The Denny Park RESTORATION begins today.

There, fixed it for you.

There are only a few tents left anyway. Now they can fence the park and plant grass seed.

Given that the pedestrian bridge is sitting in the median of I-5 ready to be hoisted into place (and slowing traffic as people try to figure out what the hell it is) you would think Sound Transit would have updated the video a bit.

It's not housing insecurity!!!!!!!!! They don't want the options offered. They want to live with their dog/cat/gf/bf/octopus and crack pipes. They don't want the housing options!!! Stop calling it that!!!!!

The primary cause of homelessness is a lack of affordable housing. Most homeless can't afford what little is out there and just want to be able to afford rent on a minimum wage job. America has decided that would be too inconvenient to the wealthy; thus, the homeless remain homeless.

It's that simple.

The wolf slaughter mentioned in post was not in Montana, I don't think. While a red state, Montana is a pretty cool guy and handles their natural resources better than most.

@6 they may not love it but many of them when given a choice between staying outside or accepting shelter that comes with some form of regulations choose to remain outside. It's unfortunate that sweeps are needed but sometimes people need to be pushed to finally make a decision to come in from the cold and start to rebuild their lives.

What a culture that demands humans without shelter take all they have go 'elsewhere' so that a field of grass can be planted and then walled off exclusively for being observed and sat on only by people who either pay rent or own property (but not this property, despite how possessive they are of it).

I understand there are many justifications that sound perfectly reasonable if said often enough by enough people, but to me it can only seem bizarrely depressing.

@7 there are a lot of places you can make rent on a minimum wage job. It's just that none of those places start with "Sea" and end in "ttle" and people feel entitled to live wherever they want. Like, I want a beach house in Malibu but I'm not going to go there. Know why? I can't afford it without squatting or getting like 100 roommates.

I'd like to start a non-profit that buys homes in the Midwest for $35-50k and hands the keys over to Seattle-area families looking for a pathway out of permanent poverty. Build a network of businesses that would take-on out-of-state labor to partner with ensuring that people have a job going forward. Obviously, this isn't a solution for the chronically homeless and those who are unable to hold-down a job but I feel like it could benefit a lot of people especially families. Seems better than living in constant poverty, maybe out of a tiny home but maybe out of your vehicle, while making twice the minimum wage as someone in the Midwest who has a roof over their heads and you don't even though you "make more" . Idk, that's just me...

@11, "there are a lot of places you can make rent on a minimum wage job"

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/02/the-7point25-minimum-wage-doesnt-help-families-pay-the-bills-in-any-state.html

The pedestrian bridge that connects to the Link station will do more than connect to Link. It will make walking and biking much easier in the neighborhood. I would use it now if it was available. Currently, the only alternatives are to go on Northgate Way (which sucks) or down and around to 92nd (which isn't as bad, but is indirect for a lot of trips). A lot of people will have a much shorter, nicer walk from their apartment in Northgate to North Seattle College or their place in Licton Springs to one of the clinics in Northgate.

@6: Fascist - is that what you're calling the mayor and the city, or just those who support their actions?

500 years later and people still suffer from John Calvin's brain disease: the compulsion to view material outcomes in moral terms. The affliction destroys the ability to understand things in any other terms, alas for the sufferers.

@11,

"I'd like to start a non-profit that buys homes in the Midwest for $35-50k and hands the keys over to Seattle-area families looking for a pathway out of permanent poverty."

That's a kinda interesting idea and I've no doubt some homeless would jump at the chance (if I were homeless, I would). But I can't imagine that would solve more than a small percentage of the problem. Most people live in the same area they grew up and would find a relocation like that incredibly challenging and stressful. They may not want to leave behind extended families and support networks. Also not sure how it would affect local economies to have sudden big population changes. The cost of buying existing houses and relocating the homeless to them seems more expensive than simply building new affordable housing where the homeless already are.

But still, it could be an option for some.

@21: Appreciated. Your slip into Goodwin's law is understandable during these times.

Yesterday I listened to an interview of a homeless guy who was moving his tent out of Denny Park before the sweep.

Funny, I don't remember him mentioning how much he loved living in a tent and being a grifter. I do remember him talking about being on a waiting list for assisted housing, and having to find somewhere else to live until his name comes up, and being afraid to go to a shelter in the middle of a pandemic.

I gotta say, I kinda agree with him. If I were homeless right now (something I've never experienced) during a pandemic, I'd rather live in a tent than risk a shelter. I'm sure the shelters try to do what they can, but I'm having a hard time imagining how well the masking and social distancing protocols work in a shelter full of homeless people, at least some of whom have mental health or addiction problems. No thanks. I'd go for the tent too.

Oh, and Dolly Parton is a national treasure.

@22:

Have you actually gone out and interviewed these people? Otherwise, how the hell would you know where they're from, aside from just pulling an unsubstantiated claim out of your ass like a particularly stringy piece of shit?

