Comments

1
I wonder how many years we'll have to go before they land on a place to build any of those tiny houses, assuming there's any money left after all the inevitable lawsuits and hand-wringing. Maybe by the time the next mayor is elected?
2
Can't wait until news of the 1000 tiny homes and 350 units in Ft Lawton attracts additional thousands of homeless from other counties and states.
3
@1: tiny houses are going up right now.
@2: so, your solution is don't build more housing and the homeless population won't grow? good plan.
5
@3 Yes, exactly. The homeless are attracted to the place that gives them the most handouts. Stop giving and they will go elsewhere.
7
The heartless assholes are out in force today. Fuck the poor, amiright!

I do think we need to do a better job finding solutions for homelessness. And almost anything we do to help will inevitably cost money. But this is a terrible idea.

The city should not be selling off property for this. They'd get a one time chunk of cash to spend, but then the money is gone. It isn't sustainable. You can't go back and get more because you've sold off the land. Worse, if the city needs land for anything else in the future, they'll have to buy it at future inflated prices, completely negating the money made on this proposed sale.

If the city can consider blowing $160 million on a goddammed police station remodel without selling off city property, then the city can come up with $11 million dollars to help homeless people without selling off city property.

TL; DR, kudos to Durkan for wanting to help the homeless, but failing grade for a shitty funding plan.
10
@7 That was alsonmy thought. Why the hell are we selling city property and to whom? This seems backwards.

Is there a law that says Seattle can’t become a developer and build its own affordable housing project?
11
@7: "Fuck the poor?"
If you're spending several hundred dollars a day on a drug habit, you're not poor. You're just making bad choices. People that who choose to steal from innocent civilians to fund their habit are not victims, and they shouldn't be treated as such.
12
@11: there are many types of homeless. they're not all junkie bike thieves.

there are homeless children, homeless families. should we punish them? be careful, if you show compassion to one group, it's a slippery slope to showing compassion to all.
13
How in the world are "tiny houses" a solution? People still need to cook, eat, bathe, poop, get rid of thier garbage. If one is crapping in the street now, one still will be as a resident of a "tiny house". I am already disappointed in Mayor Durkan. One part of the problem is the elimination of very low cost housing options over the last decades by zoning codes, building codes, and increased land values. Where did the boarding houses, SRO's, basement rooms rented out, bootlegged in apartments, flop houses and cage hotels (Google it) go? Of course. none of those would be of any use to the people debilitated by mental illness and / or drug addiction. This old grey-haired never-say-die lefty thinks that those who are helpless because of illness / addiction (same-same) probably need a more authoritarian approach, such as a sheltered facility with quite paternalistic oversight. Homeless camping in the city will never be a solution. Actually sheltering and treating the mentally ill is of course a totally crazy and unrealistic idea.
14
@12: nice try, but # 7's comment was directed at previous commenters who were specifically talking about junkies, not homeless children. After all, it's the addicts who are the ones causing the problems we're talking about.

And by the way, I think it's an outrage that homeless children are allowed to be living on the streets and in filthy, dangerous illegal encampments with those dirtbags. They should be immediately removed from that environment and put into a safe, secure shelter, whether their parents want to come with them or not.

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