From what I've heard and read,
it's literally turning into an open sewer.
I was there last weekend and everything he said is true. It's easy to walk around Pioneer Square and the waterfront without too many of them. But as you approach downtown and the transit centers they are all over, including some with tents on the sidewalks. Along with four others, we ate at McCoy's Firehouse Bar and Grill. The next street over were two soup kitchens with large crowds. During our time there, I saw five ambulance runs turn down there. It's hard to travel anywhere there without four or five staked out at every corner begging.
I guess I could be called heartless and not following the Bible's passages about the poor, but I call them "Human Pigeons" - They are always underfoot, begging for money or cigarettes, and defecating in doorways or the alley.