Homeless in Seattle

All,

I saw this article today about Seattle's homeless. Would be interested in Pete's opinion on it.

https://siouxcountyradio.com/fox-news-latest/2019/08/22/seattle-residents-blame-inefficient-elected-officials-for-homeless-problem-say-t

RoyD

The cost of real estate in the greater Seattle area is terribly high. A 2 bedroom condo in downtown Seattle will usually go for $1,000,000 or more. And even if you own that condo, the real estate taxes are approaching $10,000 per year.

Therefore the rental rates are also very high. So unless you have a high paying job, you can't afford to live there.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Such an environment leads to homelessness and to people living on the street.

It's very sad and this goes on in all of the larger cities along the West Coast.

Yep, same thing the Vancouver, San Fran and LA. Pretty hard to live on the streets in Toronto or New York given the climate.

or Paris..where people live on top of the warm air coming out of the subway underground, in the winter..

Given Canada's climate they all flock to Vancouver or Victoria where it rarely snows or gets too cold.

There are many homeless in Toronto and they sleep over the subway grates as well. I somehow doubt that if they are homeless, that they have the money to travel anywhere. I don't know about Vancouver but, in Toronto, there is a very extensive system of underground malls from Bloor street going south. I used to live at Bloor and Yonge in the Plaza II and thought I might need to roll out a very large ball of string to find my way back. Could walk underground for miles and avoid the cold and nasty weather above ground. Didn't even need a jacket.

edited to add info:

http://torontopath.com/

https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/87dd-TorontoPATHNetworkMap_v.2018.08.pdf

As many have stated this problem is endemic to many cities and compounded by the large number of veterans many suffering from PTSD.

It's hard to imagine someone who served our country in the military living on the streets. Unfortunately, for many veterans, homelessness is a sad reality. Although there’s no official count, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs estimates that nearly 40,000 veterans are homeless.

And now we seeing a increasing number of refugees from Central America begging at the Topes at various places in Chapala and Ajijic. Where do these people sleep?

Really the whole west coast has a severe homeless situation. I have seen many homeless people in Spokane WA in the middle of the winter with 3 feet of snow on the ground:/ Don't even know how they manage it:( Rents here in WA and Oregon are very high as well. I just got my brother into a very very small non descript 1 bedroom in Beaverton, OR and it was $1499 a month! In The Dalles here in the gorge a 2 bedroom is well over $1500 a month. There are many reasons for homelessness but housing costs certainly contribute greatly to it:( Add mental illness, drug issues and the housing issues and it is understandable why so many have no roof over their heads

In the U.S. it is pretty simple to trace the homeless problem directly to Saint Ronald closing the mental hospitals and tossing all the patients out on the street, what is Canada's excuse?

Canada (or at least BC) did the same thing about 20 years ago.

mattoleriver wrote:In the U.S. it is pretty simple to trace the homeless problem directly to Saint Ronald closing the mental hospitals and tossing all the patients out on the street, what is Canada's excuse?

Seems to be a stretch from Reagan to the homeless problem that has just in the last few years become newsworthy. It's been 40 years.

It was newsworthy 50 years ago when Gov. Reagan closed the Napa hospital and gave the patients oneway bus tickets to San Francisco. To deny it now is just a whitewash. Homelessness has been noteworthy for much longer that just the last few years.

It's been new worthy in Vancouver and Victoria ever since they shut down all the government funded mental facilities and booted them to the streets. May have even been 30 years ago.....

Yes, there is something like 1200 people living Vancouver's central core who have mental problems AND drug abuse problems. They sell their mental meds to buy meth or heroin. Some parts of the city, the people look like zombies, teeth and hair falling out, scabs and sores all over their faces and arms. You have to be careful driving in these parts because they sometimes wander into traffic. Others fraudulently make arrangements with a slum landlord to accept the government cheque, but actually receive back cash, and sleep rough.

This is a big problem, and many levels of charity and government intervention have not worked. You have to be able change peoples peer groups, which is very, very difficult.

Homelessness is not just a big city problem.... it is at epidemic levels across the US. My little burg of 175,000 is no exception. Hard to say just where this is going.... but it is certainly sad.

Housing costs extend to the suburbs also in Seattle area. My Mom's house in Bellevue was purchased for 350K 12 years ago and is now worth something over a million dollars. Taxes are about 8000 dollars a year. Another expense is the high cost of house maintenance or upgrades. No workers available drives costs up. Also a roof job also has a 10% sales tax added. No income tax in Washington state is about the only bright light. Bellevue near Microsoft is a wonderful investment but how can normal folks afford a house here? They can't so they go farther north or south.

Hard core homeless know all the correct answers to the chest pain assessment protocol that will get them "3 hots and a cot" for a day in the ER. Did you know some will run into the intersection just as the light turns green and stick their foot under the tire of a city ambulance because the city will pay them off rather than litigate it? Ten to thirty thousand dollars was a good score for a broken foot then.

I feel for the elderly, mentally or physically handicapped homeless people however the young able bodied ones are either druggies or simply choose not to work and conform. I don't have much empathy for them. There are plenty of jobs out there.

I remember seeing one young man hitch hiking in Vancouver. He looked like a clean cut white kid, probably from a good family - except his whole face had a brightly colored tatoo, like a mask. Biggest mistake of his life.

CanuckBob wrote:I feel for the elderly, mentally or physically handicapped homeless people however the young able bodied ones are either druggies or simply choose not to work and conform. I don't have much empathy for them. There are plenty of jobs out there.

Unfortunately here in the US many homeless folks do work. They don't make enough to afford the ridiculously high housing costs:/ More and more families here live in tents or trailers or out of their cars. It is just a terrible situation and not a one size fits all answer:(

Well they need to move to more affordable regions I know there are many places in the US with very low costs of living compared to the west coast cities.

When things changed, in regard to mental institutions, there was also a big push for patient rights. For example, in the hospital setting we can no longer use bed restraints. Consequently, patients fall out of bed or go wandering off campus. I believe to a certain extent the patients rights movement was good. Where to draw the line. I hesitate to blame a past President for the changes since all those presidents that followed, did not return to the pre-Reagan era.

I don't believe the problem will be solved in our lifetime. People don't really care, generally speaking, and governments have created most of the problem- it is not a pressing problem for them. Those people do not contribute to their campaigns.
And C Bob, how can you suggest that they move to a less expensive city. No money saved, no current job to go to, perhaps no available transportation- huge expectation for most of those families and individuals that are able to work. It would seem to be a hopeless situation, a very depressing and anxiety-ridden existence. My heart aches for them.

I was speaking about those who are working but live in their car......I've never heard too many cases like that though......

I had a temp in San Francisco who did just that.. worked for me during the day and live in her car and that was in the 90´s..