BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Today is the deadline for homeless campers at Bellingham City Hall to move back 25 feet from the building.
Mayor Seth Fleetwood says the city has to act after more than two months of an unsustainable situation.
He says the City is using an incremental approach to end the encampment; they want to do this with a soft touch and in a humane way.
Fleetwood noted that it is not a sweep as some have claimed.
He says the Base Camp run by the Lighthouse Mission has vacancies and the city has offered another site on Cornwall that advocates refused.
Advocates refused the alternate site for 25 people, saying they felt it would be unethical for them to accept just 25 when there is a need for more.
Fleetwood says the city and county will continue work to find a solution.
But concerns he’s hearing from City Hall workers and the public have convinced him it’s time to begin to end the encampment.