A Journey to Hope: a solution for the homeless in Longview Wa. Part 1:

 By Ashley Swofford

Camp Alabama

     Nestled along the I5 corridor between Portland and Seattle is Longview Washington. A town full of rich history, and industrial workers. Longview is home to beautiful Sacajawea Park, and the historic Monticello hotel. It has a beautiful downtown area that offers shopping and that old town feel that you can not get from the larger cities just 40-60 miles north or south of Longview. However, just like these larger cities Longview has a growing homeless crisis.

            Many who work in the public service sector or in one of the many community health agencies within Longview often call it the city of hope. Longview offers a few different homeless shelter options, along with many outreach groups and substance use treatment programs. Yet, ally ways, medians, local parks, and doorways to businesses are often occupied with those trying to find a place to sleep. Their sleeping bags spread out, a tent pitched, their grocery cart with their belongings taking up space and to many it is an eye sore and a safety risk.

            In 2019 the city opened a city run homeless camp on Alabama street with a 3-month permit. The idea behind this was to get the tents off the city streets and keep the homeless concentrated in one area situated just out of sight. And with this simple 3-month permit, Camp Alabama was formed.

            Camp Alabama remained open for 3 years due to the COVID pandemic causing the government to move slower on many issues. Around 150 people called this city run camp home at any given time during this 3-year span. Even with a fence built around it local businesses and citizens complained about the smell, the eye sore and the crime they said was rising. Before the city declared it a public health emergency in 2021, Camp Alabama saw its own wave of crime within the tent city, along with many overdoses.

            Due to the unsanitary conditions in 2021 Longview city officials declared a public health emergency for Camp Alabama, which led to a massive city cleanup. After this initial cleanup the tent city remained until 2022 when the second clean up occurred. The public health emergency brought a lot of attention to the Longview tent city and the homeless crisis and it also aloud the city to bypass parts of state mandate process to receive funding to address the homeless issue. The city of Longview received 2.5 million dollars to build 8x8 foot tiny home structures on the site of Camp Alabama. These funds began to pave the road to what is now called Hope Village.

     Hope Village officially welcomed its first residents in December of 2022 and has been open just over a year. This micro community has 50 8x8 pallet homes along with 2 different bathroom/shower buildings. Now a little more then a year after Hope Village has opened there are still many questions to answer like how does the community feel about it, what kind of outcomes has it had on homeless crisis,  where did those living in Camp Alabama go when the tent city was shut down permanently, with only 50 spots open in Hope Village and most importantly where will Hope village continue to get the funding to stay operational. We will discuss these questions in Part 2 of A Journey to Hope: a solution for the homeless in Longview Wa.

To learn more about Camp Alabama and it's transition to hope click here.