The Issaquah Press
City’s lack of shelter leaves homeless little choice
Thursday, February 23, 2017 •
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POLICE & FIRE The Police & Fire report does not appear this week because the Issaquah Police Department failed to provide a summary of investigations by press time.
By Stuart Miller smiller@isspress.com Issaquah’s homeless have endured snow, rain and cold snaps with no shelter options in town. Though there is a known and visible homeless population in Issaquah, the town lacks a lifesaving winter shelter aimed at helping people make it through the night during the coldest, wettest season. Many towns surrounding Issaquah have shelter programs, such as the Snoqualmie Valley Winter Shelter that is currently operating in North Bend, and the Eastside Winter Shelter in Bellevue. Their main goal is to save people from freezing to death. Ron Gleason, an Issaquah man who’s been homeless for two years, slept outside in downtown Issaquah during February’s snowstorm. “I froze my butt off,” Gleason said. His usual sleeping spot doesn’t offer complete protection from rain and snow, which can leave him soaked. Gleason, now in his late 60s, has lived in Issaquah since 1974. After his service in the Navy, he worked as a land surveyor for Professional Land Surveyors Inc. but was laid off in 2000, he said. He continued to do land surveying jobs until around 2010. After his father passed away two years ago, Gleason’s living situation changed because of family issues, forcing him to live outside. Gleason said that he’s been arrested many times by the Issaquah police for sleeping on public property, and spent many nights in the city jail. While Gleason would rather stay out of jail, he said his nights spent there are often warmer than his usual situation, and he gets fed regularly. “It’s three meals,” Gleason said. Gleason said he had a good experience spending a night at the Valley Winter Shelter in North Bend. The shelter operates out of three different churches that donate space throughout the season, which runs from November through April. Guests can stay out of the elements from 8:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., and are also served a hot dinner. If there were a similar option in Issaquah, “I’d stay there,” Gleason said. Gleason spends much of his time staying warm in local businesses. The staff at Flying Pie Pizzeria said that regular customers leave money for Gleason behind the counter, so he can buy food when he comes in. It’s hard to say exactly how many people are experiencing homelessness in Issaquah, but it is common to see one or more persons who are apparently in need around town on any given day. There are men and women, young and old. Some can handle the cold and elements, but there is no guarantee that everybody will wake up after a freezing night. Four homeless people died in Portland in the first 10 days of January, prompting public outcry and a strong reaction to help get more homeless people sheltered. The Snoqualmie Valley Winter Shelter has seen an uptick in number of guests this winter, according to shelter director Jennifer Kirk. With homelessness on the rise in King County and the Eastside, lifesaving winter shelters may become increasingly necessary.
Lizz Giordano / lgiordano@isspress.com
Janet Horton (left), Sandra Buliezi (center) and Eileen Murphy (center) help serve the Thursday lunch.
Group serving free meals faces city’s compliance deadline By Lizz Giordano lgiordano@isspress.com Every Thursday for the past seven years, anywhere from 35 to 60 residents crowd into Community Hall for a free lunch hosted by a community bible study group. But regulations recently announced by the city could shut the group down and end the service group members provide each month to anyone in need of a hot meal. Informally known as the Thursday Lunch, the group serves a weekly lunch, and on the weekends serves dinners. Many of the same people partake of all of Thursday Lunch’s meals. This fills gaps in the Issaquah Meals Program — organized by Catholic Community Services — that provides evening meals Monday through Friday. “I’m proud of the fact there is a free meal in Issaquah every day of the week,” said Marilyn Ottinger, a member of the Thursday Lunch group who also helps organize weekend dinners. In April, the city will require groups serving food in Community Hall to be a legally recognized nonprofit and carry insurance. Emily Moon, Issaquah’s deputy city administrator, said this was to create consistency. “Because we required it in other city facilities and we haven’t in this one,” Moon said about the requirement change at Community Hall, which is located between the police and fire stations on East Sunset Way. “The decision by the city to only allow nonprofits would turn a
‘community’ hall into a ‘corporation’ hall, available not to human persons but only to corporate persons,” Ottinger said. “I’m dumbfounded that the city would put a roadblock on something that generates so much good, and is free.” The group said this wasn’t the first time the free meals it provides were at risk of being shut down. The group began serving hot meals outside the Issaquah Food Bank in 2008. Wes Howard-Brook, a member of the Thursday Lunch group, said it was Mayor Fred Butler who first offered the group the keys to the Community Hall to serve their weekly meal. Howard-Brook said it was after a woman fell and threatened to sue the city that new requirements for groups using Community Hall were announced. Groups were told at the beginning of 2016 that food had to be prepared in a commercial kitchen, either at Community Hall or another certified kitchen. Another alternative was to buy pre-made food from grocery stores. “The city learned that King County and State of Washington public health codes do not allow most home-prepared foods to be served to the public at Community Hall,” Moon wrote in an email. Howard-Brook said he argued at the time that not only are the homemade meals more nutritious and better than store-made food, no one has ever gotten sick by eating their food. And the kitchen is too small to cook the amount of food needed to feed the people
