By Mahlon Meyer
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
The City of Seattle will move the controversial Navigation Center out of the Chinatown-International District (CID) sometime before its lease expires in January 2025.
The move, which was undertaken in collaboration with the Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA), is meant to respond to community concerns about a welter of problems associated with drug sales and illegal trafficking in stolen goods.
“We’re always listening to the community, we know the CID has experienced quite a number of serious challenges,” Deputy Mayor Greg Wong told the Northwest Asian Weekly. “We are committed to continuing to work in partnership with the community to ensure the CID is a vibrant, thriving neighborhood for all.”
Deputy Mayor Greg Wong and Councilmember Tanya Woo (Photo by Assunta Ng)
Muddied role in the community
The Navigation Center was installed in the neighborhood in 2017 to provide easy access for people experiencing homelessness who had behavioral health or substance abuse issues that might prevent them from gaining admission to a traditional shelter.
It went into the CID over much protest from community members who felt they hadn’t been sufficiently consulted.
However, some small business owners seemed initially positive over its presence, since its leadership was said by some to maintain open communication with them.
All that changed after the leadership changed and the pandemic worsened the overall deterioration of the neighborhood by concentrating drug activities, violence, and the trafficking in stolen goods in the vicinity of the center, as well as around encampments.
Today, tents line the stairways on either side. But it is still not clear if those living there are people who could not gain admittance for one reason or another or are involved in the “ecosystem” of criminal activity or both, according to Gary Lee, co-chair of the CID Public Safety Council.
Still, the increase in all manner of violence, threatening behavior, fouling of the streets, fires, and other dangerous activity over the past five years has led to ongoing calls by the community for something to be done.
Specifically, the area around 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street has seen massive swirls of crowds buying and selling drugs and trafficking in stolen goods, according to community members and law enforcement.
Reflecting on the optimism of the community
While, on the whole, hopes were high that the removal of the Navigation Center to somewhere else (the CID already has over a dozen shelters within a half mile radius), there was still some tentativeness about different aspects of the move.
Capt. Steve Strand, the commander of the West Precinct, which includes the CID, in a recent interview described the increased emphasis he has placed on the neighborhood, including establishing a mobile precinct in the area and working with the community to hand out fliers in multiple languages to discourage illegal trafficking.
Strand recognized the value the Navigation Center has contributed. At the same time, he was hopeful its removal would effect change.
“The Navigation Center has been a strong partner in the neighborhood. They have provided essential services to many individuals through the years,” he said in an interview, after the announcement. “Many neighbors along with myself are optimistic that relocating the Navigation Center will improve the conditions in Little Saigon. Only time will tell.”
Seattle City Councilmember Tanya Woo expressed a yearning for returning Little Saigon, the neighborhood in which the Navigation Center is located, to its former vibrancy.
“The community recognizes what they’ve lost in the past few years. People used to come from all over the city to eat in Little Saigon,” she said. “How to repair what’s been damaged, how to heal, and how do we get back to our once thriving neighborhood?”
Woo described the vibrant colors and culture that once described the neighborhood.
“We didn’t always have fencing and barbed wire. How do we get back to that?”
A “magnet” gone
The announcement about the decision to move the Navigation Center was made during the CID Public Safety Council Meeting on March 5.
The lease for the center is up in January and will not be renewed, said Wong.
In the meantime, the DESC and KCRHA will work with residents of the center to transition them to a new location or other arrangements, which are being formulated.
“Once it’s gone, it will help,” said Lee. “It is a magnet. Still, there’s not a 100% correlation between everything that’s happening on 12th that’s spreading.”
Lee and others said it appears those who sell drugs and target the vulnerable come into the community from elsewhere.
CID Public Safety Council Co-chair Gary Lee speaks at the meeting (Photo by Assunta Ng)
Members of the CID Public Safety Council after the meeting (Photo by Assunta Ng)
Mahlon can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.