If you’re still freaking out about the City Council’s proposal to open up public spaces across Seattle, including Meridian Park, as homeless encampments, you can rest a bit easier: last Friday Mayor Murray released an Interim Action Plan as a somewhat saner alternative to the homelessness crisis.
As background, the City Council’s plan, as summarized by Councilmember Tim Burgess (a staunch foe of the proposal):
establishes a new right to camp on public property across Seattle, including in our parks and greenbelts, and on sidewalks and planting strips. The law mandates that city government make public spaces available for camping in tents or vehicles. It creates complicated rules and processes that must be followed before anyone can be removed from a camping site. If anyone is removed, the city government must provide “adequate and accessible” long-term housing. Finally, if any of this process is violated, the proposed law establishes a $250 penalty per violation to be paid to the individual camper by city taxpayers.
I can understand the motivation: a growing population of people without a place to live are being pushed out of their tents without any alternative. Their belongings are throw in the trash heap, and they’re ordered to go “elsewhere”, but there is nowhere else to go: the city’s shelters are over capacity, and there are insufficient designated spots where the homeless are allowed to camp. It’s easy to say that they should just “get a job”, but many suffer from mental or physical disabilities that make this simply impossible for them, and they are left without alternatives.
The Facing Homeless page does a beautiful job of spotlighting the complex (and often numbingly mundane) reasons that people end up homeless: an illness causes job loss, no money means no place to live, then applying for and winning a job when you’re living under a bridge without a shower leaves you stuck. As Hemingway put it, one can go bankrupt “two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
I think one reason reasonable people end up divided on how to address the issue is that there are so many very different people who are “homeless”, in that they have no home:
- A mother with young children, unable to get and hold a job because she has nowhere safe to leave her kids during the interview, much less a shift.
- A meth-head who steals whatever he can lay his hands on for a bag of crystal
- A couple who moved to Seattle for a job that fell through, but didn’t have enough money (or were too ashamed) to return to family
- A free spirit who enjoys traveling and drinking, doesn’t like working, and finds he can get all he needs by asking for change by the freeway entrance
- A man who caught a virus that kept him away from work long enough that he was fired. Recovery was delayed when he wasn’t able to make rent and was turned out onto the street.
- A schizophrenic who hears voices
And even these descriptions would probably shift if you spent more time learning someone’s history.
So what sense does it make to talk about all these different people with the same word, “homeless”, and try to devise a plan that does the right thing by them all? But that’s exactly what we end up doing when we talk about what to do with “homeless encampments. ”
So I have compassion for those who live on the streets, but the City Council’s plan would enable (and invite an extension and deepening of) our level of dysfunction. It would strike a fierce blow to the livability of the city to open up the parks and greenbelts to unfettered encampments while setting up unrealistic pre-conditions for removing them (if we could provide “adequate and accessible” long-term housing for all the homeless in Seattle, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, now would we?).
The Mayor’s Interim Plan seems to drive to the same goals but in a more realistic way. In brief, the plan:
- Designates $900,000 towards the creation of four new authorized encampments. “Up to two of the new authorized encampments will … accept people who are suffering from chronic substance abuse disorders or other behavioral disorders that could prevent those individuals from accepting traditional indoor shelter options.”
- Creation of the Seattle Navigation Center, “a low-barrier, comprehensive, dormitory-style program for people transitioning from encampments, with 24-hour access to shower, bathroom, laundry and dining facilities It will have a place to store belongings, as well as round-the- clock case management, mental and behavioral health services, and connections to benefit programs and housing, all in one location,” as well as “call for innovative proposals from the private and non-profit sectors and communities of faith for immediate indoor shelter opportunities.”
- Increases the budget for outreach workers: raising the number of outreach workers “dedicated to connecting with people living in encampments” from 1.5 to 4 and “more than double the number of outreach workers to 12 full-time staff for the unsheltered population, coupled with funding and access to appropriate resources that move people onto a pathway to housing.”
- The Seattle Police Department “will establish a full-time, dedicated police team that will pair with outreach workers to problem-solve the root causes behind some people’s criminal behavior.”
