J. Jacob Edel
Mercer Island Reporter

Throughout its establishment at various Eastside religious institutions over the past several years, the homeless encampment known as Tent City 4 has been located near several preschools and daycare centers. And many directors or representatives of those schools have no gripe with the camp.

However, with the Mercer Island Clergy Association announcing plans to host TC4 in 2008, residents and parents on the Island have raised concerns about a church hosting the encampment near children in a preschool or daycare.

According to Leslie Moore, a parishioner of Emmanuel Episcopal Church and the director of its preschool, Emmanuel Day School, hosting TC4 near a preschool has raised concern, but she thinks it would be reasonably safe.

“We have concern about who would be on site in the day while children are at school,” Moore said. “We want to know more about [TC4]. We understand it is fenced and many aren’t in the camp during the day, so I think it would be reasonably safe.”

Like Emmanuel, which has two preschools on site, the Community Church of Issaquah has three preschools and a private elementary school directly across the street. TC4 stayed at this Issaquah church last August to November. The Community Church’s outreach minister, Elizabeth Maupin, said the church held informative meetings to address any concerns the schools may have had after the announcement to host TC4 was made.

“We started the process by talking with all the tenants that use the building about our desire to host Tent City and we asked what their concerns were,” Maupin said. “We had TC4 residents, people from previous sites nearby and some police at our information meetings — all the important parts to help people understand they are homeless, not sex predators.”

Maupin said the camp and three schools on campus were also very close to one another.

“Children walked right by everyday, and we did not have a problem,” she said. “The only complaints we received were about drifting smoke from the camp’s smoking area, but the fire department wanted it as far away from the building as possible.”

While sharing a parking lot and church campus together with Tent City in Issaquah, the Issaquah Cooperative Preschool had a nice experience, according to Marie Frauenheim, the Bellevue Community College parent-education instructor at the school, which has about 120 families involved.

“Tent City moved in during the summer and was there until early October,” said Frauenheim. “We came back to have them already there. The parents had an extra person on the premises and in three weeks, they unanimously voted that it was not necessary. There was actually a consensus that people felt safer to go out in the parking lots at night. Now it’s so dark, you’re cautious.”

TC4 has stayed at more than 10 religious institutions since it began in 2004, with many hosts inviting the camp back. It must move every 90 days, and its maximum capacity is 100 residents. The camp, located in Kirkland, is currently full. The camp plans to move to Temple B’Nai Torah in Bellevue for the second time in May. Last March, the Mercer Island Clergy Association stated its intent to host the camp.

Ann Shikany, the development coordinator of St. Joseph’s School, located directly across the street from The Community Church of Issaquah, said the school had its concerns before the camp came to town, but the school would not object to Tent City coming back.

“We probably went through the same concerns and issues other people are going through,” she said.

Shikany also said the school, which has kindergarten through third grade at its Issaquah campus, set up additional security measures and asked parents to volunteer for them.

“We set up a sidewalk-monitoring program by parents to ease the mind of those concerned,” Shikany said. “Every day we have before and after care, so parents were out there as soon as students arrived and until they left. It provided us with that extra set of eyes.”

After TC4 set up across the street, Shikany and Maupin also set up a food drive. A second-grade class raised the most food, with 739 items, and a fourth-grade class located at the school’s Snoqualmie campus raised 1,000 items.

“It was four truck loads,” Shikany said of the delivery that was made two weeks ago.

Just around the corner from the camp today is the Kirkland Preschool. The director, Carolyn Workman, said Tent City was a non-issue for her.

“They’re just another bunch of neighbors,” Workman said. “There is no security issue. It is well policed and thought out.”

Also nearby is Juanita Bay Daycare, which has two teachers and 30 children, with about 12 there at any given time. Mary Beth said that the camp posed absolutely no issue at all.

“We don’t see anybody wandering, and I have not heard a single word,” Beth said.

Back on the Island, one concern is that parents would remove their children from the preschool if TC4 were hosted. But according to Frauenheim, that didn’t happen with the Issaquah Co-op.

“We did not have an unusually high fall-out from our spring registration,” she said. “We stayed well within our average, and no one came out and said, ‘If you host Tent City, we will not come.’”