Five years into King County’s 10-year plan to end homelessness, some local advocates for the homeless say the campaign is failing. Homelessness has increased, emergency services like food banks and shelters are overtaxed, and, they argue, a new city proposal could make life harder for the homeless. Under a controversial proposed code of conduct, the city would hold new powers to banish people from city parks.
“The 10-year plan isn’t working,” says Peggy Hotes, a spokeswoman for Seattle Housing and Resource Effort (SHARE). “More people are losing their jobs and homes.” Several groups (including SHARE, Real Change newspaper, the nomadic homeless encampment Nickelsville, and the Women’s Housing Equality and Enhancement League) declared a state of emergency for homeless people in Seattle in late December.
But the growing problem is largely invisible to the city’s denizens. In late January, the annual One Night Count of people without shelter in King County showed a 5 percent drop from 2009, or 152 fewer people when excluding areas that weren’t counted last year.
The count is misleading, says Hotes, because “the city’s done things that chase people out of their normal spots, so they’re being more secretive.” (The homeless count found 84 people in areas not counted last year, and it didn’t include people living in shelters. Directors of the count concede that it is an “undercount.”) Hotes adds, “It’s not attributable to there being less homeless on the streets.”
A resident of Nickelsville named Suze agrees. “Yeah, I think the number’s wrong. There are always places to hide. The more they sweep, the better people get at hiding.”
Meanwhile, many homeless people hide in Seattle’s vast network of parks. But even there, the city may soon sweep them out.
On February 11, Seattle Parks and Recreation’s board of commissioners votes on a code of conduct that many argue would further ostracize Seattle’s homeless population. In addition to embracing a full ban on smoking or chewing tobacco in any park—punishable by 1 to 30 days banishment depending on the level of offense—the code also takes other measures. It would also define already illegal behavior—”Camping in any park unless specifically approved by the Superintendent; Improper use of restrooms (e.g., no bathing or showering, except in designated facilities, and no washing clothes, sleeping, or eating); Leaving packages, backpacks, luggage, or other personal items unattended while the owner is not in the same area of the park or inside the facility”—to explicitly ban violators.
“People are under the mistaken impression that outlawing people in public spaces will make them go away,” says Alison Eisinger, director of the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, which coordinated the One Night Count. “In reality, it makes an already difficult life incredibly hard. Regulations that restrict a person’s access to drinking water or use of a public restroom are unconscionable and unacceptable in a civilized society.”
Drawing roughly 200 testimonials from citizens, according to parks commission chair Jackie Ramels, the proposal has already undergone major reconstruction; a ban on spitting and rules that would limit users from opposite-sex restrooms were redacted after opposition from chronic salivators and the transgender community. But the other provisions, many seeming to target behaviors of homeless people, remain in the proposal.
Particularly given the current economy, ending homelessness in King County, or at least eliminating chronic homelessness by 98 percent by 2014, sounds like a quixotic goal—more like a great sound bite than an objective. However, Bill Block, project director of the Committee to End Homelessness, insists it’s working. So well, in fact, that King County’s 10-year plan is being treated as a national model for similar programs. “Out of our goal of 9,500 new housing units, we’ve opened 3,000 units and have 800 in the pipeline.”
So are the homeless really in a state of emergency, as some claim? “The difficulty is declaring a state of emergency within a state of emergency,” says Eisinger.
“A lot of the argument is over emergency shelter,” adds Block. “I guess I’m completely sympathetic with [Hotes’s] impatience, but it’s not to say that [the 10-year plan] isn’t working.”
However, advocates do agree that the proposed parks code of conduct would have particularly onerous impacts on homeless people in Seattle.
Asked about those concerns, parks commissioner vice-chair Neal Adams remains wishy-washy. “Where I am, personally, is—I’m undecided. I think we all ask ourselves to what extent does this present a significant issue. If it truly is a significant issue, it will help me make a better vote.” 
The more Seattle does to end homelessness, whether it’s real or merely propaganda, the more it serves to attract other cities’ homeless folks.
Nobody has explained how we can end homelessness with so many other homeless folks only a busride away.
Socialism now!!!Fuck all those overpaid and undertaxed motherfuckers!Progressive taxation – in the form of an municipal and/or county-wide INCOME tax,coupled with the abolition of KKKorporate Welfare,would end UNJUST homelessness in the ‘Richest Country Ever’.
@2 – Take a shower and get a job.
Yeah it seem like this plan is solving OTHER cities’ homeless problem, not ours
Ahh yes, the free wheelin’ life of the homeless jet set. They just hop onto the nearest flying unicorn and flit from city to city in search of generous handouts.
Thankfully, the City of Seattle is cracking down on these 24 hour party people with some good old fashioned harassment. This will easily solve all those mental health and addiction issues – why didn’t we think of it before!
@6 It’s my experience as a long time volunteer at many shelters around the city that the vast majority of homeless folks in seattle would very much like a house and a job. The problem is that its very hard to find a job without a house, and equally difficult to find a house without a job. See how that works?
@6 You “suspect” that not one homeless person has been asked if they prefer to live in a house with all of its requisite responsibilities.
Instead of suspecting from the warm comfort of your home, why don’t you go out and verify your suspicion? There are many shelters and homeless support services around the city that are looking for volunteers – pitch in, help out, and maybe learn a bit more about this situation. I think you will find it *very, very* hard to hold onto your ridiculous prejudices if you had any real experiences in this matter.
Calling it “homelessness” is the first problem–these people didn’t come home from work one day to find their home smashed by an asteroid and their bank account lost in some computer error from which it never recovered.
Between the untreated mentally ill, chronic drunks/addicts, total life-skill fuck-ups, and the monumentally unlucky (by far the smallest group of “homeless”) it’s a problem with many dimensions and few solutions, none of which are cheap. Just giving these folks free housing and food isn’t going to “fix” their situation, and America is on the whole unwilling to even foot the bill for that.
And it all comes down to more consumer conumption of throwaway products no one needs to live being saturated and oversupplied in an economy that views resources and wildlife and environments as unlimited and/or unimportant and not included in its pseudo-equations of Supply and Demand Etc. not being able to provide for those it has abandoned as non-productive. There are limits to what can be consumed. Crapitalism is a great way to build a budding economy but is NOT SUSTAINABLE even if resources didn’t run out or by-products (pollution) poison everything. It also rapidly makes living space sterile and unaffordable and leads to homlessness while the unaffected grab more “wealth”. Homless by choice to save $ and buy land etc. is one thing, but to have it all ripped out from under you including yer jobs and drivers license because the place you worked for for a year went corporate and found a nice legal way to not pay the workers all in 30 days is a whole different situation AND THAT IS REAL.
Most of what’s needed is a steady-state economy.
what part of /go get a job and work so you can afford all the capitalist things you want to buy. Maybe you should get out of your concrete jungle for a while and come enjoy nature on a regular basis rather then just now and then. Please I have known and still know people who can’t get a job or won’t because they have someone who will take care of them so they don’t have to, while the state gives them benefits for sitting on their ass all day. While there are peoplr who really do want and need help [and I don’t have any problem with helping those that want it] A lot do not, they just want us all to pay for their chosen lifestyle[however shitty it may be]. All you bleeding hearts need to get a clue, no matter how much we give it will always need to be more. If you don’t like capitalism,tough shit , everything you know is because of capitalism. That apartment you live in, food you eat, transportation you ride, ipod you use and the fucking computer you type your stupid diatribes on. Get over it!