On Thursday, April 2, 2020, King County announced that it has negotiated with three local hotels – including one in SeaTac – to serve as temporary shelter locations for people experiencing homelessness.
The SeaTac hotel is the Quality Inn, located at 2900 S. 192nd Street (map below).
The transition will happen early next week, when Catholic Community Services plans to move 90 people from shelter sites in Kent, Federal Way and Renton to the SeaTac location.
The county says that this acquisition is part of a continuing effort to slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus and prevent the transmission of illness through the homeless shelter population.
However, “these are not isolation and quarantine facilities. The people who are moving are presumed to be well,” the county said in a statement.
This is another in a series of actions King County is taking to “de-intensify” the concentration of people in shelters.
King County is finalizing agreements with the three hotels, which will not be open to other guests during this time.
This action also will allow locations to stay open 24/7, and meals will be provided.
Onsite services and oversight will be provided by the shelter operators.
Other hotels include:
- The Sophia Way is moving 100 people from a shelter site in Bellevue to a hotel in Bellevue, at 625 116th Avenue NE.
- Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) is moving 200 people from its Seattle shelters to a hotel in Renton, at 1 South Grady Way.
Why on earth was a facility in SeaTac located across the street from Angle Lake Park where children come to play ( when the parks open)
These people are presumed to be safe but have not been tested for the Corona Virus.
Without a doubt many have drug habits and will bring a rash of burglaries to our neighborhood. Whoever made this decision has put travelers staying at the hotels struggling already to stay afloat in harms way of being exposed to a potential virus and worse mugging. This makes me sick.
It is your King County Council Members making these decisions. The affected jurisdictions have no say in what the County Council does. Please let THEM know your thoughts about this decision and pay attention to the future solutions they propose. The County Council majority does not reflect the City of SeaTac’s vision.
During the declared state of emergency, the Public Health Department is empowered to take the steps necessary to protect and save human lives. While the emergency management operational level decisions like this are not being made by the King County Council, I support our Public Health Department. I have decided to take my guidance as a councilmember during this pandemic from our public health experts— even when politically uncomfortable or unpopular. Saving lives is more important than saving my job. The county public health department, the state public health department, and even the US Department of Defense are deploying facilities throughout King County as part of a coordinated strategy to reduce the spread of the virus. Temporarily housing vulnerable people in a hotel, with staff support, meals and security, does not cause harm to our community. People are supposed to be staying home. Businesses are closed. Hotels are empty. This isn’t going to impact any of our lives except that it is an important step to prevent the virus from spreading. This temporary housing joins facilities that have been deployed in Issaquah, Bellevue (2), Seattle (5), White Center, Kent, Renton, Shoreline, and the King County Airport. It is possible that more facilities will be deployed if our health experts determine them to be necessary. While some will no doubt stoke fear and anger, I believe we are all in this together and with a little compassion we can manage these necessary steps to keep our community safe and healthy and reduce the number of people who will die.
Councilmember Upthegrove,
I apologize for incorrectly blaming the King County Council for the decision to gift the City of SeaTac with 90 homeless people relocated from other areas. What is the proposed ‘release’ protocol for these homeless people when the social isolation order is lifted? Will they be returned to their previous locations?
Yes. They will definitely be transported home.
Transported “home”? Where is that, pray tell?
What was the outcome of this situation?
Where is the care for dual-diagnosis for many of these people?
This situation is complex.
I appreciate that someone is putting compassion before a paycheck, but more must be done so that these people may learn to thrive not just survive.
On Friday, I go to court for my daughter’s involuntary commitment hearing.
I know first hand these issues and how complicated it all is. More must be done for true care.
Dear County Council member Upthegrove, You wrote above, “Temporarily housing vulnerable people in a hotel, with staff support, meals and security, does not cause harm to our community.”
From your lips to God’s ears. 🙂 I truly hope you are correct, but seeing what has happened in Kent–twice–I’m afraid I am skeptical of this plan.
Have these folks been tested for the virus? What if they are asymptomatic?
Considering the Governor’s ‘stay at home’ order, I don’t understand the benefit of removing people from their current ‘home’ and shuffling them off to a different environment, without knowing if this will spread the virus even further.
At the very least, there should have been testing for these folks before they are moved anywhere, and then they should be officially quarantined to ensure that the virus isn’t being introduced and spread to a new location altogether. THAT makes sense to me.
Mind you, I wasn’t involved in any of the discussions leading up to this plan and don’t know to what extent pro and con exercises were performed, but to me, this plan does not seem safe and sound for my city.
This is my observation as a SeaTac resident and taxpayer…
Thank you, Dave Upthegrove, for following the lead of our public health experts. That is what we all should be doing. If SeaTac city council leaders where more involved in regional cooperation and less invested in their nay saying perhaps they would be better informed about the details of these decisions. And a phone call to Public Health would probably health would probably help, too, rather than throwing your questions out in a public letter. The role of leaders is to lead, and not undermne.
So a year after they’ve done this what was the outcome yes crime and drugs on the rise in seatac all sorts of those things have gone up and why is there a guard stationed at the opening of this hotel they will not let anyone in if the people can come and go as they please why can’t they have visitors or something that’s very odd. Just drove by the place and is got a locked gate and looks like a ghost town. Creepy.