The owner of Tullwood Apartments is attempting to join the City of Bellingham’s lawsuit against the property owner of the Walmart encampment.
The apartment complex’s owner, 52nd and Brooklyn LLC, filed a motion on May 23 to intervene in the lawsuit in order to ensure the timely disposition of the litigation, and to represent interests the city might otherwise fail to represent.
The city filed the lawsuit on Feb. 23 against Li-Ching Fang, owner of the property where a homeless camp was established, seeking a judge’s authority to remove illegal campers on the property. Located at 4370/4380 Tull Road, the Tullwood Apartments are directly adjacent to the encampment located on a 20-acre undeveloped lot southeast of Walmart.
An estimated 50 to 150 homeless people camp on the property and some have been there at least eight years, according to camp residents. But Tullwood dwellers reported more disruption over the last year since the homeless camp near Winco was cleared out.
In court documents filed in late March, Fang, owner of the Walmart encampment property denied that she wasn’t “proactively addressing” the encampment.
She said the police provided “very little assistance” in issuing trespass warrants and arrests, and that she had hired Abatement & Decontamination Specialists on March 1 for $25,000, at the city’s instruction, to “address the issues caused by the presence of homeless people on the Property.”
According to court documents, Tullwood residents have observed occupants of the Walmart encampment engaging in “illegal and dangerous activities, including shooting guns, distributing and using illegal drugs such as fentanyl, lighting unauthorized fires, and threatening nearby residents.”
“As a direct result of the public nuisance, many residents have moved away from 52nd & Brooklyn’s property, which has caused economic harm to 52nd & Brooklyn,” the company wrote in court documents.
At least six tenants in the last year said they chose to leave their apartment due to the encampment and the associated activity, according to a declaration in support from Tullwood Apartments Property Manager Kimberly Huizenga. Huizenga said occupancy is down 6% at the apartments, comparing this year to last.
On May 6, the City of Bellingham informed adjacent property owners that it would conduct a site assessment of the camp that week but did not provide a cleanup date, according to documents.
A hearing to consider the motion to intervene will be on June 14 at 1:30 p.m.
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
