(NBC NEWS) When University of Washington students return from winter break to their campus in Seattle next month, they’ll find dozens of homeless people living in a parking lot — at the school’s invitation.
The 10,000 square-foot encampment is a roving tent city that moves to a new location every three months, part of a larger attempt to deal with the city’s rising homeless population.
The university offered to host the camp after students campaigned for it to become more actively engaged in ending the homelessness crisis. At last count in February, the number of people sleeping on the city’s streets was more than 4,500, a 19 percent increase over the previous year. Another 2,900 people were in transitional housing, and 3,200 in shelters, according to the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness.
