Can someone explain why they constantly need to keep moving off of private property, like this church? If I owned like 50 acres of land in the city, I couldn't just let them camp out in the middle of it? Am I not allowed to camp out on my own property? If I had kids could they camp out on my property? This part of the story never made any sense.

It's a matter of scale--you can camp on your own land. Your kids can camp on your own land. If you owned 50 acres of land, you could probably do that forever. If you had 400 square feet in your front lawn and had a couple tents up there for a few months, that might not fly. If you have 100 homeless folks in shanties, the neighbors are going to complain real quick like.

What puzzles me is that Nville keeps talking about how they're moving to a 'permanent' location, and then, they don't. Now if they move to an unauthorized 'permanent' location, does that mean they're not going to move in six months to the City-approved 'permanent' location?

I recommend Mercer Island.

Why do we enable this?

Let them move into your place, Cienna!

Cal Anderson Park would make a great permanent place. Running water, bathrooms, soft grass to camp on.

without months of outreach, hand-holding, fasting, etc.

Indeed, there is not one legitimate reason why people would be concerned about a permanent shantytown moving to their neighborhood.

I looked it up. The Sunny Jim site, 4200 Airport Way S., is in SoDo, a mile north of Georgetown. Just saying.

Isn't that where it was during the Great Depression in the 30s?

Great reporting Cienna, you told it exactly like it is!