may one site come from seven

[Scott Morrow]

Yesterday the Seattle Times mapped out 7 Potential Permanent Sites for
Nickelsville, from a list that the Mayors Office had distributed to
the Mayors Encampment Panel for their comments. That map made our
afternoon road trip easy! All in all, we saw plenty of good locations
to choose from, spread all over Seattle. Hopefully Deputy Mayor
Darrell Smith will set up a time for us to get to work soon!

As friends of Nickelsville, you know about the prejudice, fear and
discrimination that homeless people often encounter, which
Nickelsville runs into also until folks get to know us. You also know
that while fearful people may be in the minority in almost all
neighborhoods, they are often the ones who yell the loudest.

The downside of a public discussion of 7 Potential Sites for
Nickelsville is having the fearful people of 7 neighborhoods all
saying Not In My Backyard at the same time. It could make a Seattle
City Councilperson think they were living in Bothell (and we don't
want that.)

One thing we are doing to counteract the 'fear of the unknown' these 7
neighborhoods might have a bit of is a Halloween Open House. It's
theme is 'Face Your Fear' and it will be held this Sunday 10/31/10
(Halloween) at our present location. The hours will be from 2 to 6 PM
and it will be an easy going affair - tours, one on one chats, treats
(and not a lot of tricks.) You are always welcome, and just as
importantly, your friends in the 7 Potential Neighborhoods are
welcome.

Nickelsville has written "An Open Letter to our Maybe(maybe not)
Neighbors" invited them to the Halloween Open House. Please email us
if you've got a good email list to send the invitation to.

It is our hope that sometime next week the Mayor will decide on a
location. The Deputy Mayor has asked the Encampment Panel to give
advice before then on which location would be best.

Whatever site is chosen, someone wlll be upset. Even when most of the
neighbors are ok with a new neighbor, its going to be the unhappy
squeaky wheel that gets the attention.

Whenever you have a chance remind people that fear of the unknown is
easily solved by learning about what 'the unknown' thing.

What Nickelsville (and our brothers and sisters at SHARE/WHEEL's Tent
Cities have learned time after time is that once we've moved in, the
neighbors do learn. Through experience they see we're ok and not a
problem. But when we don't move in, the lack of knowledge - and fear
- remains.

Once moving to a neighborhood, though,the truth rapidly establishes
itself: No neighbor has been physically harmed by Nickelsville or a
Tent City, we're so quiet people usually forget we're around, and
basically its a non issue. The ingredients needed to learn this are
time, and for us to be given a chance to prove ourselves.

As always, we thank you for your support and look forward to seeing
you, if possible, on the weekend of November 13th and 14th, when we
move to our permanent site.