(The Center Square) – Bellevue’s Office of Housing is touting the positive impacts made by a homeless service campus within the city, while nearby residents have voiced concerns over an increase in crime and safety issues.
On Tuesday, public commenters spoke on what they claim is an increasing presence of homeless people near the Eastgate Housing Campus, which is where the PorchLight men’s homeless shelter and Plymouth Crossing housing development are.
Residents cited an incident near the campus in July in which a man was beaten to death. They also said there have been people sleeping on sidewalks, loitering and drinking in public, garbage strewn about, and multiple homeless encampments.
Bellevue Resident Mahogany Tyler said her family is frequently exposed to open drug use when walking along streets near Eastgate.
“I have the police scanner on every day because we’re just terrified of what’s next,” Tyler told the city council. “Every time I look at the police scanner, there’s always Polaris [an affordable housing complex within the campus], there’s always PorchLight, there’s always Plymouth. It’s an everyday thing.”
Bellevue Office of Housing Director Bianca Siegl said her office is aware of ongoing public safety concerns related to the housing campus. She said that in order to improve outcomes for Eastgate residents and its neighbors, the housing office conducts multiple visits each week to key areas around the campus where there may be encampments or frequent loitering.
PorchLight is a 100-bed men’s shelter – the only emergency men’s shelter in all of east King County. It is operated by Congregations for the Homeless. The city council approved $3.6 million in supplemental funding for the development of the shelter.
According to Siegl, PorchLight helped 845 men find shelter, along with connections to housing and job opportunities in 2024. The shelter is typically full nearly every night throughout the year.
Plymouth Crossing, Bellevue’s first permanent supportive housing development, provides 92 units of housing with on-site services designed to help residents recover from homelessness and maintain housing stability. There is 24/7 staffing and security at the building.
Siegl notes that well over half of the units are occupied by people with local connections to Bellevue and the eastside.
When Plymouth Crossing first opened, the Bellevue City Manager’s Office agreed to fund $606,036 per year, for five years, for operations, maintenance and services at the facility.
Bellevue, which ranked 16th in Washington cities with the highest average income at $224,401, most recently reported that 18.2% of residents were severely cost burdened by rent increases. A lack of affordable housing is considered by many Washington cities, as well as the state, as the main cause of homelessness.
The Eastgate Housing Campus was established to address Bellevue’s homelessness problem through actions based on affordable housing as the main solution to homelessness.
As residents claim a large presence of homelessness and crimes related to unhoused people, Bellevue crime statistics show otherwise. According to Bellevue Assistant Police Chief Andrew Popochock crime has significantly declined year-to-date in the city. There have been 1,494 fewer reported crimes in the city, which is an overall crime reduction of 28%.
When it comes to crimes against people, the city has seen an uptick of 2%, or 14 reported crimes, through Sept. 8. However, Popochock said that while these crimes are more serious, it is “a relatively small number.”
As for property crimes, which is the highest reported category for Bellevue, the department reported 1,495 fewer property crimes, or 34%.
“Bellevue has historically been a very safe city and continues to be a very safe city,” Popochock said during Tuesday night’s city council meeting.
Bellevue Mayor Lynne Robinson requested an update on the Eastgate Housing Campus from the Office of Housing next month.
