Crushing Expectations
Kristine Moreland (@kmmoreland) and volunteers with “The More We Love” are way ahead of schedule. Only a handful of tents remain at the Grocery Outlet encampment in downtown Burien. No sweeps required. Most of the campers are being placed into tiny houses, motels, or detox facilities…FREE WILL CHOICE. But one man went on a bender after refusing to leave and was arrested by Burien Police (@BurienPD.) Otherwise, Moreland expects everything to be gone by Tuesday evening. When all is said and done, this needs to be a case study on how to do outreach. This was never about building more housing, spending lots of money, or warehousing people with foolish “housing first” policies. Instead, they leveraged resources already out there and found the right fit for each individual, one person at a time. The PROOF OF CONCEPT is right here. Every King County agency should be taking note. Also, Moreland and her team work other full-time jobs, which makes this effort that much more remarkable. Final note, Burien’s private sector is making all of this happen. The residents of Burien are done relying solely on King County for help. The red tape, bureaucracy, and upside down political ideology are very real. That’s why this community is fighting for common sense solutions on their own. Time to dismantle the #HomelessIndustrialComplex.