We join with partners Journey Christian Church and the Church Council of Greater Seattle to invite you to advocate THIS WEEK for SHARE/WHEEL and Tent City 4. Tent City 4 often stays on faith community land, but had worked for months to secure a sojourn on public land in Lake City. Now just under two weeks before they are set to move, this lease agreement has been pulled from the May 15 agenda of the Governing Board, King County Regional Homelessness Authority under apparent political pressure.
Please read this excerpted message from SHARE/WHEEL below and contact Dr. Kelly Kinnison, Mayor Bruce Harrell and Council Member Moore today to urge them to put the lease back on the agenda. We expect our governments to work alongside, not against, faith communities to shelter those without homes.
URGENT CALL TO ACTION FROM SHARE/WHEEL!
At the last minute, under political pressure from the Mayor’s Office and District 5 Councilmember Moore, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) has pulled SHARE/WHEEL’s Tent City4 lease agreement for a move to public land in Lake City from the 5/15/25 KCRHA Governing Board Meeting Agenda. This, in effect, would kill our move to this public land, after all the good work done by the camp and its faith host sponsor, Journey Christian. We did significant neighborhood engagement, tabled at the Lake City library, attended meetings, and sponsored our own very positive community meeting about this move.
Tent City 4 must--and will!--be moving from our current location, Seattle Mennonite Church, by 5/17/25. We always keep our word, and have done so for 30 years. We wish politicians would keep their word in the same way...
Mayor Harrell campaigned on adding 2000 shelter beds for homeless people. Instead, shelters have lost beds, day centers have closed and encampment sweeps have increased to unprecedented numbers. Voters listed solving homelessness as one of their greatest priorities.
Tent City 4 is an exemplar of effective, organized outdoor shelter, and we’ve been a great and helpful neighbor in Lake City. With a week left to go before Tent City 4’s move, killing our public land stay by pulling this vote is unconscionable. We have no other host lined up! Without shelter and community people die!
This lease should be on the agenda of next week’s KCRHA Governing Board Meeting for a public vote, where members of the Board need to make public their support or opposition, instead of preemptively killing it behind closed doors.
We are asking you RIGHT NOW to:
- Contact KCRHA CEO Dr. Kelly Kinnisonand demand to have the lease agreement put back on the 5/15/25 agenda to be voted on publicly. (kelly.kinnison@kcrha.org)
- Contact Mayor Harrellto express your disapproval of these backroom actions, and your support of Tent City4’s move to public land. (bruce.harrell@seattle.gov ph: 206-684-4000)
- Contact CM Moore to tell her that the lease agreement should be on the KCRHA agenda, and that you support Tent City 4 moving to the Lake City Community Center land. (Cathy.Moore@seattle.gov ph:206-684-8805)
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