WEST SEATTLE MUTUAL AID PARTY🎉 UPDATES!
West Seattle Mutual Aid Party🎉, a partner of NW Hospitality, reserves their more detailed, regular updates for their volunteers and supporters. However, here are snippets from their weekly updates from the last few weeks.
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1/11/2024 - we managed to connect with 42 people during last week’s distribution (including some new faces), and we were able to hand out nearly all of our non-clothing items to folks — this was an impressive amount, considering how much we brought with us! We’re hoping to see even more of our neighbors at this Saturday’s distribution.
1/13/2024 - No snow and even some sun breaks, but temperatures dropped into the low teens last night and the high today was around 23 degrees. The weather is expected to remain this cold for a few more days. We are sadly aware that some of our neighbors will surely die in this cold, but the antidote to that fear and grief is action, so WSMAP sprang to it earlier in the week, making sure we had plenty of filled propane tanks to share, and gathering warming supplies from far and wide. Armed with that, plus our usual spread of food and supplies, and fortified further with hot beverages, steaming minestrone, home baked bread and every hand warmer/blanket/warm clothing item we could get our hands on, we met 28 of our neighbors today.
1/24/2024 - Earlier last week, a couple of our party people were able to hold space and prevent a RV from being towed. They were the same person we got connected with via NW Hospitality and had also reached out to us directly. We were able to provide them with propane and some supplies. They initially wouldn't let them back in the RV to get their phone and even with the WA State court ruling in 2021 prevents someone's vehicle from being towed if they live in it, we've seen from previous sweeps that the cops and tow companies blatantly disregard that ruling and if people step foot out of their vehicle, they will prevent them from getting back in, even for important medicine.
A picture of "Tank Jr." a squat little thing that we received during distro
2/1/2024 - It was a beautiful Saturday for distro and we saw around 30 people between our two routes. We are still seeing an increase in propane need, courtesy of the recent cold temps, but we are able to cover it to provide warmth and cooking ability for our neighbors! Hoping the nicer temps will stay for a while and give us all a much needed warm-up! Also on hand as always were the usual delicious soups from Lect’s in Georgetown; if you haven’t had a chance to visit, we highly encourage stopping by this amazing local business. More good news is our party continues to grow as we welcomed another new member this week!
2/4/2024 - And, in a follow-up to last week's trial (see prior email) this week Stop the Sweeps posted a video of Lincoln Towing dragging a very large RV that someone was residing in. The pop out was out, and Lincoln was using a tow truck that wasn't adequate to the task. In the video you can see the RV being damaged as Lincoln dragged it away, and neither the city nor Lincoln take any responsibility when they damage people's homes and personal belongings. Lately the city is sometimes sweeping 2 spots in any given day, and often with little or no notice. Residents who aren't home when the sweep happens may return to find everything they own gone. Until our city and the greater society begin to take care of EVERYONE, we will, with the support of our patrons and partners, continue to do our best to provide what we can for our neighbors.
2/12/2024 - Our teams remain up to the task however, thanks to the ceaseless work of our organizers and the support we receive from you as a supporter, and all of our community partners. We are currently working to install another row of shelving in our supply depot so that we can try and slowly increase the amount of supplies that we are storing and turning over each week to meet this increased demand. Additionally, we continue to connect with new neighbors who are inspired by the work we do which has allowed us to get well-deserved breaks to people who need them without any interruption in the program. Bringing in new neighbors to assist in organizing is always one of the most difficult challenges for projects of this nature yet our group seems to have some serious "lightning in a bottle" when it comes to our ability to continue to find quality people who share our vision.
2/19/2024 - Even with bigger numbers, we’re consistently able to rely on each other to show up throughout the week with preparations (like supply runs) and on Saturdays for distribution of stuff needed. Alongside that, sadly we expect the Seattle Police to force a group of RVs on our south route to disperse, i.e. a sweep, which means the sense of community created thus far will be interrupted and we won’t be able to meet with everyone as easily as before. This expensive practice (at least $37 million this year) is one reason this community's needs are pushed out of sight and out of mind, and does nothing to solve our problem of people living on the streets. We’ll continue to be the kind of neighbors we would want to have. We continue to see the neighborly spirit alive and well within our group, delivering not just the bare necessities but home baked bread, hot soup from Lect's Soup Stop, and this week, some homemade chocolate chip cookies - all of which gives folks a reason to stand around and chit chat with us and helps us get to know each other better.
3/2/2024 - As mutual aid groups help our communities build stability, sweeps are violently destabilizing to the humans in need and destroy that stability. Sweeps do nothing to actually address Seattle’s housing crisis and do everything to cause tangible, material harm. As a group, we’re proud of how we’ve grown slowly and prioritized building sustainable systems and relationships. This has allowed us to consistently and reliably show up for our neighbors and ourselves every week. Now more than ever, we’re thankful for these sustainable systems because we'll need them to weather this month's storms. We'll work harder than ever to stay connected with our neighbors and reestablish stability. We’re pissed but optimistic. As always, we’re grateful for our partners who help make it all happen.
3/8/2024 - Last Saturday saw our teams once again breaking our record for total people seen during a distro, totaling 61 people between our three current primary locations. This ongoing increase is welcomed by our teams as it is a clear indicator that what we are doing is both welcomed and useful by housed and unhoused people in our area of operations but it has admittedly also been pushing our logistical capabilities closer toward their upper limits. We are always looking for new neighbors who are interested in getting involved to help build out both our logistics teams as well as our distro teams so please do not hesitate to reach out if you've been thinking about getting more involved.
3/12/2024 - In advance of the sweeps, we made sure everyone had our contact info and knew where they could find us this Saturday, and several of them did make it to our usual White Center distribution site. But because of these sweeps, and maybe because of the weather, we saw slightly fewer people this week, but 49 folks came through. Saturday's fickle skies produced rain, hail, and sun in a rotating succession….and doubtless a rainbow in there somewhere! Spirits remained good as our friends helped us set up and take down our canopies and tables, and held down the corners when wind gusts threatened to blow the canopies away!
You can follow West Seattle Mutual Aid Party🎉 on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MutualAidParty
And you can support them through NWH here or through their Patreon here.