Latest from Nickelsville

I took the liberty of reprinting a letter that Scott Morrow sent out about meeting with Phil Fujii from the Mayor's Office on Monday. This is certainly an improvement from where Nickelsville was with the former Mayor.
>
> Greetings Friend of Nickelsville!
>
> We hope this Alert finds you well, and that it tells you two things:
> Firstly, what happened at our meeting Monday with Seattle Mayor Mike
> McGinn’s Deputy Mayor of Operations – Mr. Phil Fujii - and secondly
> how things are going since our recent move to Greater Mt. Baker
> Missionary Baptist Church.
>
> Eight Nickelodeons – including oldtimers and newcomers, past campers
> and present, staff and supporters, young and old, – presented our case
> to Mr. Fujii. Here it is:
>
> The Nickelodeons want to meet directly with the Mayor. After being
> treated as second class citizens by the former Mayor, a change of
> policy in this area is badly needed. Mayor McGinn and Nickelsville
> should meet and become powerful friends and allies: We both want to
> do more with less, and we both want to engage and empower. Meeting
> with the Mayor is a crucial way to begin working together.
>
> Our goal is a permanent site in the City of Seattle for up to 1,000
> homeless people, and we understand that we need to make a deal among
> friends for this to succeed. Our deadline is May 5th, when we move
> from Mt. Baker Missionary Baptist to a permanent site.
>
> Mr. Fujii said that he had been anointed by the Mayor to work with
> us. He was hoping the Mayor could drop by for a minute and meet us,
> but unfortunately he was double-booked. He said the Mayor wanted to
> work something out. Mr. Al Poole, from the Human Services Department,
> has been delegated the responsibility to bring together an
> Interdepartmental City Meeting, and figure out if the city could work
> with Nickelsville.
>
> You may recall that Mayor Nickels never would meet with us, or respond
> to our letters. What’s more, when we tried to seek an appointment,
> they turned off the elevator and locked the stairwells on us so we
> couldn’t get to his office!
>
> Compared to that, the meeting with Mr. Fujii was huge progress. Our
> friends at SHARE – who we expect will be with us at the meeting with
> the Mayor – have worked with Mr. Fujii when he was at Vulcan. Not
> only was he a straight shooter there, but he got things done. He
> understood how a poor people’s organization worked, and was
> encouraging and respectful. So we have hope.
>
> PLEASE WRITE MAYOR MCGINN AND THANK HIM FOR THE PREPARATORY MEETING
> WITH DEPUTY MAYOR FUJII. ENCOURAGE MAYOR MCGINN TO MEET WITH US AND
> OUR SUPPORTERS, SO THAT WE CAN ALL SUPPORT THE WORK OF THE
> INTERDEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE AND QUICKLY REMOVE ANY ROADBLOCKS THEY
> MIGHT ENCOUNTER!
>
> Now here’s the Second Part of the Update:
>
> The move from New Hope Missionary Baptist Church to Greater Mt Baker
> Baptist Church went well! The camp’s population is around 60 and
> needs more tents, blankets and tarps to expand. Neighbors have been
> very friendly.
>
> Here are the donations we particularly need this week:
>
> --Funds for dumpster, porta potties, and cell phones. These costs are
> over $2,000 a month, and we’ve fallen behind again! Please DON’T ruin
> your own credit rating helping us. Please DO get the groups you are a
> member of to start helping us, and tell sympathetic friends of our
> need.
>
> --We’re out of Tents! The new site is a little bigger than the old
> site, plus tents have a limited life span anyway. Other building
> materials are also needed, especially pallets and plywood, nails,
> tarps of different sizes, also sleeping bags and blankets, firewood,
> propane for cooking grills, rope and duct tape.
>
> Thank You for your help with the upkeep and building of Nickelsville,
> as we work toward getting our permanent site.
>
> CONTACT INFORMATION:
>
> Mayor Mike McGinn
> Deputy Mayor of Operations Phil Fujii
> P.O. Box 94749
> Seattle, WA 98124-4749
>
> Mike.Mcginn@seattle.gov
> phil.fujii@seattle.gov
>
> Send Copies of Correspondence to
>
> Nickelsville
> P.O. Box 2548
> Seattle, WA 98111
>
> scott@nickelsvilleseattle.org
>
> Nickelsville is presently located at Mt. Baker Missionary Baptist
> Church. It is on South Jackson Street, at the SW Corner of 25th &
> Jackson. The camp is on the far south end of their property, on S.
> King and 25th.
>
> The Camp Phone # is 450-5268. The Staff Phone # is 450-9136.
>
> DON’T BE A STRANGER!
>

>

Nickelsville, Day One

``I'm a homeowner now.''
That was the gleeful exclamation of a Nickelsville resident after hammering in the final nail to set up his new tent at Nickelsville's (tenth) newest site. There was some humor in the statement but one more member of Seattle's homeless community could sleep with something over his head.
It's been a long and ongoing journey for the homeless encampment named after former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. Fortunately, several of the original residents who made camp in South Park almost a year and a half ago have found housing. But the Nickelodeons who put up tents at the Greater Baptist Church on 2425 S. Jackson St. represent only about 60 of the 3,000 plus homeless in the greater Seattle area.
As the campers, who now include several couples and even a couple of dogs set up camp, Richard, one of the original Nickelodeons questioned whether things are much better with Nickels out of office.
``We want to talk to the new Mayor (Mike McGinn) about finding a permanent place for Nickelsville,'' said Richard. ``We talked to him once, before he took office, but since then...''
The latest Nickelsville site is a little larger than there previous home at New Hope Chuch but still much too small for Nickelsville to reach its ultimate goal of 1,000 campers. Without a permanent residence, Nickelsville will probably just move to another temporary home in 90 days.
Throughout its existence Nickelsville has relied on the kindness of strangers to keep going. Currently on the wish list are bottled water, blankets, nails, and 7x7,
8x8 tents.
Visit Nickelsville behind the Greater Mt. Baptist Church, one block East of 23rd Ave. in the Central District.