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In September 2019, a Seattle police officer filed a $10 million claim against the city, alleging his time spent at a homeless encampment – later found to be contaminated with toxic chemicals – had caused him to fall ill. The city claimed they had reached out to the more than a dozen homeless people who were living at the camp site. The Seattle Times' reporting determined that was not true – they tracked down 12 of the 17 campers, all of whom learned about the contamination from reporters. The reporting revealed the disconnect between the city and homeless people living on the streets, an issue exacerbated by the city’s increasing focus on cleaning up homeless encampments.