The homeless encampment at Blakeslee Junction, on Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) land, is being cleared by construction crews ahead of a sale to Rainier Rail.
After occupants at the camp were given a one-week deadline to move out on Aug. 29, the sweep began the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 5. On Thursday, Meja Handlen, director of Lewis County Public Health & Social Services provided an update on the process to members of the county’s public health advisory board.
The multi-acre area, Handlen said, has been occupied by a fluctuating population for about nine years without hygiene or sanitation of any kind. The number of people living there has ranged from about 15 to 40, she said, and about 23 were there last week.
On Thursday morning, she said, there were 10 remaining.
Since the clearing began, Handlen reported, 70 tons of garbage have been removed from the site.
Various service providers have attended the encampment every day for multiple hours per day in order to connect with the people living at the camp.
“That’s very important because we don’t want them to just scatter,” Handlen said. “We want to get them services that will help.”
Many of those providers have already serviced the encampment for several years to offer food, harm reduction equipment such as clean needles and Narcan, clothing, and more. Without the centralized help that has been provided at the encampment, there are very few options for the land’s former residents.
The Salvation Army in Centralia runs a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. night-by-night shelter which is available to the public. Though, some people who were previously living at Blakeslee Junction have said they’d sooner find a new place outside to sleep than have to pack up their belongings every morning and head out without anywhere to go for the day.
“It’s a very, dynamic situation, is I guess, the best word to use for it right now,” Handlen said. “There are a lot of people that are experiencing some very serious trauma. … There are people who have families, there are people who have children, there are people who are in active recovery, there are people who are in active addiction. Those are still people.”
The land was recently annexed into the City of Centralia limits. Before that, it was in unincorporated Lewis County. Some of the acres are owned by the three railroads that meet at the junction, and another about .4-acre lot is privately owned by Chuck Wiegard, who has been the encampment’s leader and spokesperson for several years.
“There has been some issues with whose jurisdiction (is where) and who can do what, where and when,” Handlen said. “We’ve been working on this for a number of years.”
Wiegard’s property, Handlen said, has been landlocked for several years. Washington state law allows private condemnation of an easement in order to access landlocked land, but requires the property owner to take action in court.
Wiegard told The Chronicle this week he has researched the issue but has not found an attorney he can afford to work with. After the sale, unless he also sells his land, Wiegard would have to either trespass across the railroad property or walk along Interstate 5 to access his parcel.
Though the assessed value of his property is $17,400 according to the Lewis County pats website, Rainier Rail reportedly offered him just $5,000 for the .4-acre lot, which Wiegard refused.
