Comments

1
You could airbomb Nicklesville with $1 million a head and you know what you'd have in a year? Several hundred hobos in tents. These aren't homeless, they're happy campers. Let them camp in Eastern Washington and pick fruit. Mexicans manage to make that work.
2
609 Bloomville Rd, Hutchinson, KS 67501
Bedrooms:3 beds
Price: $25,000

Problem of homelessness solved.

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/609-Bl…
3
@2 yes, but them you have to cut the grass, smile at the neighbors, follow the rules, be responsible and be a 'member of society'. What a drag. Just give me a tent!
4
Housing first. Then worry about the rest. If the council feels that these camps are an inadequate solution, then surely they will reply with the adequate solution instead of putting up more roadblocks for these people to even be treated as human beings (or worse, citizens), right?
5
"These people" aren't interested in housing. Nicklesville's whole purpose is to legitimize hobo-ness, not to get people into housing. It's a political stunt, always has been.
6
Conlin stated that he thinks such encampments perpetuate homelessness. He'll show them, alright! He think the homeless just don't suffer enough; his solution is to make life more miserable for the homeless, and that should fix it. Nice.

If when you think of the problems in our society your fingers point to the penniless and the powerless, that should be the first clue that you're looking in the wrong direction.
7
"these people to even be treated as human beings (or worse, citizens), right?"

Horseshit. If hard working taxpayers in this town behaved like our protected hobo class, they'd be in jail.
8
"penniless and the powerless"

You mean the "drunk, selfish and irresponsible". There, fixed that for you.
9
Seattle city council has a conservative majority? LOL. Whenever your arguments require adopting absurdities like that you need to reexamine your arguments. I worked w Conlin during my decades in Seattle and he ain't no conservative.
10
Anyone to the right of Pol Pot and Mao are 'right-wingers" according to Anna Minard.
11
Godden would surely have voted differently if her husband had lived in a homeless camp while he suffered from MS.
12
@11 or if the world was flat.
13
With (apparently) 2700 bums out every night in King County (population 2 million) how come you can't find 2700 bleeding heart liberals with couches?
14
If I'm reading this correctly, then Anna is suggesting that people living in an illegal encampment are homeless, but people living in a legal encampment are housed.

That seems a little weird to me.
15
If enough of us vote for Sawant, the vote will be reversed.

But why worry about homelessness? Conlin's much-celebrated ten year plan will end homelessness next year, won't it?
16
@11 that's not only wrong, but gratuitously hurtful.

anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of the ad-hoc government of these camps would know that there is a lot of creepy "you do as junta says or you're out of the camp". every U.S. city that has directly confronted the issue of tent camps has eventually had to disband them. little pockets of unregulated encampments inside a city are not healthy for folks inside the camps or outside. would you want these folks to move their tent camps to a national park? if not, then they would be better off in some sort of managed housing.
17
@13 No good bum children and mommy bums. Cancer bums waiting for their disability paperwork. Schizophrenic bums. Elderly half-blind bum with his bum dog. Foreclosed bum family and the bum mobile they live in. GET THEM OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM YET?
18
Conlin really thinks people prefer to live homelessly? Compared to jail and sketchy overnight shelters, maybe, but on the whole, no, I think they'd prefer to have a home/their own space, a regular shower, a job with dignity, a liveable wage, and oftentimes some therapy, and who among us couldn't use some therapy and counseling?? I could, if I could afford it.

Without offering an alternative, that's pretty harsh and heartless of Conlin, and unfortunate. We don't aspire to be a cruel city, do we?
19
danelaw, let me introduce you to Shari Druckman-Roberts, who is a local pottery artist, who believes and stated that the homeless should be hosed down and sent away. They shouldn't be allowed to darken her doorstep. You can check her out if you're on FB.

https://www.facebook.com/events/68215834…
20
@17 surely you can let a coupla of those bums on your couch then?
21
@16

little pockets of unregulated encampments inside a city are not healthy for folks inside the camps or outside.

Er, you did realize that passing the bill would have brought along some regulation, didn't you?
22
I'm fine with homeless encampments, as long as they're on Capitol Hill.
23
"Er, you did realize that passing the bill would have brought along some regulation, didn't you?"

But Share and Nicklesville will refuse any kind of external regulation. Their whole schtik, part of the political stunt and circus that is Nicklesville, is they are "self governing". Apparently living like 'The Lord of the Flies' is that favorite liberal achievement: self-empowering. Now most of us recognize it for what it is: chaos and violence.
24
One of Obama's biggest failures was NOT using bailout funds to buy affordable housing from the large supply of distressed foreclosed properties at their lowest values.

Developing regulatory policy for self-managed housing is the answer. Tent Cities for ALL are IMPERATIVE so long as enough shelter beds don't exist.

For 500k they could've built a common building at Nickelsville with a Kitchen, shower/bathrooms, and a dining area, perhaps just covered. (IIRC the $1,600 a month for portable toilets is about what it would cost a private party to mortgage a 500k home loan.)

There are a few sites in Seattle that already have facilities that suit this - the Lake City firehouse was one, Camp Long in West Seattle could serve and I'd guess Magnuson Park has some facilities that could serve in this capacity - if not they could certainly be put to good use.

Now, using parks for homeless encampments does have some drawbacks - but, during the winter months there use is much less - and during the summer months the risk and need for enclosure much less. We should hope that the current homeless situation does not last 30 years but if we are smart we can build these facilities in areas where they could see alternative uses.

And, if we are to have justice in this Country it means we are going to send those 'liberal' elites and a fair portion of the rest of the 1% into their own 'homeless situation'. If we are to be better than them we will treat them with a bit more respect - even while holding them up as examples of the punishment for abusive corruption.

PLAN ON IT.
25
@24, the attempt to use the parks for the homeless is responsible for my recent vote against King County's parks levy
26
"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members."
27
11: "Godden would surely have voted differently if her husband had lived in a homeless camp while he suffered from MS."

16: "@11 that's not only wrong, but gratuitously hurtful.

anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of the ad-hoc government of these camps would know that there is a lot of creepy "you do as junta says or you're out of the camp". every U.S. city that has directly confronted the issue of tent camps has eventually had to disband them. little pockets of unregulated encampments inside a city are not healthy for folks inside the camps or outside. would you want these folks to move their tent camps to a national park? if not, then they would be better off in some sort of managed housing. "

ME: Yeah, it IS hurtful. Hurtful to everyone you're ignoring. MOST of the campers in Nickelsville have some sort of mental or physical disability. There are people with MS living there because disability only pays between $600-$700/mo. And guess how long the wait for low-income housing is in King County? Seattle Housing Authority - 3+ years. King County Housing Authority - 3+ years. Renton Housing Authority - 5+ years.

Best comment on the thread:

17: "No good bum children and mommy bums. Cancer bums waiting for their disability paperwork. Schizophrenic bums. Elderly half-blind bum with his bum dog. Foreclosed bum family and the bum mobile they live in. GET THEM OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM YET? "
28
@25; They're already using Magnuson Park for homeless shelter. Friends of Youth and Solid Ground both have emergency housing there.

FOY: http://www.friendsofyouth.org/newGroundS…

SG: http://www.solid-ground.org/programs/Hou…

So, last time you went to the dog park, were you overcome by homeless people living down there? Was the beach like some sort of "bum beach" where there were just dirty bums laying around everywhere?

Oh wait, you didn't notice a difference at all, did you?
29
"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members."

We're not talking old widows and orphans here.

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