- Introduce “more compassionate protocols for unauthorized encampments”, establishing a rule that the city will not displace encampments that do not pose an imminent health or safety risk or do not unlawfully obstruct a public use unless outreach workers are able to offer those living there a safer alternative place to live. The city will continue to provide 72-hour notice before removals, and “outreach teams will offer services and alternative appropriate shelter locations to individuals at the encampment prior to any removal.”
- Improve the pick-up of trash and hypodermic needles associated with the encampments, in cases where they are not being removed.
Homelessness in Seattle is a huge and growing problem: a tally this year showed a 19% increase over the previous year. There is no single cause: rising rents are part of it, but there has also been an influx in homeless from other regions due to Seattle’s benevolent attitude. I haven’t been able to find any data to help answer the question of which causes are most relevant. If you have it, please share. (“You can just tell” is not data.)
Regardless of the cause, I believe the cure must involve scaffolding, guidance and assistance to those who want to become self-sufficient, which the Mayor’s plan seems to do. There’s more we should do, but I appreciate it as a step in the right direction. We must acknowledge that simply asking the homeless to disappear is neither realistic or right.
(Photo by psyberartist.)
This ought to be interesting…
Well done! I’ve read quite a bit on the issue, and this wraps it up very clearly. It’s hard to overestimate how complex and intractable this problem is, and the typical bleeding hearts and law-and-order factions are both as wrong as they could be.
Thank you for this clear and balanced recap, Jordan.
I appreciate this update and Jordan’s highlighting of the many causes and manifestations of homelessness. The Mayor’s interim plan is a more constructive alternative to the City Council’s misguided proposal allowing right to camp on public property throughout the city. Tim Burgess provided courageous leadership in both opposing the Council’s plan and partnering with Murray to develop the Interim Plan investments.
I ride the bus E on Aurora and sometimes talk with homeless people. They tell me there is no lack of shelter space. It’s easy to get into the shelters. They say the tenters are tenting because they don’t want to have to follow the rules of the shelters, and prefer the independence of the tents due to their drug habits, crime habits, or just a desire to have their own little space. Unfortunately, Seattle has attracted huge numbers of these tenters in the past couple years by being “tolerant” of illegal camping. Big mistake.
It would be nice to have hard evidence of significant influx of campers lured to Seattle. The official story is that when they record last permanent address zip codes at the shelters, it’s like 14% out of state, or less. That’s still a lot of people,but may not be good data, and there are other anecdotal reports like yours that suggest the real number might be higher.
I don’t believe that 14% figure; while we will never know the true stats, I think it’s probably a lot higher. From the Seattle Times article about that study: “The records show that more than 8,000 clients listed their last ZIP code as 98104, which covers Pioneer Square and downtown.” In other words, they come here, get a zip code by the shelters, and then get counted as “natives” by the homeless racketeers.
Furthermore, Portland, LA, and other cities have programs where they unload their homeless problem on us by giving them free bus rides up here.
Maybe it time we return the favor.
Regarding “Portland, LA, and other cities have programs where they unload their homeless problem on us by giving them free bus rides up here”, that’s twisting the facts, a bit. Portland’s program REQUIRES that “a family member or friend in the destination city will be there to pick up the homeless person and help them get back on their feet.” [http://www.kgw.com/news/local/program-to-bus-homeless-out-of-portland-begins/204664598]
Not sure about Los Angeles, you may be right. My quick Internet search didn’t turn up anything about their rules one way or the other.
And it may be that your story that people “come here, get a zip code by the shelters, and then get counted as ‘natives'” is true, but it may not. Do you have any evidence besides the fact that clients are listing their last zip code as 98104? Otherwise, you’re just muddying the waters with supposition (i.e., “I can just tell”).
Hi Jordan. I can tell you there’s a lot of anecdotal evidence for this, for starters. I’ve have heard this from many folks I’ve talked to and have read a lot stories about homeless moving to Seattle. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, my neighbor just down the street had some sketchy homeless guy who decided the two trees on her parking strip in front of her house would be a good spot to string up a hammock for the night. He was asked to leave, after being awoken from his stupor. He responded that he had just moved here, AND… he has a legal right to camp there. So it seems that news of our newly proposed homeless ordinance has spread far and fast.
