Residents fear site of old hospital in Tacoma is attracting crime, vagrants

TACOMA -- A building that once served as a hospital in Tacoma could use some healing of its own. People who live in Tacoma’s Lincoln District say the site of the old Puget Sound Hospital is a magnet for crime and could even put people in danger.

As a security officer responsible for monitoring the old Puget Sound Hospital, Akeem Galloway knows the trouble spots.

“I usually just walk around and make sure nobody is camping out or just trying to get into the building."

Just this week, he had to chase out a trespasser. It’s one of the many issues Tacoma City Council member Marty Campbell is keeping tabs on.

“What we’ve seen is a lot of activity in and around; homeless encampments, scrappers coming in and going,” said Campbell.



Campbell said Tacoma police were called to the building 125 times just last year. However, even when officers arrive, they’ve been advised not to enter the building because of concerns about asbestos.

“It’s clearly tagged with asbestos warnings,” said Campbell. “We don’t want our police, unless they are chasing a murder suspect, we don’t want them in a building known to have an asbestos issue.”

Campbell believes the illegal activity at the site is trickling into nearby neighborhoods.

“We believe that we’ve got people coming out here and staging to break into homes in other areas and using this kind of as their base of operations,” said Campbell.

Longtime resident Terry Wilmer believes it, too. It’s why he was hopeful of Pierce County’s plans to build its new administrative building at the site, a project that has been delayed due to a pending referendum.

“We still have faith the Lincoln District will be the home of the new county General Services Building, but if not, I still think the county needs to clean up the mess that it’s left,” said Wilmer.

Galloway will keep watch for now but fears the more time that passes, the more it will take to fix the problem.

“Some of the homeless people see this as their home; any vacant spot is open space,” said Galloway.