Seattle homelessness

[MillCreek]

This is a good opinion piece:  https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/seattle-homelessness-no-end

[Fly320s]

The flaming stick video is eye opening.

[French G.]

I think I read elsewhere that Seattle spends 100k per year per homeless person based on the budgets of the programs and agencies in place to deal with them. So far this has succeeded wildly. In increasing the homeless population.

[WLJ]

Seattle is their home thus they are not homeless thus Seattle has no homeless. See! democrat policies work!

[RoadKingLarry]

I think I read elsewhere that Seattle spends 100k per year per homeless person based on the budgets of the programs and agencies in place to deal with them. So far this has succeeded wildly. In increasing the homeless population.

That's a feature, not a bug.

[MillCreek]

We call it the 'homeless industrial complex' up here in Seattle, and the amount of money spent, vs. the return on investment, is shocking.

https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/article/what-it-costs-to-end-homelessness-in-King-County-15008905.php

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/why-does-prosperous-king-county-have-a-homelessness-crisis#

My prescription would be in addition to increasing tiny houses and the like, would be to provide more mental health and addiction services and giving people a choice between availing themselves of services, going to jail, or being put on a bus out of state.

[Ben]

My prescription would be in addition to increasing tiny houses

I didn't read all the links, but is Seattle springing for tiny houses? I looked into them for a while, considering one for next to the house for guests or if I can ever convince my dad to move up, but their cost vs modular home, mobile home, etc. was pretty outrageous. Seems like the city would be better off buying fleets of fifth wheels and trailers, which could be easily moved so the land could be used for other things, if at some point in the future they don't want tiny house shanty towns all over the place.

[Andiron]

Y'all need to pray for climate change that involves brutal winters.

[MechAg94]

We call it the 'homeless industrial complex' up here in Seattle, and the amount of money spent, vs. the return on investment, is shocking.

https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/article/what-it-costs-to-end-homelessness-in-King-County-15008905.php

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/why-does-prosperous-king-county-have-a-homelessness-crisis#

My prescription would be in addition to increasing tiny houses and the like, would be to provide more mental health and addiction services and giving people a choice between availing themselves of services, going to jail, or being put on a bus out of state.

I don't think providing housing would do anything though cutting the bureacracy to make housing less expensive would be a good thing. 

Health and addiction services would be good alongside programs to help people get back on track who want to.  Otherwise, no needles, no drugs, no food, no camping, get out.  Sounds like people have made an industry out this stuff to the detriment of actual middle class tax payers

[Silver Bullet]

I think I read elsewhere that Seattle spends 100k per year per homeless person

My guess is they receive/budget 100k per year per homeless person, but actually spend the money on pet libtard projects.  A year ago when the news was about the city council trying to extort money from Amazon "for the homeless", the question came up what did they do with the money they received before?  No accountability.

[mgdavis]

I was walking in downtown Seattle and Seattle Center yesterday. There really are tents and homeless people everywhere. Drug use and drinking/intoxication on the streets is rampant. The city is dirty. This is not the Seattle that I remember from 20 years ago when my high-school friends and I would go to music shows pretty frequently. Things have been spiraling out of control for years with little to no effective action to curb the problem.

[MillCreek]

^^^And don't forget the feces and used needles!

[Ben]

I was walking in downtown Seattle and Seattle Center yesterday. There really are tents and homeless people everywhere. Drug use and drinking/intoxication on the streets is rampant. The city is dirty. This is not the Seattle that I remember from 20 years ago when my high-school friends and I would go to music shows pretty frequently. Things have been spiraling out of control for years with little to no effective action to curb the problem.

Sad. I haven't been to Seattle in many years, but when I first started with the feds, I was sent there a lot. I generally enjoyed the downtown experience after work back in the day.

[Fly320s]

Sad. I haven't been to Seattle in many years, but when I first started with the feds, I was sent there a lot. I generally enjoyed the downtown experience after work back in the day.

Seattle used to be one of my favorite layovers.  We stayed downtown in a decent hotel.  There was a ton of stuff to see and do and the city wasn't a cesspool.  Now we stay south of SEATAC somewhere.  No homeless camps, but nothing interesting down there.

[lupinus]

I have to often wonder in "once upon a time" scenarios, how many of the crazy (which seems to often overlap with junkie) homeless population would've ended up simply institutionalized as a ward of the state.

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[HankB]

I think I read elsewhere that Seattle spends 100k per year per homeless person based on the budgets of the programs and agencies in place to deal with them. So far this has succeeded wildly. In increasing the homeless population.

Government at work.

Several years ago while the local city bus company was lobbying for light rail, someone had the audacity to point out that based on their projected ridership, for the cost of light rail they could buy every single projected rider a Prius, and still save millions.

Light rail proponents were NOT amused, probably since the main purpose of programs like this is to convert public funds into private profits.

[MillCreek]

https://komonews.com/news/local/seattle-king-county-regional-homeless-authority-agency-appears-stalled

So now the regional homeless authority that was to provide a coordinated approach is several months behind schedule. An interesting and frustrating aspect of Seattle politics is the love of process.  Nothing can happen until there have been committees, task force studies, public comment, rinse and repeat ad infinitum.  Many unpleasant or difficult decisions have a way of never making it past the committee/task force study stage where they die a quiet death and the can is kicked further down the road.

[MechAg94]

https://komonews.com/news/local/seattle-king-county-regional-homeless-authority-agency-appears-stalled

So now the regional homeless authority that was to provide a coordinated approach is several months behind schedule. An interesting and frustrating aspect of Seattle politics is the love of process.  Nothing can happen until there have been committees, task force studies, public comment, rinse and repeat ad infinitum.  Many unpleasant or difficult decisions have a way of never making it past the committee/task force study stage where they die a quiet death and the can is kicked further down the road.

But I am sure all the members of those committees are well paid and no one questions them too much.  Sounds like a way to keep spending the budget without actually doing anything and avoid accountability. 

[Angel Eyes]

Sounds like a way to keep spending the budget without actually doing anything and avoid accountability. 

... in other words: a typical government program.

[Boomhauer]

I have to often wonder in "once upon a time" scenarios, how many of the crazy (which seems to often overlap with junkie) homeless population would've ended up simply institutionalized as a ward of the state.

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But then there isn’t nearly as many insane graft and corruption opportunities to “do something” about the problem.

[lee n. field]

A symbiosis, which means the problem never gets really solved to any extent at all.

(Similar to something I read or heard something recently, to the effect that Catholic Charities gets a check from FedGov for every illegal immigrant they help.  Which drives the US-ian Catholic official position on immigration.)

[MechAg94]

I have to often wonder in "once upon a time" scenarios, how many of the crazy (which seems to often overlap with junkie) homeless population would've ended up simply institutionalized as a ward of the state.

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At the same time, you should wonder how many other people would've ended up as wards of the state who had not reason to be there due to the ease at which people were committed.

[MillCreek]

^^^And the other problem is that jails and psychiatric hospitals are very expensive to run, and people generally don't want the tax burden associated with expanding the system.

[Angel Eyes]

^^^And the other problem is that jails and psychiatric hospitals are very expensive to run, and people generally don't want the tax burden associated with expanding the system.

Do they cost more than $100K per patient/inmate per year?

[lee n. field]

^^^And the other problem is that jails and psychiatric hospitals are very expensive to run, and people generally don't want the tax burden associated with expanding the system.

Oh, no, they tend to loooove jails and prisons.   "Jobs!!!!!"