A briefing paper about Panza and Camp Quixote’s plan to turn a homeless tent community into a permanent Village, June 2011
Camp Quixote is a self-governing tent community of about 30 homeless adults, supported by Panza, a local non-profit organization.
Camp Quixote is named for Don Quixote, the famous tilter of windmills, and Panza is named for his loyal servant, Sancho Panza.
Camp Quixote began as a protest in a downtown Olympia parking lot in February, 2007. When police prepared to forcibly dismantle the camp, a local church stepped forward to offer it sanctuary.
An act of faith
Within a few months, more churches stepped forward to host the Camp. The City of Olympia passed an ordinance that recognized the right of faith communities to practice their religious beliefs by offering the camp sanctuary on their grounds. The ordinance requires 24-hour staffing of a host desk at the Camp, and requires the Camp to move every 90 days.
As a result of the legal requirements for 24-hour staffing and frequent moves, hundreds of church volunteers came to know homeless people. The initial fear and controversy surrounding the Camp’s founding faded quickly. By the end of its founding year, the Camp was widely recognized as a community asset. (An Olympian editorial about the Camp’s first year is included as Appendix A.)
Since then, Tumwater, Lacey, and Thurston County have all passed ordinances that recognize the right of faith communities to host the camp, but regulate the terms of its existence. The state of Washington has also passed legislation recognizing faith communities’ right to practice their religions by serving the poor in this way.
Seven local congregations have hosted the Camp on their grounds or parking lots: St. John’s Episcopal Church, the First United Methodist Church, United Churches, Lacey Community Church, First Christian Church, Westminster Presbyterian Church, and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation. Many other faith communities have contributed financially, provided meals and volunteers, and advocated for the Camp in the wider community.
Democracy in tents
Homelessness is not a category of people; it is a circumstance that people find themselves in. People who are homeless are not helpless, nor are they any less competent at self-government than the housed. In fact, some observers of the Sunday night Camp Quixote Resident Council meetings have suggested that state legislators might learn from them. Discussions are lively, and there is not always consensus, but important decisions are voted on and carried out promptly. Chores are assigned, and people are held accountable for doing them. Conflicts are resolved, policies are made, and proposed improvements are discussed. Elections for leadership positions are held every six months – and there is no partisan gridlock. (The Camp resident code of conduct is included as Appendix B.)
Each camp resident pays $15 a month to cover the cost of supplies such as paper products, coffee, phone minutes for a Camp phone, and a post office box. The Camp’s elected treasurer collects and manages this fund.
The resident council’s most important decisions are to admit new residents, and to expel those who don’t or can’t abide by Camp rules. To become a member of the Camp, an applicant must be over 18, have no outstanding warrants, no recent history of violence, and may not be a sex offender. Background checks are run on all applicants.
Once an applicant has cleared the background check, he or she is interviewed by the Camp at its Sunday night meeting. There is a specific set of interview questions:
- Where have you been staying?
- How did you hear about Camp Quixote?
- What did you hear about it that made you want to be here?
- What led you to become homeless?
- What skills could you contribute to camp life?
- Do you have any medical or mental health conditions we should know about?
- Do you take any psychiatric medications?
- Do you need help to get benefits, housing, or a job?
Camp residents may ask additional questions. Then the applicant leaves the room, and the Camp discusses and votes on the application. When the majority votes to admit a new resident, they are voting to absorb into the close quarters of their community a new personality – most often a person in the midst of a troubled life. They are offering friendship to help that person cope, and information about where to find work, mental health services, and other supports.
Housed people only have to make room for a new member of our family a few times in our lives, and we all know it takes an enormous commitment of time and emotional energy. Yet the residents of Camp Quixote do this time after time, month after month. And they manage to sustain a close-knit community even in the midst of constant change.
On the relatively rare occasions when the Camp Resident Council votes to expel a resident, it is always a painful decision, especially when the person’s only option is to pitch a tent in the woods. But these tough votes are an essential part of the Camp’s success. It is the Camp’s ultimate exercise of the rule of law, and it sustains the Camp’s standards of conduct.
Resident outcomes
Until October, 2010, no data were kept on where people go when they leave Camp Quixote.
We knew that most residents moved on to something better – an Oxford House, a donated RV, a room in a relative’s house, or a shared rental house arranged by a church volunteer. Some moved on to another town or state, or back to distant families. Some found jobs, find housing, then lost jobs and housing, and returned to the Camp. While the average Camp residence was measured in months, there were also those who stayed for more than a year.
Until 2010, the Camp’s primary purpose was simply to provide safe shelter and mutual support for its residents. This alone was a challenge, since it required a large number of volunteers, organizing Camp moves from one church to another every 90 days, constant recruitment of churches to host, fundraising efforts to support the Camp financially, and close and constant relationship-building between Panza and the Camp Resident Council.
