Church elder asks City Council for land for tent city

Published 2:19 pm Wednesday, May 6, 2015

In early April, Brocc Snyder, an elder with Calvary Presbyterian Church in Enumclaw asked the City Council to change an ordinance that he said would allow a tent city to be set up in Auburn.

Even more boldly, in late April he asked that the City donate a piece of property where such an encampment could be built.

Snyder noted that he works with Community Outreach in Auburn, has a human services degree from Highline Community College, has been for six months a volunteer intern at Mary’s Place in Seattle and has remodeled homeless day and night shelters.

“I know what works with homeless people. I don’t know everything, but I know some of the answers, and I would not propose anything I am not willing to follow up on and ensure that it works,” he said.

For 15 years, Snyder and his wife, Lynne, have helped run the Thursday night Auburn Community Feeding Program.

In that time, the husband and wife team say they have seen a steep increase in the number of homeless people that they feed.

People who are not safe at night from robbery or assault.

Lynne Snyder also addressed the council.

“We’ve seen the numbers go from a handful of people, maybe 10 or less 10 years ago, to maybe 100 every week that we feed every Thursday. … There are growing numbers, and they just don’t have shelter,” Lynne Snyder said.

She acknowledged that the City of Auburn does do a lot for its homeless population, providing care and setting aside money in its budget. But the rising number of homeless presents a new challenge.

“Help us figure out what more we need to do,” Lynne Snyder said. “The numbers are not increasing because we are a magnet (for the homeless) and we do so much; they’re increasing because of the increasing disparity between how much people make and how much housing costs.”