Marlon Meyer
Northwest Asia Weekly
On September 8, a group of people gathered for a rally at Hing Hay Park. (Photo by Eugene M. Tagawa)
A man wearing a dark leather jacket, bald head and glasses stopped at the edge of Xinghai Park, looking at the more than 100 people who were sitting in the square or holding signs protesting the new homeless shelter.
“You think you’ll be safe if you get rid of them?” he shouted loudly.
Some organizers of the rally started walking towards him.
“You won’t!” the man shouted. Everyone turned around and saw a thin young man in a suit jacket holding a sign and saying something to the man.
“F-you!” the man yelled heavily and hoarsely to let him go, and he turned and walked away violently.
So protesters, including some 90-year-olds, toddlers from kindergarten, residents, business owners, community leaders, and pretty much everyone from the Chinatown International District (CID), are reminding that this is not just another The new homeless shelter they oppose nearby.
Protesters hold placards at the rally (Photo by Eugene M. Tianchuan)
Instead, the general climate of hatred and racism contributed to the almost constant violence against them.
“It’s not that we’re against homelessness,” said Matt Chen, a community advocate and one of the speakers. “It’s about government malfeasance.”
While the speaker lashed out at the government for leading them and then deserting them, longtime residents of the neighborhood told them of the incidental and near-daily violence they and their children encountered.
Standing at the front of the crowd, Chan took the microphone and said, “Politicians come to take pictures, but when we really need them, they’re gone.”
At the back of the crowd, Sharon Yu, 51, was listening on the steps of Xinghai Park. Moments later, she told Asia Weekly: “Yesterday, a man spat on my daughter’s face.”
Her 7-year-old daughter was standing in front of their building waiting for friends to take the family to the park.
“He spit at her right here,” she said, pointing out of the corner of her eye. The man also shouted a garbled word, but Yu, who ran out from behind the door with his son, couldn’t say anything. Now, Yu adds, pointing to another Chinese woman in her 30s, “She was also spat on in her face.”
“You have to write it down and let the government know we’re hurting,” she added eagerly.
Various community members express opposition to the proposed shelter (Photo by Eugene M. Tagawa)
The rally, organized by various community groups, was held on September 8 from 5-6:30 pm. Its purpose is to oppose the opening of a new, expanded homeless shelter at 1000-1050 Sixth Avenue South, 831 Seattle Boulevard, and 831 Airport Way South (where the Salvation Army shelter is currently located), with adjacent land providing housing and For RV. Community groups were outraged at the declaration of shelters without community input.
“This super hospital has never held a public hearing!” said another speaker, Lin Meirui, president of the Chonghua Charity Federation. “When I worked for the King County Council, any development had to have a public hearing.”
Organizers met with local officials four hours before the rally began.
According to organizers, officials said they had, in fact, contacted 12 people at CID before deciding on a shelter.
Organizers also said officials may hire contractors without a bidding process. It is unclear whether this will reduce quality, safety, oversight and speed up opening.
At the rally, speakers cited the callous choice of local officials to dump more homeless people in the neighborhood, which already has multiple shelters, thus attracting those feeding on the homeless. . There has been a surge in crime and violence over the past few years.
“How dare you set up a homeless shelter near us!” cried Betty Luke, the sister of former Washington State Assistant Attorney General Win Luke. “It’s absolutely racist to have empty spaces and empty buildings in white neighborhoods – and you didn’t put them there!”
Another CID resident, also sitting in the back of the crowd, nodded and said, “That’s what we thought.”
The resident, who calls himself Li, is 80 years old this year and is originally from Guangdong. She washed dishes at a nearby restaurant for 20 years before retiring on more than $800 a month. She tied her gray hair into a ponytail and talked about having a gold chain, a personal investment, ripped straight from her neck.
“Why doesn’t the government find a farm and let these people do healthy labor while they recover, maybe it will be better for them,” she speculates.
When asked why the government should support her through social security, not the homeless, Lee replied: “We follow the law. I don’t break things or threaten people’s safety. We don’t cause damage or do drugs. .”
Luke continued in front: “To you, government officials, I say, you used a disenfranchised group and then hurt another group! I want you to arrange this in your own backyard!”
Members of two community night patrols, who have been walking the streets after dark for years and handing out food and water at the camp, say drug dealers, gangsters and other criminals have taken advantage of the uninhabited areas. The new shelter will attract more people, which will bring the number of beds there to 500.
“Not only are they a danger to us, but they are a danger to themselves,” Luke said through a microphone at the rally.
Anger at elected officials also showed in various signs.
Gary Lee, a volunteer with the Seattle Chinatown Neighborhood Watch, holds a sign with a photo of King County Councilman Joe McDermott, representing the 8th Ward, whose face is in In the middle of the red circle, the red diagonal line goes through the circle.
Others held signs that read “This is racism,” referring to the decision to place the new, expanded shelter at CID without community input.
Leo Flor, director of the King County Department of Community and Human Services, said the county’s severe homelessness, with 6,000 people sleeping rough every night, calls for bold action. Flor also said the agency has established shelters in the area.
“We know there is a need,” said Nora Chan, another spokeswoman and founder of the Seniors Action Foundation. “We’re not against homelessness, but crime is on the rise and it’s never going to stop.”
Community activists say the CID already has five shelters (at the rally, Chen said there were 10 nearby). They say the CID has suffered centuries of marginalization, including some of the worst air in the city, and relentless transportation projects like the I-5 that runs through the area.
The community has been forced to relocate to new locations three times over more than a century.
“First, Chinatown was on the waterfront, then Pioneer Square, and now we’ve landed here. This is our home. It will always be here,” Lin said.
Most recently, at the height of the pandemic, when police battled protesters, looters and thugs appeared to have been introduced to the CID, damaging building facades and attacking residents.
“Now they’re building another shelter in the CID,” community leader Faye Hong said in an interview. “It’s ridiculous.”
For older residents, it feels like the end.
When asked what would happen if she had to move out of the affordable housing she lives in, Li said she couldn’t plan for it.
“It feels like we don’t have a tomorrow,” she said.
A 90-year-old community member told the rally that there are thousands of seniors like her in the community.
There are other reasons for the fear among community members. Rumors reflect an even worse situation.
Real estate agent Esther Chan, who attended the rally, said violent gangs from Everett were planning to move to the area once the new shelters opened. She said she learned of the gangs from police after some of her son’s belongings were stolen by them. “Don’t even go near them,” the police told her.
She walked with Li Na and several other older women at the back of the crowd, which gathered at the front and scattered across the street in twos and threes, while organizer Hu Jintao led marchers at the end of the rally to check out the location of the future shelter.
The crowd boiled ahead, like a cloud, to the fenced and closed streets where a camp was located.
Another organiser, Gei Chan, took to the rear to make sure that Lee and another older woman, with walkers, crossed Dearborn Street safely to learn about the area.
“It’s going to go from that side of the fence to there, covering all these blocks,” said another organizer, pointing to a large swath of land the size of a train station.
Then something terrible happened.
The crowd dispersed. The last marchers staggered behind their signs.
The streets were empty.
The reporter stayed and spoke with an amiable homeless man.
That’s not a problem.
When the homeless man left, the reporter was putting away his notebook. When he looked up, he saw two big men approaching him. One of them, although not the bald man who had yelled at the rally earlier, looked very similar. He had a shaved head, wore some kind of leather jacket, and frowned as if he was going to kill someone.
The reporter left quickly.
Mahlon can reach info@nwasianweekly.com.