@22 Erm, no. Only 22% of King County's homeless population lived here for less than 2 years (13% less than 1 year) before becoming homeless. You'll need to recheck your decoder ring for another talking point. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/do-homeless-people-come-to-seattle-for-help/

@26, 27,

I just ignore that troll. If I remember correctly, last time there was a homeless "discussion" on one of these posts, he was out shitposting lies non-stop.

@28 -- strange -- has he not yet
encountered Our dear Perfessor?

In my personal experience of watching all the guys that repeatedly rob my neighbors drag their loot back to Denny Park for resale (one time while wearing fake SPD uniforms), also the many times I’ve seen disadvantaged and Down’s syndrome ladies forcibly prostituted out of tents there, I can confidently say it’s not a winner’s circle at Denny Park, and interviews on the news are just interviews on the news. Perhaps some of the folks camping at Denny Park really are nice local folks down on their luck. But most i’ve actually talked to and been chased by are just old honky addict occupiers from Southern states taking up more public access, and paying less taxes for it, than even Amazon famously does. Why does a handful of theiving fuckfaces get to lay claim to our city’s first park and all usage of it? Why are (seems like it’s all white guys) excusing it? I can’t wait to walk across that park without guys asking for my “yum yums” or having to watch super closely to not step on needles just to get to a dr’s appointment. I can’t wait to see my neighbors, housed and unhoused, at the next Denny Park farmers market that has no actual farm goods. Like I seriously candy wait to see that park full of Airstreams selling $12 mason jars of artisanal limeade.

Yes, I love a good dose of reality from the Professor. Please send @22 a shit sandwich from dumb-fuckistan. I know I've certainly taken a few bites in the past!

@32:

That's ONE definition, but the action doesn't necessarily require the element of surprise:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/raid

@21 - So, we dealt with homeless issues quite a bit when I was a cop in Dallas. There is indeed a subset of the homeless (or there was there anyway) that we called the "hardcore homeless" who are very, very resistant to assistance. For those who refused shelter, it wasn't about how crowded it was; it was due to the fact they couldn't drink or smoke there. At least, that was by far the two most most common reasons given.

The prohibition against drinking was necessary, as a bunch of dudes with varying degrees of mental illness and addiction problems all staying together and drinking led to...uh...problems. I never understood the smoking ban, though. I always figured that was for the benefit of the staff and not the residents. Yeah, it's unhealthy, but their lives are tough, so let 'em smoke if they want.

Beyond that, there is also severe mental illness that needs treated in residential facilities. Of course, we don't have those anymore. And there is severe addiction that needs a similar level of treatment. We don't have enough of those. The homeless we dealt with most often could not hold a job, well paying or not, due to the above two reasons.

So, it seems like heavily investing in long-term inpatient mental health and addiction treatment centers, expanding shelter availability and relaxing some of the more nonsensical rules at those shelters would solve a significant chunk of the homeless problem.

@36 probably has to switch to another browser without the add-on to know who people are referring to, unless the prof isn't not really "blocking" at all.

I heard from this homeless guy named Mr. Wendall that he had a freedom you and I thought was dumb. I'd give him a dollar, no actually I'd give him two. It meant a big deal to him, it was just a snack to me. He'd often give me advice on buying some shoes. Said we spend all our money on college but just come out confused. Go on Mr. Wendall.

@41, it's about both, affordability as well as addiction and mental illness. We've always had junkies and the mentally ill in Seattle. We used to have some housing that was cheap enough for quite a few of them to afford, now, not so much.

100,000 of the vaccine shots were just at Harborview, by the way.

But King County has only 7% of the population immunized with even one shot.

We need a lot more.

As someone who comes from the midwest, and recently sold some real estate there, let me just quietly murmur that $50k won't buy you squat (unless you're buying a mobile home), and there's not much employment opportunity there.

@40,

"I didn't know it was possible to block people on this site. How do you do that?"

I think it's something called Greasemonkey. A script or code that can block people from your view. I have no idea how it works or how to install it though, you'd have to google greasemonkey script or code or blocker.

@45,

"This is where personal life choices, that are up to you to realize, becomes important."

Ah yes, "personal life choices," the battle cry of the privileged white male who is incapable of realizing that we don't all exist in a vacuum, who thinks everyone has exactly the same opportunities and exactly the same choices in life. Who believe that whatever their OWN experiences with racism, and sexism, and poverty, and crime, and childhood, and schooling, and the police, are EXACTLY the same as what everyone else experiences.

"What? That black man joined a gang as a teen and the police threw him in jail for possession of marijuana? What terrible life choices he made! I never made those choices. He should have made the same choices I made."

@7: "The primary cause of homelessness is a lack of affordable housing."

We've been over this already:

http://coshumaninterests-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/City-of-Seattle-Report-FINAL-with-4.11.17-additions.pdf

Majority of homeless arrived here already homeless, graph on page 1;
Majority of homeless report drug use, second graph on page 4;
Majority of homeless are unemployed, Fig. 7 (p. 12)
Vast majority of homeless (68.7%) not originally from Seattle, Fig. 13 (p. 16)

It's a public-health crisis of addicts and/or mentally ill persons who have recently moved here. Attempting to ignore this, and to pretend it's a merely a housing-availability issue, will simply continue our record of expensive, dismal failure to help the homeless. (No amount of berating your fellow Slog commenters for our supposed lack of concern for the homeless will do anything to change this failure, either.)