There were many informal efforts to help residents get beyond homelessness. Volunteers often acted as advocates for individual residents, and some succeeded in helping them find housing. But volunteers, like Camp residents, come and go, and for the first three-plus years of the Camp’s existence there was no consistent, trained advocate to help people navigate systems of services and supports. Moreover, there were occasions when volunteers promised more than they could deliver, causing deeper frustration and discouragement.
Setting life goals
This changed in the fall of 2010. Panza is now using grant funding from Thurston County to contract with Drexel House, a local Catholic Community Services agency, for a half-time social worker. This new Resident Advocate enables the Camp to aim higher, and to show residents how to navigate the systems that can help them find work and/or access the health and human services they need. The new Resident Advocate has also created a database that tracks resident outcomes.
The advent of the Resident Advocate also helped the Camp and Panza define a new condition for residence in the Camp. All residents are now required to meet with the Resident Advocate, set life goals for themselves, and create a plan to achieve those goals. Working to make progress on that plan is now a condition of continued residence in the Camp. There is no time limit, but there is an expectation that all residents are working to move forward with their lives.
What we’ve learned
In the four years of the Camp’s existence, both residents and Camp supporters have learned from many mistakes. It took time to establish norms of behavior and clear, consistently enforced rules in the Camp. It took more time to develop a functional, consistent Camp Resident Council. It also took a lot of trial and error to figure out the right relationship between the Camp Resident Council and Panza, the non-profit support organization that grew out of the corps of volunteers from various faith communities.
Over time, Panza and the Resident Council have developed a clear division of authority and responsibility, and with this clarity has come mutual trust. Panza does not interfere with the Camp’s self governance except under two circumstances: The Camp asks for intervention, or there is evidence that the Camp is not following its own rules.
This clear agreement prevents well-intended volunteers from meddling in the internal affairs of the Camp, and provides a backstop for Camp residents and leaders who must maintain the Camp’s rules and standards of conduct. At the same time, it respects the dignity and autonomy of Camp residents, and recognizes their ability to manage their own affairs.
Panza’s responsibility is to mobilize community support for the Camp, to write grant applications and raise funds, to recruit and manage volunteers, and to recruit and support faith communities that host the camp. Panza also pays for sanikans, propane to heat the community tent, fencing, and a variety of other expenses.
A commitment to continuous improvement
Now we face new challenges: sustaining support for the Camp now that it is no longer new and novel; combating donor fatigue; recruiting new faith communities to host the Camp; improving the comfort, health and safety of the Camp; and – the biggest challenge of all – transforming the Camp into a permanent Village.
Panza and Camp residents are committed to continuous improvement – in conditions in the Camp, in our policies and practices, and in the effectiveness of our advocacy for permanent, adequate housing. Led by the example of the Camp, Panza members have become more comfortable with constant change, and the challenge to constantly improve.
The Vision: from Camp Quixote to Quixote Village
The founders of Camp Quixote intended it to be temporary. They envisioned a permanent location for their community – one where they could build bedroom cottages around a community center with a kitchen, social space, showers and bathrooms, and laundry facilities.
In the first two years of the Camp’s existence, that vision took a back seat to the Camp’s survival and growth as a community. It took the full attention of both Camp residents and Panza to recruit new faith communities to host, to marshal community support and donations, and to create the organizational infrastructure to sustain the Camp’s existence.
In the Camp’s third year, both the Camp Resident Council and Panza renewed our commitment to creating Quixote Village – a new model for affordable and sustainable community living.
We can do better
This movement is strongly supported by the faith communities that have hosted the Camp, and by a growing number of citizens, local elected officials and community leaders. There is a strong conviction that people should not have to live in tents, and that as a country and a community, we can do better.
We hope to build the Village that Camp Quixote founders and leaders continue to want: a central community building that includes a kitchen, social and meeting spaces, bathrooms, showers and laundry facilities, surrounded by about 30 one-room cottages that have heat and light, but not plumbing. Our goal is to create a sustainable and affordable model for low-cost housing.
Putting down roots
The Village will also include space for both a large community garden, and individual garden spaces for those who want them. Given enough land, the village may also include space for income-generating projects such as a small herb farm and a woodworking/maintenance shop.
By centralizing kitchen, laundry and bathroom facilities in a single building, the Village will keep the per-unit cost of housing much lower than traditional housing, while providing comfortable living space for residents.
This vision is important to Camp residents for two reasons: First, they will have cottages in which they can be warm and dry in the winter – and in which they can live in greater dignity and comfort year-round. But second, and equally important, Camp residents want to build a Village in which they can continue their tradition of supporting and helping each other, and living as an extended, informal family. And they want to continue to grow in their practice of community democracy and self-government.
