fentanyl

After decades of working inside homelessness services, I’ve learned that the greatest lie we tell ourselves is that we don’t know what works. We do. The problem isn’t a lack of data, innovation, or funding. The problem is that real solutions require decisions we are unwilling to make and truths we are afraid to say out loud.

It is easier to expand systems than to fix them. Easier to signal compassion than to practice it in ways that are uncomfortable. Easier to manage homelessness than to end it.

Most people assume homelessness persists because it is too complex to solve. In reality, it persists because solving it would disrupt an entire industry built around its permanence. Over time, the system stopped being accountable to outcomes and became accountable to itself. Programs are judged by how many people they touch, not how many people leave the streets. Success is defined by engagement, not transformation. In this environment, homelessness is no longer a crisis to be resolved, but a condition to be administered.

One of the hardest truths is that housing alone does not stabilize people who are deeply addicted, severely mentally ill, or both. I have watched housing placements fail because we insisted on treating housing as the solution rather than the setting in which recovery might occur. For people actively using fentanyl, methamphetamine, or alcohol at life-threatening levels, housing without treatment can become a slower form of self-destruction. When it collapses, we try again and call it trauma-informed care, quietly accepting failure as inevitable.

Real solutions begin with recovery, not as a moral requirement, but as a practical one. A person cannot stabilize while in the grip of serious addiction. No amount of case management, harm-reduction supplies, or wellness check-ins can substitute for sobriety when the brain itself is hijacked. Cities like Portland and Seattle know this, yet continue to build models that treat recovery as optional. We call this compassion, but too often it looks like abandonment.

Making the Problem Worse The homeless drug crisis is out of control in Seattle. And it’s now evident Mayor Katie Wilson is going to make the problem worse. During her first State of the City address, she talked about building more housing and shelter. But no solutions to deal with mental illness or drug addiction ravaging the city. Sweep, Sweep, Sweep Aside from changing some policy language, she is pretty much doing the same thing as the last mayor of Seattle. Sweep, sweep, sweep. And the game of Whack-A-Mole continues. Same Old Same Old Wilson’s spokesperson recently told the Seattle Times that, “the mayor isn’t pursuing a significant shift in encampment clearing strategies from the previous administration.” Ignoring the Service Read More ›

Repeating Mistakes During Tuesday’s State of the City address, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson will say she is building more affordable housing to address the city’s homeless crisis. But she’s doubling down on the same “Housing First” policies that have failed this region for more than a decade and it won’t work. Not until she figures out how to deal with the “service resistant” class of people living on the streets. These are the men and women who are heavily addicted to drugs and refuse all shelter and treatment services currently available. Just drive down Rainier Ave S and you will find them everywhere. All the encampment sweeps under her watch have forced many people to move to this part of Read More ›

Even after a Super Bowl win, Seattle leaders failed to clear out the downtown drug dens and black market of stolen goods. Watch as Seahawks fans try to celebrate in the streets while avoiding zombies and fentanyl addicts.

A note to readers: This is an uncomfortable story, as are my conclusions about how society might best address the situation it describes. I prize individual freedom and limited government, and recognize that sanctioning government force in the application of law can be a slippery slope. Yet, neglecting justice to avoid the risks of misapplying it is also a harmful slippery slope, and we see the destructive effects of that error in every city with permissive policies toward drug use, prostitution, and disorder. Ultimately, I can’t ignore the fact that children have a natural right to the dutiful care of their parents. With a wise and creative application of law, it may be possible to uphold a child’s rights even Read More ›

Under Siege Bellevue is under siege. A steady flow of criminals from outside the city are targeting local stores. In many instances homeless drug addicts get around using the bus, ransack businesses, then sell the items for pennies on the dollar in Seattle to purchase fentanyl. This has been going on for years. But community watch members now say it’s getting worse. Here is one of several incidents Monday evening at the QFC grocery store in the Crossroads neighborhood. Good Samaritans stepped in and forced an alleged crook to return stolen items. After being confronted, this Black woman kept saying, “I’m a n*gger. I’m a n*igger.” Some may call this vigilante justice. But there is limited security and not enough Read More ›

Politicians Look the Other Way Don’t let all the pretty Christmas lights fool you. The drug dens in downtown Seattle are roaring out of control. Look at this one in front of the Olympic Tower Apartments at the corner of 3rd Ave and Pine St. Everyone is doing fentanyl. I bumped into this young Korean American woman who’s been a regular out here for years. She’s probably in her early 30’s but now looks like she’s in her 50’s from all the drug use. This human catastrophe continues unchecked in this city and the politicians are all looking the other way. King County Public Health is also MIA. Anyone ever see Councilmember Bob Kettle walk this nightmare stretch in his Read More ›

Buying Fentanyl is “Cheaper than Kool-Aid” The latest drug encampment in Seattle is exploding out of control in Chinatown-ID. The entire area above the former Viet Wah grocery store on Jackson St. has repopulated with more than 20 tents. When I visited Monday afternoon, addicts were doing fentanyl and passed out. Everyone rejected offers for treatment. One guy said buying fetty was “cheaper than Kool-Aid.” The Sweeps Have Stopped I reported on this disaster last August. The city came in and cleared it. But with Mayor Bruce Harrell leaving office at the end of the year, it appears sweeps have slowed down to a halt in some instances. Housing First Has Failed Once again, this is not an affordable housing Read More ›

Seattle’s incoming mayor, Katie Wilson, will inherit a homelessness crisis that will define her ability to lead. Seattle’s homeless population needs more than another round of aspirational promises. They need and deserve an operational reset grounded in compassion, accountability, and the courage to confront realities the city has failed to address for years. She must replace press releases and ceremonial groundbreaking for housing that may never materialize with programs that support the homeless in reclaiming their lives from the grip of untreated mental illness, addiction, and dangerous encampments that have taken root throughout the city. The scale of Seattle’s crisis is staggering. HUD’s 2024 Point-in-Time count identified 16,868 people struggling with homelessness in King County — 7,058 sheltered and 9,810 Read More ›

Seattle’s homeless drug crisis remains a top three issue for voters. During a recent debate, Mayor Bruce Harrell and mayoral candidate Katie Wilson were asked the following: “Should homeless people be allowed to stay in tents in parks?” “Should homeless people be allowed to live in sidewalks?” “Should people be allowed to smoke or use drugs like fentanyl in public places?” The moderator was asking for a simple yes or no response. But Katie Wilson seemed to waffle and struggle.