Time to acknowledge something positive in Seattle… Those of us at ChangeWA celebrate the five-year anniversary of We Heart Seattle! When Seattle progressives’ public safety, drug, and homeless policies were causing the rapid decline of the city in 2020, Andrea Saurez and a small group of like-minded friends went into action. At first, they cleaned...
By Ginny Burton After nearly 30 years of active drug use, the criminal justice system became the intervention that saved my life. When felony charges finally pulled me off the streets, it wasn’t punishment that made the difference—it was the pause. Incarceration removed me from homelessness, stopped the criminal behavior that fed my addiction, and...
1 – Housing First creates dependency on government, Treatment creates self-sufficiency Housing First creates dependency on government’s expensive social services while treatment creates independence. Providing someone with free shelter (which is often very unsafe) does nothing to solve the disabling addiction and mental health problems. The individual then becomes dependent on government services. Yet with...
It has been nearly six months since then King County Executive Dow Constantine was handed $6 million by his cronies on the Sound Transit Board of Directors to lead its financially troubled organization. Yet his desire to recklessly and carelessly spend taxpayers’ money (while constantly demanding more) at the county still lives on. Remember at...
Local communities, frustrated by the failed progressive homeless policies of their urban neighbors, are taking proactive steps to safeguard their public places, while encouraging those suffering in encampments to accept much-needed mental health and addiction treatment. The City of Camas became the latest Washington State community to enact a camping ban when its city council...
Since the Obama Administration adopted the Housing First model in 2014, homelessness has increased: The Trump Administration’s July 24 Executive Order (EO) has shaken up how our country will confront its homelessness crisis, especially in how we attempt to help the overwhelming majority of destitute individuals suffering with mental illness and drug addiction. Essentially the...
Last week’s executive order from the Trump Administration firmly declared that the federal government is changing its homeless strategy after more than a decade of disappointing results from Housing First policies. These orders have brought encouragement to those who support more resources for addiction and mental health treatment and angered those who financially benefit from...
Today, the Trump Administration began to dismantle the ineffective and costly Housing First homelessness policies, which have caused the country’s homeless problem to become even worse. The Obama-era policy resulted in a record-breaking 770,000 people to suffer on our streets during the last year of the Biden Administration. In Washington state, homelessness rose 78% since...
This is the third article of three on the various costs associated with homelessness. In this article we examine the costs associated with government-funded services and the lack of accountability of taxpayer funds. We also look at whether these services are attracting homeless individuals from other states. King County politicians boast that they work with...
This article is the second in ChangeWA’s three-part series on the increasing costs of our region’s homeless strategy. We asked treatment advocate and founder of the O-UT Program Ginny Burton to examine the long-term costs associated with current policies addressing homelessness. ChangeWA supports a treatment-based approach to homelessness. Data shows that the expensive “Housing First” method has...
This is the first in a three-part series, “The Cost of Homelessness.” Failed “Housing First” homeless policies have resulted in more people suffering on our streets. In turn, this puts more stress on local taxpayers to fund the public services the growing homeless population requires. We will examine these startling costs and explore if focusing...
ChangeWA has teamed with filmmaker V Ginny Burton to produce "Behind Closed Doors," a shocking 30-minute documentary which exposes the unsafe and drug-filled conditions within King County's low-barrier housing.
Two very troublesome facts were revealed last week which provide more evidence that the progressives’ “Housing First” homeless policy and “Harm Reduction” drug policy are failing to end the suffering that is taking place on our streets. These numbers are similar to those in other progressive West Coast cities and states. These facts require us...
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...