The Seattle Times has a story about homeless deaths and includes a deeper story about a death in Meridian Park. Wallyhood received a few emails from the community in April about a possible death in Meridian Park. We struggled to confirm the story as calls to the police department were inconclusive. The Seattle Times identified the deceased as Sean Boarman with a brief, compassionate look at his life in the coda to the story. My condolences to his family.
I have no great ideas for solving homelessness in Seattle. I am not sure that anyone does. I would like to think that if someone had a great idea, we would be implementing it. We do seem to talk a lot about homelessness, and we certainly talk a lot about the money we are spending on it.
The results of the most recent point-in-time homeless count were released yesterday. There were 11,643 homeless people in King County, with 8,522 in Seattle.
Any sample of 11,000 people will contain many stories and we can find in those 11,000 stories the exact story that matches our beliefs about homelessness. There will be the same array of stories for the homeless as there are the general population. The hardest part of public policy is determining the most important aspects of any problem, and the then maintaining focus on that aspect.
A good case in point is comparing the Atlanta report on the homelessness count with the Seattle report. The Atlanta report focuses on reducing homeless, and its 12 page document summarizes how well it is reducing homelessness. You might disagree with that focus, but the report gives you a good understanding of how the city is progressing towards reducing homelessness. On the other hand, Seattle’s report focuses on displaying every possible way of describing the population, but very little focus on what is the most important aspect to measure. Our 116 report is an exhaustive summary in tables and charts of all the statistics.
Seattle forgot to bring a sense of purpose to its data. I encourage Seattle City Council members to write their own 12 page version of the report focused solely on what they believe is the most important number in the report. We could then decide how well we are doing on their most important goal, and whether we agree on its importance.
The forum section of Wallyhood has already started the discussion about this story. Hopefully the comments here will continue it.
I walked through the park the day that Sean Boarman died, saw him lying there on the gazeebo, watched three police officers come up and check on him, take a pulse, and then finally cover him up with his sleeping bag. It was a sad and sobering sight.
Sean was my best friend in Highschool. We lived in Seoul korea together. I have spent 15 years trying to find him to reconnect. He was the best friend I ever had. I haven’t been able to find anything on him. until now. He was a great guy. I loved him like a brother. I wish I could have found him sooner and helped him. Everyone is sad….
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This makes me so sad. I am sorry you lost your friend and that the search for his whereabouts has ended tragically. I wish the city had gotten him into shelter and treatment much, much earlier. He was failed by his demons, but also by the city.
Thank you for this thoughtful post reflecting the complexity of this issue and also the call for the City Council to provide focus.
“A good case in point is comparing the Atlanta report on the homelessness count with the Seattle report. The Atlanta report focuses on reducing homeless, and its 12 page document summarizes how well it is reducing homelessness. You might disagree with that focus, but the report gives you a good understanding of how the city is progressing towards reducing homelessness.”
Thank you, Ben. That is the ONLY metric that should be considered by the Seattle City Council. But sadly, if they were to write their own 12 page version of the report, actually doing something to reduce the number of people sleeping in tents, RV’s, and abandoned buildings wouldn’t even factor into their thinking. Instead, they would consider “success” by other metrics, like doubling the amount of money thrown at the problem with Murray’s new sales tax proposal. They’d also look at how many tons of garbage they’ve cleared, how many city-sanctioned encampments they’ve opened up, and how many free tents, sleeping bags and needles they’ve handed out as “helping” the situation.” Or they’d say “look, we’ve opened up some legalized shooting galleries, because we’re so “compassionate.”” Nevermind considering how the junkies actually fund their habit.
With the official number of homeless in Seattle now having grown to an astounding 8,522, you’d think it’d be obvious to them that what they’ve been doing not only doesn’t work, it exacerbates the problem. Focus instead on actually reducing the numbers of homeless instead of enabling them, and we will see some actual results.
Thanks for this excellent perspective. The people of Seattle have many views on the subject of homelessness, but I think it’s safe to say we would all agree that reducing the number of people without homes is good for everyone. Sadly the City Council members are the ones who are missing this point.
When I first came to Seattle in the mid 1980’s, homelessness was already considered a crisis in Seattle. Apart from the general decline in opportunities for poor and working class folks, two things were happening that greatly increased the number of homeless people. The first is that under Ronald Reagan a huge cut was made in the funds for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). These funds had traditionally been used to support the development of low income housing across the nation.
The other trend was that inner cities across the nation were being redeveloped. In Seattle at the time there were several rundown apartment buildings. These buildings received no public funds but because only desperate people would choose to live in such places, the rents were low. Those buildings were bought out, knocked down and converted to office buildings, the Convention Center, etc… The people who had lived in such places could no longer afford a place to live.
Many good people stepped in to help with this crisis. They started homeless shelters, they started low income housing development programs, they started seeking funds for these from more sympathetic local governments. Over the years, the federal government has continued to limit the resources it spends on the development of affordable housing and more and more sources of affordable market-rate housing in Seattle have disappeared.
Homeless shelters are like giving aspirin to someone who needs an appendectomy. It is a lot less expensive and helps with the pain but it in no way solves the problem. The answer to homelessness is housing. Building and staffing housing for people who cannot afford market-rate housing is possible. We have many fine examples. Housing people who are disabled or addicted is possible, we have done it. But building and staffing affordable and special needs housing isn’t cheap and in this region the cost is rising rapidly.
