$3 million for hotel rooms could take pressure off Tukwila church's refugee camp
TUKWILA, Wash. — At least two hundred asylum seekers holed up in an encampment at a Tukwila church will soon be placed in temporary hotel rooms but there are still no housing solutions finalized for hundreds of others.
King County has hired a nonprofit called Thrive International to secure 100 hotel rooms for refugees living around the Riverton Park United Methodist Church. The county has also provided $3 million for the project while longer-term solutions are sorted out.
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Rev. Jan Bolerjack, the pastor at the church, said for all the challenges the refugees face living in the cramped quarters of the sprawling encampment, the situations they left behind were so much worse.
“The stories are horrendous, they are traumatic. Families running from their homes as their homes are set on fire,” the pastor said.
Most of the people living on church grounds are from Venezuela, Angola, and Congo and are escaping violence and conflict in those areas. About 400 people are now living at the church which has created health and public safety concerns.
The situation has been deteriorating for months, and King County finally met the mounting crisis head-on with the hotel vouchers, which should bring at least 200 people indoors for about the next six months.
“The state is assisting in providing these funds so we can help provide a runway until the June/July timeframe,” said Leon Richardson, the division director of adult services at the King County Dept. of Community and Human Services.
This is only a partial solution because there's not enough money for everyone to get hotel vouchers at this point. The crisis will likely require state or even federal assistance to resolve, but a first step is now being taken.
“We plan on beginning operations next week to begin moving people daily,” Richardson said.