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New homeless camp appears after Bellingham sweep near City Hall

Neighbors fear the camp will increase crime, drive away business and spark clashes similar to what was seen at City Hall.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Before a controversial homeless camp outside Bellingham's City Hall was fully cleared last week, a new encampment was already forming.

It now sits in a parking lot at the city's Civic Athletic Complex, which is a city park with a stadium, pool, skatepark and other sports facilities.

The move is frustrating those who live and work in the neighborhood.

The staff at Bellingham Bay Gymnastics and Preschool, directly across the street from new camp, couldn't help but notice their new neighbors moving in.

"We stood here on our tiptoes and looked out the window and became increasingly alarmed at what we saw," owner Jill Wolfson said.

Dozens of homeless have set up tents and makeshift houses.

After navigating nearly a year of COVID-19 closures Wolfson's gymnastics and preschool are just starting to get back to business.

She worries the camp will drive worried parents away.

"People were just starting to trust us and come back," Wolfson said. "This could be the knife in our back that shuts us down and has us a bit terrified."

They're scared of seeing a repeat of the ugly clashes between homeless advocates and police outside City Hall that transpired last month.

The City Hall occupation was also the scene of at least 60 calls to police for everything from drug dealing, a reported arson and even a hatchet attack.

"It's problematic for a lot of reasons," said Britany Moncur, who also works across the street from the new camp.

She says crime was already getting worse before the new homeless moved in. Moncur believes the city needs a comprehensive plan to deal with the problem.

"You can't just throw people in parking lots around town and keep pushing them to other areas of town. We have preschools and gymnastics and kids like to skateboard here. It just doesn't really seem all that safe anymore."

The people who run the business park across the street from the camp sent a letter to Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood asking him to shut this camp down as well.

The letter read: 

"We have received calls from our tenants asking what we plan to do about this situation. Included in these call are tenants asking to break their lease because they cannot handle the 'heinous crimes,' vandalism, and 'awful' and 'deplorable' conditions that go along with this homeless encampment. Our tenants do not feel safe anymore. We have children attending classes in the Business Center after hours. This is definitely not a safe situation for them. Cleaning up the front of City Hall has simply transferred the homeless problem away from your property and onto ours. Your issue is now gravely affecting dozens of small business owners including Haskell Business Center and every single one of our tenants, who rely on us to provide them a safe and clean property at which to conduct their business. This transferring of the problem from your doorstep to ours is absolutely unacceptable and must be rectified immediately."

KING 5 News requested an interview with the mayor on Monday. An aide said Fleetwood was tied up in meetings much of the day but did issue a statement:

"We understand the impact of this effort is deeply felt in our community, generating a wide range of reactions. We remain actively engaged in the effort to build increased sheltering options, in collaboration with multiple partners and advocates for those living unsheltered."

Fleetwood called the camp "illegal" and said the city would ask the campers to move.

"This creates another situation to be addressed though certainly not as substantial as our work at City Hall on Thursday. The City did not sanction this new camp following the removal of the City Hall illegal encampment and did not assist in its creation. The City will not sanction nor support this encampment. Neither [the City Hall camp's] organizers and/or residents demonstrated the ability to operate an encampment safely. The City will follow its existing policies regarding illegal camping in parks and is asking campers to leave."

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