It looks like a scene from Seattle. A transient/homeless village of at least 35 tents, RVs and vehicles has taken over the Jefferson County Fairgrounds.
“I’ve been here 12 years,” says Terry Berge, the Fairgrounds campground host. “I’ve never had a a year like this. It has been tough. Frustrating. Seventy percent of these people have mental health problems. Police are out here at least twice a week. Five times last week. Last night three officers were here until midnight.”
Those officers were dealing with a woman who had taken over the bathroom and refused to leave during a mental health episode.
What about drug use? Was he seeing it? “Constantly,” Berge says. “Three times the police had to use Naloxone” on people who had overdosed on heroin.
Was he seeing stolen property being brought to the camp? “Yes. There is an awful lot of stuff piling up here. We’ve had 50 to 100 bikes. There’s one in the dumpster now.”
When I visited the Fairgrounds this summer, tents were lined up against the fence by the apartments. Neighbors had been complaining about loud music, fighting, shouting at all hours, and open drug use. (“Lines Form in Battle for Fairgrounds’ Future“)
“We had complaints about buckets,” Berge said. “The smell and seeing it being done.” He was talking about people using buckets as toilets, defecating in the open. “We took four or five buckets from one tent. Neighbors could smell it.”
Only five paying visitors were staying overnight at the campground this day. “They feel like they are being taken advantage of,” Berge said. “One of the saddest things is the people who would come back here every year. They said this was a gem. They’d come from California and other places. Now they pull in and turn around, or stay only one night.”
The transient/homeless campers are not paying anything, not for the use of their spaces, for water, the bathrooms or trash removal. The dumpsters were completely full. So people would not use buckets, at its own expense the Fairgrounds brought in a portable toilet and pays for servicing.
“I found it smeared with feces,” Berge said. On this day it smelled pretty bad, even from a distance.
A homeless camper’s RV caught fire. The owner was told not to come back. The Fairgrounds had to spend $6,000 to clear away the wreck. That person has returned and cannot be evicted because of the Governor’s order prohibiting evictions during his declared pandemic emergency.
“The people that were paying at the beginning,” Berge said, “stopped when the Governor’s order came down.”
As I discovered this summer, quite a few of the transient/homeless campers have incomes, from Social Security, even retirement. But because of the Governor’s order, they have collectively decided not to pay anything.
In a little while heavy rains will come and the Fairgrounds will turn into a muddy mess. In anticipation, Berge is taping off large areas of the field to prevent vehicles from driving through what will become bogs. Living conditions are going to rapidly deteriorate for those in tents.
Berge looks weary of it all. Instead of being a campground host, he has become the community’s front line representative in dealing with a large, troubled, lawless homeless population. “There’s new people here all the time,” he says.
The pay box for the Fairgrounds has been robbed. He has to negotiate with factions of the homeless who are hostile towards each other. He has to do his best to keep the place from getting worse. He has seen not one elected city official and no County Commissioner since Greg Brotherton came out several months ago. The encampment is receiving no social services, though a Dove House employee does come by occasionally to talk to some of the residents.
County Commissioners have been getting public comments and many letters from neighbors reporting crimes, people passed out on their lawns, vandalism and discarded syringes. They have also been told of drug dealing going on in the camp.
Berge pointed to the empty, overgrown pastures and corrals. “We can’t have horses here,” he said. “It wouldn’t be safe for them.”
There is another homeless site in the trees behind these trailers.
Driving away, I felt sorry for Terry Berge. He did not sign on for this. And he’s getting no help except when the situation becomes so bad police must be called.
Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our "About" page for more information.
I have, when previously commenting on this site, referred to Jefferson County as the most backward county in the most backward state in the union. This “homeless” situation is a prime example of backwardness, where elected officials haven’t the brains and fortitude to deal with a problem that will continue to grow until it is out of control. These recent arrivals to the Fairgrounds are not our typical homeless locals, they are hardened urban heroin addicts that steal to support their addiction. The word is out that Port Townsend is a place where “anything goes”, where drug use and property crimes are nodded at and “the homeless” are rewarded with free stuff. These hardcores are not going anywhere until they are forced to by tough politicians and committed law enforcement, backed by a majority of citizens who won’t tolerate lawlessness.
This wouldn’t be allowed to happen in Poulsbo or Sequim, where public officials would have taken control of the situation before it got out of hand. So keep electing simple minded leftists to manage your city and county governments, fools, and situations like this will only multiply and worsen.
Well… Just saw this with my own eyes yesterday. Beautiful homes near by and a typical trash encampment still at the fairgrounds. I guess our politicians have no backbone… or conscience. Bet none of them live nearby.
We drove through there yesterday and it’s a given that the people are there for good. They have totally moved in with their trash – what a mess. I feel for Terry – and the city council and county commissioners should be required to spend an hour a day there helping. Our fairgrounds is no more – very sad.
This should be front page news in the Leader and Peninsula Daily! Maybe the exposure would get some action from the commissioners! The public needs to be made aware!
The politicians of Port Townsend, Jefferson County and the State of Washington are going cause innocent people to get injured or killed as this situation increases. Then, what kind of image of Port Townsend will the country have?
The eviction prohibition applies to rentals, not tresspassers.
I believe the Fairgrounds Association received notice from the Attorney General that they could not evict anyone during the moratorium as their rentals of spaces were “rentals.” They could close the campgrounds to any new arrivals, which would make them trespassers if they entered the property.
The transient encampment at the fairgrounds is a common problem in Washington State. It is not unique to Port Townsend or Jefferson County. When I moved from Seattle to Olympia in the mid 1990’s, activists were already laying the groundwork to destroy both cities. I am one of many thousands of people who wasted decades attending city council meetings, “community conversations” and volunteering at shelters in a futile attempt to help people in need while preserving our livable communities. We failed. And Port Townsend is now copying the EXACT pattern which almost guarantees destruction.
What is this pattern? Taxpayer (and some private) funds are directed to non-profits who offer services that attract the “homeless” which include large numbers of drug addicted and mentally ill persons. These services almost never include stable housing. All public areas including libraries and parks are eventually surrendered to maintain the “homeless” near their services. Once the tents and tarps go up, you will be living in an occupied territory because the “homeless” are essentially a protected group in Washington State. There is no equal protection under the law.
What a shame. We were homeowners on the north east side of Port Townsend until the fall of 2017. We saw the writing on the wall when the city council declared the town a sanctuary city. We moved to a zero tolerance for rape, theft and mayhem state. It’s beautiful here and people still have common sense.
The city of Roseburg, Oregon has passed a new and totally legal ordinance 3586 called the Time, Place and Manner camping rule. It tells where homeless are allowed to camp. Not allowed in public parks, neighborhoods or public streets and not along waterways. They may have a camp 10’10’, no larger. And may only camp from 6pm to 8am, then they have to pack everything up and leave during the daytime. The police really enforce this. The public has taken their streets, librarys and parks back.