TUKWILA, Wash. — The City of Tukwila will fund a large, heated tent for asylum seekers living outside the Riverton Park United Methodist Church to help improve health and safety conditions for refugees who are staying there, the city announced Tuesday.
The 3,030-square-foot tent can accommodate up to 100 people. The setup is expected to be complete by the end of the week.
The church has opened its doors to hundreds of asylum seekers for over a year now. The City of Tukwila declared a state of emergency last fall after the number of migrants surpassed 180 people. At one point, over 400 refugees were reported to be staying at the camp. The current number is estimated to be around 240.
Most of the residents are asylum seekers from Venezuela, Angola, and Congo and fled violence and conflict in their homelands. The most vulnerable at the site include families with small children or those who are pregnant.
King County previously approved funding to move some of those people into hotel rooms, however, anything beyond a stop-gap solution has been difficult to come by.
“The large centralized tent provided by the city is a temporary measure – another band-aid solution – aimed at assisting asylees who are coming to our community looking for help,” said Tukwila Mayor Tom McLeod. “We’re trying to do the best we can with the limited resources available to us as a small city. But more needs to be done at the state and federal levels because this ongoing humanitarian crisis isn’t going away.”
The city has hired consultants to advise on ways to improve and better manage the site at the Methodist church. In February, the city and the church signed a memorandum of understanding "aimed at reducing the numbers on the site and maintaining safer conditions," according to a press release.
“The City of Tukwila has been a wonderful partner as our church has tried fill the void and offer a helping hand to asylee families while they navigate the federal bureaucracy,” said Rev. Jan Bolerjack of Riverton Park United Methodist Church. “The new tent will hopefully improve our site so these families have a safe, healthy short-term place to stay.”
Tense moments at Seattle City Council meeting end with arrests
A protest at a Seattle City Council meeting demanding more money for asylum seekers resulted in six arrests Tuesday night.
Asylum seekers and their advocates showed up calling on the city to provide more money for housing in other King County cities.
At one point the chambers were cleared and police were called in as protesters banged on the windows.
While the Seattle City Council has not promised more funding to support the asylum seekers, King County just announced a million dollar grant to support the asylum seekers and refugees in Tukwila.
Congressman Adam Smith, whose district includes Tukwila, asked FEMA to ensure that money from their programs can be used for asylum seekers. His office also asked for the Department of Homeland Security to roll out a new program for our region that would speed up work authorization requests - a lengthy process which many of the asylum seekers in Tukwila are waiting on.