cjboffoli
JanS: It seems a reasonable assumption that there are more people living on the streets now because of the economy. But I wonder if that is really true. Has anyone looked at this statistic? I feel like I saw plenty of campers randomly scattered on the streets of Seattle long before the economy collapsed.
I wish I had a solution to this issue. Lots of people who are much smarter than me and who are experts in the topic homelessness are hard pressed to come up with a solution that offers a lasting remedy to the issue. But just because I don’t have a solution doesn’t mean that I don’t have a right to articulate my (apparently unpopular) opinion here.
If you talk to the police I expect they’d tell you that a significant percentage of the transient population we’re talking about is comprised of people with criminal histories and who are involved in local larcenies and other crime. I’d love to think that if I give money to a homeless person at an intersection that they’d use it to buy food. But I wonder what percentage of that money goes to feeding an addiction that leaves them worse than they were without it.
How many “car residers” to you think there are in West Seattle? Are they content to be living in their cars? Would they agree that that is the best solution for them right now? Would homeless advocates agree? I would totally support (both in spirit and with my wallet) campgrounds with services like free access to clean running water and toilets if that would make things more comfortable for people who are living out of their cars. It seems a much more sensible use of money than wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on a failed system of automated toilets.
I support a number of charities every year but I can’t say that any of them are geared directly toward eradicating the problem of homelessness. Everyone seems super-concerned in this Forum thread but I wonder what percentage of posters here give significant financial support or volunteer time to services designed to help the homeless. Surely something more can be done than simply advocating for their right to live in a school bus in the alley.
I think technically it is not illegal to sleep in your car on the street in Seattle as long as you move it every 72 hours. Then again, it IS illegal to camp on City property as evidenced by the way the City has been handing the Nickelsville settlement.
Actually, maybe this is an issue worthy of an official WSB article. I wonder if any of these people would be willing to tell their sides of the story.
Filmmaker David Lynch has recently been producing a 20,000 mile, 70 day road trip back and forth across the US conducting ad hoc interviews of random people (some of whom are transients or otherwise on the fringes of society) and the stories are fascinating: