Seattle Mayor's Office Chooses Possible Sites For Future Tent Cities

There could soon be new homeless camps in Seattle.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray's administration has picked three sites and plans to send them to the City Council for review.

TRANSCRIPT

Earlier this year, Murray said he wanted three new places for future homeless camps and then called them a temporary fix

Murray: "Encampments are not an answer to solving homelessness, they are one tool in getting people into a somewhat safer situation. The real focus has to be on shelter. And it has to be moving people who have been in shelters for a very long time into permanent housing."

Now officials are discussing where these three camps will go.

The Mayor's office has released a list and a map of locations in Ballard, Interbay and the industrial area south of Sodo. The locations are all on city-owned land and are not in residential areas.

The new camps would be operated by groups that have experience running tent cities.

Officials have also selected four other locations for potential camps, and that list includes sites in Crown Hill, Wallingford, West Seattle and Rainier Valley.

This year's one night count of homeless people in King County found a 20 percent increase over last year.

The City Council will need to approve of the new homeless camp plan.