Thursday, October 1, 2026
A May 28 deadline for a by-name list of individuals living at "The Jungle" has distressed some people, who feel the timetable is too short for equitable outreach and housing placement.
During public comment at the Olympia City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 19, Olympia Mutual Aid Partners (OlyMAP) Executive Director Tye Gundel said her organization is concerned about the pace of the early steps for the planned closure of the encampment.
Gundel said her organization, along with its predecessor Just Housing, has provided outreach, case management and other services at "The Jungle" for about 10 years. She said more than 100 residents are currently enrolled in case management, and more than 200 residents have access to shelter-in-place services.
Gundel said OlyMAP staff learned during a recent weekly cleanup visit that city notices had been posted at the encampment and a May 28 deadline was set for creating a by-name list of residents.
“That’s less than 10 business days away from when the notices were posted, and less than two weeks overall,” said Gunde, adding the timeline is too short.
She said her organization previously helped develop by-name lists for other encampments through the Right of Way Initiative program.
“In the first three years of that program, we were responsible for creating by-name lists for camps half the size of The Jungle, and it took months to build a list that accurately captured who was there,” she said.
Gundel urged the council to slow the process to ensure accuracy and completeness, saying the effort to close the encampment is complex and should be handled carefully.
“It’s a big undertaking to close The Jungle. We want to see it done with care," she said.
Olympia resident David Webb criticized the city’s handling of the planned closure, particularly the process of identifying residents for assistance.
He said he saw notices posted at the site describing an in-person sign up for the list. He also raised concerns that information was only provided in English, saying some residents may not be able to read or understand it.
Webb also criticized the process as incomplete and potentially exclusionary.
Other people urged the city to move quickly. Mary Julvezan described The Jungle as a dangerous encampment that should have been shut down years ago, citing concerns about drugs, crime and public safety.
Assistant City Manager Debbie Sullivan said the city’s regional encampment transition planning team has begun visiting the site to identify residents and connect them with available housing resources.
She added the by-name list is necessary to help the city secure housing units funded through the Washington State Department of Commerce as units become available.
“The intent that we have with this is to support people and transition them safely and compassionately, not to sweep the encampment,” Sullivan said.
Councilman Clark Gilman said homelessness is driven by broader systemic problems, such as poverty, addiction and lack of mental health care.
“Encampments or vans don’t create crime,” Gilman said. “They don’t create drug use, they don’t create a lack of access to mental health, and they don’t create poverty.”
Gilman said he is not optimistic the city will be able to fully house everyone currently living at the encampment, citing limited housing supply and the large-scale funding required to build more units.
Gilman said the city, as it reconsiders its One Community Plan, should acknowledge past efforts to expand affordable housing and medical services have not met needs.
“I just want us to make room to acknowledge that not everybody’s going to be served,” said Gilman, adding the city still has “the need and the responsibility to help take care of our neighbors.”
He urged continued investment in housing and supportive services where possible, while also developing humane, practical support for people who cannot be housed immediately.
Councilman Robert Vanderpool echoed concerns about limited resources. He said local governments need significantly more state support to address homelessness and housing affordability.
Mayor Dontae Payne said the city is trying to balance competing public expectations around the closure.
“One end of it is the community saying that we are not comfortable with the pace — you’re moving too fast,” Payne said. “The other end of the spectrum is that it should have been gone yesterday.”
He added, “Our job as a city organization is to strike a balance."
Payne said the city is responding to a crisis that extends beyond Olympia and Washington state, while working with limited funding.
“We are certainly stretched thin in terms of resources to provide for people who live in The Jungle and for those who are houseless throughout our community," he said.
However, Payne said the city remains committed to treating encampment residents “with dignity and respect,” while transitioning them into housing “as safely and smoothly as we possibly can.”
16 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
JulesJames
Balance? No balancing act for squatters and their enablers. Follow basic law and basic common decency. Close The Jungle. Now.
Wednesday, May 20 Report this
longtimeresident
How come we haven't heard in the past, how much OlyMAP has been doing for the residents of the Jungle? This public knowledge would have been useful, if only to get citizens to understand that the people in the Jungle are having interactions with those who want to see a problem remedied. OlyMAP needs to be recognized for the work they HAVE been doing all along when citizens saw the problem as "nothing being done" because they weren't informed. Thanks for writing this article.
