News Jul 22, 2022 at 9:00 am

But We Don’t Have to Use It Like One

If counties use state money to treat people like trash, then they'll get trash results. Greg Stump

Comments

1

Oh, so most of the state is going to sweep, and King County will provide (some) services. I wonder where people are going to go after they are displaced in sweeps, and how happy the rest of state will be about offloading there problems on us (prediction: very).

3

Sweep early, sweep often, keep on sweeping till they all go someplace else. We don't have the will power to solve homelessness so at least we can make it so the citizens of Seattle don't have to look at it. Make it so hard to live a homeless life in Seattle that they move someplace else, like Portland or Eugene.

4

"will just end up sweeping the same people over and over again until their core needs are met. "

That's right Hannah. We'll need to do that for the rest of our lifetimes, probably. So be it. I'm glad to pay taxes for it.

Repeatedly cleaning up is the moral thing to do. If there was trash, hazardous materials, and human waste on your living room floor, you'd repeatedly clean it up too.

6

Just drove by the mini-encampment south of the Aurora bridge, in a parking lot sorta across from the Aloha, and they were picking up the last of the garbage, fence around the parking lot. Sweep sweep sweep!

Though the encampments straddling the express lanes on the north end of the Portage Bay Viaduct are bonkers now. C'mon WSDOT...

7

@4. Yep. I run a small business in a near-in downtown Seattle neighborhood, and every morning I have to go out with my grabber and pick up the garbage people dropped or has blown in. Every single day. I'm not comparing the homeless to trash, but they certainly generate more than their fair share of it. Fair share...that's a good metaphor.

10

you keep saying justcare works and is a super-successful alternative to sweeps, and the only data you provide to back that up is that they offered 14 people under I-5 shelter access. not even mentioning how many accepted or how many moved-on into permanent housing.
great success!

12

When I "clean the house", sweeping the dirt from the living room to the bedroom to the kitchen and back to the living room doesn't help a damn thing.
It just leaves the house as dirty as it was before.

All these "programs" are, is a make-work project for lawyers and trigger-happy cops.

I guess that's what they mean by "helping people".

13

when shall we sweep
the couch cushions of
the richest amongst us
and provide Housing for all
as well as Healthcare etcetera

we're okay with some
having Nothing whilst
others have Ships made
to order, too Large to sail
without removing bridges
or for rocketing off to Space
trying to decide Which of their
Dozens of homes to visit next. wtff

epic Inequality
Wars over property
a catastrophic Climate

are likely to upend this
civilization and the 'bottom'
99% will all become Vastly more
'equal' than we've ever even Dreamed

the Status Quo
Ain't gonna
Fix itself.

14

@11 I echo your viewpoint... and yes the recession is going to be a game changer both in terms of sentiment and politically. The democrats are in deep doo doo this time round.

Seattle is experiencing a severe case of "compassion babble". Where one laments the "disparity in life" ... the latest "heat disparity", disparity in what one can feeds their pets... good grief.

The sweeps are a normal response to what amounts to a massive, expensive series of "do nothing programs" which have not solved the problem, nor are they likely to solve the problem as the past 10 years has so painfully illustrated..

Yes, indeed there is fatigue by the average taxpayer seeing their money squandered on what are essentially vagrants or drug addicts. One begins to wonder why money is being wasted on them as opposed to being spent on say things like better roads, child care, schools, police protection perhaps... etc.... things which taxpayer's have come to expect.

15

gosh manlytoes
if only hadn't let
the filthy Rich siphon
the Fruits of the Economy
up to the One Percent we might even
Have all those things you're so Excited about

it's GOOD
to be Rich

the reat of us will
soon enough be

essentially vagrants
or drug addicts.

16

oh and de-humainzing
the "vagrants" or Drug Addicts

whilst turning a blind eye
to an insidious Inquality

may speak to your
Compassion Index.

unless I'm Mistaken
your Compassion
for the Wealthy
vastly out-
weighs

the rest of
the Citizenrty's

and then there's
The Sacklers addicted*
MILLIONS and pocketed

fucking Billion$
where's the
Outrage?

*perhaps more than a few
Sackler Survivors are on our Streets

good ole Capitalism.
oh and OWNING all
of OUR Lawmakers

not to mention
Judges.

'repubs' are excellent at this shit
plus overly-well-funded

17

Justice would be the whole
damn sackler fambly
living on the Street.

feel free
to Judge
them as
well

19

Sweep em all into the county and state jails. Seattleites are sick of smelly and gross bums pissing and shitting and smoking their nasty ass Fentanyl everywhere. We are sick of their eyesore vehicles. We are sick of all the criminal activity associated with this "lifestyle". Until this state gets serious about taxing the income of billionaires who live here to fund the more compassionate programs I don't want a cent of my tax dollars to be spent on this problem than is necessary. If sweeps are the solution that fits this bill so be it.

Sorry "unhoused population", if you don't want to play by the rules of society then you'll find society has low tolerance for you.

20

"Governor Inslee Created a Slush Fund for Sweeps"

Wrong. The Dep't of Commerce gave money to local counties, for removal of dangerous encampments along high-speed roadways. Democrats in the legislature put their anti-sweep ideology ahead of saving human lives, and tried to restrict the Dep't of Commerce from funding sweeps. At this they failed, because anti-sweep ideology has failed, and voters in Seattle indicated wanting sweeps in last November's elections. So, the money may be used to sweep encampments.

"Though living in tents next to roads presents dangers to all, sweeps do not reduce that danger long-term."

That second clause is not even close to being true. There was a large encampment under the Spokane Street Viaduct for years, until it was swept, and the area closed to campers. There are no encampments there now. So, the entire justification for holding up this money was based on a lie. (Did anyone die in an encampment due to anti-sweep ideologues holding up disbursement of these funds?)

@10: "you keep saying justcare works and is a super-successful alternative to sweeps, and the only data you provide to back that up is that they offered 14 people under I-5 shelter access."

That's because JustCare is both expensive and ineffective. From the linked article ("numbers") at the Seattle Times:

"...JustCare’s annual reported cost per shelter bed in 2021 was $127,376, according to city documents obtained by The Seattle Times. That’s more than double what the Downtown Emergency Service Center, a shelter operator that also focuses on people with complex needs, charged per bed at its Red Lion hotel shelter program."

[...]

"A Seattle Times investigation in August 2021 found that 10 months after JustCare helped 57 people living at an encampment under Interstate 5 move into hotel rooms, more than one-third of them were out of the program and likely living back on the streets."

While JustCare itself is a new program, it is not a new type of program. Moving persons off the streets and into hotels, where they await permanent housing, is called, "transitional housing." The Poppe Report cited the high cost and low effectiveness of transitional housing:

"Transitional housing is extraordinarily expensive at more than $20,000 for each single adult exit [into permanent housing]..." (http://www.seattle.gov/documents/departments/pathwayshome/bpa.pdf)

That was in 2016. While the price tag has since gone way up, the results have been the same.


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