We live in such a large and vastly diverse nation that going after some nebulous "equity" is all but impossible. BUT we can aim to create more equity under the law by both completely ending the war on drugs and all cash bail outside of the most violent offenses.

Yes, assholes that condemn the homeless for making "bad" choices or whatever are completely out of touch with reality. Too cowardly to object to the causes: like a bad economy and corrupt politicians or abusive situations where you have to run.

They should be screaming about all the financial breaks of the super rich that are robbing us blind. Also the city's utility bills need to be cut in half to assist our residents at this time of crisis without going through red tape to prove we are low income.
51 You are an arrogant idiot that needs to go away and get educated.
One example, someone lost their job was unable to get another and ran out of unemployment insurance then became homeless as he could no longer afford rent.
Without a safety net, family and connections, it could happen to anyone.

This city government will not put into place the Housing First program which would solve much of this crisis. Why not? Why are we paying taxes and not getting this put into place?
Recently, the mayor's regime refused federal funding that would have provided emergency housing but would rather call the cops on the homeless. Brutal, inhumane and in violation of human rights laws. Jackkay - Its easy for the very rich generally speaking and in a country as wealthy as this one there is NO excuse for this poverty!

Start demanding that the city put in place the Housing First program and reduce the utility bills for a start for a better city.

Twenty, forty years ago we didn't see this number of homeless people and that had to do with the economy. We are experiencing another depression while a few benefit from this misery many people suffer. We can fight back.

Tensor - you are repeating the same crap over and over from your privileged bubble. Do you work for the mayor? Its not poor people that are to blame.

Its nationwide, its even global, we are experiencing a depression now and it is caused by the corporate elite that have stolen most of our wealth.

9 Are you for real???? What kind of bubble do you live in to even imagine your solution is practical for people in dire need and are not responsible for this economy. Utterly elitist.

58 Cutting the funding for SSI for needy people has nothing to do with the economy?

And who exactly controls the economy?

am humbled by those who have shared how compassionatly they feel the pain of these homeless folks who have encroched private and public property that really belongs to all of us and them. I was hoping all those supporters of cause could find a paper and pen along with your garage keys. Write down your address and hand it to them with your garage key so that they can really live a better life and so that you can prove to the rest of the world that you really do feel compassionate about these folks. Its so much easier so support a cause by hidig behind a cell phone screen when you are not the one suffering. BE TRUE 2 URSELF. STOP FAKING SUPPORT TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF.

@50,

"What world is life easy for everyone?"

That's an easy one: The wealthy.

In the U.S. it helps a bit if you're also male, white, christian, and heterosexual. But really those others are just minor bonuses. As long as you're wealthy life's simple, with probably the sole exception of contracting incurable and painful illnesses, but even then, the ill wealthy person has it leagues easier than the ill-not-wealthy person.

@56: No, Ivy, my introducing actual facts into the dialog here is not a nefarious plot orchestrated by the Mayor's "regime." It's my reminding everyone here that pretending all of the homeless could even live in subsidized housing ignores the reality of why they became homeless in the first place.

Where are you going to get money to house thousands of homeless persons who, due to drug addiction and/or mental health issues, couldn't afford even $1/month in rent? Where are you going to get money to treat them? How do you explain to our hardworking poor that they can't have subsidized housing, so that addicts who moved here to steal should get it? If you want to pay for that too, great, I'll vote for it, but that's even more money. (Bear in mind our City Council has yet even to admit that drug use plays a part in causing homelessness, despite those facts I cited were first published in 2017.)

Oh, and speaking of those actual facts you rightly loathe, both King County and Seattle are suing Purdue Pharma for causing this homelessness crisis, by pushing opiates on vulnerable populations. There has been a judgment in federal court which agrees: 'Purdue Pharma will admit to enabling the supply of drugs "without legitimate medical purpose".' (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54636002). You want to rant about big, evil corporations causing misery? Go right ahead. Then ask our City Council why they constantly refuse to engage reality when continuing our failed homeless policy.

@64: Indeed, and we have this report to consider:

'SHARE shelter residents get “participation credits” for attending political demonstrations and rallies. Each resident must earn a number of these credits each week. Otherwise, they face immediate eviction. Other options for earning the credits include doing trash pick-up, guard duty at camp, and other menial tasks. Compared to doing hours of trash pick up or standing sentry at 2 AM, sitting through a meeting at City Hall must look good. Using the participation credit system, Morrow can virtually guarantee a good turnout at rallies. Or protests.'

(https://roominate.com/blog/2016/anatomy-of-a-swindle/)

So, homeless persons housed in a city-funded camp get ordered -- on threat of eviction from the only home they have -- to provide political support for certain Council positions and Council Members. Maybe someone who actually cares about the homeless might investigate this cruel exploitation of them. Maybe a local paper which currently begs for donations to continue independent journalism?