Amato: Stop looking to California to solve Seattle’s homelessness crisis

Pointing to Los Angeles or San Francisco as principled examples of how to deal with homelessness is like the New York Giants structuring their playbook after the Cleveland Browns. Or a store mimicking Blockbuster’s strategy to counter the digital age. Or asking Brad Pitt for relationship advice. It’s unproductive and won’t produce results.

But yet, Seattle persists.

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In October, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan visited Los Angeles to discuss how they are handling the homelessness crisis. According to Ranker, there are only two cities that have a higher homeless rate than Seattle, one of them being Los Angeles.

The latest example of Seattle looking toward California came when the Seattle City Auditor’s office suggested looking at San Francisco as a positive example of delivering the proper number of public restrooms to the homeless. Where is San Francisco placed on Ranker’s list? Eighth. And should Seattle follow San Francisco’s lead in supplying more public restrooms? This article from SFGATE seems to suggest the public restrooms aren’t being used, as human feces still litters the ground.

The Ranker piece lists three California cities among the top 10 U.S. cities with the highest homelessness rate. When it comes to sheer number of homeless people per city, the number moves to four. Maybe we shouldn’t be using our resources and tax-payer dollars to travel there and bathe in its leaders’ expertise?

Seattle is, of course, trying to solve the symptoms of the homeless crisis rather than the problem itself. If leaders were trying to solve the problem, they might take a look at Columbus, Ohio, or Salt Lake City, Utah.  But if those cities don’t yield the results Seattle might want, Mayor Durkan could look, you know, away from California.