Harris-Talley can't be gone soon enough.

“This is not about punishing anybody," Herbold said. "It's about a recognition that many of our social ills are the result of our economic expansion and growth and prosperity."

This is just straight up bullshit--the primary causes of homelessness are mental illness and substance abuse.

Roger What can't be gone soon enough.

@2 so what is it about seattle specifically that causes mental illness and substance abuse? What is it about Seattle specifically that caused mental illness and substance abuse to increase dramatically in recent years?

"so what is it about seattle specifically that causes mental illness and substance abuse"

All the bird seed you throw around that attracts them from around the state and region.

This is only going to increase the number of homeless that come to this city.

Shorter @5:

"I cannot for the life of me fathom why the largest city north of San Francisco and west of the Twin Cities would also have the largest population of homeless people in the region."

@6 Exactly. Throw out bird seed and then wonder why you have thousands of pigeons sh*tting on your house.

@1, 2, 5, 6, 8: beginning to think you're not serious persons, and prefer to snipe rather than offer better solutions.

what's your plan to address homelessness? mob violence?

@10: the city will never have enough money to throw at this problem because it requires a federal response. which is not forthcoming. this is a national crisis.

I don't think the council knows any other way to generate additional revenues. do you?

@7. Seattle has the third highest homeless population in the country but is 18th in size. It's a problem that's unique to the city.

“this is a national crisis.”

Homeless population is down nationally.

I have to ask those of you who support the head tax and the heroin injection sites. And I ask you this in all seriousness: Do you WANT more junkies and tweakers to come to Seattle?

Isn’t the problem that this tax affects business whether or not they make a profit? A retail business can make $5 million in revenues without actually turning much of a profit. If I’m wrong, I’m sure you’ll all be more than happy to educate me.

@16: that sounds like an easy fix then. problem solved.

@12:

Seattle is also the largest metropolitan center in the entire upper left-hand quadrant of the continental U.S., that is, literally the biggest city in a geographic area that encompasses a full quarter of the country, excluding Alaska, although I'm sure we probably have a few down-and-outers from up there in our homeless population. And our third place ranking is dwarfed by LA County and NYC where the homeless counts are four to seven times larger (granted, they also have much bigger general populations). If one were to combine San Francisco & San Jose, which aren't much farther apart than Seattle and Tacoma, we'd actually be in 4th or 5th place.

Shouldn't we be getting some comments about Sawant grandstanding? It's not like she'll ever get praised for doing her job, after all.

All this "the homeless population is going down" talk is garbage. Go to a Wal-Mart or freeway reststop in North Snohomish county at night and count how many people are sleeping in there cars. There were more homeless in Arlington and Stanwood 20 years ago than today? Really?

@19- they had a plan. A 10 year plan that promised to end homelessness. A ten year plan that raised taxes. A 10 year plan that King county spend $1,000,000,000 on. A 10 year plan that ended in 2015. See, they had a plan!

This is what happens when you elect people who've never had to meet payroll.

" Go to a Wal-Mart or freeway reststop in North Snohomish county at night "

Nice anecdote dude.

I'll take data from the National Alliance to End Homelessness:

- The national rate of homelessness in 2015 fell to 17.7 homeless people per 10,000 people in the general population from 18.3 in 2014. The rates in individual states ranged from 111 in the D.C. to 7 in Mississippi.

- The rate of veteran homelessness continued its descent of the past several years to 24.8 homeless veterans per 10,000 veterans in the general population. The rates in individual states ranged from 145 in D.C. to 9 in Virginia.

-The majority of states had decreases in every major subpopulation: family homelessness (33 states and D.C.), chronically homeless individuals (31 states and D.C.) and veteran homelessness (33 states).

The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a leader in homelessness service and research, estimates a 17% decrease in total homelessness from 2005 to 2012. As a refresher: this covers a period when unemployment doubled (2007-2010) and foreclosure proceedings quadrupled (2005-2009).

#25

Facts just confuse the narrative.

WOW!!! Fuck Seattle and this unworkable solution to help the homeless crisis. This won't do shit and everyone knows it. All they will do is hire some overpaid "experts" who will want more money and after a year provide not even a single extra bed for the homeless.

But prove me wrong City Council! Let's see where you are at with this crisis in 18 months!!

#21:

Kshama gives herself all the praise she'll ever need.

Punitive actions took the place of positive actual resolutions under the Murray regime. Forcing
people to live under dire conditions, police harassments, taking away their shelter and items needed for survival.

This defense by some commentators of wealthy businesses is disgraceful and cowardly. Are you a bunch of nazis? Low wages, unemployment, high housing costs, abuse are some of the reasons people are without decent shelter. No decent city would leave people out on he streets to die. So you want working people to pay for everything? This casino economy causes extreme misery.

64 people died on the streets in the last two years. IT DIDN’T NEED TO HAPPEN.
Instead of punishing vulnerable people money should have been spent to save them.

@29- money WAS spent. Lots of it. What did you do?

" Low wages, unemployment, high housing costs, abuse are some of the reasons people are without decent shelter. "

Yeah, both of folks. The rest are high and drunk and refuse help. When Seattle did the Jungle sweep less than 10% accepted help offered. The rest? Woo hoo, let's party in Ballard!

The city's data and accountability mechanisms are crap. Is anyone going to notice they are making the problems worse? Does the city need to burn to the ground before we call them on it.

Money was spent on driving people out of their tents and into the streets making it worse for the most vulnerable. These are human beings and not trash. It was spent on police hours when it could have been spent on social services. It was spent on ER hours when it could have been spent on decent shelter. You do realize that addiction and mental illness is not a crime. Being poor does not mean that society should punish you. #31 What the hell are you doing? Defending he richest corporations?

#32 Have you ever been homeless? You don’t know what the hell you are talking about.

@34- blah blah blah. You, Ivy, were complicit in killing those 64 people by enabling their behavior. "It's ok, little junkie, it's not your fault, it's the corporations!"

@34- and I'll ask again, WHAT DID YOU DO?

Francis7 I made the mistake of not ignoring you. You are a bully. But rant away I’m done with you.

Oh Francis, you've triggered Ivy.

@39- right? They can't decide if I'm a nazi or a bully.

@40 Most likely just a moron who keeps voting for assholes who dismantle the social safety net and public health networks, yet complains about chronic homelessness and municipalities having to spend money to clean up the mess.

@41 is mostly likely a clues cunkuckle that thinks voting for the same thing over and over will produce different results.