The fast-growing, progressive city of Seattle is privatizing some of the work involved in evicting its many homeless people from unauthorized camping sites to a new company—a firm specially created to clear out the places where the homeless sleep.
The company is called Cascadia Cleaning and Removal, and its website advertises “Homeless Encampment Abatement and Removal” services. On a recent morning, I encountered two of their workers manning a trash bin next to a homeless encampment—where an elderly man was still sleeping—on a sidewalk beneath I-5, a few blocks away from City Hall. One worker told me they “toss everything” if no one is around to claim their belongings. He said they would come back again later because the camp was still occupied…