Is it time to shut down LIHI, SHARE, and the tiny-home industrial complex?
Apr 12, 2019, 9:16 AM | Updated: Oct 10, 2024, 2:25 pm
A line of tiny houses stand with their backs to the adjacent street at a homeless encampment in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
We found out this week that a whistleblower in a leadership position at Nickelsville is accusing organizer Scott Morrow of coercing residents of the organization’s tiny home villages into participating in political rallies.
Nickelsville is made up of three different homeless encampments in Seattle. LIHI (Low Income Housing Institute) Executive Director Sharon Lee recently announced the end of its partnership Nickelsville.
RELATED: Homeless shelter opened in unused King County jail
RELATED: Seattle considers “pallet shelter” for homeless crisis
Everything I know about Scott Morrow and Sharon Lee suggests that they are at the very center of what I would call the “homelessness industrial complex.” I think it is time for groups like LIHI, SHARE, and Nickelsville to go by the wayside.
They have been an example of how your local politicians and political organizations aren’t focused on making things better. They’re not focused on solutions.
This goes back to a term that I’ve been using throughout the show lately – they are just engaging in “culture-war politics.” They force people to live in encampments. They get them to go to protest at City Hall, lobbying for more money for encampments. But they don’t help any people get into permanent housing. That’s even beyond culture wars. I think that might be criminal.
We spend $300 million a year on homelessness in the City of Seattle and King County and we still have homeless children suffering from cancer sleeping in their cars outside of Children’s Hospital. The youth in need in our community need to be the priority. But instead we have made it pretty much legal to do drugs and give people needles, which is just going to increase the number of people doing drugs and using the needles we provide. We have made it nearly impossible for our police to enforce laws and allowed crime to rise while the number of police officers is dropping.
We need to stop making this a Republican and Democrat issue. It is time for every single person in the city of Seattle to toss away their labels and to emerge as a Seattleite. We need to start talking about the real problems in our city and start confronting the rampant encampments that are growing here. Let’s have real conversations about the addiction crisis and let’s not ignore the homeless kids that are sleeping outside in the community, and not ignore the foster youth that we have failed.
We’re beyond culture-wars in Washington. We have a down right collapse of society and we need to help those who are on our streets. We need to rehabilitate lost lives. That’s the goal of my show and together if we drive conversations, we will get new leaders. We will get fiscally-responsible politicians who are transparent and accountable.
Listen to the Saul Spady Show weekdays from 6-9 a.m. on AM 770 KTTH
