Asylum-seekers move from Kent encampment to Tacoma hotel amid housing efforts

TACOMA, Wash. — They fled from violence and persecution in their own countries only to spend months living under tarps and tents here in open spaces around King County. Now hundreds of asylum seekers have traded those encampments for hotel rooms and the promise of a fresh start for their families.

A refugee assistance agency called Thrive International helped nearly 200 asylum-seekers pack up their belongings and load them into vans to be taken to the Quality Inn on Tacoma’s South Hosmer Street. The move took place on Sept. 24, following months of sleeping on the ground at an open lot near a vacant motel on Central Avenue in Kent.

The hotel is now home to 360 people, which includes 198 children and a dozen pregnant women. People have come from places like Venezuela, Brazil and Angola to escape instability and in some cases violence in their home countries.

"The mood here is just peace. It's just life. I've observed people from a point of 'I've got a bed,' and somebody just falling back on a bed to, 'When are we going to get the kids enrolled in school,'" said Anna Bondarenko, Thrive International's project director for King and Pierce counties. "Half of our group is in school, and the other half they just moved here last Tuesday, so we're still working on intaking and getting everybody processed."

Staff with Thrive International are now working with those asylum-seekers to determine their specific immigration status. They are also providing additional help to find employment, address health care needs and address any legal assistance they may need.

"We assess their situation: immigration, social and medical. We ask, 'Have you filed for asylum, have you applied for school, are you going to ESL classes? Do you have employment authorization or not,'" Bondarenko said. "If you haven't filed for asylum, we'll help you file for asylum. If you have employment authorization, we're going to connnect you with local organizations that can help you find jobs."

The goal is to create a revolving door so that families get the help they need and then move on, opening up space for the next group of asylum seekers who also desperately need assistance. Since their work began, Thrive International said 44 family units have already transitioned into stable housing.

"We're able to create a little village, so we function as a big family and a little village," Bondarenko said.

At some point this month, a new intake system called the Migrant and Asylum Seeker Support Project will debut that will be run by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). The pilot program is expected to become operational at some point this month, according to Norah West a DSHS spokesperson. It is meant to create a centralized and streamlined intake system to help people who have just arrived from other countries get matched up to the services they need.