who come, and the cooks didn’t always have the time to come to the kitchen to prepare the meals, he said. “The reality is dozens if not hundreds of church groups receive donated homemade food to serve,” Howard-Brook said. The group contends the meals it hosted were potlucks and were therefore exempt from the regulations. The city disagreed, but the group continued to serve past the Jan. 1, 2016, deadline, and the city let the matter drop, HowardBrook said. The group’s access to Community Hall continued while some food was prepared in home kitchens. “It’s not our code,” Moon said when asked why the city didn’t enforce the rule. “King County would be the enforcer.” “We recently surveyed all of the groups that utilize Community Hall (for meals or other purposes) and found that most of the groups serving meals have modified their practices to comply with the health code — some groups still have some work to do to comply 100% of the time,” Moon wrote in an email. “Marilyn’s (Thursday Lunch) group continues to be the exception; they have not attempted to comply,” she continued. Now the new deadline to comply with the latest rules is April 3, 2017. The city says the Community Hall kitchen falls under “donor kitchen” regulations and must follow King County charitable food donation guidelines. “The city can’t win this battle,”
said Kevin Gibbs, who helps prepare the food for Thursday Lunch and also depends on it for a hot meal. “Way too much is at stake for the folks who need this,” Gibbs said. “For crying out loud, people got to eat.” “If the city has the authority to limit the use of the hall, they have the authority to grandfather an existing, regular, beneficial use of the hall,” Ottinger said. A bill currently being debated in committee in the Legislature would allow groups to accept food donations prepared in a private residence, but would not change the nonprofit requirement. Rep. Paul Graves, R-Fall City, was a co-sponsor of the bill. He said in a tweet it was in response to the county’s enforcement of health regulations on volunteers serving free meals at Issaquah Community Hall. The Thursday Lunch group is trying to find a church to work under to qualify as a nonprofit and with insurance to comply with the new rules in order to continue serving meals. The group would rather not have to do this because it is a movement of individuals, not an institution, said Howard-Brook. “What is wrong with neighborto-neighbor care for one another?” he said. “It’s how folks used to do it before bureaucracy took over.” Friendships have formed during these lunches, Ottinger said. “These aren’t just people that come to dinner. They are our friends.”
Vandalized salmon statue repaired by original sculptor By Christina Corrales-Toy ccorrales-toy@isspress.com
Greg Farrar / gfarrar@isspress.com
Chimacum foundryman artist Tom Jay, 74, performs repairs Feb. 16 on his statue ‘Reaching Home’ in front of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery. The statue was vandalized on Oct. 18 and 19, resulting in a saw cut near the tail of the bronze coho, which is nicknamed Finley.
Robin Kelley couldn’t bring herself to look at the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery’s iconic bronze fish statues over the past four months. In October, someone took a saw to one of the fish, leaving an 8-inch vertical cut near its tail. The damage to the statue affectionately known as Finley wasn’t easily visible from the front, but simply seeing the sculpture was a reminder of the malicious laceration. “It was just so hurtful to think that someone would do this,” said Kelley, executive director of the Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery.
Months later, there are still no suspects, but things are finally starting to return to normal after Finley was restored to mint condition over a three-day period Feb. 15-17. Tom Jay, the original sculptor of the piece, came from his home in Chimacum to assess the damage and make repairs. “It’s happening a lot more,” he said. “I’ve had three different calls to repair vandalized works in the last five years. Sometimes they try to steal it, sometimes they just do it out of malice.” Jay and his wife Sara Johani used a welder to melt and add filler metal to the gash, before meticulously texturing, waxing and color matching the area to
blend in with the sculpture. It’s a slow, detailed process to mimic the intricate cross-hatching and dimples that mark the silicon bronze statue. “When the colors go on and the wax goes on, it will look like nothing ever happened,” Jay said. Kelley said she’s not sure how much the fix will cost, but she’s hopeful it will be covered with insurance funds. “They did amazing work,” she said. “It looks spectacular.” The statues, known as Finley and Gilda, were dedicated in 1996. The work entitled “Reaching Home” serves as a teaching tool and a donation receptacle. The city paid for the $20,000 sculpture through its municipal arts fund.