SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Why didn’t Inslee try to ‘fix’ homelessness in the last 7 years?

Jan 15, 2020, 4:12 PM

homelessness, woodland park, homeless, prolific offenders...

A homeless camp near a ball field at Seattle's Woodland Park. (Courtesy photo)

(Courtesy photo)

It’s pretty remarkable to hear someone who has been a complete failure on one of the issues people seem to care about most in this state — homelessness and all of the filth, drugs, vagrancy and crime that comes with it — now say that he is going to solve that very issue.

Jay Inslee, in his State of the State speech, said that he wants to take money from the state’s Rainy Day Fund and use it to “fix” homelessness.

Translation: he wants to give that money to the homeless-industrial complex, the so-called effort to fix homelessness that actually just creates high-paying jobs for connected bureaucrats, “nonprofit” executives, and developers whose jobs would disappear if homelessness were truly solved.

How long has Jay Inslee been governor? It has been almost eight years. What happened in those eight years? Homelessness has gotten dramatically worse under his watch. Property crime has skyrocketed. We seem to have more shootings than ever.

Dori: Inslee’s homelessness plan will expand bureaucracy, not help people

Now Jay Inslee says that if he can just get his hands on more money, he’ll fix homelessness starting this year. Why didn’t you start fixing homelessness last year, Jay Inslee? Was it because you were so busy running for president? You’ve been governor for eight years, and you’ve done absolutely nothing productive on this issue. How can you stand up there and say that this year will be the year we get it done?

As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. He’s been fooling us for seven years now. Are you going to take this nonsense for an eighth year from the governor?

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Abdul El-Sayed departs following a news conference at the Spirit of Detroit shortly after winning t...

Associated Press

As Abdul El-Sayed breaks a barrier, anti-Muslim vitriol surges on multiple fronts

Abdul El-Sayed made history this month in Michigan by becoming the first Muslim nominated by the Democratic Party to run for the U.S. Senate. But elation among many of his fellow Muslim Americans was tempered by awareness of persisting and widespread anti-Muslim sentiment across much of the nation. Some Republicans, including President Donald Trump, swiftly […]

57 minutes ago

This NOAA satellite image shows a tropical depression becoming Tropical Storm Hernan over the East ...

Associated Press

Tropical Storm Hernan forms in the Pacific while a different weather system could soak Hawaii

HONOLULU (AP) — Tropical Storm Hernan formed Thursday in the Pacific Ocean and wasn’t threatening land while a different storm system that could bring heavy rain and flooding this weekend moved toward Hawaii, forecasters said. Hernan was about 1,460 miles (2,350 kilometers) west of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico, the […]

1 hour ago

President Donald Trump speaks as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., right, ...

Associated Press

Trump’s vaccine plan would require millions of individual shots last used decades ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Public health experts have been quick to condemn an executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at upending childhood vaccinations in the U.S., but the biggest obstacles may be the unprecedented financial and logistical challenges it would impose on parents, health providers and drugmakers. Monday’s announcement by the Republican president calls for […]

2 hours ago

FILE - Friends practice volleyball at a local park in Gilbert, Ariz., March 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Mat...

Associated Press

Higher-income families more likely to enroll kids in organized sports, an AP-Ipsos poll finds

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans overwhelmingly see major benefits to children playing organized sports, a new poll finds, but higher-income families are more likely to participate. Learning teamwork and reducing screen time are among the perceived benefits of youth sports, according to the AP-Ipsos survey. About half of U.S. parents with K-12 school-aged children say their […]

3 hours ago

Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly, speaks during a town hall meeting, Saturday...

Associated Press

Mission Improbable: A onetime Republican is trying to prove Democrats can win in Florida

LEESBURG, Fla. (AP) — Cyn Doyle is a self-described political cynic. So when David Jolly, the Republican-turned-independent who is now running for Florida governor as a Democrat, swung through this town dotted by lakes and Spanish moss, she had doubts. “How can you assure us,” the 71-year-old pressed, “that you won’t become another John Fetterman?” […]

3 hours ago

FILE - Franklin Fuentes searches for missing relatives in the collapsed building where they lived t...

Associated Press

Colombia’s earthquake is déjà vu for Venezuelans. The government response is anything but

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — For the second time in two months, the ground was shaking in South America. Once again, families flooded social media with pleas for help finding missing loved ones under flattened buildings. Once again, governments across political divides and continents pledged aid. But in many ways, the contrast between Colombia’s 7.4-magnitude […]

6 hours ago

Dori: Why didn’t Inslee try to ‘fix’ homelessness in the last 7 years?