Homelessness

Breaking Authorities say a man plowed his car into Dow Constantine’s drug encampment in Burien Saturday morning because he was unhappy it was still up. Campers apparently bear maced the driver and cops came by and arrested him at the scene. This is just the latest problematic incident associated with this camp. Pictures Photos now coming in from eye witnesses who saw the massive police response to Dow Constantine’s drug encampment in Burien Saturday morning after a driver plowed through the fenced off area.

I summarized last week reviews of Matthew Desmond’s Evicted, a book published in 2016 that uses Dickens-like characters and won a Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. Two months ago, the New York Times even put Evicted in 21st place on its list of 100 books of the 21st century. A Chronicle of Higher Education writer called Desmond “sociology’s next great hope.” One problem, though, is that Evicted offers almost no hope. Based on my experience, I’d say that those who talk about personal causes of poverty and those who talk about structural/societal causes are both right: People are poor for both reasons, and the proportion varies from individual to individual, but I’ve never seen it 100% one way or the other Read More ›

Last week I reviewed academic research regarding homelessness and foster care from this century’s first decade. Scholars debated the circumstances within which people develop executive function: planning ahead and giving up immediate rewards for long-term benefits. How do people on long losing streaks avoid “learning helplessness,” the fatalistic sense that, regardless of what we do right, everything goes wrong? The consensus developed during the second decade is that ACEs (“adverse childhood experiences”) go wild: ACEs such as suffering abuse or neglect, witnessing violence in the home or community, or having a family member attempt or die by suicide, undermine senses of safety and stability. Substance use and mental health problems also deal ACEs. Many U.S. adults experience at least one Read More ›

Wishing Him the Best The man who tried to take my head off with a baseball bat in downtown Seattle pleaded guilty to 4th Degree Assault. Jeffrey McMillan served 31 days in jail and is now on probation. He apologized and I shook his hand in court, wishing him nothing but the best. Mental Health Treatment up to Probation Officer McMillan was facing up to a year in jail along with fines before this plea deal. Meanwhile, it appears McMillan will seek work and housing with the controversial Downtown Emergency Service Center. DESC’s failed “Housing First” and “harm reduction” policies attract extremely problematic individuals that could drag McMillan back down into the gutter. I would argue that Mr. McMillan should Read More ›

Update They’re trying to convince the one-legged homeless woman to get help. But before she can go into some form of housing, apparently she needs to get treatment for the leg. We Heart Seattle’s Andrea Suarez is here and says they are getting her food and trying to intervene. Does Compassion Mean Letting People Refuse Help? This woman needs a serious intervention.

Happening Now Emergency crews are on scene in downtown Seattle as a one-legged homeless woman was found lying in a pile of trash. Problem is, she is alert and now rejecting offers of help. She just said “I’m comfortable here.” So paramedics and fire have to leave. Rinse repeat. Streets Are the New Asylums The far-left activists call this compassion. Streets are the new asylums.

County Allowed Campers Remarkable spin coming from King County Executive Dow Constantine. He continues to say the county “did not establish” the drug encampment near the Burien courthouse. But now admits the county allowed campers to stay instead of enforcing the city’s camping ban. County Blocks City from Enforcing Law King County Sheriff’s Deputies are contracted to enforce the law in Burien. But for months now, Dow along with Sheriff Patti-Cole Tindall have prevented deputies from enforcing this camping ordinance. Both sides are now in litigation with the city over this matter. Countdown to October So the countdown is on. Constantine’s Burien drug encampment should be gone by the beginning of October. Btw, look at some of the maniacs I Read More ›

What Took So Long? After months of fights, thefts, drug dealing, overdoses, sex-trafficking, and kids found living in Dow Constantine’s Burien crime encampment, King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda now says help is on the way for her district. What took so long? Confrontation with King County Executive I recently confronted King County Executive Dow Constantine about the drug encampment he set up in Burien that’s now a revolving door for criminals. But Dow is denying he’s responsible for creating this blight on the city. Do you believe him? Two Kids Rescued In August, two kids were rescued from this dangerous encampment. But Dow claims he had no idea this incident happened and also says he was unaware of all the Read More ›

As this century began, journalist Fred Barnes quoted four discouraging words found in some illustrious newspapers: “First of a series.” Journalist Mickey Kaus defined the typical newspaper series as a “bloated journalistic project driven by egos and internal institutional needs.” But one thing is even more discouraging than most newspaper series: a series of articles from academic journals. Nevertheless, here are some journal articles about the relationship between homelessness and foster care. One, by Heather Taussig in 2002 in Child Abuse and Neglect, had the scintillating title, “Risk behaviors in maltreated youth placed in foster care: A longitudinal study of protective and vulnerability factors.” Taussig noted that “for many maltreated children, the experience of trauma does not cease when they Read More ›

The Safe Families dinner and Rob Henderson memoir I wrote about last month got me thinking more about “the relationship between foster care and homelessness”: That’s the title of a paper delivered at a 1996 conference hosted by the American Public Welfare Association and based on client files and case data from 21 homeless service organizations located in every region of the United States. Of the 1,134 homeless individuals covered by the study, 36 percent had a foster care history. The paper’s authors, Nan P. Roman and Phyllis B. Wolfe, determined that “the foster care system can fail to deal adequately with problems caused by sexual abuse, physical abuse, or troubled or dysfunctional families — that is to say, with Read More ›