Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Seattle Has Collected 42,000 Pounds Of Garbage Around Homeless Camps In Just 3 Weeks
Hotair ^ | 06/04/2018 | John Sexton

Posted on 06/04/2018 7:54:00 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

The Seattle Times reports that the city’s mayor is quietly trying to clean up homeless encampments and has so far collected 42,000 pounds of trash in just three weeks. But it seems efforts to break up vehicular encampments (people living in cars) are going about as well as could be expected:

The program, which quietly started in mid-May, has resulted in the collection of almost 42,000 pounds of garbage and waste from cleanups around RVs and other vehicles parked in Sodo, Georgetown, Ballard and the Central District.

But in the meantime, residents of these vans and RVs continue to play a cat-and-mouse game with the city to avoid getting towed. At a cleanup in Sodo last week, several RV and camper residents simply moved a few blocks away from where they had originally parked.

The new initiative comes as King County’s annual homeless Point in Time count found, once again, that homeless vehicle camping outpaced homeless people sleeping in tents. The snapshot count found more than 3,300 people sleeping in vehicles in the county, a 46 percent increase from the previous year…

At Wednesday’s cleanup, most vehicles parked along Sixth Avenue were gone when city workers from an alphabet soup of departments — utilities, parks, police, transportation and administrative services — showed up…

Many of the vehicles simply relocated farther north along Sixth Avenue, finding another curb along which to park.

Last week Seattle’s mayor announced a new homeless initiative which will cost $11 million in the first year. The goal is to create more “tiny homes” encampments where the homeless can live without any regulation of their drug or alcohol use. But the group Speak Out Seattle, which opposed the head city’s head tax, is now opposing the new spending as well. The group is pointing to a document published in May by the Interagency Council on Homelessness which offered a warning about so-called sanctioned encampments:

Creating these environments may make it look and feel like the community is taking action to end homelessness on the surface—but, by themselves, they have little impact on reducing homelessness. Ultimately, access to stable housing that people can afford, with the right level of services to help them succeed, is what ends homelessness. People staying within such settings are still unsheltered, still living outside, and remain homelessness – and oftentimes, these settings are not providing them with a truly safe, healthy, and secure environment…

For example, communities often find that temporary sheds (which are sometimes referred to as “tiny homes”) or other structures that may have been put up in these settings do not hold up over time and require significant upgrades and/or repairs. Maintaining a hygienic environment can prove challenging if there are not adequate sanitation facilities at the sites.

In short, this is an expensive, feel-good effort that is not going to significantly improve the homeless situation and which is likely to increase crime in the area and cost far more long-term than the $11 million the mayor is proposing to spend. Maintaining these new camps is expected to cost nearly $9 million a year for as long as they remain in place, but the city has no funding set aside for that at present.

There are more permanent solutions on the drawing board but building thousands of higher-density, affordable housing is going to take time. In the meantime, the city is going to keep chasing these vehicular homeless camps from one street to another and cleaning up after the mess they leave behind.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: bluezones; garbage; homeless; seattle
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-40 next last

1 posted on 06/04/2018 7:54:00 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

And they are heading to Starbucks like the walking dead!! Just sit there all day!!


2 posted on 06/04/2018 8:00:00 PM PDT by raiderboy (" weÂ’ll close down the country because we need border" DJT NOW !!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raiderboy

Did they remember to recycle?


3 posted on 06/04/2018 8:03:30 PM PDT by CaptainK ("no collusion, no obstruction, he's a leaker")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
"42,000 pounds of trash"

Are they going to convert it into tiny homes?

4 posted on 06/04/2018 8:03:42 PM PDT by wmileo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Climate change hits Seattle (new climate of garbage, that is)...


5 posted on 06/04/2018 8:04:38 PM PDT by choctaw man (Good ole Andrew Jackson, or You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

A bunch of “homeless RVs” means lots of trash and sh!t being dumped in the area.


