Under the Bridge: Utilizing Covered Urban Spaces for Sanctioned Homeless Encampments in the City of Seattle Research Question
Current Encampment Sites
Do underutilized “negative” spaces beneath the city’s bridges and overpasses provide additional, competitive sites for locating citysanctioned homeless encampments?
Negative Space Inventory
As of March 2016 there were four city-sanctioned homeless encampments within the city of Seattle as listed by the Low Income Housing Institute. The following scores (out of 100) were tallied:
Issue In the city of Seattle, homelessness continues to increase with each passing year. Since 2007, the total homeless population in the region has swollen from 7,902 to 10,047, with the unsheltered population nearly doubling (HUD, 2015 CoC).
Covered Negative Spaces
• Ballard Encampment: 52.29 • Interbay Encampment: 50 • Othello Village: 56.98 • Tiny House Village: 63.52
Final Site Scores
In 2012 the City of Seattle passed Ordinance 123854, amending the Human Development Element of the Comprehensive Plan and allowing for the City to guide the operation of transitional encampments to allow temporary shelter for those who are homeless.
Seattle Site Selection Process The City’s encampment location process sets out zoning, screening, geography, and access requirements. All city-owned vacant parcels were inventoried, 135 in total. These were then analyzed and narrowed down to a selection of only six potential sites for the siting of three permitted encampments. However, only two code requirements reflected the needs of encampment residents themselves: • The property is within 1/2 mile of a transit stop. • The property is 5,000 square feet or larger and provides a minimum of 100 square feet of land area for each occupant.
Proposed Site Selection Process
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
I-5 Cherry Street Portage Bay, Site 1 I90 Interchange Green Lake, Site 2 I5 Colonnade International District Portage Bay, Site 2 Portage Bay, Site 3 Spokane Street Ballard Bridge North Green Lake, Site 1 Fremont Bridge Ballard Bridge South Fauntleroy Expressway Magnolia Bridge
66.67 66.43 65.49 58.99 54.36 53.03 49.76 49.76 37.67 37.62 25.66 21.93 20.95 18.98 16.00
Potential Sites
Using a combination of mapping software and preliminary site visits, rough estimates of covered negative space extents within Seattle were developed. Sites that presented hindrances too difficult to overcome were omitted during this first round of identification. Moving from the original bridge inventory, a total of 72 separate areas were identified and mapped.
A second round of omission was undertaken to reduce the number of sites from the initial assessment to those that could be more justifiably considered for encampment siting. This included exclusion of sites that may be inaccessible or slated for destruction during the time this study was undertaken. 34 sites were identified across the city of Seattle for consideration as potential encampment locations.
Site Visits
Mosquito at 6ft
Three diverse locations were chosen for site visits. If noise levels were recorded at or below the 85 db OSHA threshold, shelter recommendations were developed: between 0 to 60 decibels a site would be acceptable for locating tents, at 35-85 decibels the installation of tiny homes is advised, and above 65 db it is recommended that more robust structures with heavier noise insulation be utilized.
The lowest performing sites were Magnolia Bridge and the Fauntleroy Expressway, receiving scores of 16 and 18.98. Both sites are located near few service centers and contain existing uses that are difficult to relocate. The Cherry Street region received the highest marks, with an overall score of 66.67. This region scored high due to the location’s close proximity to the Central Business District’s service centers and transit.
Quiet room / whisper
0 db
30
Tent
Moderate rainfall
Idling car at 30 ft
50
70
Tiny Home
1st Place: I-5 Cherry Street
2nd Place: Portage Bay Site 1
Extra: Ballard Bridge North
• Square Footage: 78,000 • Owner/Operator: Washington State Department of Transportation • Current Use: Parking Lot • Overpass Sufficiency Rating (2013): 65.5 • Decibel Level: 65.5
• Square Footage: 13,500 • Owner/Operator: Seattle Department of Transportation • Current Use: Vacant • Overpass Safety Rating (2012): 48.45 • Decibel Level: 63.5
• Square Footage: 20,000 • Owner/Operator: Seattle Department of Transportation • Current Use: Storage • Overpass Sufficiency Rating (2015): 67.7 • Decibel Level: 56.6
Recommended Structures
Recommended Structures
An amended 1/4-mile walkshed was used to capture the number of potential bus stops near an encampment to ensure easy transit access. A one-mile walkshed was applied citing research that people are more willing to walk longer distances to acute destinations like work or medical appointments. To better reflect and analyze a site’s potential for hosting an encampment, a scoring system based upon a site’s performance was developed. Each category was given equal weighting: • Service Centers Score: Destinations within one mile. Aggregated based upon service utilization rates by homeless individuals. • Transit Score: Calculated using WalkScore.com’s Transit Score algorithm. • Current Use Score: Ranked from over-utilized (0) to unutilized (100). In order to give equal waiting to each score, a multiplier of 1/3 was applied to each site’s three separate scores. These scores were then aggregated, resulting in a site’s final score.
By Maxwell Baker
Master of Urban Planning Candidate 2016
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Recommended Structures
Busy traffic at 30 ft
85 db
Insulated Structure