“You have an enormous amount of money spent on the problem. And yet, we’re not transitioning that into successes. In terms of our numbers on the street, the only real metric that matters is how many homeless folks are living out on our streets.'
KIRO Newsradio Reporter
Now we have the fairly new Regional Homelessness Authority handling the majority of the homeless response and is responsible for spending the bulk of what Seattle budgets for the issue. That’s what’s driving his latest proposal at the council to create a pilot program that starts with a task force specifically focused on how to get the dozens to hundreds living tucked behind the greenery on a steep hillside across from the Green River in between Kent and Auburn connected with housing and services and out of the woods.
And he says it’s not just about “sweeping” people out because neighbors complain. Dunn and King County Sheriff’s Deputies, who regularly work the hillside and helped lead media through it on Tuesday, agree – allowing humans to live like this is deplorable, unacceptable, and cannot be allowed to continue.
Dunn says part of the job of the task force created in his legislation would be to determine how best to use a carrot and stick approach so that once there is sufficient housing and efforts to clear a camp are made there is a plan in place for those who refuse to leave and must be forced out. But he says whatever that looks like will still have to be humane and compassionate.
“I don’t want to be in a shelter because there are other people there. And they shut the light off. And you don’t know when you fall asleep, who will rummage through your things? Honestly. I mean, my stuff got stolen,” explained Deborah.“There are people that come knocking on your door and they want a blue and I don’t know what a blue is,” she recalled, referencing other campers trying to buy the counterfeit Percocet pills blamed for our increase in overdose deaths.
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