Tent City 3 at PRLC

Update 1.19.22

How to help the camp…

Visit their website: http://www.sharewheel.org/tent-city-3

You’ll find a list of items that are useful as donations, as well as a hot meal schedule you can participate in. Bring donations direclty to the camp desk near the front entrance to the church. Thanks for helping out!

Welcome!

We are excited to host our friends at Tent City 3 again. This will be our 4th time hosting the camp over the 22 year history of the program. While we’ve received overwhelming support from neighborhood residents and businesses during past hostings, we understand the visible nature of the camp may foster hesitancy and even fear from some in the neighborhood. We hope to address some of those feelings with information on this page, and invite you to reach out to us or the camp for further conversation.

Simple Question: Why are you doing this?

As a community of faith, we reach out pro-actively to those in need. We are loved by God, and are compelled to share that love through word, relationship, and resources. We also balance that giving desire with the needs of our neighborhood and wider community. We love our neighborhood too. Based on our previous hosting experiences and TC3’s commendable track record all over the city, we do this with the conviction that hosting the camp achieves both goals of our mission. We can provide a safe space for the residents of the camp while maintaining the safety of the neighborhood.

How does the camp handle Covid-19?

SHARE/WHEEL, the organization that oversees TC3, has an excellent track record of working closely with the Seattle/King County Department of Public Health through the pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, they have scheduled regular vaccine, booster, and flu shot clinics onsite at TC3. These will continue during their stay with us. Regular testing also takes place in the camp to avoid outbreaks.

What happens when a resident tests positive?

The camp, or a public health partners if they're onsite, contact the county's COVID hotline and have the positive participant then go through the screening process to be intaked into a county operated Isolation and Quarantine Facility. There are two such I & Q locations in South King County. They are single occupancy hotels. Once the intake process is completed and approved, the county arranges transportation to I&Q, and transportation back once the person is medically cleared, typically 7-10 days later (depending on symptom onset, etc). They do NOT isolate/quarantine on-site, and instead use the county's I&Q sites.

How are residents screened and held accountable?

The camp adheres to a strict Code of Conduct, which can be made available for review. Everyone at TC3 must be sober and non-violent. It is a tent camp, not a car camp; participants with vehicles must park them well away from the host location. Panhandling, loitering and violence are prohibited. Those not respecting the Code of Conduct will be removed from the community. The camp is resident-run and has its own system of electing leaders from amongst the residents. This group will see to it that the Code of Conduct is maintained and enforced.

Tent City 3 exists based on their good reputation for conduct amongst residents. If they were not good neighbors, they would not be allowed to continue as a program. We have been impressed with the seriousness with which the camp takes this responsibility. We’ve admired their pro-active neighborliness with litter pickups, patrols, and other forms of caring for our community during their stays. We have learned a lot about being good neighbors from Tent City 3.

How long will the camp be here?

Our invitation to the camp is for Jan 15th - Apr 2nd, 2022. By law we no longer have to limit our invitation to 90 days as was the case in the past. To be consistent with what our neighborhood is used to, however, we decided to still limit the stay to this time frame. Tent City 3 has never overstayed the parameters of their invitation at any location throughout their existence. They take that responsibility very seriously, and will move out on Apr 2nd.

Don’t you have a preschool program? How do you keep them safe?

As in the past, we will designate areas it is ok for residents to be on our property, and areas that are off-limits. All external areas that involve our preschool program will be off-limits. We haven’t had any issue with these two ministries co-existing in the past, and usually the only complaints we field from preschool parents are not enough opportunities to be supportive of the camp. If and when a complaint does arise from the preschool community, it is dealt with swiftly and in a way that assures safety for all involved.

Where do camp residents go to the bathroom? How do they handle their trash?

The city funds porta-poties and sanitation stations within the camp, as well as a dumpster we store near our church dumpsters for their garbage. Even with these costs to the city, plus the assistance the city provides for moving the camp, Tent City 3 remains the most cost-efficient form of city-funded shelter within the city’s shelter network.

Still have questions?

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us for further conversation. Email Deacon Patrick Meagher, or call me in the church office at 206-783-2350 x305.