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Drug Crisis Ravages Seattle’s Streets

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Categories
Drug Epidemic
Governance
Homelessness
Street Report

Seattle Overwhelmed

As Seattle prepares for 4th of July festivities, an American tragedy is unfolding on its streets. From downtown to Chinatown-ID, Mayor Bruce Harrell’s administration is overwhelmed by the drug crisis ravaging his city.

No Coordination Among Agencies

City Hall insiders say the current plan to address the human suffering is failing. Leadership and the agencies responsible for coming up with solutions are barely talking to each other. The bureaucracy is thick.

Election Year

But during an election year, insiders say Harrell has created a culture of fear in his office so no one wants to bring it up for debate or challenge the status quo. It could damage his campaign and hurt public relations.

Housing First Leads to Devastation

Harrell could have moved away from the failed Housing First approach to solve the street crisis. This policy gives taxpayer funded apartments to homeless drug addicts without any requirements to seek treatment. It’s led to devastating consequences.

Who Will Challenge the Status Quo?

After nearly four years in office, Harrell’s record on homelessness and the drug addiction crisis are now on full display for everyone to see.

Other Mayoral candidates could easily use it against him. But they don’t have alternative solutions either.

Stay Tuned

Which brings us back to Seattle’s street crisis which is getting worse by the day.

Stay tuned for our series of reports, spotlighting solutions that could turn this city around.

Jonathan Choe

Journalist and Senior Fellow, Center on Wealth and Poverty
Jonathan Choe is a journalist and Senior Fellow with Discovery Institute's Center on Wealth and Poverty, covering homelessness issues for its Fix Homelessness initiative. Prior to joining Discovery, Choe spent several years as one of the lead reporters at KOMO-TV, consistently the top rated television station in Seattle. His in depth stories on crime and deep dive investigations into the homeless crisis led to measurable results in the community, including changes in public policy. Choe has more than two decades of experience in television news behind the scenes and in front of the camera for ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, and Tribune. He has also been nominated and honored with multiple industry awards including an Emmy. Choe spent several years teaching classes on emerging media and entrepreneurship to under privileged youth in inner city Chicago. As an independent journalist, Choe also contributes regularly to the Mill Creek View and Lynnwood Times and has reported on exclusive stories in the past year for Daily Wire and The Postmillennial.