In Olympia, Washington, on 1 February 2007, the Pedestrian Interference Ordinance went into effect and the tent city of Camp Quixote was erected in response to it. The ordinance makes it a crime “to sit, lie down, sell things or ask for money within 6 feet of a building downtown” and it permits sitting and lying down “between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.”; street performers “are permitted in designated areas.”
The city is arguing that it does plenty for the homeless and that tent cities don’t work. Rob Richards of The Poor Peoples Union disagrees and calls Dignity Village in Portland a success.
Yesterday, it seemed that the city was going to arrest the squatters. City Manager Steve Hall said this morning that “he would not set a deadline for the campers to leave.”
News video can be seen here.
On February 1st, the day that the City of Olympia banned sitting, panhandling or performing (except in designated areas) on the sidewalk, the Poor People’s Union (PPU) set up a tent encampment in downtown Olympia at the corner of Capitol and Columbia, since that time, the encampment has grown to include 25 tents, each holding more than one person, a kitchen, a portable toilet and a wooden, communal hall. Dozens of local businesses and residents have donated food, clothing and other assorted necessities.
Trash has been consistently picked up by those in the camp, arguments dealt with collectively, drugs and alcohol effectively banned and no serious, debilitating incidents have occurred. All of us in the camp view it as our home and respect it as such. People who would have been sleeping outside alone, isolated from any sort of community have now found one, a community with one thing in common: the City has no concern for us as human beings. Now that we have begun to take care of ourselves independently of the City, the local government and their police are preparing to come and destroy the small, beautiful place that we have built for ourselves. Our crime is NOT trespassing, is NOT being unsanitary and is NOT being dangerous. Our crime is acting independently and being more effective, more loving and more concerned than them.
Today, February 6th, the city manager Steve Hall and the police chief came down to the camp and, after kicking one of our tent poles over, gave us a verbal order to disperse. At the City Council meeting tonight it was made clear that they were not going to change their minds: the camp had to go. And so, now, we are waiting for the police to come. When they do, they will not just be taking down some tents, they will be destroying what in five, long days has become our home.
We are asking for all of the support we can get. We need people to call all of their friends, contact as many media sources as possible and generally spread the word. We need people to physically be there for support and to continue what we are doing when some of us are in jail. We need this to be remembered. We need to show the City that they cannot kick people and expect them to patiently await the next kick. They can pull the same old tricks and have their police toss us back on the same old streets, but they cannot destroy the community we have built. And that community is not going to stop fighting.
Poor Peoples Union
contact
Ray Kavick, PPU Member
poorpeoplesunion@yahoo.com