Cleanup of the homeless encampment at Northwest Avenue and Bakerview Road began on Tuesday, Jan. 21 after months of community concern and pressure on the City of Bellingham.
Property owners hired dozens of people and brought in excavators and dump trucks to clear the property of tents, shopping carts, furniture, propane tanks and other debris. Workers were filling garbage bags on Wednesday morning, loading them into garbage trucks on site.
City staff and Bellingham Police gave notice to the remaining campers on Thursday morning, Jan. 16, requiring them to vacate by Monday, Jan. 20 at 8 a.m.
Only a few people appeared to be still living in the encampment at that time. They gathered their things as the city staff and police walked around, knocking on tent doors and posting orange slips notifying people of the cleanup.
In November, an estimated 50 to 70 people lived at the encampment. Mayor Kim Lund told property owners to take immediate action at an early November meeting, according to a city news release, or “face enforcement actions.”
Estimates provided by the City of Bellingham’s contractor, Abatement & Decontamination Specialists, suggest the full cleanup will cost around $96,000. The property owners are responsible for splitting the cost of full cleanup across the six parcels of private property behind the Jack in the Box. Property owners will also fence the property, likely costing an additional $500,000.
The City of Bellingham began the first phase of cleaning up another large homeless encampment behind the Bellingham Walmart in November.
Hailey Hoffman is a CDN visual journalist; reach her at haileyhoffman@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 103.
