Embedded Files
8/28/26: We’re Happy to Find Shelter! We, the participants of Tent City 3, are glad to be returning to South Seattle at 3601 MLK Way S this Saturday for a temporary stay. It’s just the third time we’ve been in this neighborhood in the past 10 or more years, but our camp was born at MLK Way S/S Charlestown in the year 2000! With only a few short days left at our current site (UCUCC at 45th/15th NE), we are very grateful to the City for working quickly to identify possible sites and help us secure a 7-month stay on Office of Housing land at MLK Way S & S Walden. We tried for months and months to secure a host site through a church or the like. Our site search team and our entire camp worked diligently to find such a new site but came up short. We are beyond relieved that our camp is safe and has a new temporary home, and are determined (as always) to be good neighbors.
Last week we sent a crew of six participants to the nearby neighborhood to notify them of our upcoming stay and to invite them to our Open House (2-4 PM next Saturday 9/5—please come!) That team on the ground received a lot of positive as we walked around and talked to our neighbors. The feedback ranged from excitement of our return to questions about how they can donate more. There even were a few reminders of the good work we did at our last Mount Baker stay, including our trash pickups (Litter Busters).
One concern we’ve heard is that our “Barred Campers” (participants who have broken rules and have been asked to leave TC3), sometimes make pop-up encampments just outside of the camp after being barred. In addition to our already extensive rules and guidelines regarding this exact issue, we are working with the City of Seattle and the CARE Team to ensure that barred participants are given access to CARE immediately upon being barred. While this issue is a small minority, it still merits the extra attention that working with the CARE Team will provide. We plan to establish a Community Advisory Committee as well.
Thank You! Please come to our 2-4 PM Saturday 9/5 Open House, or stop by anytime for a visit!
-Signed-
Tent City 3 Participants
Some Updates from SHARE on 5/2/26!: As you know, we’ve been calling for more shelter for a long time. Our partners at WHEEL—who now shelter 120 women each day/night across three locations--have been seeing record numbers of women, and sometimes are forced to turn women away for lack of space. SHARE Shelters also are full almost all of the time, with turnaways at screenings. This breaks our hearts, because without shelter, people die.
Seattle is making progress, and new shelters will be opening. But we have a long way to go before everyone is inside.
We’re doing our bit and could do even more! In early April, in partnership with the The Church Council of Greater Seattle (CCGS), SHARE & WHEEL co-sponsored a Faith Shelter Summit, continuing to build momentum and interest among faith communities to help with shelter. The Summit was very well attended--with many congregations--plus representatives from the Mayor’s office, City Council aides, and a State legislator. After a dynamic speaking program, enthusiastic workgroups met to talk about the nuts and bolts of hosting a shelter (of any size or kind!), building political will, and creating community to support for existing shelters & new ones. Our next step will be bringing ideas and further questions to a Shelter How-To/Logistics gathering we’ll co-host with CCGS in the near future. Please! If your congregation or community might be interested in learning more about doing shelters at this How-To session, reach out to us at shelters@sharewheel.org!
Finally, both our Tent Cities are on the move in May! Tent City4 will move from the Lake City Community Center site to Seattle Mennonite Church (3212 NE 125th) on Friday, May 15th. Tent City3 will move from County land at 2720 S. Hanford to University Congregational United Church of Christ (45th/15th NE) on Tuesday, May 26th (the day after Memorial Day). Help is sorely needed ESPECIALLY for the Tent City3 move, so please mark your calendars, join us, and wear sensible shoes and gloves. More details about these moves will be posted pretty soon!
2025 SHARE ANNUAL REPORT!: SHARE took a look at the year in review for our community and evaluated the work we did in 2025. During the year we focused on building partnerships and coalitions with neighbors, organizations, faith communities, and new (and old!) political allies including City Councilmembers, County Councilmembers, and State Legislators. The year was marked by our resilience, advocacy, and the unwavering spirit of people to stay together, hold our ground, and work hard to try to ensure that nobody is without shelter. Our struggles are never for ourselves alone.
The biggest challenges of the year were NIMBY-driven and highly politicized site crises for both our organized encampments, Tent City4 and Tent City3. This instability was exhausting, but we stuck together, kept our promises, campaigned, built broad support, and won back our originally planned-for longer-term stays for both camps, on public land. Our fight wasn’t just for us, it was for solutions and justice for everyone and every program that’s trying to do something good for homeless people in the neighborhoods of Seattle.
Our biggest successes were building new partnerships & momentum towards creating more shelter: In January we launched a bold campaign to call for 500 new shelter beds in Seattle and we DID create more shelter, ourselves (as did our WHEEL partners).
In March we facilitated a Shelter Summit at Trinity Episcopal Parish (a WHEEL Shelter host site) and generated a lot of good shelter ideas & proposals.
In May we started our first family shelter, in partnership with Seattle Mennonite Church, in an unused building on their campus!
In September we staged a Shelter Rally at Seattle City Hall. Several political candidates spoke--including Mayoral candidate (and now Mayor!) Katie Wilson, who promised to continue to work with SHARE--and Council candidate Adonis Ducksworth. Our voices filled City Hall.
In October we co-facilitated a Faith Shelter Summit at Northminster Presbyterian (a SHARE Shelter host site). About 30 engaged participants toured the shelter, received information packets on how to set up shelters, and joined workgroups. Their enthusiasm sparked calls for quarterly summits, and the next one is scheduled for 1/22/26! These events built momentum and generated a lot of great ideas that we’ll continue to work on in 2026.
And while we and the City did not create 500 new shelter beds, we made MANY new allies, and raised the profile of the issue. Seattle’s new Mayor has pledged to create 1000 new shelter beds each year of her term. That’s the power of our advocacy. Now, let’s keep working, together!
We’re extremely grateful for the support, advice and solidarity we received last year from the Church Council of Greater Seattle, Journey Christian Church, Seattle Mennonite Church (and Pr Megan Ramer!), Northminster Presbyterian Church (and Pr Jeny Carlson), Trinity Episcopal Parish (and Rev. Sabeth Fitzgibbons), Trinity UMC, all of our other SHARE Shelter hosts and partners, State Legislators Nicole Macri and Darya Farivar, City Councilmembers Mark Solomon and Alexis Rinck, County Councilmembers Jorge Baron, Girmay Zahilay, and Teresa Mosqueda, and our friends at the Lake City Farmers Market and Seattle Public Libraries!
SHARE (Seattle Housing and Resource Effort) is a unique, dynamic,
grassroots community of homeless people founded in 1990.
In addition to grassroots community organizing, we facilitate by-the-
people, for-the-people, clean-and-sober self-managed shelter in seven
different locations, and two Tent Cities.
We also operate a self-managed Storage Locker Program, and a
Housing for Work Program.
Our Shelters have openings!
For a complete Screening calendar click on SHARE Screening Calendar
SHARE Tent Cities Screen on-site 24/7. Please click on the desired camp
to get the current location Tent City 3 Tent City 4
SHARE Storage Lockers can help if you just need a safe place to keep your belongings.
For more information click on SHARE Storage Lockers
SHARE JOB OPENINGS: For more information Click Here
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