6 posted on 06/04/2018 8:04:39 PM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Last week Seattle’s mayor announced a new homeless initiative which will cost $11 million in the first year. The goal is to create more “tiny homes” encampments where the homeless can live without any regulation of their drug or alcohol use.

This is a city policy goal...really? If I owned a business there and had to pay a head tax, I'd be more than a little PO'ed. I wonder how many new businesses have started in Seattle since this dingbat introduced that law?

7 posted on 06/04/2018 8:05:48 PM PDT by econjack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
" where the homeless can live without any regulation of their drug or alcohol use."

why stop at that?...include prostitution, rape,promiscuity, theft,assault and murder..

8 posted on 06/04/2018 8:07:36 PM PDT by cherry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wmileo

They could compact it into building blocks and build colorful homes with it.


9 posted on 06/04/2018 8:13:30 PM PDT by sheana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Well that’s just rubbish.

No doubt the sjw’s on the city council have good feelings about this.


10 posted on 06/04/2018 8:14:47 PM PDT by lurk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sheana
"They could compact it into building blocks and build colorful homes with it."

Could they market it to Hollywood Idiots like Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, Ed Begley Jr., etc.?

11 posted on 06/04/2018 8:17:26 PM PDT by wmileo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Just think how much more if they collected the homeless.

The homeless population will always explode where they are given something for free and the other part of that is that they have no respect for what they are given because they have no investment in it. Not all, but most are like animals that have soiled their den, they don't clean it, they just move on to a new den to soil.

12 posted on 06/04/2018 8:20:46 PM PDT by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

At least the crap is concentrated in specific areas rather than scattered all over.

feeble attempt at a silver-lining, LOL


13 posted on 06/04/2018 8:22:42 PM PDT by txnativegop (The political left, Mankinds intellectual hemlock)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

For all except a few “homelessness” is a lifestyle choice. Nobody forced them to become druggies or alcoholics or just plain lazy.

This so-called opioid epidemic on which a lot of the SJWs blame the phony homeless “crisis” is a farce. The definition of epidemic is a widespread occurrence of an INFECTIOUS DISEASE. Taking drugs isn’t transmitted from one person to another. It’s an individual choice, and I doubt anyone in the country doesn’t know it’s bad for you. If you know it’s likely to destroy your life and you do it anyway then why should anyone give a rats ass about you. You obviously don’t care about yourself why should anyone else.


14 posted on 06/04/2018 8:28:49 PM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Behold; the final product of unchecked liberalism run amok...


15 posted on 06/04/2018 8:33:29 PM PDT by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left too long, they become black rifles.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CaptainK

Walking dead


16 posted on 06/04/2018 8:39:31 PM PDT by raiderboy (" weÂ’ll close down the country because we need border" DJT NOW !!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: raiderboy

Walking Dead, that’s what I’ve been calling these people for a while!

It’s like the TV show came true. And, they will kill us all with their drugs, disease, filth, economic destruction...

Pierce County, S of Seattle in Tacoma has finally had enough and appear to be combating the problem. They say that 95% of these folks are BUMS and have zero interest in being responsible law abiding citizens.


17 posted on 06/04/2018 8:45:51 PM PDT by Professional
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Mastador1
My solution to homeless camps
18 posted on 06/04/2018 8:50:31 PM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Professional

Why do we pay them them to loaf? All should ork 8 hours per day in public service!! Why not??


19 posted on 06/04/2018 8:52:50 PM PDT by raiderboy (" weÂ’ll close down the country because we need border" DJT NOW !!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
"Seattle Has Collected 42,000 Pounds Of Garbage Around Homeless Camps In Just 3 Weeks..."

..... Well .... So much for the misconception that the Homeless NEVER produce anything ....

20 posted on 06/04/2018 8:53:31 PM PDT by R_Kangel ( "A Nation of Sheep ..... Will Beget ..... a Nation Ruled by Wolves.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-40 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson