Island County Sheriff Rick Felici and Commissioner Janet St. Clair walked through a roadside homeless encampment on North Whidbey Tuesday morning, passing by the row of dilapidated RVs and tarp-covered campers.
They stopped to look at a burned-out hulk of an RV destroyed in a fire a few days prior. They passed by piles of junk strewn on the side of the road. Dogs leashed to trees barked incessantly at the duo.
Change is coming to Hoffman Road, Felici explained. He’s going to post signs soon warning people that vehicles parked on the road will be considered abandoned and towed away.
One by one, the RVs will be removed and replaced by obstructions to prevent others from parking vehicles on the side of the road. Illegally parked RVs will be tagged and the residents will be given 72 hours to move them before they are towed.
The sheriff took similar action on Taylor Road, where a small encampment is now replaced by a dirt berm.
It’s taken awhile to get to this point. Both Felici and St. Clair expressed frustration with the ongoing problems associated with the encampment, which have included fires, crime and trash.
Felici had spearheaded a cleanup of the area months before, but dumpsters left there were hardly being used. Human Services staff and housing advocates have visited the encampment many times with offers of help, he said, but most people living there have declined.
“There is a subculture who sees this as an easy way to live without having to pay rent, pay taxes or have a job,” the sheriff said. “They aren’t interested in changing.”
Felici said he has been mindful of court decisions regarding homeless people living on public land. He consulted with the county prosecutor’s office and came to understand that he does have options. The Boise decision, for example, prevents the county from banning camping on public property if enough homeless shelters are not available, but it doesn’t stop him from enforcing the law.
Felici said people aren’t upset about someone simply pulling to the side of the road to sleep the night.
“What people have an issue with is destroying an entire area as a lifestyle,” he said.
Felici said it’s taken time to get the county bureaucracy to take action. Getting RVs removed from the area has also been a struggle since it’s a money-losing proposition for tow companies. But Felici said the companies have been very cooperative and agreed to help if the county provides dumpsters at the businesses for the junk removed from the RVs.
The sheriff concedes he expects that any RVs chased away from Hoffman Road will show up at other locations in the county.
“It’s going to be like whack-a-mole for a while,” he said.
While Felici admits to being at his wits’ end over the situation, he emphasized that he and other county officials aren’t without compassion for those living at the encampment.
On Tuesday, he and St. Clair met a young couple who were outside of a camper with a small dog. St. Clair offered comfort to the woman, who was clearly overwhelmed by her circumstances.
The young woman explained that their dog has cancer but they can’t afford the treatment. She was working long hours every day only to return to a camper at night with her boyfriend, who had difficulty finding a job because he was partially deaf and has a criminal record. She didn’t feel safe there without him.
They were both clean and sober, they explained, but fell on hard times. She had been living with a relative for years in Oak Harbor but couldn’t find housing for both of them.
St. Clair and Felici spoke to the man and woman about what options they have for receiving assistance, which may be especially urgent if they need to move away from Hoffman Road.
Afterward, Felici conceded that social workers who visited the encampment may have missed people like the woman who are working during the day.
“She’s not an addict. She’s not mentally ill,” he said. “She’s just trying to get by.”
While the sheriff takes the lead in cleaning up the encampment, St. Clair said the commissioners will continue discussing long-term solutions. Public Works staff will return to the board with options when it comes to long-term preventing parking on the sides of roads.
Commissioners recently talked about the possibility of using a county property as a regulated place where people could park RVs. They also proposed that churches on the island could each accommodate a small number of RVs.
Photo by Luisa Loi / Whidbey News-Times Photo by Luisa Loi / Whidbey News-Times Commissioner St. Clair and Sheriff Rick Felici walk Hoffman Road.
Photo by Luisa Loi / Whidbey News-Times Photo by Luisa Loi / Whidbey News-Times Island County Commissioner Janet St. Clair inspects the remnants of an RV fire.
