The mayor acknowledged that while many are benefiting from a booming local economy, thousands are sleeping on the streets in a dystopian “Other Seattle.”
He said he wants to double the city’s spending on homelessness with a five-year, $275 million property-tax levy.
Murray has asked billionaire tech entrepreneur Nick Hanauer and Daniel Malone, executive director of the Downtown Emergency Service Center, to lead an advisory group tasked with hammering out the details, he said.
The mayor said he hopes the City Council will put the measure on the August ballot.
“This would allow us to invest in mental-health treatment, in addiction treatment and in getting more people into housing and off the streets,” he said, adding, “I believe the residents of Seattle are ready to support such a measure.”
Murray is challenging the city’s business community to come up with an additional $25 million over five years, he said.
On Wednesday, the mayor will activate the Emergency Operations Center to help people without homes. The center is traditionally activated only during severe storms, major city events and natural disasters.
The move comes more than a year after Murray first proclaimed Seattle to be in a homelessness state of emergency.
Seattle’s facility will be modeled on the Navigation Center that San Francisco officials opened in 2015, with the goal of providing people with wraparound services and moving them quickly into permanent housing.
Like a dormitory, the Mission District center has showers, restrooms, laundry machines, lockers and on-demand meals.
Guests receive customized case-management, mental- and behavioral-health counseling and connections to benefits.
They come and go as they please without losing their beds, unlike guests at traditional shelters, who must line up each night.
The facility is designed to accommodate groups of people moving out of unauthorized homeless camps.
It allows partners, pets and possessions, which are barred from most traditional shelters, and there aren’t many rules and admission restrictions.
Lowe oversees the library system’s adult services: everything from tax assistance, to healthcare navigation, computer classes, English classes, and now a robust homeless engagement program as well. Several years ago, a grant allowed them to add a staffer with a social work background to help connect homeless patrons to services because success is often about access.
Giudice admits that she had to overcome her own assumptions when shaping the program. After transferring from a branch library to expanded duties downtown, she says she saw the homeless loitering outside and decided that helping them obtain their GEDs would solve the problem. Her awakening came when a homeless patron with a doctorate offered to teach it for her.
mdg109 wrote:Thanks so much for the info. I know housing first has worked really well in other cities, and BC Workshop has helped out with a small village here in Dallas, but that takes a lot of money to start up and sustain.
I'm going to check out the library and see what the experience is like.
jrd1964 wrote:mdg109 wrote:Thanks so much for the info. I know housing first has worked really well in other cities, and BC Workshop has helped out with a small village here in Dallas, but that takes a lot of money to start up and sustain.
I'm going to check out the library and see what the experience is like.
I forgot to mention the Cottages at Hickory Crossing, a collaborative effort between CitySquare, the city, and other groups/agencies. It is overseen by CitySquare and is across the street from one of its main facilities. It took at least a year or 2 longer than expected to complete and open. Most folks there are the most chronically homeless, and they can stay in each cottage for as long as they like. The setup of each cottage is simple, with living area, kitchen, bathroom, and a bed (as well as other modest furnishings). There is a laundromat on-site, it is on the bus line, and close to CitySquare and other social services.
Hannibal Lecter wrote:^ Or bus tickets to california for about $120 a pop.
tamtagon wrote:gross
Matt777 wrote:
Isn't that the one that ended up costing like $130k per 400 sqft "cottage?" Surely there's a better solution. You could likely give them a 3/2 single wide mobile home and lot on the city outskirts for less than that.
tamtagon wrote:gross
Hannibal Lecter wrote:tamtagon wrote:gross
Gross is having someone take a dump in the hallway of your building, or drop their pants and do the same in the street. Gross is having to explain to your son that the brown pile by the dumpster didn't come from a horse like he thought. Gross is watching a man jerk off into the grille of a car in broad daylight a block from your house. Gross is having someone destroy a present from your mother trying to use it to break the window of your residence, with you inside. Gross is no longer feeling safe walking down your own street late at night. Gross is watching them just drop their trash in the middle of the sidewalk, while standing next to a trash can.
Gross is being knocked unconscious, with a concussion and a broken facial bone because you opened your front door in the middle of the day.
Tnexster wrote:I did see a disturbing homeless issue one day while driving north on Harwood at Commerce. A homeless person staggered out into the middle of the intersection, could barely stand up while trying to cross at an angle. Stopped in the middle of the intersection, stopped all traffic and almost fell down before making his way to the opposite corner, then crossed back behind the cars waiting for him to decide where he was going to go. Several other homeless people were milling about in the same area which at that moment seemed kind of overwhelming. Not sure what the city will do about that.
tamtagon wrote:Maybe the city should put all the homeless people on a bus to California, would that help?
Tivo_Kenevil wrote:While there homeless people I've Never seen them camp out on sidewalks or go in public. The downtown patrol is good about policing that. Only the stew pot and the presbyteryian church has that problem. I'm in DT all-day everyday.
Your experience seems anecdotal.
Hannibal Lecter wrote:Tivo_Kenevil wrote:While there homeless people I've Never seen them camp out on sidewalks or go in public. The downtown patrol is good about policing that. Only the stew pot and the presbyteryian church has that problem. I'm in DT all-day everyday.
Your experience seems anecdotal.
Admittedly I'm on the Deep Ellum side of the highway, but you can see them camp out on the sidewalks and in entranceways every night. I've seen them "go" in public many times. There was a video circulating about a year ago of a woman at a bus stop dropping her pants, shitting into a sewer opening, pulling her pants up and hopping on the bus in broad daylight. I've even seen one guy jerking off into a car grill a block from my house, right on the street in the middle of the day. I was out at 5 AM a couple weeks ago and couldn't believe how many wandering around the parking lots looking into car windows. Gee, I wonder why.
Still anecdotal?
dukemeredith wrote:I’m saddened to see that my thread has devolved into sardonic comments on euthanasia.
itsjrd1964 wrote:The head of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has put $2 billion towards a new fund called the Bezos Day One Fund. It will have 2 objectives: 1, for preschools in low-income areas; the other, to aid homeless families. Maybe it will take something like this to begin to make real change in the homeless situation here, and elsewhere.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/compani ... li=BBnbfcN
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