Harger: The tents stay as Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson pauses encampment sweep in Ballard

The trucks were ready. The schedule was set. City crews were supposed to be in Ballard this morning to clear a homeless encampment near the Burke-Gilman Trail.

Then the email went out to KOMO News at 5 p.m. last night. The removal is off. Indefinitely postponed.

This was the first real test of the Katie Wilson era as Seattle’s mayor. And we just got our answer on how the next four years are going to look.

Advocates lobbied hard to stop this. They wanted to see if the new mayor would stick to her promises to end removals. She did. The city blinked. The tents stay. But let’s be thoughtful about what we’re actually doing here.

Advocates call this a victory. They say it prevents displacement and gives time to connect people with housing. And sure. Housing is essential. Nobody argues against that.

But housing alone isn’t a cure

If you take someone suffering from severe addiction or untreated mental illness and put them in an apartment without requiring treatment, you’re just moving the suffering behind a closed door.

And in Seattle, we don’t require treatment. We don’t insist on rehab. We don’t even ask unless the person brings it up first. We call that meeting people where they are.

Well, right now, we’re meeting them in a tent in Ballard. And by canceling this removal, we’re telling them they can stay there.

Encampments don’t get safer on their own. They grow. They attract dealers. They become hazards for the people inside and the neighbors outside. Without the pressure of a scheduled removal, there’s very little incentive for anyone to change their situation.

The philosophy seems to be that if we just wait long enough and offer enough unconditional support, people will eventually choose recovery.

I’m skeptical.

I’ve seen too many people lost to fentanyl to believe that the drug lets you make rational choices on your own timeline. Sometimes you need a push. Sometimes you need an intervention.

Canceling this sweep removes the intervention. This sets a precedent. Advocates now know that political pressure works.

And think about the location. This camp is in an industrial area. It’s not blocking a sidewalk. It’s not in a playground. If the city can’t summon the will to clear this one, what happens when tents show up in Green Lake? Or Cal Anderson? Or next to your kid’s elementary school?

You might think, well, it’s an industrial area. Let them stay. It’s better than a park. Maybe. But once you decide it’s okay to ignore the rules in one part of town, it gets really hard to enforce them in another. If we say yes here, how do we say no when they move three blocks over to a residential street?

We’ve seen what happens when we enable addiction and call it compassion. We’ve seen it on Third and Pine. We’ve seen it at 12th Avenue S. and S. Jackson Street. We’ve seen it on Aurora Avenue.

The advocates declared victory last night. The tents are still standing in Ballard this morning. Seventeen people are still living outside.

Indefinitely postponed sounds like a reprieve. But I worry it’s just permission to keep suffering. Is this the preview of the next four years of the Katie Wilson era? We’re about to find out.

And that’s the commentary for Jan. 14. Shoot us a note on the text line at (888) 973-5476 or leave a comment on MyNorthwest.

Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here. 

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