FIRST REPORT, 5:53 PM THURSDAY: Just yards from where the city almost set up an “RV safe lot” last year before scrapping the idea, an unofficial RV camp is taking shape right now. We just visited the site on the east end of the land twice inhabited by the tent camp that called itself “Nickelsville,” after finding out about the RVs’ move via e-mail sent to us and other media outlets. That e-mail said that the RVs headed this way after “Seattle Police provided a 3-day notice to random RVs [in industrial areas of SODO] that their RVs and vehicles – and personal belongings inside them – would be towed and impounded today, 5/11/17.”

The site is state-owned; we counted about 10 RVs during our short visit to find out what was happening. A camper named Rebecca told us more are expected, and that police and state troopers were at the site earlier. The vehicles are parked just inside a gate off 2nd Avenue SW, between Highland Park Way SW and W. Marginal Way SW (south of the marker on this map).

The city’s proposed “safe lot” – a plan officially scrapped in March 2016 – would have been to the west along West Marginal, on a paved lot adjacent to the city-owned encampment site that was cleared three years ago. The announcement of the new unofficial camp notes, “The City of Seattle’s 2016 plan to assist homeless people living in RVs has largely been abandoned. This is an independent effort to find a safe site.” We won’t be able to find out anything from SPD or WSP until tomorrow.

ADDED 9:18 AM FRIDAY: We just heard back from Julie Moore, spokesperson for the city’s homelessness-related efforts. She tells WSB: “The City did not direct people to this site.” They first heard yesterday that “an unauthorized encampment had set up at that property.” She also says that regarding RV campers allegedly being chased there from SODO, “There was no encampment cleanup effort going on in SoDo this week. Any notices about RVs needing to move would have come from SPD parking enforcement.” Meantime, the Navigation Team is “visiting the site to assess the situation this morning.” It’s “not appropriate for camping,” she added, because “it will soon be used for staging for critical I-5 construction work this summer.”