CHAZ is becoming a refuge for homeless people as well as protestors in Black Lives Matter movement

By Alexa Peters

On Friday, as the rain pounded the field at Cal Anderson, Ghost, a volunteer at the Future Crystals co-op tent, shouted through the mist.

“Where is that thermal blanket he had?” Ghost asked a fellow volunteer, standing near a homeless man sleeping in the field. Quickly, they both start looking for another thermal blanket to cover the man with.

Along with creating safe spaces for protestors, this sort of concern for homeless people living in the area is commonplace in the CHAZ. In fact, Ghost says many of the homeless people who live in the neighborhood have joined the masses of protestors coming to their tent for supplies and food—and Ghost says they’re happy to help anyone.

“It’s definitely a mix [of protestors and homeless people]—as you can see there’s a homeless person over here with a sleeping bag. We’ve been giving them shelter out of the rain if they need it. We’ve been giving them access to anything they need,” said Ghost. “I even offered emotional support to a young lady with schizophrenia and helped her get some WiFi so she could get a bed and admit herself.”

Another volunteer at one of the CHAZ medic tents, who asked to go only by the name Rose, says that caring for homeless people has become a major part of their effort within CHAZ.

In fact, Rose says they see a regular cast of homeless people daily, many of whom were located here before the zone was set up. The volunteers do their best to provide them basic medical care and check in with them emotionally. She added they’ve even taken several people to Harborview with an advocate to stand up for their needs.

“[Our work is] a combination of protestors needing first aid and homeless people who have their own needs,” she said. “We want CHAZ to be sustainable and inclusive of everyone who lives here, even homeless.”

To some, particularly those against CHAZ who’ve taken to social media to criticize, homeless aid has been used as a way to undermine the effort and expose it as a left-wing extremist scheme. But, the way CHAZ has become a safe haven for the homeless is not a distraction or liability for Black Lives Matter—it’s right on point for several reasons.

Firstly, homelessness and the crisis for affordable housing in Seattle disproportionately affects communities of color. According to an article in PEW Charitable Trusts, an organization dedicated to solving today’s challenges with nonpartisan information, this is because of the broader impact of systemic racism.

People of color are disproportionately represented among the homeless, with blacks and Native Americans experiencing the highest rates among those groups.

Poverty alone doesn’t account for the stark inequities, researchers say, because the number of black and Native people who are homeless exceeds their proportion of people living in deep poverty.

Those disparities, researchers say, are the result of centuries of discrimination in housing, criminal justice, child welfare and education.

In fact, according to Maya McManus of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, an organization that works to address racial disparities among the homeless, “Black residents are more likely to have an eviction listed on their credit report — even if they weren’t evicted, but moved out without giving advance notice.”

In 2015, King County declared a state of emergency over homelessness, and in the five years since, the problem has persisted and, in many cases, worsened for homeless people of color.

“In 2019, the majority of individuals experiencing homelessness in Seattle/King County identified as people of color,” according to this 2019 King County report. “When compared to the racial demographics of the county’s general population, the largest disparities were observed among those identifying as Black or African American (32% in the Point-in-Time Count compared to 6% in the general King County population), Hispanic or Latino (15% compared to 10%), American Indian/Alaskan Native (10% compared to <1%).”

By extension, this means more people of color are dying because of homelessness. Just take a look at this Seattle Post-Intelligencer report from January 2020.

“As the number of people experiencing homelessness has continued to rise, so have the number of homeless people who die each year in King County. In 2018, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office reported it investigated 194 deaths of people who were presumed homeless. In 2017, 169 people presumed homeless died. In 2016, 136 people died, according to data from the medical examiner's office. In 2012, the number of homeless people who died in the county was 78.”

It is projected these numbers will only increase in the face of COVID-19. In this way, protestors assert CHAZ is showing up for the city’s homeless population as part of a comprehensive and multi-pronged approach to address systemic racism and bring more money to community organizations that can help minority communities, the homeless, mentally-ill, and more. By providing free food, healthcare, and more, it’s creating accessible community safety nets where there were none, or very few.

“Given that there is no business as usual, [CHAZ] represents an alternative to the individualism that has been mandated by quarantine,” said Greg Maass, one protestor who spent time in the zone. “The energy people have put into looking out for others has been inspiring.”