permanent supportive housing

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson bragged about delaying an encampment sweep so she could place several homeless people into shelter and housing, implying this would be a new way of getting people off the streets. “There I talked with a woman who was five months sober,” Mayor Wilson said at her State of the City Address, “and had three small dogs. We were able to identify a spot for her in a tiny house village.” But after Wilson’s State of the City Address last week, We Heart Seattle’s Andrea Suarez did a simple follow-up to see if that woman with three dogs actually made it off the streets. “People don’t always accept the services they’re referred to,” Suarez explained. Surrounded by Read More ›

Last weekend, former President Barack Obama acknowledged a blunt political reality: “The average person doesn’t want to have to navigate around a tent city in the middle of downtown … and we’re not going to be able to generate support [for treatment] if we simply say, ‘It’s not their fault, they should be able to do whatever they want,’ because that’s a losing political strategy.”

What makes the remark notable is not merely its candor. It is the history behind it.

It was the Obama administration that institutionalized the federal government’s one-size-fits-all embrace of Housing First in 2013. They promised the approach would end homelessness within a decade by prioritizing immediate housing placement.

The theory was simple: Housing would stabilize lives.

But the results have been anything but stabilizing.

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 ›

Even as many volunteers are taking to the cold streets to try to find and quantify the number of homeless Americans living there now, two lawsuits filed late last year in a federal District Court are blocking millions of dollars from reaching the neediest people. The first lawsuit was filed by the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), and the second by a coalition led by Washington State’s Attorney General Nick Brown. The lawsuits seek to stop the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from redirecting a larger share of public dollars to treatment-based homeless programs. Both suits seek to force the continued pretense that permanent subsidized housing projects will end homelessness. These efforts fail the smell test. Read More ›

Enabling Chaos Representatives with the homeless industrial complex are in Olympia this week, begging lawmakers for more money and support. They know funding cuts are on the way to the disastrous permanent supportive housing models that enable crime, chaos, and death in WA communities. Meanwhile, the Plymouth Housing/PorchLight campus has already triggered multiple 911 calls in this new year. Listen to this bizarre incident on January 16. A bystander reported this vicious beatdown outside the facility in the Eastgate neighborhood. But once the fellas involved realized they were being watched by witnesses, they pretended like it was just an “act” and quickly walked back into Plymouth.

“I Will Never Talk to You” Bellevue Mayor Lynne Robinson has failed to address the crime, chaos, and death associated with the Plymouth Housing/PorchLight campus in the Eastgate Neighborhood. Robinson helped bring in this permanent supportive housing nightmare even though residents and business owners opposed the plan. Nearly two years later, this campus triggers the most 911 calls in the city for fights, thefts, open-air drug use, and other problems. It’s also stressing resources at Bellevue PD and is a massive drain on taxpayer dollars. So I simply asked Robinson for her thoughts on this cancer in the community. Here’s her response. Not Running for Re-Election Tuesday evening, Robinson told the city council that she will not run for Mayor 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 ›

Chaos Continues at Plymouth Housing The cancer continues to spread in Bellevue’s Eastgate community. The @FactoriaLLS team and I have gone through dozens of 911 calls to uncover another horrific incident at the Plymouth Housing/PorchLight campus. On October 30, a PorchLight worker called cops to trespass a homeless man who threatened to kill employees and police. The unhinged individual claimed to be infected with HIV after a tussle with the worker. When will City Manager Diane Carlson and Mayor Lynne Robinson finally admit this permanent supportive housing project and homeless shelter are destroying the community with crime, chaos, and death? Some neighbors believe these elected officials are running cover for the homeless industrial complex. What an epic failure. Anthony Williams Read More ›

They Said It Would Be Safe It’s a daily occurrence at Bellevue’s Plymouth Housing/Porchlight campus. On Monday, witnesses say two people got into an argument at Plymouth and one woman brandished a knife. No one was injured. Tons of cops were called again, draining resources and taxpayer dollars from the community. This is “permanent supportive housing” in action. The crime, chaos, and death continues. City and county politicians lied to the community when they said it would be safe. Now it’s becoming a PR nightmare for them because residents are finally demanding change.

Problematic Plymouth After numerous problematic incidents at the Plymouth Housing/PorchLight campus in Bellevue, more neighbors are starting to scrutinize this facility and are now demanding accountability. This Eastgate location triggers the most 911 calls in the city and is responsible for drug overdoses, fights, and recently housed a homeless murder suspect who remains on the loose. Some of the clients are so unhinged, they will accost and menace you for no reason. That’s exactly what happened to me earlier this year. So where are all the politicians, far-left activists, and clueless neighbors who allowed this cancer into the community? Housing First Fails The homeless industrial complex is trying to latch on to more locations. The politicians backing Housing First and Read More ›