Seattle has a booming economy and high-wage jobs. But too many residents are being pushed out in the face of rising housing and living costs, and the growth in our economy has not been shared nearly widely enough.
According to the Census Bureau, Seattle was the fastest growing city in the nation, with our population growing by almost 19 percent over the past ten years. Affordable housing development coupled with rising rents in the private market has not kept pace with the need.
As the number of affordable units shrinks, the cost of housing continues to skyrocket. In , the Seattle Housing Authority opened its lottery for the Housing Choice Voucher program, which helps low-income families, individuals, seniors and people with disabilities pay their monthly rent in privately-owned apartments or house. More than 21, completed registrations were received for 3, places on the list. The City remains dedicated to creating affordable housing through the Seattle Housing Levy and other sources including incentive zoning and Mandatory Housing Affordability.
People experiencing homelessness are disproportionately people of color. The systemic issues of racial inequity and the policies that drive that inequity is woven throughout our City. These disparities continue to show up in many ways - educational attainment, life expectancy and access to healthcare, access to affordable housing, and access to jobs training for family-wage jobs - and are key indicators in determining success in Seattle.
The criminal justice system has failed to attain a comprehensive understanding of the drivers of homelessness. Booking criteria and sentencing guidelines do not reflect the historic and systemic issues of racial equity and social justice. This is a critical misstep: this data is needed to ensure that compliance requirements do not criminalize those who are homeless.
There are multiple documented causes for homelessness, although officials often find it easiest to focus only on economic issues.
Local bureaucrats have tended to blame the free market and capitalistic activities as the root cause of the homeless problem, rather than the failures of their own programs. Ever rising rents, income inequality, and lack of affordable housing are often cited as the fundamental reasons for homelessness. Yet research shows that many other factors, such as mental illness, drug addiction, domestic violence, and especially disaffiliation play a predominant role in fueling the crisis.
This Policy Note reviews the actual and growing number of homeless people in the Seattle area, the various causes, what programs have been tried to solve the problem to date, and the realistic solutions that other communities have used to deal with this increasing social problem. Read the full Policy Note here. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email. Unfortunately, Adrienne Quinn, the new boss of the Committee to End Homelessness—which has since rebranded itself as All Home—is even worse than the old boss.
But no amount of money will make any difference until we correctly diagnose the problem and focus on practical solutions, not utopian dreams. For the past 70 years, sociologists, political scientists, and theologians have documented the slow atomization of society. As family and community bonds weaken, our most vulnerable citizens fall victim to the addiction, mental illness, isolation, poverty, and despair that almost always precipitate the final slide into homelessness.
Alice Baum and Donald Burnes, who wrote the definitive book on homelessness in the early s, put it this way:. Homelessness is a condition of disengagement from ordinary society—from family, friends, neighborhood, church, and community. Poor people who have family ties, teenaged mothers who have support systems, mentally ill individuals who are able to maintain social and family relationships, alcoholics who are still connected to their friends and jobs, even drug addicts who manage to remain part of their community do not become homeless.
Homelessness occurs when people no longer have relationships; they have drifted into isolation, often running away from the support networks they could count on in the past. I know 3, of them by name and know their stories. The biggest problem is broken relationships. In the near term, cities like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles must shift toward a stance of realism, which means acknowledging that compassion without limit is a road to disaster.
Homelessness should be seen not as a problem to be solved but one to be contained. Cities must stop ceding their parks, schools, and sidewalks to homeless encampments. Encouragingly, citizens and local governments all along the West Coast are starting to demand an end to the policy of unlimited compassion. We have offered services time and time again and gotten many off the streets, but there is a resistant population that remains, and their tents have to go. Enough is enough.
In Seattle, Mayor Jenny Durkan, who made her reputation as a federal prosecutor, is faced with a clear choice: appease the compassion brigades and the homeless-industrial complex, or break free from the status quo and take decisive action to address the crisis. If she can summon the political will, Durkan can implement some emergency measures that will dramatically reduce the social disorder associated with street homelessness. For examples, she can look to other cities that have shown that homelessness can be contained with smart, tough policies.
In Seattle, the mayor should petition the private sector for donations to build similar emergency shelter facilities, construct them on vacant city property in the industrial district, and run a dedicated free bus line from the shelters to the downtown core so that residents can access additional services and eventually find work.
In Houston, local leaders have reduced homelessness by 60 percent through a combination of providing services and enforcing a zero-tolerance policy for street camping, panhandling, trespassing, and property crimes. The first order of business must be to clean up public spaces, move people into shelters, and maintain public order.
For addiction services, we should prioritize recovery programs and terminate policies like safe-injection sites that draw addicts from other cities. Seattle must break up its homeless-industrial complex, too.
Last year, interim mayor Burgess took a first step in rebidding city contracts and cutting funding for ineffective organizations like SHARE. Mayor Durkan should build on this success, reforming the system of perverse incentives and instituting accountability for all organizations getting taxpayer funds.
Outcomes, not quantity of services, should take precedence; funding should taper off as the crisis subsides, not continue in perpetuity. U ltimately, the success or failure of local government is a back-to-basics proposition: Are the streets clean? Are the neighborhoods safe? Are people able to live, work, and raise their families in a flourishing environment?
We have the resources to contain the homelessness crisis, in Seattle and elsewhere. The question is whether political leaders will have the courage to act. Christopher F. TED S. Send a question or comment using the form below.
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