Reserve Street Homeless Camp Update

by William Skink

I saw a woman emerge from her tent–no shirt, just bra–and comb her hair. Luckily I had already dodged the shopping cart, otherwise the image may have kept me from identifying the metal hazard in my path.

That was my experience today biking home from work. The woman and the tent are within rock-throwing distance from the Reserve Street bridge. I saw a new tent today not 10 feet from water that will soon get higher and wash a significant amount of trash (and the tent, if it’s still there) down stream.

There are laws being broken but they are not being enforced. The clean-up collaborations I used to help organize don’t seem to be happening with the same scope or frequency. The Clark Fork Coalition has their big Clark Fork Clean-Up this Saturday, but I doubt this part of the river is going to be addressed.

Not unrelated, I recently watch an interesting piece on what’s happening in Seattle. I suggest checking it out.

Author: Travis Mateer

I'm an artist and citizen journalist living and writing in Montana. You can contact me here: willskink at yahoo dot com View all posts by Travis Mateer