Crews remove Tri-Cities encampment of rundown and abandoned RVs from street

After months of growing concerns, abandoned and rundown RVs parked along a Kennewick street were removed last week.

It is unclear how many of the RVs were occupied, but complaints over debris being dumped in the area and possible drug use had even caught the attention of Kennewick’s city council.

Business owners came to the last council meeting to raise concerns about crime, some of which they blamed on homeless people in the downtown Kennewick area.

The dilapidated and even fire-gutted RVs were parked along Railroad Avenue just north of East Fruitland Street on a piece of property leased by Columbia Industries.

Trash had been piling up around them for months, and one had caught fire, leaving a burnt shell.

During a recent city council workshop discussion about new ordinances to restrict public drug use and the discarding of drug paraphernalia, Mayor Pro Tem Gretl Crawford asked police what could be done about the issue.

Last week crews began cleaning up the area and destroying the abandoned RVs.

Kennewick Public Relations Director Evelyn Lusignan told the Herald that Columbia Industries began working with Kennewick police for help having the garbage and RVs removed.

Previously, Kennewick police contacted people in the area and gave them the chance to move any of the RVs that were mobile.

Columbia Industries CEO Michael Novakovich told the Herald in a statement that they began trying to clear the land in March after talking with the Kennewick Police Department.

After that, the nonprofit that helps people with disabilities develop work skills, posted “No Trespassing” signs, which allowed Kennewick police to begin contacting people on the property, letting them know they were trespassing and needing to move.

They also began working to coordinate removing the debris and abandoned vehicles. The last two were hauled away this week.

Chris Ingersoll, the fourth generation owner of Farmers Exchange in Kennewick told the city council that his staff had been assaulted by drug addicts and homeless people since he took over the business in 2021.

Windows on the building that have lasted for 100 years have been broken, and a poorly made explosive was placed in the straw for sale outside the building, he said.

He asked the council to take action to make sure the piles of trash remaining from RVs that had already been removed were cleaned up.

Jeff Johnson, an electrical contractor near Railroad Avenue, said the homeless who were living there were one example of the issues facing business owners.

He has had $40,000 in thefts from his business, he said.

It’s unclear how many people were living in the RVs or camping on the Railroad Avenue property.

Homelessness has been growing in the Tri-Cities over the past decade, with the average rent almost doubling since 2013, according to the University of Washington’s Center for Real Estate Research.

It is becoming increasingly common seeing RVs and vans parked along the Columbia River and in other public places.

The state estimates that nearly 6,000 people in the Tri-Cities area are either unsheltered, unstably housed or in danger of becoming homeless.

Herald reporter Annette Cary contributed to this story.