Homelessness

Getting Worse? There are so many unresolved homeless encampments in Seattle. But this one in Greenwood behind the Fred Meyer keeps getting worse. I counted close to 30 tents, including one with a door. Neighbors keep flooding my DM’s saying the city along with Councilmember Dan Strauss (@CMDanStrauss) are ignoring the problem. Same issues: open air drug use, more crime, yelling at all hours of the day, trash spilling out into the streets, etc. There’s also concern this place is being used as a CHOP SHOP. One guy told me he was sawing off the metal part of a brand new hose line to sell at a local scrap yard. Perfectly legal, as long as it’s not stolen. On a Read More ›

Wesley J. Smith joins Dr. Elaina George on Liberty Talk to discuss the origins of the homelessness crisis. Listen to the podcast episode below:

A year ago, Kaylee Gordon was setting up camp deep in the woods of West Seattle. “I feel safe in this spot,” she told me. At the time, Kaylee was hopeful that her future contained a career in music. “It’s always been my passion, it’s my life,” she said. She sang, played guitar, and told me this season of homelessness was just a speed bump along her journey. “So, this isn’t really in character for me,” Kaylee told me, saying that her beloved dog and her guitar were enough to get by. This week, over a year later, she was spotted in Belltown entering Dan’s convenience store on Third Avenue. Without shoes, dirty, and disheveled security guard Giovanni English tried Read More ›

Do You Have Time Travel? Literal madness on the streets of Seattle Monday afternoon. A woman was totally naked on the sidewalk across the street from Seattle City Hall. This is the best I could do with the blurs. I asked if she needed help. Instead, she wanted my muffins. Then she started talking about “time travel.” I parked my car and watched her go into a new tent encampment under the highway near 7th Ave and James St. This city is wild. Crazy town. Once again, these streets are the new asylums.

Back to California. Maxim Gorky’s The Lower Depths, first staged in 1902, focuses on run-down people living in a flophouse: Vaska the thief, Nastya the prostitute, Luka the tramp, and Kvashnya the meat-pie seller, along with a downwardly-mobile baron, a suicidal actor, and others equally miserable. But in the play, at least temporarily, they are alive and conscious. If fentanyl had hit Russia then, even famed Moscow Arts Theater director Konstantin Stanislavski would have been stymied in creating some dramatic action: Users of the synthetic opioid are often inactive, with stiff limbs. Gorky portrayed lower depths, but fentanyl drops users in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district into the lowest depths, close to death. I’ve walked many crime-ridden areas by day, but Read More ›

Worse Than Ever Despite progress being made to improve other parts of Seattle, Mayor Bruce Harrell’s (@MayorofSeattle) administration just can’t figure out the 12th Ave & Jackson St. disaster in Chinatown-ID. This is a FULL BLOWN take over by street thugs, drug addicts, dealers, and even Asian grandmas buying stolen goods in the black market. They also blast loud music at all hours of the day and the trash situation is out of control. Go there right now and see for yourself. In the three and a half years covering this crime corner, I have reported on shootings, stabbings, fights, drug dealing, thefts, graffiti vandalism, small biz leaving, sales of stolen goods, etc. But I have also seen efforts to Read More ›

They’re Back Nearly 20 tents set up near the Greenwood Fred Meyer. Neighbors say the drug addicts have been slowly building up this encampment for weeks now. Earlier this year, the city removed this encampment that’s been blamed for fires, thefts at nearby stores, open air drug use, fights, and other crimes in the neighborhood. Councilmember Dan Strauss (@CMDanStrauss) told his constituents this would be handled by the Unified Care Team. But it all came roaring back. No plan to address this permanently. Once again, the city is struggling to keep up with the encampments that have already been removed. Instead of sweeping after the first sign of a tent, they just let it build up again. Still can’t get Read More ›

Caught on Camera It’s hard to tell, but neighbors say the man walking inside the Mercer St. encampment in South Lake Union is Paris Alcantera. In this surveillance video, you can see him watching the flames and pacing back and forth. He was arrested for setting a massive blaze on August 14. Alcantera admits he did it, but says he accidentally knocked over a candle inside a tent. Either way, he was released without charges being filed. Alcantera is a prolific repeat offender with a lengthy rap sheet dating back to 1998 with three felonies, 14 gross misdemeanors, three dozen prior arrests including rape in the third degree, and multiple substance charges. There’s concern he’s going to continue with this Read More ›

Sounding the Alarm This week I took a deep dive into the vast network of encampments scattered throughout heavily wooded areas in Seattle public parks (@SeattleParks.) Many are built on steep hills and embankments, making them extremely vulnerable to mudslides and other risk factors. While most remain abandoned, some are still occupied by people. For months now, Andrea Suarez (@weheartfounder) and We Heart Seattle (@weheartseattle) volunteers have been identifying the most at risk camps, including ones in Queen Anne’s Kinnear Park. Suarez says she’s asked Councilmember Andrew Lewis (@CMAndrewJLewis) and Seattle Parks Superintendent AP Diaz (@SeattleShines) to remove these structures immediately. But she says city officials are ignoring this potential liability. That’s why Suarez is racing to get these men Read More ›