City's Razing Of `Jungle' Legal, Judge Rules -- Police Plan No More Action At Shantytown

Seattle police plan no unusual effort to keep transients out of the Beacon Hill area known as "The Jungle," despite a court victory yesterday allowing continuation of cleanup and eviction of the residents.

The area will be monitored through periodic visits by state Department of Transportation workers or police officers, said Vinette Tichi, police spokeswoman.

Such checks are expected to prevent widespread resurgence of the impromptu shelters that had spread throughout the area, which includes a portion of the right of way for Interstate 5.

Many of the shanties had existed for several years and were passed from one occupant to another.

Seattle police have received no complaints about other possible undeveloped urban areas where the displaced residents might now seek to live, Tichi said.

Places such as Discovery Park might seem to offer settings similar to The Jungle, but Tichi said parks are too public and are visited regularly by park workers. These visits make it harder to build shelters and not be noticed, she said, pointing out that west Beacon Hill is an undeveloped area that is rarely visited by the public.

Tichi noted informal settlements such as The Jungle have been common in Seattle for decades, dating to the "Hoovervilles" of the 1930s along the Duwamish River.

Two decades ago, Tichi recalled, police were commonly called to get groups of transients out of cars abandoned near the Alaskan Way Viaduct and its approaches between South Spokane Street and downtown.

"People would be living in abandoned cars, 20 or 30 abandoned cars at a time," she said. "There used to be a guy living under the Fremont Bridge."

Yesterday's last-ditch effort by self-appointed advocates for the homeless to halt the dismantling of The Jungle encampment failed when a King County Superior Court judge ruled the city is not violating environmental law.

Attorneys for the Seattle Displacement Coalition sought a restraining order contending the city has illegally destroyed vegetation and paths in the East Duwamish Greenbelt (the west slope of Beacon Hill).

The greenbelt, said Seattle lawyer Michael Gendler, is defined as an "environmentally critical area" under city ordinance and the state Growth Management Act, and he argued the city must hold a review process before removing vegetation or changing grades.

But Judge Norma Huggins agreed with city and state attorneys that environmental laws exempt officials when they are responding to a unsafe and unsanitary conditions on public land.

Superior Court Judge Dale Ramerman on Friday rejected the coalition's argument that the city failed to give proper eviction notice.

Both Huggins and Ramerman found the homeless had no legal standing because they were trespassing.

Gendler said he knows of no more legal action that can be taken to halt the removal of shanties and other structures at the site, but he noted Huggins acknowledged the city must be more committed to finding emergency housing.

"To simply say they can't sit on the sidewalk and they can't sit in the woods just doesn't cut it," Gendler said.

Last night, The Jungle appeared empty, with much of the brush which had previously covered area uprooted - providing a clear view of the former campsites.