Homelessness

Things Get Worse in Lake City Neighbors have been flooding my inbox saying another encampment is forming in Lake City Mini Park. Sunday evening, I went to check it out when some insane nut job chased me all the way to my car and attempted to get inside. This is by far one of the most dangerous encounters I’ve had in Seattle. The folks here seem more mean spirited and aggressive. Many people living here have refused offers of shelter and services from the city and continue to use fentanyl in the tents. This camp is also being blamed for a dramatic rise in vandalism and theft in the area. I recognized several men and women who simply moved here Read More ›

Breaking Huge encampment fire Sunday in Seattle near Robert Eagle Staff Middle School at the corner of N.90th & Nesbit Ave. Unclear how it started. It appears at least four tents got obliterated. But more than a dozen are still standing on the block. Neighbor shot this photo on the ground. I just spotlighted this problematic encampment a few days ago. It’s been growing here for months. Along with this latest incident, the encampment has been blamed for shootings, open air drug use, and harboring a sex offender. How many more incidents will it take before the city sweeps? City Warned So many neighbor complaints. This encampment remains a major liability. Homeless Encampment Fire More video and images coming in Read More ›

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 Read More ›

Rinse and Repeat The vicious cycle continues. Lake City has some of the most problematic encampments. For some reason, the city allows it to pile up instead of getting in front of these situations. Monday morning, vast majority of people walked away from the sweep without taking any help being offered. Once again, it’s the drugs and mental illness fueling this crisis on the streets. This part of the neighborhood around NE 125th St and 33rd Ave NE is also home to several low income housing apts and low barrier units. In other words, this is ground zero for a drug fueled ecosystem. No idea how you run a business around here. The owners of the Ethiopian restaurant say the Read More ›

How could 6,000 shelter beds be unoccupied in Los Angeles County? It’s a number, reported in LAist in July, that makes no sense given the miles of homeless encampments that occupy area streets and sidewalks. Looking for an answer, I talked to Dave — a formerly homeless man who asked me not to reveal his last name. Dave told me how he ended up unhoused in the 1990s and then worked his way into a good job and a steady roof over this head. He believes that homeless individuals who live on the street choose to do so, because when he didn’t have a roof, he chose to spend the night in missions with rules, not on streets without them. Read More ›

Lost Cause Day or night, this part of downtown Seattle near DESC’s (@DESCSeattle) Morrison and Lyon Building continues to be a blight on the city. Multiple 911 calls to this location each day. Zero accountability and city leaders like Councilmember Andrew Lewis (@CMAndrewJLewis) cannot keep up with the insanity. Drug addicts, tents, and mentally ill people flood 3rd Ave & Cherry St at all hours of the day. Even after more than a year of sweeps, the so called “trap tents” keep coming back. People are doing drugs under umbrellas and carry all sorts of weapons out here. As long as a DESC property is in your hood, city leaders must continue with the sweeps and have extra security on Read More ›

Game Over Ballard A few more days to go until the August 1 primary in Seattle. Sunday afternoon, I went to check in on the homeless crisis exploding in Councilmember Dan Strauss’ (@CMDanStrauss) hood. Strauss remains vulnerable in District 6 and is fighting for his political life. I assumed he would have figured out a way to clear some of the tents for the sake of optics. Instead, Leary Ave NW is a wreck. I have never seen so many tents lined on this street. The side streets are pretty bad as well. You can walk to all 38 tents in a matter of minutes. I’m not even counting the dozens of RV’s and structures. Just the tents! Based on Read More ›

If we define “home” as a solid dwelling fixed to a particular spot, many Native Americans were voluntarily homeless, as hunters and gatherers are. They would follow their food supply, which was on the move. How could they be convinced to change? European Americans wanted to convince Native Americans that a settled life was better. Their position was Housing, Food, and Clothing first. Their belief: If Native Americans saw they could be warm and well-fed in cold weather rather than freezing and hungry, they would voluntarily settle down. If they became accustomed to products of civilization like fine clothing and (some craftily said) alcohol, they would want to settle down. That worked for some but not for others. Native culture Read More ›

Clean-up has begun for a massive homeless encampment across the street from the Arrowhead Gardens senior living community in West Seattle. Diane Radischat, president of Arrowhead’s senior living association, is pleasantly surprised. She didn’t expect the removal to start this soon and says, “the clean up that’s going on today appears to be pretty extensive.” Crews began removing trash and dismantling the infamous swimming pool that had been set up on the property on Friday morning. Radischat says she refers to the people living there as “occupants,” and that she’ll “remain calling them that.” Monica Parrish set up the swimming pool and built a patio and says being asked to leave is “getting a little bit emotionally harder and harder Read More ›

Oh Boy WSDOT (@wsdot) and Gov. Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) are now dealing w/another out of control fire at a homeless encampment entrenched on a state right of way. There have already been multiple infernos at this downtown #Seattle location. @MayorofSeattle (video from Jeremy Harris) WSDOT Was Warned Look at this inferno back in March near the same spot. According state data, there are more than 2000 homeless encampments on state right of ways, many still in #Seattle. At what point does @MayorofSeattle step in. Questionnable Pace These encampment situations are out of control, even after millions of dollars poured into clearings and housing. That’s why I keep asking Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) about the timelines for removals. But right now, Read More ›