Claim someone is wrong but don't even make a token attempt to back it up.

Here is a clue for you. My “truth” is based on documented facts which you made no attempt to refute.

Guess who wins on credibility? Not you.

And yes, shelters are no fun. No one said that being homeless should be fun. In fact the easier we make it to be homeless the more people accept that as a way of life.

Sex Offenders have restrictions as to where they can live. Since Tent Cities are located on Church property it is most likely that there is also a school on that property and in most cases there are schools right nearby.

All Sex Offenders much register where they live (and there is public access to that database) and there are restrictions on where they can live based on the level of offender. With Tent City not only refusing to run these checks, but hiding these offenders from the system, they put the local community at risk. Any offender living in that camp is in violation of their terms of release no matter how you slice it.

Shelters are normally located in more industrial areas (with good reason) and as such those who have the “right” you claim to live in a shelter are doing so within the law and the system know their location.

The problem comes from the fact that legitimate shelters are fun by groups that know how to deal with homeless issues and how to identify and assist with the needs of the homeless. SHARE is the mouse guarding the cheese. They not only are not professionals at providing homeless services they actually prevent those in camp from getting the help they need.

HUD and the Committee to End Homelessness both condem the concept to start with and SHARE has a track record of abuse of the homeless and of criminal activity that would have any other group shut down but this region doesn't have the spine to do the right thing and shut them down. The homeless deserve better.

In the early days it appeared that the crime problem that followed Tent City everywhere it moved was not residents but those “followers” that moved from place to place with the camp but because of various issues would live in the surrounding community (wooded areas, parks, etc) and get food and other support from those that were allowed in camp. Drug dealers and others would follow the camp and “do business” with the campers.

Communities cited these crime problems when asking cities to impose reasonable safeguards to be included in the permits. SHARE objects to all of these protections.

Now that the camp has existed for 5 years there is a track record to go by. As it turns out not only is there a crime problem from those that follow the camp but a huge crime problem inside the camp.

It turns out that the claim that campers only stay a few weeks and then move on is not true. The “core group” of residents are really squatters who have chosen this as their lifestyle. Many churches were shocked to see the same people in camp that were there when they came to their church before, often years before. Some won't have them back again because they have seen the light that this isn't about the homeless but about an alternative lifestyle.

Many of these squatters have been caught committing crimes, been tried, convicted, done their time, and returned to Tent City and in some cases committed more crimes after returning.

This shines the light of day on why they refuse to run these checks and will do everything they can to keep them from being run reliably. If the public ever really knew the truth about who is in camp and what goes on it would spell the end of SHARE.

People want to do the right thing and help the homeless but it is very clear now that SHARE actually abuses the homeless to support their lifestyle.

This church needs to be praised for saying no, but they also need to back it up with action to support programs that actually help to solve the problem rather than continue to be conned by this criminal group.

When SHARE split off TC3 to create TC4 in 2004 the City of Bothell went to court and obtained a court order requiring all residents to have checks run for sex offender status and outstanding warrants. This resulted in large numbers of arrests of individuals with all kinds of legal issues including federal warrants and escaped convicts.

For the next few moves SHARE moved into churches illegally forcing the cities to go to court in order to get their legal rights upheld. In EVERY case the courts ordered these same checks which SHARE fought and resisted in every case.

When the courts finally forced SHARE to get permits before re-locating a camp they applied for a permit to move to Bothell and when one of the requirements was these warrant and sex offender checks SHARE refused to accept the permit and relocated elsewhere leaving the Church with a $5000 bill for the permit that they never used.

In Redmond they changed their tactics and started to claim they would run these checks on a “volunteer” basis as long as they were not required in the permits. Redmond instead required the city police to run the checks (which is the same process the KCSO uses) and SHARE refused insisting that KCSO run the checks. Initially this was a puzzling development until it was discovered that SHARE does just token checks of some new residents and never runs checks on anyone who had been in camp before even though there is extensive documentation that many campers have warrants issued for crimes committed while staying at Tent City and are allowed back even though SHARE claims they do not allow campers to return who commit crimes.

Since local police departments are smaller and can respond quickly in case of issues many criminals who are hiding in Tent Cities were being arrested. The KCSO supports all of King Counties 1.8 million residents and does not have the resources to be on top of every issue so when SHARE refuses to run these checks with local police and uses KCSO instead that gives those with issues time to disappear into the community before local police can get notice and take action to protect the community.

What needs to be clear is that there is no violation of an individuals rights by running these checks. Churches are private property and the property owner (as well as the local government) have the right to set conditions and refuse access to anyone at anytime. This is no different than asking for ID to buy cigarettes, go into a bar, or to enter an R rated movie.

This information is public record and anyone can run these checks on friends, neighbors, or visitors if they so desire.

I'll go into detail why SHARE doesn't run these checks, despite claiming they do, in my next post.

The tangled web of lies SHARE weaves are now being revealed! The Ballard Tribune has picked up on the link that was provided in this forum regarding the fact SHARE is running the sex offender checks for their Tent City 4 on the Eastside.

To recap, SHARE refused to run the checks here and claimed that the expense of running sex offender checks was part of the reason. THEY LIED. There is no expense to them as the checks are currently run for Tent City 4 by the King County Sheriff's office for FREE and it's been that way since 2004. In addition, Tent City4 is preparing to move to St. Jude's in Redmond, where as part of the permit, they are required to do outstanding warrant/sex offender checks.

That permit can be viewed here:
http://www.redmond.gov/cityservices/pdfs/L09006…

The truth will set you free! (or in SHARE's case come back to haunt you)

Eventually, the lies will catch up with them as they did here.

This happened yesterday:-

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews...

Yet, we still have business owners falling all over themselves to run out and pet the dog and shower the fat girl and dangerous guy with food and cash. I have seen it first hand, many many times…. One actually heats up their dinner in a coffee shop microwave for them.

The business owners practically get giddy when they see them coming and always say “Hi, How are you??”

Who cares how they are? They are dangerous crackheads. Wake up and grow up business owners!

If you lose your business to arson by a transient, blame yourselves.

Then, we had a transient swinging a box cutter inside two Ballard ave bars. Cops used a stun gun to subdue him. We had one try to attack another bar owner with with a hammer. They sell drugs in Bergen Park and The Chai House phone and mock this site on the library computers.

This is absurd. There has been two fist fights in the last two weeks in Bergen Park among transients in broad daylight… the list is endless.

Get the hell out of here!