A home­less coali­tion for a small city of Wash­ing­ton state filled a City Coun­cil meet­ing. The Puyallup Home­less Coali­tion wanted to talk to the coun­cil about the “crime” of being poor.

Home­less peo­ple have com­plained of police smash­ing their tents and telling them to leave city parks, and are increas­ingly run­ning out of places to stay. A church allowed home­less peo­ple to park their cars in their dri­ve­way overnight, but that was even stopped due to com­plaints of neighbors.

From Puyallup’s The Her­ald, writer Neil Pier­son attended the meeting.

Scott was just one of numer­ous home­less per­sons who filled the Puyallup City Coun­cil cham­bers on Sept. 1. For more than an hour, the group besieged offi­cials to help them find solu­tions. Many said they sim­ply needed a roof over their heads while they tack­led other prob­lems but are find­ing that task impos­si­ble because police offi­cers have been destroy­ing their tents and evict­ing them from pub­lic property.

Ted Brack­man, co-founder of the Puyallup Home­less Coali­tion, said bring­ing the home­less to a coun­cil meet­ing was a nec­es­sary step in help­ing offi­cials under­stand the problem’s scope. The coali­tion was formed nine years and has since grown to include Open Hearth Min­istries and the Freez­ing Nights pro­gram, which offers tem­po­rary hous­ing dur­ing cold weather.

“There’s lit­tle change in terms of the offi­cial pol­icy in Puyallup towards home­less peo­ple,” Brack­man said. “So we’re at a cross­roads and we wanted the city coun­cil to face that.”

Puyallup doesn’t have a ded­i­cated shel­ter for home­less res­i­dents, rely­ing instead on a net­work of churches and non-profit groups to tem­porar­ily pro­vide relief. The home­less say there’s a per­pet­ual cycle: They can’t get a job with­out an address or phone num­ber and they can’t get those things because they have no money.

Bev Cas­cio, vol­un­teer coor­di­na­tor for Open Hearth Min­istries, said prob­lems in East Pierce County are grow­ing. Her orga­ni­za­tion pro­vides tem­po­rary relief for the home­less at motels, but there sim­ply aren’t any vacan­cies these days. The issue affects all age groups: At the end of the last school year, Cas­cio said, 318 chil­dren attend­ing Puyallup schools were con­sid­ered homeless.

“We are fac­ing a cri­sis here in Puyallup and we know that as lead­ers of our com­mu­nity you want to know what’s hap­pen­ing,” Cas­cio told the coun­cil. “Many of the fam­i­lies I’ve been meet­ing with in recent weeks have hit a wall. They don’t want to be home­less. They are vul­ner­a­ble and at risk. They are preg­nant women and small chil­dren and very young par­ents. They are grand­moth­ers with children.”

Peter Andrews, coor­di­na­tor of the Puyallup Home­less Coali­tion, said the city had been donat­ing $5,000 per year to Open Hearth Min­istries. This year, in a national reces­sion, the amount dropped to $2,500. Mean­while, a recent report showed the city spent $860,000 in the past five years to main­tain Wood­bine Ceme­tery. Andrews won­dered why vol­un­teer groups such as the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts couldn’t take up such a cause.

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A home­less coali­tion for a small city of Wash­ing­ton state filled a City Coun­cil meet­ing. The Puyallup Home­less Coali­tion wanted to talk to the coun­cil about the “crime” of being poor.

Home­less peo­ple have com­plained of police smash­ing their tents and telling them to leave city parks, and are increas­ingly run­ning out of places to stay. A church allowed home­less peo­ple to park their cars in their dri­ve­way overnight, but that was even stopped due to com­plaints of neighbors.

From Puyallup’s The Her­ald, writer Neil Pier­son attended the meeting.

Scott was just one of numer­ous home­less per­sons who filled the Puyallup City Coun­cil cham­bers on Sept. 1. For more than an hour, the group besieged offi­cials to help them find solu­tions. Many said they sim­ply needed a roof over their heads while they tack­led other prob­lems but are find­ing that task impos­si­ble because police offi­cers have been destroy­ing their tents and evict­ing them from pub­lic property.

Ted Brack­man, co-founder of the Puyallup Home­less Coali­tion, said bring­ing the home­less to a coun­cil meet­ing was a nec­es­sary step in help­ing offi­cials under­stand the problem’s scope. The coali­tion was formed nine years and has since grown to include Open Hearth Min­istries and the Freez­ing Nights pro­gram, which offers tem­po­rary hous­ing dur­ing cold weather.

“There’s lit­tle change in terms of the offi­cial pol­icy in Puyallup towards home­less peo­ple,” Brack­man said. “So we’re at a cross­roads and we wanted the city coun­cil to face that.”

Puyallup doesn’t have a ded­i­cated shel­ter for home­less res­i­dents, rely­ing instead on a net­work of churches and non-profit groups to tem­porar­ily pro­vide relief. The home­less say there’s a per­pet­ual cycle: They can’t get a job with­out an address or phone num­ber and they can’t get those things because they have no money.

Bev Cas­cio, vol­un­teer coor­di­na­tor for Open Hearth Min­istries, said prob­lems in East Pierce County are grow­ing. Her orga­ni­za­tion pro­vides tem­po­rary relief for the home­less at motels, but there sim­ply aren’t any vacan­cies these days. The issue affects all age groups: At the end of the last school year, Cas­cio said, 318 chil­dren attend­ing Puyallup schools were con­sid­ered homeless.

“We are fac­ing a cri­sis here in Puyallup and we know that as lead­ers of our com­mu­nity you want to know what’s hap­pen­ing,” Cas­cio told the coun­cil. “Many of the fam­i­lies I’ve been meet­ing with in recent weeks have hit a wall. They don’t want to be home­less. They are vul­ner­a­ble and at risk. They are preg­nant women and small chil­dren and very young par­ents. They are grand­moth­ers with children.”

Peter Andrews, coor­di­na­tor of the Puyallup Home­less Coali­tion, said the city had been donat­ing $5,000 per year to Open Hearth Min­istries. This year, in a national reces­sion, the amount dropped to $2,500. Mean­while, a recent report showed the city spent $860,000 in the past five years to main­tain Wood­bine Ceme­tery. Andrews won­dered why vol­un­teer groups such as the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts couldn’t take up such a cause.

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