HomeMy WebLinkAbout102425 - Pause the sweepALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
To the Members of the Port Townsend City Council and the Jefferson County Commissioners,
I am writing to express deep concern and moral opposition to the planned sweep of the Evans Vista encampment on November 3rd. For nearly two years, despite its unofficial status, the
Evans Vista encampment has served as a place of refuge and community for residents who have been excluded from the formal housing system. It has become, by necessity, a home — built
through mutual care, shared hardship, and the human need for connection and safety.
To dismantle this community now, without a compassionate and coordinated relocation plan, is not only shortsighted, it is inhumane. Sweeps do not end homelessness; they simply displace
it. They erase the fragile networks of trust and care that people have built in the absence of adequate shelter, pushing them into even greater instability and danger.
The timing of this action compounds the harm. This sweep is planned amid a resurgence of COVID-19 and other communicable illnesses, during a federal government shutdown that is restricting
subsidies and support services for the most vulnerable, and at a time when local service providers are overwhelmed by uncertainty about future funding for essential programs. Carrying
out an eviction under these conditions threatens not only the health and safety of Evans Vista residents but also the public health of our broader community.
To proceed would align our local leadership with a national climate that increasingly dehumanizes those living in poverty, homelessness, and displacement, a climate that treats human
suffering as a nuisance to be swept away rather than a collective responsibility to be met with care. We must resist replicating these injustices here at home.
I urge the City and County to postpone the sweep and instead convene an immediate, coordinated response, one that includes Evans Vista residents, local service providers, and community
advocates, to create a humane, realistic relocation plan with access to shelter, health care, and support services.
Our community has the capacity to act with compassion and moral courage. We are judged not by how efficiently we remove people from view, but by how deeply we honor their dignity and
humanity. Please, do not proceed with the November 3rd sweep. Choose collaboration and care instead.
With respect and urgency,
Tonia Burkett (Sh <https://pronouns.org/> e/Her/They <https://pronouns.org/> )
Dreamer, Facilitator, & Consultant
https://usawaconsulting.com
(503) 395-8262
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