Homelessness

Tammy Town Councilmember Tammy Morales (@CMTammyMorales) continues to ignore the homeless encampment off Rainier Ave S and Plum St that’s spiraling out of control. As of Wednesday evening, I counted 15 tents and 13 vehicles on the grounds of the former Burger King and 7-11 that recently burned down. New people keep moving in. Drug use is rampant and there are signs this is turning into a chop shop for bicycles. At the same time, there are babies on the premises and kids playing catch. Overall, everyone is chill. But most homeless people here are rejecting the shelter options being offered. They want tiny homes, apartments, or an RV lot. This is the on-going narrative at a lot of these Read More ›

Latest Chinatown Encampment Oh boy, here we go again. Dearborn St. continues to be a hot spot for pop up encampments. On one side, you have multiple tents and structures on Washington State Dept. of Transportation (@wsdot) property. On the other, rows of RV’s and piles of wooden pallets now being constructed into shelters. There’s also tons of trash and needles piling up everywhere. Open air drug use remains out of control. I’ve been to sweeps in this hood at least a dozen times in the past year. Thursday evening, I recognized some of the same homies. Some new faces, but mostly veterans like Tong and Yung. Some folks have been placed into hotel rooms and are making solid progress. Read More ›

Routine Night in Seattle Downtown fentanyl overdose, more drug/trap tents in front of #Seattle City Hall, and an arrest made a few blocks away in #Chinatown-ID for an altercation. Of course, the night would not be complete without a deranged person exhibiting menacing behavior towards me. Nothing to see here. Move along. This all happened within a 30 minute span Wednesday evening. Check the @seattlepd police blotter. Can’t make this stuff up. Wait until Major League Baseball (@mlb) fans see all this insanity next month. I’m gonna start charging for tours. Where’s Councilmember Andrew Lewis (@CMAndrewJLewis) and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (@kingcorha?) Councilmember Tammy Morales (@CMTammyMorales) remains MIA for her #CID district. For whatever it’s worth, City Hall Read More ›

Do we love our homeless countrymen and women enough to insist that as we provide roofs over their heads, they also diligently engage in programs to restore themselves to lives of dignity and personal self-respect? We often hear about what “we” — i.e., society —owe the homeless. But we rarely discuss what the unhoused owe us. It’s time for that to change. This is a matter of great urgency. Some of our (once) most prosperous and beautiful cities — San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, etc. — are imploding under the pressure of squalid homeless squatter camps, populated largely by openly drug-addled or mentally ill people who befoul the sidewalks with human waste, litter the streets with needles used to shoot Read More ›

“I wish it was still going on,” Justice Andino tells me at Camp Hope in Spokane, Washington. “I liked it here.” Andino and his wife Tracy were the last two people to exit one of the largest homeless encampments Washington has ever seen. Andino holds back tears as he speaks. After living at Camp Hope for over a year, Andino says he will miss the community, the people, and the sense of safety. “I felt like the people gave a sh*t about you, you know?” Andino and his wife are moving on and into a new apartment, and he says his tears are tears of joy. Organizers claimed that more than 600 people lived at Camp Hope at its peak. Read More ›

C. S. Lewis once said, “It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.” The same goes for teaching about how to help the homeless and poor. Ever since 2013, federal policy has been “housing first”: Get homeless individuals under a roof with no pressure to get the mental health help many need, and no pressure to fight the drug addiction and alcoholism. We tend to equate compassion with giving-without-strings. That’s not the way influential poverty-fighters in the late 19th century thought. Maybe Read More ›

Post Mortem in Spokane On Friday, “Camp Hope” shut down for good. At one point, organizers claimed more than 600 homeless people lived on this piece of WSDOT (@wsdot_east) property in the East Central neighborhood. After 18 months, more than half ended up in shelters or housing options that made sense for them. But officials say a few hundred likely ended up back on the city’s streets for various reasons. I spent the weekend trying to understand what worked and didn’t work. Camp Hope organizers say determining all that is going to take some time but everyone’s progress is being tracked. And some are saying this could be a model for sanctioned encampments. As for the state of the city, Read More ›

RV Explosion Update Authorities say Sunday afternoon, two RV’s parked on 8th Ave NW went up in flames in the Crown Hill hood. This is a stretch right underneath the Holman Rd NW overpass. No injuries. Neighbors say they heard propane tanks explode and possibly ammunition. They also say drug deals happen out of the RV’s on the regular. The city along with Councilmember Dan Strauss (@CMDanStrauss) are aware of the situation and have already cleared this encampment several months ago. But the Seattle Department of Transportation (@seattledot) is struggling to keep up with enforcement. Last check, there were 5 RV’s total parked here and several tents. Unclear when the city will move in to sweep. Some neighbors are now Read More ›

This column begins year two of my weekly writing specifically about homelessness: 52 down, 52 to go, and then it’s time to turn columns into a book. People new to the homelessness debate often find the recommendations of various groups confusing. So here’s a simplified, maybe over-simplified means of understanding the big four prescriptions: Let’s unpack this. Housing First advocates in government and at the National Alliance to End Homelessness say homeless individuals should receive permanent housing with no questions asked: They cannot be required to address their alcoholism or addictions, nor should they be pushed to meet with mental health professionals or take any medications. Further, Housing First emphasizes “client choice” regarding the housing that is offered: Those who Read More ›

Downtown Seattle Brawl I’m playing catch up on #Seattle news after being in Texas this past week on assignment. Saturday afternoon, I went straight to 3rd Ave & Pike St. Without fail, I witnessed drug deals happening on multiple corners, stolen items being sold on the streets, and an insane fight in front of tourists and children. Nothing has changed. The best part of the day, some WOKE IDIOT tried to snatch my phone saying I should not record because, “these people are having a crisis.” She went on to do absolutely nothing to help the victim being beat up. Virtue signaling at its finest. Then some looney tune says, “whoop his ass next” after I asked bystanders to call Read More ›