‘It’s not healthy’: Jake opposes Seattle’s supportive housing where dealers have ‘captive audience’

House Bill 2266 passed this last session, opening up the door for supportive housing to be placed in any neighborhood in the state.

Following the bill’s passage, Andrea Suarez of We Heart Seattle took a tour of a so-called “tiny village” and made a shocking discovery of how these villages are enabling drug users when speaking with a resident.

“There’s a drug house right there for people who do drugs. So you come and do your drugs, if you’re going to do fetty (fentanyl) or something, you come in here and do it,” the tiny village resident told Suarez. “You come in here to do your fetty, and nobody says anything. Narcan is up here. Usually, it’s full of people; it’s the end of the month. Everybody’s running out of money. It’s funny because the drug dealers, they’re in there smoking with people.”

‘Boy, was I wrong’: Spike reverses stance on tiny villages

Jake Skorheim, co-host of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, was shocked to hear that even drug dealers are inside the supportive housing areas dealing and using drugs, noting they now have a conglomerate of clientele housed in one area.

“Did you hear that? The drug dealers are in there smoking with people. They have a captive audience, a clientele who’s addicted to their product, and are housed in taxpayer-supported housing,” Jake said. “The drug dealers, you’re essentially just building these little markets, where do you think drug dealers are going to go and find these people? Now they know where to find them.”

Co-host Spike O’Neill gave his stance on how he had been in support of the transitional communities, but has since reshaped his thinking after realizing they haven’t been as supportive of getting drug users back on their feet.

“I’ve been a proponent of these because I’m under the impression they’re a safe environment with some regulations, some gatekeeping, and the folks who take advantage of these transitional-type communities to get off the streets and get their life together and get on with becoming a productive member of society. Boy, was I wrong,” Spike said.

“I don’t like that you are placing people who have obvious problems, and not just housing problems, but serious drug addiction problems,” Jake responded. “They’re not thinking clearly, and it puts you in a direct path with people who are not choosing to live their life that way, and maybe just trying to live a good life. That’s a marriage I don’t think is a good one. It’s not healthy, I don’t support them.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.