We have the capacity to develop sufficient housing to largely do away with homelessness. We could come up with that kind of money in King County but it would be in a whole other league above the amount we are currently spending. Think of it in terms of building our two sports stadiums. We understand that to have housing for a sports franchise we need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars up front. If we don’t raise that amount then we don’t have a stadium and we don’t have a team. But somehow we think that if we raise some money for housing homeless people that the problem should go away and we get frustrated when it doesn’t.
The easiest response to problem of homelessness is to blame homeless people but that is not a solution. The inevitable outcome of an ethic of blame is the criminalization of homelessness. But housing homeless people in prisons and jails is far more expensive than housing them in apartments. The blame game isn’t a cheaper approach.
People who talk about “throwing money” at the problem of homelessness probably have not volunteered at a homeless shelter, or worked with people developing affordable housing. The people I have known working with homeless people or working on solutions to homelessness are people who either volunteer their time or work for considerably less money than they would receive in for-profit work. There are countless unsung heroes in Seattle who have given decades of their lives in efforts to shelter, house, feed and care for homeless people. It is an insult to them to use the phrase “throw money” when it comes to resources to support their efforts.
People who wish to blame homeless people for their homelessness often say that homelessness is a choice people make. Though there are some homeless people who have the capacity to choose a path out of homelessness without any support, many more people have little choice and will need support. People don’t choose to work at low paying jobs if higher paying jobs are available. Mentally ill people didn’t choose their illness.
On the other hand, we as a society do have a choice. If we want to truly end homelessness, we need to assess the cost of housing each and every homeless person in our area and raise that much money. If you have a car that needs $700 worth of parts to function and you spend $50 instead, you shouldn’t be surprised when the car doesn’t work and you shouldn’t blame the car or the mechanic.
We can choose a community in which homelessness is rare and very temporary, or one where homelessness is a growing and intractable problem. We have a choice but not a cheap or easy one.
In the time that I’ve been associated with Seattle we have done a good job of building housing for people with high salaries. We’ve paid all the money required to build and maintain monuments to our love of professional sports. And we have spent some money (though nowhere near the amount needed) on addressing the issue of current and future homelessness. Our sports teams are well housed. Well-off people have plenty of housing opportunities. Middle and working class folks have an every shrinking pool of housing options and the number of homeless people is rising.
The growing presence of homeless people in our community is a response to the choices we have made and should surprise no one.
Why do we believe Seattle homeless problem is not being resolved due to the Seattle government not caring? San Diego is a city smaller than Seattle with worse homeless problems. It also got a Republican mayor that had said lots of tough words against homeless in the past and implemented many strong policies like weekly sweeps, fines. and arrests. Not like those ideas worked for San Diego.
What they’ve achieved is having homeless move from block to block every week, many got tons of unpaid fines and arrest records. The homeless number is still swelling, and they still got homeless setting up tents by the streets.
Uh, no. San Diego’s population is on the order of 3.1 million while Seattle’s is about 609,000–about 20% of San Diego’s. And what you describe for San Diego sounds like what is happening in Seattle. #factcheck
Uh, no.
City of San Diego population: 1,394,928
City of Seattle population: 704,352 (2016 Census Bureau estimate)
County of San Diego population: 3,095,313
County of Martin Luther King, Jr population: 2,080,000
You’re right…#factcheck!!!
OK, so I used San Diego *county’s* figure. The point I was making is that San Diego is NOT a city smaller than Seattle. Nor is the county smaller than King Co.
Which is fine. But if you’re going to come in here with your Smug Guns a-blazin’ you better have your argument wrapped up tight or I’m calling you out.
Oh! Some of us were under the impression Marie of Roumania that you had moved and that you were only going to stop by to correct my typing mistakes! Now you have a new person to pester? Sorry your move did not provide enough entertainment f r you.
Romania. For.
“F” ? or “f”?
You can f any way you like.
I was referring to your incorrect correction.Your fascination with typing mistakes is “awfully” wierd..
..
San Diego metro area population is indeed about 3.1m. Seattle metro area population is about 3.7m. That’s why I said San Diego is a smaller city. I think metro size is a more meaningful measure, but none of these are the key points anyway. It’s a fact that many harsher policies some people advocated local governments to take have already been tried in San Diego, and they didn’t work.
A certain portion of participants at the Wallingford Community Senior Center are homeless or facing homelessness. While some of these folks you might be able to identify as likely to be homeless – with obvious hygiene or mental health issues – others are simply folks who have lived in the neighborhood for years, have a fixed income, and are being priced out.
When the body was found in the gazebo, members of our senior center wanted me to check – was it someone from our community? We have had senior center participants sleeping in the gazebo from time to time, as well as their cars, or other similar informal places to spend the night.
I ventured out there, and the police told me that the person who had died was not an older adult, so I could report back that it was not one of “ours”. But it could have been.
The shelter system is not set up for older adults. The elderly may have disabilities that make sleeping on the floor or on cots impossible. Arthritic hands and slow-moving bodies can’t get undressed, showered, and dressed again in 15 minutes, in the typical time limit for these facilities for the homeless. Older adults are also more likely to feel afraid for their personal safety in the shelter system. And they are less likely to find appropriate help – typical shelter social workers often don’t know how to work the Medicare system or other programs specifically for older adults. The elderly homeless, unlike some of the younger folks, overwhelmingly want housing. But where are they to go?
Until we are building 2,000 new units of affordable housing for the elderly every year – what is estimated as the need for King County – we will continue to have seniors in the Wallingford neighborhood who can no longer afford to live where they have for decades, and retreat to locations like this gazebo, to spend the night.