowd. “We’re all responsible for the common good. And I know that most of us love this place and most of us want to see this town thrive.”
The first question for Monroe came from Council President Peter Schave, who asked if Monroe had reached out to the property owners where camps have been set up. Bill Sidor, the city’s code enforcement officer, said he served the notices on properties owned by Earl Whiting and Michael Lang.
Monroe said she had not contacted the owners directly, but had come to the city as the entity that had issued the evictions.
As council members discussed the possibility of extending the order to vacate, City Attorney Eric Nelson advised against any action by the city on the property without consent of the owners. This included both extending time for the camps as well as enforcing the evictions.
Ultimately, Simpson made his decision.
“I will do this,” he said. “I will talk to Mr. Sidor tomorrow morning and see if we can’t get it extended, but under the conditions that the property owners say, ‘Yeah, they can have that time.’”
The discussion then turned to the trash in the area, which drew criticism from the mayor.
Some residents also felt strongly about the litter campers had left behind. William Perry, who owns property along the river near the camps, condemned the council for what he said was a sense of delusion toward the problem of trash along the river, and lambasted the county’s needle-exchange program, which provides one-to-one exchanges of clean needles for used ones.
“I am so tired of the whole community backing this. It’s just nuts,” Perry said of the needle-exchange program. “You’re allowing people to do illegal activity and you’re giving them clean needles to do it under a bridge.”
The council heard from more advocates, opponents and volunteers who had spent time cleaning the area along the river as public comment on the issue lasted nearly an hour. After the meeting, Monroe said she was happy with the mayor’s decision.
“We were very pleased with the mayor’s promise,” she said. “We’re going to keep showing up in support of folks and keep working for more solutions and better lives here in Aberdeen.”
Kyle Mittan, 360-537-3932, kmittan@thedailyworld.com. Twitter: @KyleMittan
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