As for my comments about Portland and LA, this article from KIRO 7 is pretty amazing and it discusses Portland’s 211 program you described.
http://www.kiro7.com/news/local/portland-begins-sending-homeless-people-to-other-cities-including-seattle/296353382
Here are some choice quotes from it:
“In November, KIRO 7 spoke to Teman Crawford a twice-convicted felon living on the streets of Seattle. He said police in Oxnard, California, had gotten him a bus ticket to come to Seattle.
“It was $116. They said it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Don’t come back,” Crawford said.
When asked why he picked Seattle, Crawford said his friends had called this the “land of opportunity.’”
“There’s a lot of angels up here. A lot of love. People buying people brand new tents, giving them blankets, putting food in their stomachs,” he said.”
“On Friday, a homeless man named Steve told KIRO 7 he was given a bus ticket to come to Seattle from Phoenix.
He said he told the Phoenix location of St. Vincent de Paul that he wanted to come to Seattle where he has relatives. They purchased the ticket for him, but he admits now he does not actually have family here.
Then there’s Hawaii’s program:
http://mynorthwest.com/3253/hawaii-homeless-wont-be-flying-to-seattle-anytime-soon/
“The story that Hawaii’s legislature approved a program giving homeless people one-way plane tickets to mainland cities, including Seattle, caused quite a national stir last week.
It’s a program called “Return to Home,”
I’m sure cities like Portland will be absolutely shocked and horrified to learn they’d been lied to by some of the folks they gave free bus tickets to. What do you suppose the odds are they’ll call up Seattle and say “You have a homeless person who belongs to us and we’d like him back?”
We can’t find funding for our public schools, and in a week we will likely approve the mind boggling sum of $54 BILLION with ST3. We simply can’t afford to take in the nation’s homeless.
As others have said too, I really doubt the 14% figure. One guy I talked to on the bus told me that most of the tenters are from out of town. He’s from the Everett/Seattle area and stays in a shelter. It seems reasonable to suspect that there may be some funding pressure on the part of homeless services to declare local zip codes. As Jordan suggests, it’s just conjecture, but documentation in any institution CAN often be skewed for funding/monetary reasons, so perhaps the only thing that would ever definitively answer the question is the investigative journalist, a rare breed. Till then, talk to homeless and develop a gut feeling yourself. My feeling is that a LOT of them who came in the past couple years are from elsewhere.
Thanks for your words. I agree for what it is worth.
if you build it they will come,simple. They know they will be allowed to break laws, they will dictate what “they” choose to do and this mayor the feckless individual he is will cave.anyone congratulating this mayor has not been paying attention. he changes his mind as the wind blows.
Great article!! I’m a bit confused by the “continue to provide 72-hour notice before removals.” In the letter from the superintendent of Seattle Schools to the City Council, he wrote that the increase to 48 hours would cause problems. I thought it was 24 hours currently, not 72.
With Donald Duck and Bugs Bunny marketing hobos as “cool”, it’s no wonder kids are attracted to the tramp lifestyle. We need to fix our culture first. Stay in school!!
Tool
Trade school is fine but Grandson went to Harverd though.
Is there a timeline for the mayor’s plan? Specifically the Navigation center and is there a location and facility already built or are we talking months before this opens? What does “more compassionate protocols for unauthorized encampments” mean, I asked the question because the encampment at Woodland park is growing daily even though the city has been notified through their process of customer service bureau where the city is suppose to investigate complaints. My third question, at one point Seattle had 200 open positions for police officers that had finally been authorized to fill but at the recent city council meeting the funds for those positions were being discussed in conjunction with the money for the police station to be diverted to homeless issues. What police personnel is the mayor going to use to create his “dedicated police team that will pair with outreach workers to problem-solve the root causes behind some people’s criminal behavior.” Time for specifics and accountability
LOLOLOLOLOLOL yer killin’ me
Seriously?????????????
I live close to Stone Way. Ive been here 8 1/2 years in an apartment which I used to feel was extremely safe. Ive posted here re car thefts ( mine included), vandalized car window and soem of the car rifling which have occurred more in 5 months than in the entire last 8 years. This weekend as I casually looked on our back yard area.. a possibly homeless woman had entered and was sitting on a neighbor’s deck chair sorting out bags ..she remained 40 min.. She left odds and ends. My call to our manager was inconclusive. He said to call police – tho I spent 15 min on hold w/ non-emergency number had no effect.
.denverite.com/denver-will-try-hiring-homeless-people-21356/