Handling homelessness: Mayor speaks Tuesday; HPAC talks RV ‘safe lot’ Wednesday

9:59 PM: Two events of note over the next two nights:

JUST ANNOUNCED – MAYOR’S SPEECH ON HOMELESSNESS: Mayor Ed Murray‘s office just announced that he’ll speak live to the city Tuesday night at 7:30 pm via Seattle Channel (cable 21, or seattlechannel.org), with an update on what’s been done since he declared homelessness an emergency two months ago. He’ll be speaking from Mary’s Place Family Center in North Seattle, which is a shelter for women and families that opened last summer in a City-owned building.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT – DEPUTY MAYOR AT HPAC: Related to the emergency, the mayor announced last week that he would open two “safe lots” for people living in RVs and other vehicles, one of them in Highland Park, a paved lot adjacent to the former unauthorized encampment at West Marginal Way SW and Highland Park Way SW. The community council for that area, the Highland Park Action Committee, meets Wednesday night, and says city reps who are confirmed so far include Deputy Mayor Hyeok Kim and District 1 Councilmember Lisa Herbold. The meeting’s at 7 at the Highland Park Improvement Club (12th SW/SW Holden).

10:53 PM P.S. Just published on SPD Blotter, a roundup of cases the department cites as proof it’s “committed to addressing criminal behavior associated with car campers.” No West Seattle cases are mentioned, but several were in SODO.

flimflam January 25, 2016 (10:48 pm)

curious to see how the city spins this.

WSB January 25, 2016 (10:51 pm)

I’m adding this as a P.S. but just a few minutes ago, SPD added a blotter post pointing out recent cases of “car camper” crime.

AIDM January 25, 2016 (11:09 pm)

Regardless of how you feel about homelessness, what solutions should be tried, and the complexity of the problem; the fact of the matter is that other Seattle neighborhoods are not baring their fair share of the burden. Its tough to see the mayor and city council allowing wealthy Seattle neighborhoods to extradite their homeless problem to West Seattle. The close proximity to a poorly performing Seattle elementary school is particularly troubling and tone deaf for the executive office.

candrewb January 26, 2016 (5:43 am)

What’s not tough is how the mayor keeps sending underlings bear the tough questions at all of these meetings.
Living in HP January 26, 2016 (4:07 pm)

AMEN to that!

Roger January 26, 2016 (6:39 am)

Where does the mayor live? Is he willing to put one of these next to his house? If not then he should’ve stop this ridiculous program now…living in RVs is not na new thing….people have been living in RV parks forever…why don’t these people on the seattle streets just go live in one of those? ed Murry needs to go back from wherever he came from. He is not a good mayor for the tax payers…he claims homeless emergency then leaves the city??? What kind of leadership is that.I will definitely campaign against this guy next go around…

miws January 26, 2016 (8:11 am)

“Murry needs to go back from wherever he came from. ”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Murray_(Washington_politician)#Personal_life

Mike

Rick January 26, 2016 (7:27 am)

Well,you know,there’s rules and stuff.

Smitty January 26, 2016 (8:47 am)

I thought the economy was on fire and jobs were being created at a record pace? Why the growth in homelessness over the last few years? We’ve all seen it on our commutes – there are tents and homeless shelters everywhere you look now. Not blaming the victims, just asking how this can be? Are they moving here from out of State? If so, why? Are we now a magnet?

Melissa January 26, 2016 (9:01 am)

Smitty, there are more people who are employed, but not making enough to live on. I think it’s a mistake to believe that homeless=not working. If you look at income charts, the rich are getting richer, the middle class is shrinking, and the number of poor has increased dramatically.

Ricky January 26, 2016 (9:37 am)

There’s always been homeless in Seattle. At least Mr. Murray is trying something different.

KokoPub January 26, 2016 (9:40 am)

Very difficult and comlex issue. As we provide shelter and services for the homeless, the humanitarian effort is rewarded with more homeless coming to the area. I know someone who has been homeless and was in California for awhile, but came back to this area. He has disability income. He told me Seattle is a “good place” to be homeless because of mild weather (generally), access to weed and alcohol, and places to stay. This is one of the reasons we are seeing so many more homeless here.

Rick January 26, 2016 (10:22 am)

There’s your Bingo! Please support my sorry ass!
Kimmy January 26, 2016 (1:46 pm)

Some neighboring and smaller communities outside of larger metropolitan areas do have “programs” that often involve providing a one-way bus ticket to those who are homeless to larger areas with more services/bigger community, if it’s for lack of services, lack of wanting to address the issue, or to not have to deal with particular crime issues or individuals, I do not know. I am not sure if this is happening in and around Seattle and Washington state, but I’d be interested to find out.

Ricky January 26, 2016 (10:25 am)

Same reason we are seeing so many PEOPLE here. Its true Seattle is a nice place to live. Maybe those who are a little more fortunate should get over the fact that there is an underside to our beautiful city ;)

AmandaKH January 26, 2016 (11:43 am)

I just can’t help but think about the $50,000,000 / year figure that Murray sited in his talk to KIRO. Is that Just City of Seattle spending alone? Or is that County, State and Fed spending as well?

WSB January 26, 2016 (12:04 pm)

Pretty much city. I don’t know if they get some of it from other sources, but it was $40 million and then the emergency added more. Our friends at CHS, whose work I trust without reservation, came up in search results: http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2015/11/seattle-set-to-spend-more-than-47-million-on-homelessness-in-2016/

skeeter January 26, 2016 (1:01 pm)

What I’m struggling with is homelessness across the nation has been falling but homelessness in Seattle has been rising. That is what we should be studying.

miws January 26, 2016 (1:27 pm)

https://youtu.be/OgXEe6cXY88

miws January 26, 2016 (1:29 pm)

Okay, my above link didn’t work for some reason. I’ll see if I can repost it later. Mike
- WSB January 26, 2016 (1:46 pm)
  
  Should work now. Besides the spacing not working, the system, pending a fix, puts in spacing code in random places, and it had been attached to the end of your URL. I removed it. Sorry, our tech crew is still working its way through a list of fixes.
  - miws January 26, 2016 (3:00 pm)
    
    Thanks, WSB! I know many of us tell you “no need to apologize”, but this time, for reals. Totally my screw-up. I posted just as I was about to sit down to lunch, so rushed right through it. Going back to the FB page I sourced it from, they had already provided the properly formatted link, and in my haste, I had missed it earlier.Mike

M January 26, 2016 (8:09 pm)

Just heard on the radio tonight that the Ballard location has 50 RVs and NOT ONE family. All males.

WSB January 26, 2016 (8:33 pm)

Neither location is open yet. They expected to take a month to open. We went by the Highland Park site just yesterday and it’s as empty a paved lot as it was the day this was announced a week ago. We should hear more at tomorrow night’s Highland Park Action Committee meeting… TR