Such a grandstander the mayor is. Sadly his rhetoric is as empty as his suit.

Will increased taxation reduce homelessness?

@3 I don't understand your question.

Providing housing to homeless people will absolutely reduce homelessness. And that requires tax revenue to fund.

On the other hand, no one who pays property tax in Seattle is going to be taxed into homelessness. This a good chance for a reminder that taxation in WA is radically regressive. The richest Washingtonians are staggeringly undertaxed.

@4, you're wrong. Property tax increases affect people's monthly mortgage payments, just as a rent increase does. My house would be considered a tear-down by many, yet our property taxes have increased 58% since purchasing it 10 years ago. This is before ST3 even hits our tax bill and we are trying to save for all the home maintenance projects which abound in our 54 year old home. Property tax increases are outpacing our ability to keep up and many middle class households are in the same situation.

@3 asks an honest question. Seattleites have been very generous over the years with the affordable housing levies while homelessness is decreasing in most of America. Better to ask why what we're doing is not working before this town is populated by only the very rich or the (still) homeless.

Thank you, @4. Of course, your statements won't shut up Raindrop and others, but what you've said is, nevertheless, fact.

The completely unanswered question is will high spending on homeless simply attract more (from rest of Western WA and beyond) than we successfully house?

There shouldn't be another tax increase for the "homeless" There is enough money to clear out the remaining vagrants as it is. Now, let's see Mayor Murray enforce the vagrancy laws

@4 Why take money away from success and give it to the loafers?

@6: No, @4 has opinons, not fact. There's a difference.

"clear[ing] out the ... vagrants" (@9) *is* "what we're doing" (@4). The favored term for it is "sweeping". And you're right, it doesn't reduce homelessness at all. You can't just make homeless people disappear unless you make them not homeless anymore. The city isn't doing that, yet.

@7, the answer is No. We unfortunately produce our own homelessness here, due to factors that should be obvious to everyone who has a brain.

Sarah91, multiple things can co-exist all all be true.

- Tax revenue can alleviate the problems of homelessness: TRUE

- High property taxes can force some to give up their homes: TRUE, especially when you consider that the aggregation of tax levies, and levy renewals, can equal and exceed a whole month's mortgage payment for a year. Would you like to pay 13 months of rent annually?

- Most of Seattle's homeless population are those whom are native or have lived here several years: TRUE

- Seattle's liberal policies and relatively temperate weather have attracted some homeless: TRUE

A little late to be grandstanding on the band wagon on this one Mayor Murray, just focus on enforcing the vagrancy laws.

@13. Seattle has 13x the number of homeless than the entire Eastside. Why?

Seattle has 1/3 of King County's population, but 2/3 of King County's homeless live in Seattle. We shouldn't so quickly dismiss the idea that homeless migrate to Seattle. No real study has been conducted here (I suspect the city doesn't want to know the answer), but in Vancouver BC more than half of its homeless are from outside the area.

It's very possible to spend an additional $55m a year (on top of the $50m we already spend) and have just as many living on our streets.

@16 and 17: Really? And you can't figure this out for yourself: cities are magnets. People flock to cities for a wide variety of reasons. Go to any city of any size from Vancouver to San Diego (and I'm including Oly, Salem, and Eugene) and you'll find concentrations of homeless folks and a chunk of them from somewhere else.

As the late Bill Hobson used to say "there is no goddamned Conde Nast for the homeless. Homeless people come to Seattle for the same reasons other folks do." And a lot of folks become homeless after they migrate here.

@19. Homeless don't flock to Bellevue or Kirkland which are about the same size as Olympia, Salem, or Eugene. Why not?

Agree with @18. Nice try by Murray attempting to capitalize on people's disgust with Trump in order to try to push his own Trump-like HALA policy. Support his wealthy developer backers by ensuring the destruction of existing affordable housing and package it in a bunch of BS. Oh yes, and make sure you leave the wealthy neighborhoods, including those inhabited by council members untouched.

No surprise that a Mayor who listens to San Francisco to get ideas on improving the homeless problem thinks he can spend his way out of the homeless problem. Having the highest per capita spending in the nation to help the homeless isn't going to solve anything when the ideas and policies are flawed to begin with. Lousy leadership increases the problem.

This guy has to go. He's a poison. He's owned by developers and wraps himself in a social justice sales pitch. We can't fund schools but we can fund his pet bike share and special interest projects. And he wants to shake me down for more, more, more$.

The reason homeless flock to Seattle is simple and well known. Seattle receives the lion's share of the county and state's homeless funds, which makes it a homeless magnet above and beyond other cities and its relative population. This is done on purpose, as the county and state feel it is a more effective way to distribute assistance to the region's homeless.

So there you go. The people who created this problem are already paying more as a response to creating it, and there is no need for a study, no grand conspiracy. Just government being government.

Mayor Murray needs to do a better job of ensuring that the money already being spent to house the homeless is being used effectively. So far it appears that very little money has been spent on actual housing. Until there is the political will to actually focus the money on building new housing--including potential solutions like the tiny houses covered in a recent Danny Westneat column--the money will be squandered on services intended to "fix" the homeless instead of providing housing.

@23: Murray killed bike share.

Wait. Are you SURE this was held at a mosque? According to our resident Islam experts here on SLOG women are forbidden to mingle with men inside mosques, and yet I count quite a few women among the attendees in the accompanying photo.