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Seattle Mayor Ed Murray says a deadly hit-and-run crash that killed a homeless man sleeping along I-5 Monday morning stresses the importance of creating safe places for people living on the streets.

“If other cities and the state will not step up and the federal government will not return the funding that they’ve cut over the decades, then cities like Seattle and Portland — and you saw the crisis that has developed in Portland in just the last 14 days — are going to be in a very difficult situation,” Murray said. “There is no way to simply push people out of the city.”

Related: Car drives through Seattle camp, kills one person

Deonna Hughes, 21, says the man killed was her 19-year-old ex boyfriend who’d been living on the greenbelt between I-5 and the NE 50th Street off-ramp for more than a year, according to She says he called it his island and felt safe there.

The driver who police say drove into the tent has been arrested for vehicular homicide.

The Washington State Department of Transportation said that they know of hundreds of people living illegally in greenbelts along I-5. The department cleans up the greenbelts every two months, and gives 72 hours notice to campers. However, campers return a few days after a clean out, a WSDOT spokesperson told

Crews were scheduled to clean the greenbelt at the scene of the crash in October.

Murray said they’ve tried to go in and offer services for homeless people before they move them. And when people don’t take the services for whatever reason, the city goes in and cleans up sites.

“We do that because of tragedies like this,” he said. “This is not the first tragedy like this that’s happened over the decades in the city.”

He said, ultimately, the greenbelt where the hit-and-run occurred is the responsibility of the state.

“It is beyond any city’s capacity to manage both our own property and the state’s property,” Murray said.

I’m saddened by the loss of life at a homeless encampment near the U District. Seattle alone can’t solve this crisis but we must try.

— Ed Murray (@MayorEdMurray)