Puyallup residents angry about homeless crisis

PUYALLUP, Wash. — City leaders in Puyallup heard from residents who are fed up with the city's homeless problem.

They say a relatively new resource center that's meant to help the homeless get off the streets is making the problem worse.

The church-based New Hope Resource Center opened in 2014 to help the homeless, but residents say it has become a welcome beacon for the homeless.

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As in Seattle, tents, trash, and unsavory behavior have quickly become nuisances in Puyallup, neighbors say.

This week's city council meeting was packed with people who told the council that they're tired of the homeless camps, trash, drug needles, feces and bottles of urine.

One woman who spoke posted photos on Facebook showing a mess across from her house along the Puyallup River.

Piles of clothes, bikes and garbage can be seen in the photos.  From her home, she said she’s seen naked people going to the bathroom out in the open.

Others complained about the homeless overtaking public restrooms at the library and park, prostitution occurring at Pioneer Park, drug use on a popular trail, and customers being scared away from their downtown businesses.

The homeless resource center and other advocacy groups say they're doing all they can with limited resources to get people off the streets, or at the least out of the area with bus passes to other cities, but the homeless keep coming back.

Cox Media Group