Seattle Needs Stabilization Homeless Camps
As Seattle considers sanctioned homeless camps again, we stand at a familiar crossroads. I’ve spent five years with We Heart Seattle doing boots-on-the-ground outreach and cleanup, alongside lived experience advisors who have worked in and managed prior sanctioned camps, including Share/Wheel, Nickelsville, Camp United We Stand, and run low-barrier shelters. We’ve seen what fails. More importantly, we know what could work. The skepticism about sanctioned camps is warranted. Past attempts became semi-permanent encampments with no path forward. But dismissing the concept entirely ignores a critical gap in our system: where do people go when they’re too unstable for housing but desperate to get off the streets? Seattle’s homeless crisis isn’t one problem—it’s many. The “crisis population” living on our streets Read More ›
