Nobody else wants to be there, it's not valuable property, and isn't bothering the taxpayers. If they have to be in Seattle, seems like the best place.

Clearly adding razor wire around these encampments will find these people homes.

A few things $1 million could buy rather than a razor fence:

Porta Potties
Dumpsters
Community shelter with freezers and microwaves
webcams
security guards
shower house
social workers

That's the stupidest proposal ever made by a supposedly intelligent person. As the Lacitis article in the Times says, the proposal was altered to call for weaker wire so it wouldn't be so expensive, and they also decided not to dig down to place the wire underground; thus, someone with a wire cutter could get in easily, or they could just dig a little bit and get under the fence. Not to mention what @2 and @3 say, if they cared about the upwards of 400 people who camped there.

I agree with @5, it's a stupid idea. I think Senator Carlyle has been spending too much time in the toxic sludge that is the Republican controlled State Senate. No, wait, he only just got there.

Well, at least he wants the City to offer the estimated 400 people (non-existent) services first before displacing them. As @2 says, that will work to find them homes. Geez.

Something tells me the homeless live there because they have been allowed to, not because they love the location so much. They will just find another place to call "The Jungle" if you put up razor wire.

What a bizarrely pointless gesture.

8000 linear feet of cyclone fence and razor wire: $1M.

4-hour rental of a bolt cutter from nearby Home Depot: $10.

@8: Hell, you could probably get through with some elbow grease and a good pair of tin snips.

Maybe we can get Mexico to pay for it.

I think we can all agree on getting them out of there, but, a fence for a million dollars? Uh.... no. How about we invest that million in funding a study that explores WHY people in Seattle are homeless. I agree with @4, we have a bum problem, not a homeless problem IMO.

I bet if the state hired some of those same homeless people to put up that fence, and then hired a bunch more to maintain it, it would give those people good state jobs, with medical and mental coverage, and probably cost less to put up.
...yeah, I know, never going to happen.

I think the issue here is that the specific place has become a magnet and thus is itself the problem.
Of course fencing it off isn't going to make anyone there no longer homeless, but it could and hopefully will make it a little safer.

More ammunition to drive desperate, poor people out of the city instead of positive and intelligent approaches provided by Salt Lake City and elsewhere (a program called Housing First). Drug addicts, poor people, the mentally ill are not bums. Its a severe hardship and very dangerous to live outside in the cold. Addiction is a serious illness not a hobby. These are people not trash to throw out in the streets with no options. This is a wealthy city and state and those with wealth and power should be ashamed. Affordable housing has been destroyed over the decades, barriers to housing increased, rents skyrocketed, low wages, health care is expensive, etc. but prisons have been built and poverty increased. Housing is a human right not a privilege for the rich.