The King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) shocked nearly everyone earlier this year when its leaders demanded $11.8 billion to address the county’s homelessness crisis and budgeted very little of the funds to help those suffering from addiction or mental illness. This outlandish request has been criticized by people across the political spectrum, has led...
Mayor Bruce Harrell has announced a new plan to revive downtown Seattle. This includes a plan to tackle homelessness which gets to root issues like addictions, unlike previous plans which suggested increased spending and housing-first solutions. “I believe that the fentanyl crisis on our streets is causing death and disorder, and I can’t mince words...
Seattle is considering a major spending package to combat homelessness. What’s unclear is if this package is in addition to the $12 billion spending proposal made by the King County Regional Homelessness Authority – which does little to address the underlying causes of homelessness. KCRHA’s proposal would cost $12 billion over the next five years on...
The King County Regional Homeless Authority recently shared a five-year plan to end homelessness. Now that I’ve read the detailed 146-page report, I am more confident than ever that the KCRHA has no idea what they are doing. This report is just more of the things that got us into the mess in the first...
By Ginny Burton In 2015 I secured my first position with one of Washington state’s largest nonprofits in Seattle. During my interview I was asked if I could explain harm reduction. My answer, which I called a friend ahead of time to inquire, was “meeting the person where they are at.” I didn’t really understand...
Homelessness is at a crisis point in Washington. The homeless population has surpassed nearly every other state in America. The homeless are people in our communities that are struggling, and we need to help them rather than just throw taxpayer money on initiatives that do not address the underlying issues. It is no exaggeration to...
Four city councilmembers, including Socialist councilmember Kshama Sawant, have announced they will not be running for reelection this year.
Mayor Bruce Harrell, the Seattle City Council, and regional leaders continue to treat the homelessness crisis as a housing issue despite the glaringly obvious fact that it’s driven by drug addiction. The evidence isn’t hard to find, and denying reality is causing unnecessary deaths. As reported recently by The Center Square, King County experienced a...
With the systematic homelessness and public safety crisis in our region, you’d think King County would be primarily focused on addressing those issues. But apparently, the county government was taken over by the Grinch. Recently it was revealed that King County sent out a memo to its employees instructing them not to have any holiday-related...
A recent expose by The Tacoma News Tribune of the state’s largest mental health facility is not only perhaps one of the most glaring examples of the inmates literally running the asylum as you’ll ever get, but it’s also a vivid example of how failings within the state’s mental health system is driving much of...
When tasked with a long, difficult undertaking it’s important to celebrate the victories when they happen. King County’s decision to nix a planned homeless megaplex in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District (CID) represents an unexpected and important success for sound homelessness policy, public safety, and common-sense governance. As we’ve written on repeatedly, this entire project was thoroughly...
Recently the residents of Seattle’s Chinatown-International District held several protest rallies in opposition to a homeless megaplex proposed by King County Executive Dow Constantine that would house hundreds of people. Unfortunately, Constantine seems determined to ram the project through regardless of public feedback. While protesters have put appropriate pressure on the Seattle City Council, it’s...
A lack of accountability for public officials is one of the many problems contributing to the homelessness crisis in the region. For that to change, residents and voters must hold officials’ feet to the fire and make their own voice heard. That is what the people of Seattle’s Chinatown did last week when they protested...
We’ve often remarked that if you can’t identify the source of a problem then you can’t solve it. When it comes to the ongoing homelessness crisis in Seattle, among the causes are dysfunctional or counterproductive organizations that undermine efforts to fix it. Thankfully, it seems Mayor Bruce Harrell has identified one of them. In June...