Fix Homelessness How to rebuild human lives
Category

Uncategorized

Screenshot-2024-01-25-at-9.25.46-AM

SODO Encampment Back After Continuous Sweeps

SODO Today Out of all the encampments across Seattle, this one near 3rd Ave & Holgate St could be the most frustrating one for biz owners. I have watched this place get cleared close to a dozen times now. Lots of tax payer dollars wasted. But it keeps on coming back. The most recent sweep happened leading up to the MLB All-Star game back in July. It looked impeccable. But one by one, all the tents and RV’s started coming back. Once again, sweeping is not the issue. The city will probably do that again. However, nothing is being done to get in front of these situations before spiraling out of control. This is the epitome of whack a mole. Read More ›

Fix-Homelessness-Title-Screen-25

Youth Soccer Field Destroyed Next to Green River Encampment

The youth soccer field at North Green River Park is surrounded by majestic trees and breathtaking scenery. And on weekends, it’s usually packed with kids and families who depend on this field. Many come from underserved minority communities in Kent, Auburn, and other parts of King County.  Early Wednesday morning, Dean Aldridge of Valor Soccer says someone drove onto the field and caused more than $100,000 in damage doing donuts. “These fields serve our most economically challenged kids,” Aldridge tells me. Club officials say all weekend tournaments are now canceled and their season is effectively over. “To see it like this, it hurts my heart,” says Ray Johnson, Valor Director of Development. This is just the latest troubling incident along this stretch Read More ›

fredrick-lee-JP5sP-dVabQ-unsplash

Searching for solutions

In July, walking around the fifty blocks of the Tenderloin, San Francisco’s fentanyl epicenter, I often saw notes like this one posted on lampposts: “Mimi—5’, 100 lbs.—we miss you terribly. Please call any family member. Please call 202 [number].” The Mimis are often hidden in tents, but even for a first-time visitor like me, the dealers and their deals were highly visible. Dealers, often teenagers in clean Nikes, walked alongside potential buyers. They did not just stand at particular corners, as a great streaming television series based in Baltimore, The Wire, showed: These dealers floated up and down a block. Police say they are independent contractors, trying to establish their own clientele, and earning $300 or more on an average Read More ›

Screenshot-2023-08-28-at-10.31.40-AM

“The Worst I’ve Seen,” Say Seattle Tourists

Leaving Town Tourists are carefully coming to Downtown Seattle. But all leave shocked at the on going urban decay, especially at 3rd Ave & Pike St. I was out and about early Saturday morning. Even in the wee hours of the day, this place is destroyed. It will be even worse at night. Enjoy what’s left of summer. CM Andrew Lewis (@CMAndrewJLewis) needs to come out here and help.

schizophrenic-man-holding-his-head-stockpack-adobe-stock
Schizophrenic man holding his head
Schizophrenic man holding his head

Hearing Voices

Julius Caesar began his Commentaries on the Gallic Wars with a sentence that Latin students once memorized: Translated literally into English, it reads, “Gaul is a whole divided into three parts.” When delving into homelessness causes, it’s useful to keep in mind that homelessness is both a whole and a hole into which people fall for three main reasons: mental illness, alcoholism/addiction, and housing costs. Many journalists emphasize housing costs, partly because many live in expensive coastal cities. Off the coast, with the exception of a few cities like Austin, it’s different. As I learned in Flint and Pontiac, Michigan — columns to come — apartment cost is not a big factor in many cities that have lost population in Read More ›

Sheriff Ozzie

Spokane Sheriff Sounds Off On Camp Hope: “People’s Lives are Being Crushed”

Chatter in Spokane @SheriffOzzie wants to move ahead sometime in November and clear out “Camp Hope.” But there is intel indicating FAR LEFT activists/ANTIFA could DISRUPT sweep. What a mess. Meanwhile Sheriff says he’s working back channels, hoping for orderly transition. Ozzie Unfiltered At today’s presser in #Spokane, @SheriffOzzie went off on local MEDIA and blamed “bureaucrats” for “Camp Hope.” A coalition of biz owners and neighbors want massive encampment removed before THANKSGIVING. Everyone Getting Put on Blast @SheriffOzzie clarified and said when he referenced “bureaucrats,” he was talking about @WSDOT_East and @WAStateCommerce. He also says Olympia cannot solve #Spokane‘s problems. Basically, just get out of the way and let us do our jobs. Business and Neighbor Coalition They are Read More ›

man-depressed-with-wine-bottle-sitting-on-bench-outdoor-stockpack-adobe-stock
Man depressed with wine bottle sitting on bench outdoor
Man depressed with wine bottle sitting on bench outdoor

The Life of One Homeless Man

Barry Meyer slept for a month and a half in a port-a-potty near the Lynchburg public library: “It was a big one, I could do a twisting stretch-out with the toilet seat and my stuff.” He said it didn’t smell bad because “they cleaned it twice a week.” Of course, his sense of smell, maybe his sense of everything, was off because each day he typically consumed eight “tall boys” (25-ounce beers) and a pint of whiskey. He favored Earthquake High Gravity Lager with its aroma of corn syrup and wet hay. Its fans say Earthquake “will get you buzzin’ like a chainsaw… It’s like putting your finger between the sprocket and chain on a motorcycle and then having your Read More ›

street-signs-for-rue-d-orleans-and-rue-bourbon-in-new-orleans-louisiana-stockpack-adobe-stock
Street signs for Rue D' Orleans and Rue Bourbon in New Orleans, Louisiana
Street signs for Rue D' Orleans and Rue Bourbon in New Orleans, Louisiana

Sunday Morning, New Orleans

Johnny Cash sang, “On the Sunday morning sidewalks/ Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned/Cause there’s something in a Sunday/ That makes a body feel alone.” I saw on a recent Saturday and Sunday morning that sleeping under a New Orleans expressway might really make a body feel alone. Periodically during the past decade the homeless humans in this verdant city coalesced into a big tent city, an anarchic community of sorts—and police swept it away. Times-Picayune, 2012: “About 55 people who had been staying under the Pontchartrain Expressway were told they must leave the area and move into shelters.” Two years later, the New Orleans City Council gave police the right to remove tents, furniture, and other items “that obstruct Read More ›