Hundreds of asylum seekers in Seattle have once again been dealt a harsh blow as their temporary shelter at a local hotel was withdrawn, leaving them to set up an emergency encampment at Powell Barnett Park in the Central District. The refugees, many from African nations and Venezuela, have been consistently shuttled around over the past year, facing a bureaucratic quagmire and a shortage of available resources.
The odyssey to find stable housing has led the asylum seekers to quickly adapt to various temporary solutions, but now they have come to confront the specter of the streets. Funding for their accommodation ran dry, forcing them to vacate their hotel rooms and to make do amongst the elements once more. According to FOX 13 Seattle, the group had previously built an encampment outside of a church in Tukwila and then moved to a hotel in Kent before arriving in Seattle.
Desperate for a semblance of normalcy, the asylum seekers, among them Don Tstay, have echoed calls for the government to expedite the asylum process and provide permanent housing solutions. "So far they haven't kicked us out, and we plan to stay until we get housing," Tstay told KOMO News in an interview, after having been displaced from the hotel when the funding ceased. Tstay and his family are just a small fraction of the 500 to 600 refugees reportedly staying in various locations throughout King County.
In a twist that meshes cold bureaucracy with a touch of humanity, a Quality Inn desk worker informed KOMO News that no eviction has been carried out in Kent, with hopes that new funding might be secured. "The hotel workers care about the refugees and have gotten to know them," the worker said. "If funding comes through soon, it makes no sense to evict the refugees now." Meanwhile, according to KOMO News, the refugees, many of whom speak Spanish, Portuguese, or French, have repeatedly packed Seattle City Hall chambers, requesting help with housing.
The barriers to a stable life for these individuals are compounded by the length of the asylum process in the U.S., which can leave asylum seekers waiting up to four years before getting their requests in front of a federal immigration judge. However, there may be a glimmer of hope—the Governor's office has announced an increase in the budget by $32 million to assist new arrivals in the state, as reported by MyNorthwest.
