Olympia mayor says there’s a plan to close the ‘Jungle.’ Here’s what we know
Olympia Mayor Dontae Payne announced Wednesday that a plan is being developed to close a longtime homeless encampment in the city that is sometimes referred to as the “Jungle.”
That encampment lies in a forested area between Martin Way East and Pacific Avenue Southeast in the 3200 block of both streets. It is home to dozens of people, and sometimes more in the summer months, who have erected tents and other makeshift housing in the area.
Payne shared his remarks, as did other elected leaders, before about 200 people during a Thurston County Chamber of Commerce forum called the “State of the Community” address at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey.
Each elected leader, including Payne, provided introductory comments about their respective communities and accomplishments.
Among his comments, Payne noted that the city successfully closed the Percival Creek homeless encampment in west Olympia last year and now will turn its attention to the Jungle.
“There’s just one more major encampment left in the city of Olympia, known as the jungle, and this year our staff will be working with the county (and city of Lacey) on developing a regional plan to begin addressing the encampment with a phased approach to closure,” he said.
Olympia City Manager Jay Burney, who was also at the chamber event, added some details.
“So we are going to partner with the county and Lacey to come together, bring our resources together, to do a regional approach to phasing out the jungle,” he said, “and that means we’re going to look for options to house people, we’re going to look for options to treat people. We’re going to look for options to increase accountability, and we’re going to work over time to phase out and close the jungle.”
Burney added that there is no implementation date yet. They hope to have a plan in place by mid-year that they then can act on, he said.
“It’s my hope that we have a plan that we can share with the community,” Burney said.
County spokeswoman Susan Melnyk said she was working on a response for The Olympian, while Lacey City Manager Rick Walk confirmed that the city is a partner in those discussions.
“We want to make sure that there’s a plan behind it, there’s a coordinated response and people know what’s going on, and then ultimately, we get the best outcomes as possible for those people that are being relocated or moved out,” Walk said.
Melnyk responded on Thursday.
“Olympia hasn’t proposed anything to the Regional Housing Council partnership, but we look forward to learning more and to continuing to work with our partners to connect people with resources and find housing,” she said.
Other elected officials who spoke during the chamber event were Lacey Deputy Mayor Malcolm Miller, Tenino Mayor David Watterson, Thurston County Commissioner Tye Menser, Yelm Mayor Joe DePinto and Tumwater Mayor Leatta Dahlhoff.
Economic development activity
In addition to each leader getting a chance to talk about their respective jurisdictions, they also fielded questions from moderator and Thurston County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO David Schaffert, including one about economic development activity.
That prompted Tenino Mayor David Watterson to mention to the audience that there’s an effort to bring a regional meat processing facility to a site near the Tenino Agriculture Innovation Park.
In follow-up comments to The Olympian, he said the facility is proposed for a five-acre site near the Ag Park, and that the developers are about to present their plans to the city as part of a pre-construction conference.
“That’s going to happen probably in the next couple of weeks,” he said. “I think once that kind of gets figured out, I think we’ll see they want to pretty rapidly get this facility built.”
Watterson made clear that it’s not the type of facility where cattle would be staying weeks at a time, but would be geared toward the small cattle farm and farmers who otherwise have to get their meat processed in Eastern Washington or Oregon, adding costs to those businesses.
Watterson added that Tenino has a growing number of community amenities for visitors but nowhere for people to stay.
“We have no hotels or any kind of lodging in our city, so I’m hoping at some point we can get some lodging, so people can stay in our community and spend their money there, versus going to events and then leaving for other areas to spend their money,” he said.
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This story was originally published January 14, 2026 at 3:12 PM.
