Last week, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced his selection of three potential sites for city-sanctioned homeless encampments. Reviewed by the Department of Planning and Development, the sites are surplus Seattle City Light properties, in Ballard, Interbay and the Industrial Area. Four other potential sites were named, one in each corner of the city. At least one site will open by the end of the year.
While the mayor has stressed that this is only a stopgap measure to the homeless problem while a permanent solution is researched, having all seven open won’t keep up with the increasing homelessness in Seattle.
This year’s One Night Count of homeless people in King County found more than 10,000 people in transitional housing and shelters and on the street — a 21-percent increase over the previous year.
And Dave McCormick, the Washington State Department of Transportation’s assistant regional administrator for maintenance, told KIRO Radio in late February that the state spends 80 percent of its $250,000 annual costs cleaning up illegal freeway camps in the Seattle area. Accompanied by police escorts, the crews remove about 10 tons of garbage, including needles and human excrement, from the camps each month.
The city continues to only chip away at the problem with relatively small solutions, like the 100-bed shelter to open later this summer on city property, in partnership with the Downtown Emergency Service Center.
The city has banned smoking in parks (which some believe primarily targets the homeless), there are no public stand-alone restrooms anywhere in the city and only two groups (SHARE and Nickelsville, two existing operators of homeless encampments) have stepped forward to run the additional encampments.
Just two weeks ago, Murray proposed the formation of a new Office of Planning and Community Development, to better coordinate planning efforts between city departments as they deal with growth. The goal is to ensure quality of life for Seattleites in regard to housing, parks, schools, social services and transportation. “How we grow and how we invest will go hand-in-hand,” he said. But one thing not mentioned in the rhetoric is the overall planning and investment for the homeless.
If it took the city nearly five months to plan and enact a “concerted, multi-pronged approach” to tackle Downtown Seattle’s illegal activity, it will certainly need the same dedication to address the growing homeless problem. City officials need to muster that up before the number of homeless people in the city becomes the majority of newcomers to the city.
Reviewed by the Department of Planning and Development, the sites are surplus Seattle City Light properties, in Ballard, Interbay and the Industrial Area. Four other potential sites were named, one in each corner of the city. At least one site will open by the end of the year.
While the mayor has stressed that this is only a stopgap measure to the homeless problem while a permanent solution is researched, having all seven open won’t keep up with the increasing homelessness in Seattle.
This year’s One Night Count of homeless people in King County found more than 10,000 people in transitional housing and shelters and on the street — a 21-percent increase over the previous year.
And Dave McCormick, the Washington State Department of Transportation’s assistant regional administrator for maintenance, told KIRO Radio in late February that the state spends 80 percent of its $250,000 annual costs cleaning up illegal freeway camps in the Seattle area. Accompanied by police escorts, the crews remove about 10 tons of garbage, including needles and human excrement, from the camps each month.
The city continues to only chip away at the problem with relatively small solutions, like the 100-bed shelter to open later this summer on city property, in partnership with the Downtown Emergency Service Center.
The city has banned smoking in parks (which some believe primarily targets the homeless), there are no public stand-alone restrooms anywhere in the city and only two groups (SHARE and Nickelsville, two existing operators of homeless encampments) have stepped forward to run the additional encampments.
Just two weeks ago, Murray proposed the formation of a new Office of Planning and Community Development, to better coordinate planning efforts between city departments as they deal with growth. The goal is to ensure quality of life for Seattleites in regard to housing, parks, schools, social services and transportation. “How we grow and how we invest will go hand-in-hand,” he said. But one thing not mentioned in the rhetoric is the overall planning and investment for the homeless.
If it took the city nearly five months to plan and enact a “concerted, multi-pronged approach” to tackle Downtown Seattle’s illegal activity, it will certainly need the same dedication to address the growing homeless problem. City officials need to muster that up before the number of homeless people in the city becomes the majority of newcomers to the city.