Homeless couple camped near Space Needle for 81 days. Seattle dumped them in Kansas.
A homeless couple who spent 81 days camping near the Space Needle as "a form of protest" is now in Kansas after a Seattle nonprofit paid to fly them away.
The city gave Melissa Burns and her husband, Shamrock, free plane tickets to get them off Seattle streets, according to KOMO.
The couple had been living in a tent less than a block away from Seattle's most-famous tourist attraction, Q13 reported, and the tent was part of what is known as a homeless "mansion." The "mansion" is complete with glass French doors, wooden-pallet walls and interior furniture, according to KIRO7.
The structure was built two days after City of Seattle employees "swept" Burns' camp away from a small city park, KIRO7 reported in April. Homeless volunteers then helped her build a "much larger" living space just about a block away from the park.
"It is a form of protest," Burns told the station. "We're staking a claim. We're refusing to cower in our tents ... If you can live on the street and not pay rent, then why would you pay rent?"
The city had offered Burns and her husband a shelter to live in, KOMO reported, but the couple turned it down. She told KIRO7 that she didn't want to live by the rules of a shelter and that she didn't want to change her lifestyle "to fit their requirements."
"We can provide something better for ourselves at this point than the city can provide us," Burns told the station earlier this year.
But then a city team offered plane tickets to Manhattan, Kansas, and that must have been better than what the couple could provide themselves.
Seattle's Navigation Team bought the couple two plane tickets to Kansas, KOMO reported on June 14, and they flew out on June 27. Burns has family in Kansas, according to the TV station.
The Navigation Team is made up of workers trained by the Seattle Police Department who "connect unsheltered people to housing and critical resources," according to a 2017 release from Mayor Ed Murray.
ABC reported that the city considers buying a homeless person a ticket out if the person can confirm having family or a job in the new city.
The funds come from the Compass Housing Alliance, KOMO reported. The city contractor provides housing, shelter and support for people who are homeless or facing poverty in the Seattle area, according to its website.
In 2016, the Compass Housing Alliance set $25,000 aside for "flexible reunification or travel support" for people in the area, KOMO reported. That amount was doubled to $50,000 in 2017. The organization is supported by United Way, according to its website.
Many other U.S. cities and counties give homeless people free bus tickets to move from the city, the Guardian reported after an 18-month investigation in 2017. Those cities include San Francisco, Denver and New York.
"If these relocation programs did not exist, and the people San Francisco has bussed out of the city had stayed put, there could be as many as 18,000 homeless people currently in the city, more than twice the current population," the Guardian reported.
Riley County, which includes Manhattan, has the highest poverty rate in Kansas, according to the K-State Collegian. The Manhattan Emergency Shelter sees about 400 homeless clients each year, according to the student newspaper.
This story was originally published July 1, 2018 at 11:42 AM.