Housing

By Spencer Pauley – The Center Square (The Center Square) – One year and more than $65 million into Washington state’s Right of Way Safety Initiative, nearly 300 homeless people have been moved off state highway rights of way in King County.  The Right of Way Safety Initiative closes encampments in areas around highways by providing shelter or housing to the estimated thousands of people living there. The King County Regional Homelessness Authority first began operations under the initiative in June 2022, with the majority of state funding being sent to the organization that fall. As of July 1, 327 homeless individuals were engaged by KCRHA at some 10 encampments, with 292 of those people moved inside. Nineteen went directly to permanent Read More ›

Perryton, a Texas panhandle city of 8,000, sits 17 miles south of the Oklahoma state line. Until June 15 it had almost zero homelessness, because two of the major causes of homelessness — overwhelming addiction and high housing prices — were not present. On June 15 a tornado wiped out 418 homes, more than ten percent of Perryton’s housing stock — and it still had no visible homelessness, as measured by people sleeping on the streets or in shelters. (There isn’t one in Perryton.) How can that be? I’ve just visited Perryton, so I’ll take a time-out from my California series to report on what happened and what hasn’t happened. I’ll come back to San Francisco and Orange County in Read More ›

That’s a Wrap On Tuesday, FAR-LEFT activists threatened to disrupt the Major League Baseball All Star Game (@mlb) with an RV protest in SODO. Instead, Stop The Sweeps Seattle just displayed some banners before the game outside T-Mobile (@TMobilePark) and left pamphlets on car windshields. They also scrawled chalk messages on the sidewalks and plastered “Harrell Horror Show” stickers (@MayorofSeattle) on nearby signs. For whatever it’s worth, they’re also targeting the Seattle City Council. Always interesting conversations and debates with these folks when they take the time to explain their position. The question now, how long until the RV’s and tents return to this part of SODO? What’s the Next Play? Stop The Sweeps Seattle volunteers have been a major Read More ›

Update on Tammy Town Private security is now guarding the site of the former homeless encampment off Rainier Ave S. in Seattle, aptly named for Councilmember Tammy Morales (@CMTammyMorales) who was not there to help her constituents for many months. This is private property slated for development. But will remain looking like a WAR ZONE and Third World Country for the next few days. It will take time to remove the trash and remaining vehicles. There needs to be a plan to get in front of these encampments before spiraling out of control. But that remains elusive. On Wednesday, outreach workers with the city, REACH, Salvation Army, and Urban League were on hand trying to track people and get them Read More ›

Up and Running The former Lacey Days Inn is now called Maple Court, the latest property converted into a homeless hotel to house people living along I-5 in #ThurstonCounty. Wednesday afternoon, Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) and city leaders from #Olympia, #Lacey, and #Tumwater showed up for the ribbon cutting ceremony. So far, 16 men and women along with their pets are now in this temporary shelter. More homeless people from various encampments on WSDOT properties will be filling up this place in the coming weeks as part of the Right of Way Initiative. Up to 125 will be staying here. It will be run by the Low Income Housing Institute (@LIHIhousing,) known for it’s “tiny house” villages. This facility will Read More ›

Last October Howard Husock, a Manhattan Institute scholar, explained at the Center for Urban Renewal and Education why both government-owned housing and Section 8 government-subsidized private housing leave many poor people behind the 8-ball. He said both kinds have been “especially harmful to the interests of African Americans. They have lured Black households into dependency and long-term poverty, rewarded single-parenthood and led to the gnawing gap in home ownership and wealth between White and Black households.” He showed how federal and local governments in the 20th century destroyed in city after city black neighborhoods filled with black-owned businesses and homeowners but labeled as slums. Governments replaced them with public housing projects, set housing rules that punish increasing income and marriage, and Read More ›