A homeless encampment made up of recreational vehicles has moved back into a gravel parking lot on the south side of Woodland Park near Green Lake, and the youth cross-country course that winds through the park runs directly through it. The return has alarmed coaches who thought the issue was settled after the site was cleared out twice before.
The RVs are parked in a lot bordering North 50th Street, according to KOMO News, which reports it is the same location that has been cleared at least twice in recent years. This time, the outlet notes, the actual race course goes right through the encampment itself, putting young athletes on a collision course with the camp during training runs and meets.
Coaches Say They've Been Here Before
The RVs and the people living in them have become, in the station's words, a major obstacle for youth sports leagues that use the public park for both competitive events and training. In past years, coaches stopped having athletes run the trails altogether and moved their competitions to other locations rather than send runners through the camp.
John O'Leary, who coaches the youth sports league, told the station he tried to talk with some of the people living at the encampment. He says that conversation did not go well. Per the same account, O'Leary reported being followed and intimidated afterward, and he says he wants to avoid young athletes and their parents having a similar experience on the trail.
City Contacted, Answers Still Pending
Complaints about the site have been filed through the city's Find It Fix It app, and KOMO News says it reached out to city officials to ask whether those complaints are being addressed and whether the Unified Care Team is offering help to people living at the encampment. As of the station's report, that response had not come in, and it says it will update the story once officials weigh in.
This is not the first time the same stretch of park has drawn this kind of scrutiny. A 2024 report from the same outlet described several RVs, roughly six cars and even a boat on a trailer clustered at the site after people began living there that July, and it noted the Unified Care Team said at the time it was monitoring more than 200 active encampment sites citywide. That earlier report also quoted the city saying the location was not then scheduled for resolution, with plans instead for continued monitoring, trash mitigation and reinspection.
Disruption to the youth running course is not new either. FOX 13 Seattle reported in 2024 that RVs threatened to interfere with a scheduled Metro League cross-country meet, and O'Leary told that station a runner had flagged an RV sitting on the course that he could not find a way around. FOX 13 also noted that protests erupted over Woodland Park encampments back in 2021, with runners at the time reporting that trail access was blocked.
A Citywide Pattern of Numbers Moving Both Directions
City figures cited by KOMO News show a 20% increase in shelter referrals alongside a 24% decrease in the verified citywide tent count in 2023 compared with the year before. The same report said tents fell from 763 to 345 and RVs congregated at encampments dropped from 426 to 179 between May 2022 and the report's publication, while shelter referrals climbed from 1,831 in 2022 to 2,204 in 2023.
Seattle's own encampment-inspection guidance says outreach and offers of storage and shelter are provided at all 72-hour removals, and by request at removals tied to obstructions or hazards, according to the city's Human Services page. A February city statement posted on the mayor's site said officials prioritize outreach and clearance work based on safety risks, impacts on public-space access, sanitation issues and illegal activity, though it does not speak to conditions at this specific lot today.
Woodland Park has been the site of large-scale city intervention before. A 2022 city council statement credited a coordinated outreach effort, involving Evergreen Treatment Services–REACH, the Phinney Neighborhood Association, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority and the city's Unified Care Team, with helping shelter and house 89 people from the park. Whether any comparable effort is now planned for the returned RV camp on North 50th Street remains an open question, one KOMO News says it is still waiting on the city to answer.
