Seattle has a huge homeless problem.
The city government claims it's because of a lack of affordable housing and sides with developers who then profit by building dense expensive condo units with no parking. What they don't build - is affordable housing - unless you believe the fairytale homeless person they like to present - hard working teacher and single mom who can't buy a house in this crazy market!
Well she can't buy a 700,000 condo in Ballard either. And she's not the homeless problem either. Our homelessness insanity (literally tent encampments at every freeway on ramp) is getting worse daily because Seattle is now seen as a magnet for addicts - and the criminals who provide their addiction infrastructure.
The city is ignoring this aspect and using the fictional teacher as a moral cudgel to use against homeowners and residents. And doing almost nothing to fight the heroin epidemic it's policies have amplified geometrically.
And of course that means the city doesn't have finds to support the "real" homeless folks who simply can't afford rent in a suprrheated market. Ironically the mentally ill. Or the physically handicapped or any of the non-addicts and their enablers.
Seattle had basically said, hey if you're addicted to fentanyl, come to Seattle! And the beat cops have to carry naloxone with them daily, and have resuscitated literally hundreds of overdose victims - who recover and come back the next day, and bring more people with them.
It's stunning how poorly it has been handled by incompetent well-meaning socialist types , but also incredibly cynical land developers and low key graft.
The solution needs to address the underlying cause, not its unfortunate side effect - which is homelessness.
It's a law and order problem, a public health problem, an infrastructure problem and then a housing problem - in that order.
Seattle needs to become deeply hostile to drug dealers and addicts, or simply accept that the situation is only getting worse.
Taxing employment would literally just make it worse and drive away employers. Our city is run by slightly corrupt real estate folks and by the students who spent half their education arguing about inclusive semantics and the other half not learning city and civic planning.
