City construction displacing shelter, food programs


		Scott Eklund / P-I
	David Parra Lopez, left, and Heriberto Eseriba share a meal put out last night at the Public Safety Building plaza downtown by City Calvary Chapel in Wallingford. New City Hall construction will displace such food programs from the plaza in April.

The lobby of City Hall has provided emergency shelter to men since 1986, and charities and churches have served meals on the plaza outside the Public Safety Building for a decade. Fifty men bed down at City Hall every night, and hundreds of people are fed at the plaza most days of the week.

That will change in April, when programs at both sites become displaced by construction of a new City Hall. The municipal building on Fourth Avenue between Cherry and James streets will be demolished next summer, and the plaza will be used to hold construction equipment and materials.

The construction plans are requiring the city and affected organizations to search for alternative space. So far, their search has been fruitless.

"We're all concerned," said Kay Abe, coordinator of The Lord's Table, one of nine food programs that use the plaza. "We're praying and hoping that they'll be able to come up with something."

Another shelter, open only during severe weather and located at the Armory in South Lake Union Park, also will be displaced at the end of March so the building can be renovated.

Al Poole, manager of the city's survival services unit -- which oversees contracts for shelters, transition houses and meal programs -- says finding new space for the shelters and the food programs is one of his highest priorities.

Health regulations require a site used for food programs to have a canopy, a washable surface, a sink, adequate garbage control and restroom facilities. The city has equipped the plaza to meet those criteria and also provides signs with meal schedules, janitorial services, lighting and security cameras.

"The plaza has just been an excellent place," Poole said.

The city considered a park near Eighth Avenue and Yesler Way as an alternative location, but Poole said the site has limited parking and no seating and is too hilly to be wheelchair-accessible. A park on Third Avenue also was ruled out because a portion of it is being used to store machinery for a renovation project at the adjacent courthouse.

Occidental Park in Pioneer Square, which was used by food programs before the city made the plaza available, also is not an option, Poole said. The Pioneer Square Community Association -- which could not be reached for comment yesterday -- says the area already has a heavy share of missions and other social-service providers and wants the food programs located elsewhere, he said.

Beverly Graham, founder of Operation: Sack Lunch, which provides hot meals and lunches at the Public Safety Building plaza, said Occidental Park is the ideal site -- it's flat, paved and located where most of the city's homeless congregate.

"The providers go where the people are," said Graham, adding that the park was one of Seattle's first Tent City locations in the early 20th century. "It's not like all those people sprang up there because somebody set up shop there. They were there to begin with."

If an alternative location isn't found, she said, food programs will scatter.

"That's not good for the people we serve and it's certainly not good for the city," she said. "There's not only safety in unity, there's also safety in some kind of planning, so it's not anarchy."

Fe Arreola, food programs coordinator for the city of Seattle, said indoor locations are problematic on several fronts: Clients with mental illnesses may be afraid to enter, air quality can be an issue for people with health problems, and the space would have to accommodate crowds that often number in the hundreds, particularly at the end of the month. Post-9/11 security concerns, she added, make the search more challenging.

Finding alternative shelter space is also difficult. Bill Hobson, executive director of the Downtown Emergency Service Center, which runs the City Hall shelter, said most commercial buildings in the downtown core lack common areas large enough to lend themselves to appropriate monitoring.

Additionally, he said, neighbors are likely to be unwelcoming, despite the fact that the City Hall shelter operates outside typical business hours.

"No one wants an emergency shelter next to them," Hobson said. "Most of the folks that have invested money in downtown business enterprises believe that the presence of facilities like this have adverse impacts on their ability to earn a living."

Poole said the city may seek permission to use a severe-weather shelter that's open from October to March in an enclosed loading dock at the King County administration building on Fourth Avenue, a block from City Hall.

Discussions are under way about other potential sites, he said, He said the city will continue working with the non-profit organizations involved to find alternate space.

With the deadline to vacate the plaza and relocate the City Hall shelter approaching, Poole said the city isn't ruling out any possibilities.

"We're looking at a whole number of places," he said. "If you have space, I'll talk to you."

P-I reporter Deborah Bach can be reached at 206-448-8197 or deborahbach@seattlepi.com

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