City of Olympia looking to move more people out of Percival Creek encampments
Another section of Percival Creek Canyon on the west side of Olympia will be cleared out in mid February while city staff work to move the people camping on either side of the creek into housing.
Kim Kondrat told The Olympian that before one section of the encampment was cleared last year, about 60 to 70 people were living in the forested canyon. There are about 40 people remaining who need housing.
She said people were originally camping from Marathon Park on the west shore of Capitol Lake all the way to the US-101 bridge that goes over Percival Creek. A section from the park to a walking foot bridge over the creek has already been cleared and folks were offered housing. There are now “No Trespassing” signs in that area, and people can be arrested for camping in that part of the canyon.
City officials addressed Percival Creek camping at a public meeting in August. Then, those who were asked to move from the encampment either moved to a different part of the canyon or moved into housing at Unity Commons on Martin Way or the renovated Olympia Inn — now Sandy’s Flats — on Capitol Way. At that point, there were about 90 people living in the canyon.
“We’ve always been concerned about people living down there in the canyon,” Kondrat said. “So we have already closed one section. We’re going to close another section, like mid February.”
She said closing the next section will be covered by Gov. Inslee’s Rights-of-Way initiative, which provides funds to help deliver housing and services to individuals and families who have been living in certain state-owned rights of way. The next section of Percival Canyon includes US-101, which is why it is eligible for funds.
Kondrat said that section of Percival Canyon won’t be completely closed until everyone on their list has been offered housing of some sort. She said there’s still a shortage of available housing and shelter beds, so the section will stay open for a while.
She said the canyon is a priority for the city because it’s difficult to access the area, and cleaning it up will make it easier for emergency services to reach people there who need help. She said the creek is often high and the terrain makes it difficult to get in there.
Kondrat said there’s a foot bridge that goes over the creek, and at one point 19 people were living on one side.
“We just need to make the footprint a little smaller to make it safer, so that our emergency services can get to them,” she said.
Kondrat said the property people are living on is a mixture of private, city, railroad and state-owned, and once people are moved from the area more “No Trespassing” signs will be posted.
“It’s always hard, though, when we close a section, because we do end up displacing folks,” she said.
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