Homeless Refugees Refuse to Return to Tukwila Church Tents

by Phil Manzano

About 50 African refugees are refusing to leave their hotel rooms and return to their makeshift tent village at Riverton Park United Methodist Church in Tukwila, citing frigid temperatures and inhumane conditions.

The group was moved to the Homewood Suites Hotel in Tukwila last week as arctic air dropped temperatures in the Seattle area into the low teens. They said they were told they would have to return to their tent housing Tuesday, Jan. 16, but instead held a press conference in frigid temperatures to ask the community and government officials for help to stay in housing.

The refugees planned to stay in their hotel rooms, paid for by the church, past checkout and press their demands for permanent, safe, and sanitary housing as they search for work.

"We're here to make a claim for help, a claim for help for humanity, a claim for hope for the governor, for the mayor, because the conditions that we're living in are unsustainable," said Angelica, one of the group who spoke in Portuguese through a translator.

Other members of the group said that along with the biting cold, they've had to live with rodents, insects, and unsanitary conditions that have made them vulnerable to disease and illness.

"Refugees describe the inhumane living conditions at the camp as living in tents in the cold, rain, infested with rats, unhygienic, health hazard to live there, bathrooms are not clean and the environment is not clean," according to a press release from the International Migrants Alliance, which is supporting the refugees in their demands. "Refugees, in particular women, report they have contracted infections, and many migrants' health has become increasingly worse while staying at the camp."

"I've been living in the tents for seven months now," Angelica said. "And there's people that have been living in the tents for more than that. And it's been really horrible conditions. So that's why we're here, crying for help, claiming for help from the city, from the governor, we really want you to hear us and help us."

For the last year, refugees and asylum seekers have found their way to the Riverton Park United Methodist Church, with their numbers growing to 400 people, some housed in the church and others in tents on the church grounds.

But as the numbers have grown, so have the problems, organizers said. "Even the Chief of Police of Tukwila says that the camp needs to be closed, so why is the government sending us there," the IMA said in a press release. "Refugees are demanding an actual solution through housing that is: long-term, indoors, heated, and sanitary while waiting for their work permits for all migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers who previously or are currently staying at Riverton Park United Methodist Church."

The King County Council approved $3 million in December to provide temporary housing and contracted with Thrive International to assist people staying at the church encampment. That allowed the group to provide temporary housing at the DoubleTree SeaTac Hotel — but mainly for families and women with children.

That doesn't help single adult asylum seekers and refugees like Angelica, 22, who fled her home in Luanda, Angola, and traveled for three months before making her way to Tukwila. She said she had flown to Brazil and walked from there to the United States.

Angelica has been in the country for about eight months and has lived seven of those months in the tents at the church. She said she attends classes at Highline Community College where she is learning English.

To stay in a hotel room, even though she shares it with others, is a "really big joy to be here," she said. "Because after seven months of sleeping with rats crawling on my feet, with insects with a lot of diseases, I finally have a comfortable bed. I finally have heating. And it's a really, really, really, big joy."

"So being here … we're finally able to rest, we're finally able to study, we're finally able to do so many things that are the minimum and we're really, really happy about that," Angelica said.

The group at the Homewood Suites is looking for any help to find housing. They have formed their own group — Hands United for Solidarity — and launched their own Instagram page for those wanting to connect with them and aid their efforts.

Calls to King County and the church had not been returned as of Tuesday afternoon.

📸 Featured Image: Jessica Rojas of International Migrants Alliance tells the group the organization supports their efforts: "And we are here to just show our solidarity, unwaveringly, until you are living in permanent housing and being able to access a dignified life as you're asking for here today." (Photo: Phil Manzano)