She expressed an uplifting and compassionate atmosphere amongst those gathered at City Hall houseless community members rallying to provide for each other, local businesses and donors providing necessary supplies and meals, and a diverse collective of organizers fighting for new solutions to old problems.įor up-to-date information from Bellingham Occupied Protest and negotiations with the City, follow on Instagram. While 210 campers are demonstrating outside City Hall, the collective involved in negotiations with City officials is seeking long term solutions to housing accessibility in Bellingham.Īt the end of our broadcast, Cordona shared her personal experiences at 210 Camp as an organizer and community member. With average housing prices rising to just below $500,000, and few affordable housing options available outside of the traditional market, those most vulnerable are feeling the effects the most. “Gentrification is the problem, and we need to put into place policies that give equal access to the community,” said Cordona.Īs Bellingham becomes a more popular place to live, it is being marketed as a suburb of Seattle. Not Later’s Unity Village exists as a testament to the success of alternative housing solutions locally, many of the residents who have moved on to permanent housing do not reside in Bellingham, as housing prices continue to rise. Seeking Creative Solutions to Bellingham’s Housing Crisis Not Later claimed to have lost 3 houseless friends within the prior 48 hours alone to hypothermia. During the Homeless Strategies Workgroup Meeting on Friday mentioned above, a community member associated with HomesNow. Although exposure to COVID has increased the overall risk of houselessness, hypothermia still poses a greater threat to this vulnerable community. Despite a seemingly promising email correspondence at the beginning of last week, Whatcom County Health Department has not contacted 210 Camp or its representatives in regards to this. Volunteers have been contacting Whatcom County Health Department daily, seeking advice for best practices, and in hopes of securing a testing site at camp. Much of the outreach for volunteers is taking place via the Bellingham Occupied Protest Instagram page.Įven though camp has grown over the last week, COVID precautions are being taken seriously amongst campers and organizers. This includes social workers, medics, individuals with escalation training, and other valuable human resources that are typically denied to the houseless community. On the ground at camp, volunteers with a diverse range of skills are being called upon as the encampment grows to support those demonstrating outside City Hall. Since our last report, 210 Camp has expanded to a portion of the public library building directly across the street from City Hall. Although, under the condition the collective responsible for negotiating with the City on behalf of 210 Camp establish an entity with a centralized organization to take responsibility for the project.Īs Camp Grows, Mutual Aid, Community Members Provide However, during a meeting later Friday night, City officials seemed supportive in finding a solution to constructing the shelters. Whether this is due to liability or formality was left unclear. At this meeting, Deputy County Executive Tyler Schroeder expressed the City will also not sign off on the proposed pallet shelters because there is no entity associated with 210 Camp. On Friday, November 20, the Whatcom County Homeless Strategies Workgroup held a virtual meeting, including a significant public comment section. Not to mention there are 22 potential sites for shelter villages, such as the former “Clean Green” disposal site on Lakeway. This is despite the fact that Whatcom County Council has agreed to sign off on construction of the shelters. Although there is a possibility for an emergency exemption to be approved for this funding, County Executive Sidhu would not approve the measure. Due to a deadline to apply for the funding of this project, the city of Bellingham has claimed there is not enough time to complete the construction. When we touched base with 210 Camp organizer Cardona last week, negotiations with City and County Council officials were just beginning in hopes of securing 50 raised pallet shelters.

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