During his City Manager’s Report at Monday night’s (Feb. 5, 2024) Burien City Council Meeting, City Manager Adolfo Bailon said that he had heard the Oasis Home Church’s sanctioned homeless camp may be closing, but staff had nothing official to report on that yet.
We are not sure if Bailon knew that – while he spoke – several displaced homeless individuals from the former Oasis Camp were setting up tents just outside City Hall.
The organization running the camp has been notoriously bad about keeping the city informed on anything happening at the encampment. Since its inception, city officials have been in the dark about how many people were camped there, what services were being provided, or what conditions were like for them. The organization would not provide this information, which is expected in order to operate a homeless camp in the city.
Neighbors of Oasis Home Church have consistently and passionately complained during recent council meetings about safety issues in their community since the camp opened in November, 2023.
Former Burien Councilmember Cydney Moore is President of the Burien Community Support Coalition, the organization that worked with Oasis Home Church to temporarily house the homeless on their lot. Moore spoke during the Public Comments segment of yesterday’s council meeting, explaining that the three-month lease her group had with Oasis Home Church has ended – here’s a transcript of her statement:
“Hello, my name is Cydney Moore and I am the president of the Burien Community Support Coalition.
“For the last three months, our organization has been operating a supervised homeless encampment behind Oasis Home Church. Today, our lease with Oasis has come to an end and we are searching for a new location.
“We have proven that an operation like this can work here in Burien, so the during the last three months we’ve been successfully connecting people to services including case management, detox housing, wait lists, reconnecting them with family members, supporting them as they look for work and hold down jobs and providing essentials including tents, blankets, clothing and food.
“We would like to continue providing this level of support to those in need, but we can’t do it without help. We’ve been operating as all volunteers and with nothing but private donations. We would like to propose the city of Burien work in partnership with us so we can continue offering this vital service to the most vulnerable in our Community. We know what happens when there is not a safe space for in-house people in our city.
“As we speak, there are people outside this building setting up tents here in downtown because they have nowhere else to go. We would encourage you to help us find a new location while you work towards finalizing plans for the tiny home or pallet shelter village. So people are not left to camp out on the streets. We will be reaching out to the city in the coming days to offer our partnership and we would be happy to share more detailed information with the city about who we have served and how we would ask that you give serious consideration to how we can work together to meet our Community’s needs. Thank you.”
Moore said that her organization has proven that this type of operation can work in Burien, successfully connecting the homeless with services and essentials. Her organization is actively searching for a new location to partner with to provide homeless services. She also said they are seeking a partnership with the city.
Mayor Kevin Schilling made it clear in a telephone statement to The B-Town Blog that the city had nothing to do with the Oasis Camp being shut down, that it was completely between Moore’s organization and the church. He also said that Moore directed homeless individuals displaced by the camp closure to move their tents to an area near Burien City Hall/Library. This might feel like deja vu for residents of Downtown Burien.
Mayor Schilling explained that there were about five tents around City Hall through the night, but in the morning police let the campers know that city ordinance does not allow camping during the day. Schilling added that there were service providers present Tuesday morning connecting with the campers when they were being told to move, but representatives from Lead/Reach were not present. The individuals packed up their tents and moved out when requested by police, but they may be back to camp in the evening, as the law allows.
I find it interesting, and disturbing, that you cannot contact the Burien Community Support Coalition / Cydney Moore.
If this is such a great, “community group” why is their no contact information? My guess is that they don’t have community support.
Cydney – how many people do you house in your yard. My guess in none. You have no idea what I see in my daily walks through the city.
I grew here, how about you? Moved to the area in 1956.
What I see is disgusting, why would you perpetuate it?
Not a fan….
I’m a little confused why it’s called out that the Burien Community Support Coalition didn’t inform the city of anything happening at the encampment when the mayor even stated the city had nothing to do with the camp. No tax dollars were used to support the encampment or the BCSC organization; however, if anyone on the city council would’ve asked, they would’ve been given the information about what was going on there. On the flip side, The More We Love and Kristine Moreland were fully funded by tax dollars without consent by the council or city due to the contract being just under the required amount for their approval, yet the city council never received a report from them, though some council members directly requested it, and the council voted not to bother getting a report after that contract ended to understand how our money was spent. Quite the double standard.
They should all be checked for criminal records. And offer help. If they refuse help to get a job,then they get nothing. If they are supposed to be registered sex affender they need go back to jail. I’m not cold hearted just a realist. I have worked since I was a kid,and do not like seeing all the mess that they leave behind.
Yeah it could be nice to find what happen to the $50,000 that the city gave her to help the home homeless . About $1 from every tax payer in burien it’s the end of world we all might have lost a $1 . But if you take a calculator and think well there was 60 people as what was at the church figure the same amount of people got offer help times that by $200( most hotel prices in the area for a night) in a hotel plus food transportation that wouldn’t even last 7 days. Then the cost of a investigator to look into Kristine Moreland because of your hated for homeless and her past issues and your possible lost of $1 . Could cost the tax payers another $20,000 to $50,000 to find out if she did everything right or she did something wrong and the city has to file a lawsuit pay for lawyers and courts and city officials time. Then that money that could have gone to help the homeless a little more gets spent on court fees and other stuff .