Local Woman Commits Unpardonable Crime of Cleaning Public Parks Without a 50-Page Health Permit

Washington state faces a homelessness problem.

"Washington state is experiencing the fifth-highest per-capita rate of unsheltered homelessness in the nation," the Washington Department of Ecology warned in 2020. "On any given night, 10,000 Washington residents are living outside or in places unfit for human habitation." 

The state admits that the homeless encampments can pose a danger to nearby homes, but their presence "also impacts the environment. Illegal disposal of garbage and human waste can contaminate the environment, spread disease, and attract vermin."

Well, we can't have that. Danger to humans takes second place to the possibility that a squirrel or a bird would be harmed by all the trash lying around.

This is America, and some people still aren't willing to wait for the government to address the problem. Andrea Suarez liked to take walks in a local park during the pandemic, and she was shocked to see all the garbage, used needles, and drug paraphernalia littering the park. 

So she went to the hardware store, spent her own money, and started her crusade to clean up Seattle's parks. "I went to Home Depot, and I bought pinchers and vests and garbage bags and a little red wagon," she says. With her new equipment, she went out and picked up trash in Denny Park.

Reason.com:

Suarez would ultimately put $25,000 into starting We Heart Seattle, a nonprofit dedicated to cleaning up the city's public spaces and assisting the homeless. She announced upcoming cleanups on the group's Facebook page and asked for volunteers. Over time, the operation grew, and she now manages more than 1,000 volunteers.

We Heart Seattle takes no public money, relying solely on private donations. The organization brags that it has picked up more than 2 million pounds of trash from public spaces and helped 365 people off the street in just the six years in operation.

In Democracy in America (1835–1840), Alexis de Tocqueville marveled at the American tendency to form voluntary associations to solve community problems rather than relying on a centralized government or an aristocratic ruling class.  

"Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly unite. They not only have commercial and manufacturing companies, in which all take part, but associations of a thousand other kinds—religious, moral, serious, futile, general or restricted, enormous or diminutive," Tocqueville noted.

For 250 years, these "voluntary associations" have contributed greatly to the quality of life and the sense of community in America.

Until now.

Tocqueville declared the art of voluntary association to be the foundational skill of a free society. He argued that in a democratic system where citizens are equal but individually weak, individuals must unite voluntarily to accomplish anything significant.  If they do not, the state will step in to take control, eventually eroding civil liberties.  

Witness what happened to Andrea Suarez and you'll see exactly what Tocqueville was talking about.

In July, Suarez received a notice of alleged "safety or health hazards" from the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The notice alleged "improper handling and collection of hypodermic needles and fentanyl paraphernalia."The letter stated that We Heart Seattle would be subject to a "review as part of the inspection process."

PJ Media's Victoria Taft also covered this story a couple of weeks ago. "Ironic doesn't begin to cover this incident," she notes. "Indeed, this qualifies as moronic." She points out that "The government distributes drug paraphernalia that, in short order, ends up as hazardous waste left behind by crackheads." 

Someone informed on We Heart Seattle in an anonymous tip alleging that people performing the civic act of cleanup weren't handling the hazardous stuff properly. Suarez said that isn't true. Despite being the only employee of We Heart Seattle, she says that "we have certification for hazmat and bloodborne pathogen training." Also, "On its website, We Heart Seattle provides extensive information about what volunteers can expect at a cleanup, including safety information and waivers," according to Reason.com. It also notes that "gloves, grabbers, rakes and garbage bags" will be provided.

"From day one," Suarez says, "we've always used the red sharps containers," and have closely followed the county's rules on needle exchanges as well as recommendations for the proper collection and disposal of the material.

Not good enough, the state said.

It seems part of the problem is that the state doesn't quite know how to classify We Heart Seattle, a nonprofit that is technically just a one-person operation. Suarez says that's intentional: "I don't want to scale. I don't want infrastructure. The whole point of We Heart Seattle is to be nimble and mighty. I'm private funded, so I can't just start bringing on people without the guarantee of revenue."

Now, Suarez must contend with a state inspection, which an L&I spokesperson told Reason "can take up to 180 days" to complete. In the meantime, Suarez has the threat of financial penalties hanging over her head, as violations could result in fines, or worse.

"The whole purpose of nonprofits is to supplement the work of the government," she says. But the L&I investigation "puts you in a position to not want to do the work or be fearful of doing the work, that you could be fined or shut down."

Some piddly-crap, pencil-necked bureaucrat decided to exercise their minuscule amount of power to terrorize a volunteer for doing work that the government was unable or refused to do. We've seen this mindset before: Shutting down a kid's lemonade stand, or a mamacita trying to earn a little extra cash to feed her family.

We are overregulated, over-scrutinized, and so over big government. 

How does Washington state thank @weheartseattle for picking up over 2 million pounds of trash? By launching an investigation into their work. Reason’s @BessByers shares more. pic.twitter.com/nYQIWHUixU

— reason (@reason) September 29, 2026

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