Tell Harrell, Moore, Kinnison, and Washington: Approve Tent City 4’s Lease Now!

SHARE’s self-managed homeless community—Tent City 4—is waiting on the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to approve a lease agreement for a planned move to public land in Lake City. This move is supposed to take place on Saturday, May 17th. But the KCRHA has failed to put the lease agreement on their governing board agenda for May 15th.

There are four people who can make this move happen—and who we’ve heard may be standing in the way: Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and Seattle City Councilmember Cathy Moore (both board members of the KCRHA), Seattle Deputy Mayor Tiffany Washington, and KCRHA CEO Kelly Kinnison.

Please take a moment to send an email to these four people! You can send our sample message as-is or personalize it.

Tent City 4 is an exemplar of effective, organized outdoor shelter, and they’ve been a great and helpful neighbor in their current location at Seattle Mennonite Church. With only a week left to go before their promised move, failing to approve the new lease is unconscionable. They have no other host lined up. Where are they supposed to go?

Tent City 4 already did significant neighborhood engagement, tabled at the Lake City library, attended meetings, and sponsored their own very positive community meeting about this move. Their faith host sponsor, Journey Christian, has put in a ton of work too.

The City of Seattle and the KCRHA should be doing everything they can to assist faith groups and self-managed homeless communities that are pouring their time and resources into creating and sustaining shelter—not putting roadblocks in their way.