Acknowledging that it will take much longer than their 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness Plan allows, city and county officials have decided that if they can’t beat homelessness, then it might as well live with it.
The 10-Year Plan, which expires this coming spring, was supposed to eradicate homelessness. Yet, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray expects the annual One Night Count for 2015 will show that the number of homeless people in Seattle has increased again. He noted that homelessness has gone up 30 percent since 2010.
“We must critically evaluate the question of why our generous resources and existing services have not changed outcomes for those in need,” Murray wrote in his letter to the members of his Emergency Task Force on Unsheltered Homelessness, which formed in October.
So, the city’s and county’s solution: to approve more “tent cities” to curb the number of illegal homeless encampments.
On Dec. 8, the Metropolitan King County Council approved the operation of homeless encampments in unincorporated areas for 10 more years.
Last week, Murray made his changes to the task force’s recently released recommendations. In addition to improving the process for hosting organized encampments, Murray’s recommendations include expanding shelters to city-owned surplus facilities; adding 150 beds at existing shelters, with at least 15 beds for homeless youths in a new facility; allowing authorized encampments on a limited number of unused, vacant lots on private and public land in non-residential areas, excluding city parks; and providing funding for utilities and supplies.
At the same time, Murray authorized $22 million to develop and preserve affordable housing to help reduce homelessness, with a long-term loan through the city's Office of Housing.
Despite all this, moving “unsheltered” people from doorways and under bridges and overpasses to tent communities won’t alleviate the mounting homelessness crisis. There is still a growing disparity between those who can afford to live in Seattle’s tech-boom economy and those who will ultimately be pushed to the outlying areas. Even the Seattle Housing Authority is redeveloping its Yesler Terrace low-income community — with the help of Paul Allen’s Vulcan Real Estate — to offer fewer affordable units and more market-rate housing.
The state’s unemployment rate increased for a third-consecutive month, to 6.2 percent — despite an estimated 6,800 new jobs created from October to November 2014, according to state’s Employment Security Department. Many of these job seekers may become residents of the increasing number of tent cities.
And not to mention, these encampments — organized or otherwise — will only be an eyesore for all the residents living and working in the new high-rises.
It won’t be long before these encampments will be homeless once again.