‘It’s not a fix for homeless issues’: Jake blasts Seattle council member’s sanctioned encampment idea

Seattle City Council member Joy Hollingsworth has proposed a city-sanctioned homeless encampment, where people can camp in a managed setting and be connected to services, KOMO News reported Thursday.

“A lot of people say, ‘Well, people need long-term housing. Well, that’s a long time to build. So while we’re waiting for those structures to be in place, housing to be built, let’s get people into shelter right now. This isn’t a long-term solution at all. This is something that is on the pathway to housing,” Hollingsworth told the media outlet.

She added that there would be restrictions and the encampment would not be a free-for-all.

“We can’t have people in parks that are using drugs around kids, foil, needles. You can’t have that,” Hollingsworth said.

KIRO host Jake Skorheim agreed there shouldn’t be people doing drugs in parks, but wasn’t buying the idea of a sanctioned encampment.

“Every time that they try these — bad things end up happening. It’s not a fix for homeless issues,” he said on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

Jake pointed to previous attempts at designated homeless camps, such as Nickelsville.

“It went horrible. They had a sewer problem in the middle of this thing. They had a drinking water problem. They had all these sanitation issues. They had rats. They had disease that started breaking out. They also had a bunch of violent people who were living there, doing violent things. Now, this was a city-sanctioned one,” he said.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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