Community baffled by inflatable pool at Seattle homeless encampment

SEATTLE - There's a heated discussion happening in the Highland Park neighborhood where someone inflated and filled a swimming pool right in the middle of a homeless camp.

FOX 13 News spoke to the woman who put the pool up, who said it was never meant to upset anyone. She said she just wanted to do something nice for the others in her community.

Monica has lived at the encampment off Myers Way in South Seattle for about six months now. She said she knows some people aren't happy with it being so visible from the road, but she's holding her ground, and she is not planning on deflating the pool anytime soon.

"It is, it's hot," Monica said. "What do you do when it's hot? Everybody deserves a pool. It was something small enough for us to enjoy but big enough for us to fit in."

Monica told FOX13 the pool has been up for about a week.

"When I invested in the pool, it was an uplift for everybody," Monica said. "It was something that I felt gifting to them, and it gave them something to look forward to."

She said she's even adding a fence around it for privacy, but that's taking time.

"We don't have the money," Monica said. "We don't have—I did all this by hand, hammer and tools. I have not one power tool that I've used on this project. So, we do what we can and we make it happen."

(File / FOX 13)

Monica says it's unfortunate people on the outside don't view this pool the same way they do, as a luxury.

"You've got the lifestyle that the homeless live—we really don't have a whole lot to look forward to," Monica said. "Society has pushed us to the side, and anytime we try to get our foot into something positive, it gives a setback."

FOX13 asked Monica why she believes people around the community don't like the pool at the encampment.

"You know, we're homeless," Monica said. "They don't—I've read a lot of stuff on the blog, and it's nothing cute. 'Why don't you just call 911, just tell them they got rats, and they'll get rid of them the next day.' Stuff like that is just ridiculous."

Monica told FOX 13 News she used to remodel homes. She said her old boss was caught defrauding people, and she lost her job. Now, she's homeless.

"I was in a four-bedroom house," Monica said. "That was one of the ones I was working on and remodeling. And, things went bad with the job and unfortunately, put me out on the streets."

She said she isn't the only one who got a bad break and ended up with no place to go, and that's what she wishes more people would understand.

"There's a lot of gifts that these people have," Monica said. "They have a lot of talents out here. Lot of their reasoning for being out in the street is not something by choice, [they're] situations like myself—jobs, during COVID had put them out of jobs. And, ended up in the street, had nobody to turn to."

Now, she's joined this community off Myers Way. She said what may be an eyesore to others is home.

"There's a lot of things that I'm learning out here about living on the streets and the homeless ways," Monica said. "We learn every day from each other. All you can do is hope for a better tomorrow."

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Thursday morning, REACH organization was at the encampment to provide assistance to some of the folks living there. Seattle parking enforcement was also at the encampment to move an RV out of the street that was blocking a fire hydrant. It was towed out within the afternoon.