Welcome to Noisy Waters Northwest! Many facts, figures, stories, and perspectives are, sadly, often unheralded in our local media in Whatcom County, Washington. Click on the title of items on our picturesque story board for a refreshing splash of information that won’t be held back. There is a search page to search all information on this blog site. All posts note their categories of commentary or news related content. Continue reading
A call to stop moving dangerous and unsafe conditions to new locations in Whatcom County / Letter to Bellingham and Whatcom County officials
April 14, 2021 Dena Jensen
Keep writing your elected officials and working on sheltering solutions.
There was another encampment sweep in Bellingham at Sunset Pond Park this morning. More people without shelter displaced. Meanwhile, it’s possible one of our Port of Bellingham Commissioners is working on hiring a security guard because they don’t think the police are moving unsheltered people on to shelter and services (which currently don’t exist for many).
Here is the email I sent about all that tonight:
Continue readingBTC and COB park safety root issues remain unaddressed / Letter to Bellingham City Council
April 12, 2021 Dena Jensen
Subject: Failing to address root issues at your April 12, 2021 Parks and Recreation Committee meeting
Dear Bellingham City Council:
I listened to your April 12, 2021 Parks and Recreation Committee meeting from this afternoon. Your discussion was related to information in a staff memo from today that stated in part:
Continue reading“Bellingham Technical College (BTC) has documented many incidents that have occurred at and around the Perry Center. Incidents range from physical attacks, threats and aggression towards students and employees to used drug needles left in front of the building, tents set up next to the building, people sleeping in vehicles and in the doorway of the main entrance to the building, garbage, and human feces in the area near the building.”
Sunrise Bellingham Climate Action Group Calls for Rep. Larsen and Washington Senators to Commit to Creating Good Jobs for All / Press Release, Sunrise Bellingham
April 5, 2021 Press Release, Sunrise Bellingham
Event Date: April 7th, 2021.
RESCHEDULED DUE TO WEATHER 
Good Jobs for All Rally @ Taylor DockThis Thursday, April 8th, 4 – 6pm. Here is the link to sign up for the action: https://www.mobilize.us/sunrisemovement/event/381.
Bellingham, WA — The Sunrise Movement, which includes the Sunrise Bellingham Hub, is demanding a Green New Deal that guarantees a good job fighting climate change and making a safer, healthier society to anyone who wants one. We are calling on Senator Murray, Senator Cantwell, and Representative Larsen to take the Good Jobs for All Pledge. The pledge is a commitment to invest $10 trillion to create at least 15 million good jobs over the next decade, with 50% of funds going to communities on the frontlines of our economic, environmental, and public health crises. When we say “good jobs” we mean jobs with safe workplaces, family-sustaining wages and benefits, and protection of workers’ rights to organize.
Continue readingSweep of unsheltered community members from Port of Bellingham property / Noisy Waters Northwest
March 21, 2021 Dena Jensen
It seems that the Port of Bellingham would benefit from hearing more from all of us here in Whatcom County about the motivations for our desire of them to help contribute solutions to our friends and neighbors sleeping outside and getting swept by police officers in Bellingham and at WWU. Apparently they were also swept from Port of Bellingham property at Laurel and Cornwall on the day that COB swept folks from Geri Field. Contact information is at the bottom fo this post.
Serenity Outreach Services strongly condemns City’s decision to sweep Geri Field homeless encampment / Press Release, Serenity Outreach Services Bellingham
March 15, 2021 Press Release, Serenity Outreach Services
Serenity Outreach Services strongly condemns the city’s decision to sweep the Geri field homeless encampment. We feel the homeless encampment sweeps must be addressed as it relates to us as a nonprofit, as community members, and as tax-paying individuals. The sweep goes against recent CDC guidelines, Whatcom County Health Department guidance, and the recent 9th Circuit Superior Court Ruling.
Continue readingOur community members in crisis must not be treated as expendable / Letter to the Homeless Strategies Workgroup
March 4, 2021 Dena Jensen
Dear Homeless Strategies Workgroup:
I really appreciate the questions and points raised in recent letters sent in by Carmen Gilmore and Arrissia Owen Turner, and I hope the workgroup will use these to help cement focus and progress on primary goals.
I also call for one of the primary goals of this workgroup being that of addressing the needs of unsheltered community members in crisis, and feel it will become easier and quicker to make progress on this goal by staying grounded in an approach that views people falling through the cracks of existing solutions – or lack of them – as unacceptable.
Continue readingThe goal is to marginalize no one: email to Whatcom and Bellingham leaders / Noisy Waters Northwest
February 19, 2021 Dena Jensen
Here is an email I sent this morning:
Subject: The goal is to marginalize no one
Dear Mayor Fleetwood, Bellingham City Council, Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department, and Homeless Strategies Workgroup Members:
Continue readingSolutions needed to help heal the community: Homeless Strategies Workgroup meeting 2/19/21
February 18, 2021 Dena Jensen
Whatcom County Homeless Strategies Workgroup meets tomorrow, Friday, February 19, 2021, 1:30-3:00 p.m. Here is the Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/91936129280?pwd=QmZYaVdFMm1SZW5hcmpBdHcyVHkxQT09
Thoughts on the Camp 210 Sweep / Commentary by Kai Rapaport
February 5, 2021 Kai Rapaport
[Author’s Note: I am not a representative of Camp 210, but a concerned community member and volunteer; mistakes are my own]
Dear Bellingham,
This message is a plea to our Mayor Fleetwood to stop the sweep of our houseless neighbors at Camp 210, in their new location by Puget and Fraser near Civic field Friday at 4pm. This article is also an invitation to the community to support our houseless neighbors in voicing their concerns about this sweep.
I understand this message is long so I can summarize it now:
Please contact your Mayor, principally; your health department; the parks department; your City Councilmembers; and encourage your organizations to denounce this sweep. Sweeps do not solve houselessness, they only move our houseless neighbors.
Continue readingRE winter emergency sheltering efforts in Whatcom County prior to the 2020 cold weather season
The City of Bellingham and Whatcom County Government have been increasingly focused since the cold weather season has hit, on putting out information about their housing and sheltering efforts. There is no doubt that they have been making efforts to create low income housing and to sustain and enhance some sheltering solutions. But a significant challenge being faced right now by our community is a failure of our government agencies to respond effectively to hostile weather emergency sheltering needs, especially during a pandemic.
Continue reading