Sean Reynolds interviews Steve Irwin, a homeless man who is actively mining and logging in Seattle’s Dr. Jose Rizal Park. Steven Irwin’s actions have escalated from damaging public property with an excavator to constructing an elaborate cabin, claiming he’s mining for gold. Andrea Suarez of We Heart Seattle and Jeremy Harris of Komo News are also featured in livestream.
Despite facing charges for previously digging up the park and causing $15,000 in damages, Irwin has now equipped his cabin with generators, fireplaces, and various appliances, raising safety concerns due to the presence of multiple fuel sources and haphazard wiring. Local stewards and residents express frustration over the lack of effective response from city officials to Irwin’s ongoing project, which includes cutting down trees and potentially risking his and others’ safety. Outreach groups have even offered housing solutions, which Irwin declined, preferring his makeshift dwelling amidst the park’s natural resources.
Irwin allowed KOMO News to tour his new sprawling encampment in Dr. Jose Rizal Park Friday morning.
Irwin claims he has permission to build the cabin, which now has multiple generators, fireplaces, propane heaters, a washing machine, and even a treadmill.
“He is digging into the slopes, building structures, tearing down trees, undoing thousands of dollars in repairs,” said Andrea Suarez of We Heart Seattle, a homeless outreach group that has offered assistance to Irwin. “There’s also a risk for him being in that environment. There are smells of kerosene, propane, and gasoline – there are three different forms of fuel down here, wires everywhere. It’s a ticking timebomb.”
Park stewards and neighbors have been trying to get the city’s attention to the issues Irwin is causing for months.
“This guy is just getting away with it, and I don’t understand that. We are absolutely frustrated. We need some civility here, we need police action,” said neighbor Brian Hartman.
The stewards have expressed concern about Irwin cutting down trees on the slope in the park as well.
“He’s dreaming up that this is a gold mine, that he’s mining for diamonds, and that he is going to find gold and strike it rich,” Suarez said.
Two people who have seen the man in the camp identified him as the same man who was arrested in the excavator incident in October.
“I definitely identified him again, and he’s the same guy. He’s a moron,” said neighbor Brian Hartman.
Hartman confronted the man in the excavator in October and called the police.
According to a police report, Steven Michael Irwin, 41, told police he was going to use the excavator to build a cabin in the park. Irwin was charged in municipal court with property destruction and possession of auto theft tools.
Neighbors allege Irwin returned to the park and began setting up an encampment at the base of the hill, where he was arrested in the excavator.
“This electrical box here had been broken into, and there was a cord running into the encampment. I feel for him that he wants to be warm, but alternative housing has been offered, and he has refused,” said Courtney.
In addition to the damage being done to trees and vegetation, parks stewards have raised concerns about drug trafficking going on in the encampments near Rizal Park.
“We’ve just gone through a period where people who were elected to the council did not have situational awareness of what was going on in neighborhoods around Seattle,” said volunteer park steward Craig Thompson. “There will be people who call themselves activists in Seattle who say – ‘oh, you are just persecuting poor people’ – without realizing that the people who are actually persecuting them are the people who are in the narcotics trade.”
The encampments at Rizal Park have grown after the state shut down encampments on Washington State Department of Transportation Property near 10th Avenue South and Dearborn Street earlier this month.
“They’re down there doing the drugs and whatever else they do,” Hartman said. “The city needs to do something. Don’t be so politically weak.”
#Steve Irwin #UrbanGoldMining #CommunitySafetyConcern
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