For many residents of the Camp, the need for community is every bit as important as the need for housing. We suspect this may be true for many people who have never been homeless as well. In fact, this vision – of shared communal space combined with private dwellings – could be the prototype for housing many other groups of people. It combines three vitally important features: affordability, environmental sustainability, and community.
Innovating our way to affordable housing
In Thurston County, homelessness has doubled in the last five years, far outstripping the ability of local governments to finance needed housing and rental assistance programs. In addition, there is a growing population of very low-wage workers who are paying well over a third of their incomes in rent. Many are young people with children. They would also benefit from village housing that would require a smaller percentage of their income, and that would draw them into a community of mutual support and sustaining friendships.
Even people who are not constrained by low incomes are searching for ways to simplify their lives. Many people want to live in ways that consume less, pollute less, and are less isolating than single family houses. The rise of the “tiny house movement” has already created a wave of interest in housing design that serves these goals.
A site for Quixote Village
The Thurston County Commission has agreed to offer a parcel of County-owned land on Mottman Road, about half a mile west of South Puget Sound Community College, as a site for Quixote Village.
This site is county-owned land within the city of Olympia. It is in a light industrial zone. To build the Village in this zone, Panza is working with the Olympia City Council and the city’s Planning Commission to win an exception to the current zoning rules.
On June 6, 2011, the Olympia Planning Commission voted to forward a recommendation to the City Council that would allow Quixote Village to be built on Mottman Road. We anticipate Council action on this recommendation in July.
The vision comes into focus
Camp residents and Panza are working with a team of architects form MSGS Architects and KMB Design Groups who have offered pro bono services to design the Village. The site plan for the Village is attached as Appendix C.
Design work with the architects will soon yield a cost estimate for construction of the Village.
Next step: a capital campaign
Once the zoning issue is settled and we have certainty about the site, Panza plans to launch a capital campaign to finance construction of the Village. We plan to seek funding for the Village in three ways:
- We plan to ask local individuals, service clubs, community organizations, and faith communities to each sponsor a single cottage. We anticipate that the cost per cottage will be about $5,000 – an amount that would be within the capacity of local groups or individuals.
- We plan to seek federal, foundation and business association grants to pay for the development and construction of the Village infrastructure and the central community building.
- We plan to seek partnerships with local non-profit farm and garden organizations that can help establish the Village gardens, and with other non-profit organizations that can help establish income-generating projects within the Village.
As we do this work, we are in constant consultation with local elected officials and community leaders to ensure that there is strong community consensus in support of the Village.
We recognize that this will be a complex project that will challenge us in many ways. But none of us began this journey with expertise in establishing a tent camp, developing a functional and robust system of self-government, or creating and developing a non-profit, community and faith-based organization to support it. We have learned our way much further along this road than many thought possible. And we have come too far to turn back, or to stop where we are.
People who live in Camp Quixote deserve something better than tents. Their resilience, their hopes for their future, and their daily demonstrations of mutual support and generosity call us all to respond with the best within us, and to help them create what Martin Luther King dreamed of: the beloved community.
Appendix A: The Olympian editorial, December 28, 2007, Camp has evolved into asset
One of the remarkable success stories of 2007 is Camp Quixote, the tent city encampment that started out so contentiously and today has evolved into an incredible community asset. Lives have been forever changed, and hardened hearts have been warmed in a short 11 months.
Camp Quixote makes its next move tomorrow, completing its 90-day stay at First United Methodist Church of Olympia and moving to Olympia’s First Christian Church near Sylvester Park in the heart of downtown Olympia.
Camp Quixote got its start just a few blocks away last February when the Olympia-based Poor Peoples Union planted the homeless encampment on city property. Tent city was established to protest a city ordinance that bans sitting on parts of city sidewalks. The camp quickly grew to 25 tents.
“We’ve been there from the very beginning when it started as campers at the old senior center property, ” says Olympia Police Lt. Jim Pryde. The fact that police and city officials failed to break up the homeless encampment drew praise in some corners of the community, criticism in others.
A great deal of credit for the ensuing success of Camp Quixote goes to the members of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation. As officers were preparing to move in to break up the camp and make arrests if necessary, the folks at the west side church volunteered to host the tent city. That got the campers off city property and allowed a much needed cooling off period.
And people – those supportive of the tent city, and those opposed – began to talk to one another. They also began to listen to each other and came to the conclusion that they had many of the same concerns. What they shared was a desire to give homeless individuals a safe place to live as they struggled to get back on their feet.
What followed was a series of moves, from one faith community to another – from the Unitarian Universalist Church to United Churches to St. John’s Episcopal Church, to the Methodist Church and, tomorrow, back downtown to the First Christian Church.
But perhaps the most remarkable transformation has come at Olympia City Hall, where the City Council in July adopted an ordinance allowing homeless encampments. The Tumwater City Council adopted the same ordinance. The ordinances set sanitation and other public safety requirements, but the truth be told, the homeless individuals are doing an excellent job of policing themselves. They have, for example, a no-alcohol and no-drugs policy, and campers who violate the rules are banned from the camp.