Wednesday, May 20 Report this
chrispc2u
Just the fact that that bum encampment has been enabled for TEN LONG YEARS is itself indicative of Olympia having a reputation on the panhandlers radar as the bum benefactor paradise to migrate to. Covid is DONE and so should the Jungle be. Finito!
Wednesday, May 20 Report this
Taxpayer
Who was it that allowed this illegal encampment to get so out of control? Who owns the property? Maybe the city managers will learn a lesson from this exercise but I won't hold my breath!
Wednesday, May 20 Report this
Me_In_Oly
This is a complex issue. Declaring ourselves to be a sanctuary city, and thus suggesting that out-of-area people should come here because they’ll be taken care of, is not only unkind, it is a horrible economic idea. Enough.
Wednesday, May 20 Report this
WhamboMPS
The first paragraph of this article kind of hit me wrong: "too short for equitable outreach and housing placement." It suggests that someone is owed "equitable outreach." And I don't think that's the case.
Should we as a society be gracious? Yes. Should we be caring? I believe we should. Do we need to help those who, due to physical or mental impairment cannot help themselves? I think that is the responsibility of a just society. But a government does not owe an able-bodied person a roof over their head. To suggest that we are being unkind because the hammer may finally be coming down on something that everyone living at the Jungle should have known wasn't kosher is to put the responsibility on the wrong party.
During the Depression healthy people who were willing to work were provided minimal shelter, typically in barracks, in the CCC. Every day they slogged building camp shelters, clearing trails, and gathering trash. It wasn't glamorous and it wasn't well compensated. I believe, but am not sure, that as a poverty ending scheme it wasn't all that successful, either. But it laid out a governmental philosophy that an able-bodied person who was willing to help improve society would not be left to die on the street. Some of the group cabins and picnic tables at Millersylvania State Park still stand from the efforts of these people who took responsibility for their lives but were in a desperate situation beyond their individual ability to control. I am happy to see my tax dollars spent to help people who will make that trade. But when I see a healthy young adult holding a hand-lettered sign reading "Any amount will help," that doesn't work for me. There are lots of ways these individuals can help improve the world around them. Those people I want to help. Those who just want to take won't receive much empathy from me.
Wednesday, May 20 Report this
JnNwmn
It is hard to believe that after pushing houseless/homeless people out of every nook in all Olympia forests to create one last camp in Olympia, the city gives 8 more days to be "on the List". The City should be required to give a legal eviction notice to anyone that has to move. And why is the city clearing "private land"? I hope we don't pay $1000s of dollars to plant another "rock" garden.
Thursday, May 21 Report this
36098501
I want to acknowledge that many of the people involved in the outreach work are genuinely compassionate and trying to help. This is not a criticism of individual intentions. But good intentions alone are not enough if the overall system they are supporting is not leading to measurable improvement that is sustainable for either vulnerable individuals or the broader community.
Just Housing and OlyMAP have been front and center with their efforts with these vulnerable groups for over a decade. At the same time, they have turned a volunteer organization into a well-funded entity with $3.2mm in City funding, ~$100k executive salaries and spending $2.4mm employing others. These are 2-year-old 2024 numbers. This is just one example of the many non-profits the City funds to provide services to the homeless.
Either these non-profit groups are doing a poor job of communicating the successful transition of people from living on the street to a sustainable path forward, or it just isn’t happening at any significant scale. Since these are very vocal groups in the community, I’m forced to assume it is the latter.
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/850602825
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/850602825/202533189349312838/full
The current model emphasizes low-barrier services without enough accountability or demonstrated long-term outcomes. While those approaches may provide short-term stabilization, they also unintentionally normalize deeply unsafe and unhealthy living conditions rather than helping people transition out of them.
I do not believe most residents view people living in squalor, exposed to violence, exploitation, addiction, and untreated mental illness as a humane or compassionate outcome. That is what my eyes see going on and that hurts my soul while at the same time I'm being told I'm wrong and insensitive.
I’m still at a loss as to why the City chose to buy the property the Jungle is located on and enable the tragedy that goes on there to continue.
It is important to recognize that communities operate with finite resources. Every dollar spent in one area is a dollar unavailable for another need including treatment programs, behavioral health services, housing support tied to recovery, public safety, parks, schools, and services for working families and seniors. That does not mean abandoning vulnerable people. It means making difficult decisions about which approaches are most likely to produce meaningful improvement over time.
