Less than 4% of homeless say eviction is the cause...

It’s almost like there’s other issues to deal with first that would better serve the homeless population.

By all means though, let’s keep beating this high rents/evictions as a cause horse. It’s nowhere near dead enough yet.

Shorter @1:

"I didn't read the study, and so I'm just going to make up a bullshit 'statistic' for which I have no source, citation, or evidence to back it up."

Shorter @2, I didn't bother to even read the article, so instead i'll accuse someone of not reading the study

" In a 2016 city survey of 1,050 people experiencing homelessness, only 3.3 percent of people said eviction was the reason they were homeless."

@all y'all. read the 2016 survey that's linked. 3% were evicted, 9% of families. a higher percentage had to move out when the rent became unaffordable - for whatever reason: unemployment, low wages, they're wastrels. it's like being evicted, kind of...

@1 isn't wrong on the specifics, but the survey is pretty incomplete when it comes to the why of homelessness. the big clues seem like the education levels and the age at which homelessness is 1st experienced.

pretty stunning that 50% of our homeless had homes in seattle previously. I find that pretty hard to accept on a gut level.

@Muffy

"It’s almost like there’s other issues to deal with first that would better serve the homeless population."

I'd like to know what you think.
What are the issues that need to be dealt with?
What are the possible Solutions?

If afordable housing isn't the solution, what is?

Well done, Heidi--a routine we've come to expect. Thank you.

@3:

And yet the study itself cites numerous surveys where eviction is specifically noted as one of, if not THE leading cause of homelessness (pages 10-11 and 13-18 are particularly relevant on this point), so clearly you didn't read it either.

Washington has some antiquated landlord-tenant laws. Look at RCW 59.18.354 to see the remedy for violent landlords. If the landlord threatens violence with a deadly weapon and the police are called, then the tenant can move out. The law does nothing for the range of threats falling below waving a deadly weapon around and getting a police report. Besides, who is scared to call the police? Never mind the cost of moving. Anyway, you can’t be a landlord or a property manager unless you’re level headed, right. . .?

This article is idiotic, it's like saying your heart stopping is the leading cause of death... not, you know, the cancer that ravaged your body or the high-speed car collision that caused massive blood loss prior to your heart eventually stopping. Yeah no duh eviction is the last step for someone who is out of money and places to go, but that's not the root cause. Does Heidi ever use logic?? What caused these people not to be able to pay rent? Maybe that's the issue that should be addressed and we shouldn't waste time passing laws to preventing property owners from removing people from their private property when said people stop paying rent.

And I don't know about you guys, but most people that get their rent raised don't suddenly become homeless, they move somewhere cheaper. My friends and I used to live on Capitol Hill but when our rents got raised past what was reasonably affordable for us, we moved to Burien, Kent, Rainier Valley, etc, we didn't say, "Oh, gee, I can't afford to live in exactly the neighborhood I want, guess I'd better set a tent up under the viaduct." Reasonable people also choose to split houses and apartments prior to homelessness. My boyfriend splits a two bedroom apartment with a roommate in a nice complex in Burien that has a pool and he pays $650 a month.... sometimes you gotta get roommates, that's just life. If anyone is saying they are homeless purely because of high living costs in Seattle, they're blowing smoke up your butt. It's definitely possible to find reasonably priced living conditions within easy commuting distance. If someone does go homeless after rent is raised it's because they either can't afford any rent all (aka are out of work/can't work/addiction or mental health problems) or there are massive red flags on their rental history. Both of these are separate root problems of homelessness that rent stabilization laws won't address.