Community member and business owners have noticed an increase in the number of homeless people congregating at Ballard’s Bergen Place Park. Some say they are presenting a safety concern and are making the park undesirable to the rest of the neighborhood.

Victoria Sangrey, volunteer coordinator for Friends of Bergen Place, said it’s not the fact that the people are homeless that is causing concern, it is that they are engaging in illegal activities.

She said she has seen drug deals, evidence of sexual activity and defecation in the hedges. She walks by early in the morning, and there are usually beer cans surrounding someone sleeping on the bench, she said.

“People are not going to want to sit on the bench when they are drinking and doing other things,” Sangrey said. “And, it’s sad to me.”

The number of homeless gathering in the park has increased in the past four to five monhts, said Zach Milsteadt, a barista at the Chai House, located next to the park.

Sangrey said there used to be three to four individuals at a time loitering in Bergen Place, now it can be 10 to 12 at points.

Todd Kline grew up in Ballard and has a painting nook in Resolution Audio near Bergen Place. He recently lived in the Starlight Hotel on Ballard Avenue for a month and is now staying in a parking lot near the park owned by the Olsen family.

Kline said the homeless population in Ballard is swelling due to people from outside the community coming to the neighborhood.

“Right there there are four people I’ve never seen before,” Kline said Feb. 18 in Bergen Place, pointing to a group of homeless-looking people on a bench in the park. “That guy is shady who’s back.”

Because Ballard is growing fast, there is a perception that there is money here, he said.

It is these outsiders that are involved in much of the illegal activity in Bergen Place, specifically relating to drugs, he said. The old-timers from the neighborhood are not the problem he said.

“There’s some really good ones and some really bad ones,” said Todd Heuffed, who does maintenance on the Olsen’s property near Bergen Place.

Milsteadt said he has personally witnessed drug deals in Bergen Place and the pay phone outside the Chai House is used for drug calls.

Adam Savaria, a manager at a nearby business, said he has seen what looks like drug deals in the park and has seen homeless people drinking there. There is a noticeable difference between the homeless who are drunk in Bergen Place and those who congregate there for drug deals, he said.

Savaria said the latter group moves around the neighborhood, between the former Denny’s location, to Bergen Place and various other spots and alleys.

Kline said the park is not the hub of the drug activity in Ballard, though he distances himself from that group of people and is not privy to all their information.

Hueffed said he hasn’t seen much drug activity in the park, short of some pot smoking. But, he said he did find needles on the roof of one of his buildings.

Savaria said the homeless people congregating at the park are not a huge problem and they mostly keep to themselves. But, Milsteadt thinks it is becoming more and more of a problem.

“I feel like I can’t go outside to have a cigarette anymore,” he said. “And, I shouldn’t feel like that. Not in my town.”

Sangrey said the homeless in the park create a toxic environment for Bergen Place volunteer gardeners when they use the hedges for a restroom instead of the portable toilet located just a block away.

Milsteadt said the cops have been called, but they don’t do anything. The police ask the homeless to leave the park, but they return in half an hour, he said.

Sangrey said the Seattle Police Department and Mayor Greg Nickels' Office are aware of the problem. But, the police department does not have a lot of money to conduct random patrols and it would cost $150 per hour to hire two off-duty policy officers to patrol the neighborhood, she said.

Sangrey said she would like to issue a call-to-arms to Ballard business owners and citizens to work together to solve the problem, though she doesn’t know exactly what can be done.

“It needs to be a community effort,” Sangrey said. “It needs to be everyone working together.”

Kline said he tries to clean up around Bergen Place everyday and tells other homeless people to do the same, but it is hard to reach all of them.

Kline said the homeless in Bergen Place have no where else to go and life is getting increasingly difficult for them, due in part to the growing drug presence. He said it is no longer possible to leave possessions unattended because they will be stolen immediately.

Free lockers in the neighborhood would be a much-needed relief for many homeless, he said.

Kline would also like to see someplace for the homeless to bathe in Ballard. He has an art showing at Resolution Audio in the coming days but has no where to shower before hand.