“I’ve done my own personal spot checks, ” said Lt. Pryde. “The camp is remarkably clean and the people there are so accepting and welcoming. They do a remarkable job of creating an atmosphere of community. And people take pride in their community. They have zero tolerance for those who don’t want to follow the rules.”
As a result, there has been “virtually nothing in terms of police involvement or calls for service” to Camp Quixote, Pryde said.
That’s a remarkable success story that this community needs to celebrate.
Equally remarkable have been the altered lives.
There are heartwarming stories of homeless individuals working low-wage jobs who have been able to save enough money for first- and last-month rent and are now living with a permanent roof over their head.
There are equally moving stories of church members who have started out firmly opposed to hosting the camp, only to have their hearts melted when they got to know the campers on a personal basis.
Enemies have become advocates.
And the real heroes in this story are the men and women who have spent their nights staying at the camp ensuring safety, preparing meals for the campers and offering a shoulder to cry on.
But the work is not yet complete. It’s imperative that the Lacey City Council and Thurston County commission adopt the same ordinance passed in Olympia and Tumwater. The public safety standards are clear but this system will not work if jurisdictions have different rules.
It’s impossible to measure all the good that has come about with the establishment of Camp Quixote. But those looking for a good news story from 2007 need look no further.”
For more Olympian coverage of Camp Quixote, go to http://www.theolympian.com/
Appendix B: Camp Quixote Code of Conduct and Resident Agreement
January, 2011
Basic Code of Conduct: No violence or threats of violence, no forced sex, drugs, alcohol, theft, or disruptive or disrespectful behavior.
Camp Rules
- The Camp must be kept safe and clean at all times.
- If you don’t help when the camp moves, you don’t move with the camp.
- You are required to contribute at least 6 hours per week in service to the Camp by doing camp chores assigned at Sunday meetings, by staffing the host desk, or by doing projects approved by the Camp’s officers.
- All residents pay $15 monthly dues. Dues are not charged during the calendar month in which a resident moves into the Camp. If you have no money, you can appeal to the Resident Council for an exception to this policy.
- You are required to attend Sunday night meetings of the Resident Council, which is the governing body of the Camp. Failure to attend without a valid excuse (working, family visits, medical emergencies) will result in a written warning; any further unexcused absence will result in a 30-day eviction.
- No illegal drugs or alcohol are allowed in camp. You may be required to participate in occasional drug testing if this becomes a problem. When you sign this form, you agree to be tested.
- Smoking and open flames are not permitted in tents and huts, and smoking is not permitted around volunteer hosts.
- Visiting hours are 9 AM until 9:30 PM. All visitors must be signed in at the host desk. You are responsible for your visitors at all times while the visitor is anywhere in the camp.
- Overnight visitors are only allowed after a visitor has passed a background check. No resident will have overnight visitors more than three nights a month.
- If you are absent from the Camp for seven days without notifying Camp leadership, you will no longer be considered a resident and your belongings will be disposed of.
- Residents who are asked to leave the Camp because of alcohol or drug use must complete a treatment program before they reapply for residence in the Camp.
- No pets are allowed in camp.
- Residents who leave or are evicted from the Camp must collect all their belongings within seven days of their departure.
- New residents will be on probation for 30 days. During this time, they will be mentored by another resident to help them adapt to Camp life.
- When a resident has a grievance against another resident that the two cannot solve, the conflict will be resolved at the Sunday evening Camp meeting.
- All Camp residents are representatives of the Camp when they are in the community. For this reason, it is important that all Camp residents show respect for the neighborhood, the church, and the community.
- All new residents meet with the Camp’s Resident Advocate and set life goals that they commit to work toward achieving. Working on this plan is a condition of residence in the Camp. The Camp’s Resident Advocate may share information with Camp officers about whether a resident is working to make progress on his or her plan. Officers will hold this information in confidence, and will use it to impose disciplinary measures for non-compliance.
Camp governance
Camp Quixote is governed by the Resident Council. All Camp members vote to elect a Council president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. Elections are held every six months, on the last Sunday in April and September. If a vacancy occurs between these times, a special election may be held to fill it.
Camp officers, acting together as the Leadership Team, are authorized to enforce Camp rules between meetings. Violation of Camp rules results in write-ups. Three write-ups require that the resident leave the Camp for three days. When the resident returns to Camp, he or she will be “on contract” for 30 days, which means that any violation can result in permanent eviction from the Camp. Any violation of the basic code of conduct is grounds for immediate and permanent eviction.
Residents may appeal a decision of the Leadership Team at a Sunday night meeting. However, until the meeting, the decision of the Leadership Team stands.