To me, the most compassionate approach is one that prioritizes helping people move toward stability, recovery, and self-sufficiency wherever possible. That requires not only services, but expectations, structure, accountability, and measurable outcomes. Compassion and accountability are not opposites; in many cases they need to exist together.
Olympia has experienced firsthand how temporary emergency measures gradually become long-term systems that manage suffering rather than reduce it. At some point, we have to ask whether the current trajectory is truly improving lives or simply sustaining a cycle that grows more dangerous and more expensive each year with worse outcomes that may destroy the very community that sustains it in the process.
A city cannot remain healthy or sustainable if open violence, drug dealing, and chronic lawlessness become normalized in public spaces - and some of the approaches may actually encourage this behavior and attract those looking to exploit the community's compassion.
I believe nonprofits and outreach organizations play an important role, and many people working in them deserve respect for difficult work. But I also believe the broader funding model is broken and needs stronger oversight, clearer goals, and greater accountability for results. That oversight should be entirely independent of those receiving funding, or adjacent to people receiving that funding. In some cases, right now, some non-profit leaders are actually leading the direction and funding of these groups. This is a recipe for disaster.
Taxpayers deserve transparency about what approaches are succeeding, what approaches are failing, and whether current policies are actually reducing homelessness, addiction, victimization, and disorder over the long term.
Ultimately, I think most people want the same thing: fewer people suffering, safer neighborhoods, healthier public spaces, and pathways for vulnerable individuals to reclaim stability and dignity. The disagreement is not usually about compassion. It is about which policies genuinely achieve those outcomes.
This conversation needs to happen, but the City is allowing the loud voices involved to crowd out the healthy debate that is needed to improve the situation for the entirety of the community.
Thursday, May 21 Report this
RealityCheck
Tye Gundel - let’s go slow to keep the grift going
Thursday, May 21 Report this
Southsoundguy
Ten years of outreach and the place has gotten worse. These people make money off vagrancy! Clear the jungle and banish these organizations.
Thursday, May 21 Report this
JS122471
Close it down, close it down tomorrow. Yep, I get it there are probably some people in there who want help and would put in the effort to improve if given the opportunity. Hey, I am all for helping those people. However, stop wasting our tax dollars on those who don't want the help and don't want to put in the work to improve. The camp has notice, put your name on the list or don't. You can't tell me 10 days is not enough time to take a few minutes to go add your name to a list. If you choose not to comply, sorry that is on you.
Thursday, May 21 Report this
Boatyarddog
E.D Tye Gundel is an amazing motivated compassionate individual! I trust her, and Know she's got the heart to succeed in this difficult situation. Unlike many of those that consistently throw shitty comments around these serious topics.... to those individuals..... just shut the hell up or help out. We know your not going to be involved in anything positive, YOUR DEAD WEIGHT!
Friday, May 22 Report this
Local360
Close it now. Been too long etc... I am echoing previous sentiment.
But, one comment I am not hearing is the lack of accountability as this land is privately owned by JJP Group.
How come private property law is not respected or enforced? They are all trespassing!
If JJP Group is allowing this, why arent they fined and the property condemned for environmental damage?
Friday, May 22 Report this
WillStuivenga
What would Jesus do? Mathew 25:40: Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers [and sisters], you did it to Me.
Friday, May 22 Report this
Wesley
Anarcho-tyranny. Normal, working, tax paying, middle class folks have to bend to arbitrary government deadlines all the time, with no recourse, but to hold the homeless to a deadline? How dare we!?!?
"Your punishment for having a knife when they searched you would be very different from the thief's. For him to have a knife was mere misbehavior, tradition, he didn't know any better. But for you to have one was 'terrorism.'" -The Gulag Archipelago
Friday, May 22 Report this
Positivity
With all of the City of Olympia and local homelessness advocates regularly working with those living in the jungle, I find it amazing that no one has already developed a by-name list of those occupying that area which is routinely updated. All of the different organizations and the City staff working this problem really need to do a better job of coordinating their work, funding, services, and data to eliminate any duplicate functions, ensure basic and current data collection and sharing, and better provide for those needing help.
Saturday, May 23 Report this