Rantz: Washington is worst in the country for chronic homelessness

The Office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a joke of a report on homelessness, blaming the 18% national increase primarily on housing affordability. It completely ignored the role of drug addiction and mental health. But a close look at the data reveals the truth, especially as it relates to the worsening crisis in Washington state.

According to HUD, Washington had the country’s third-largest homeless population in 2024. With 31,554 homeless people, we trailed just New York and California. Unlike in New York and California, Washington did not see an influx of illegal immigrants contributing to the high homeless population. We saw a steady increase almost entirely due to Democrats in Olympia and Seattle/King County pushing policies they know to be ineffective.

Washington had the country’s largest percentage increase of the chronically homeless at 4,295. It represents a 55.8% increase over 2023. Even when looking at the raw number, Washington had the highest. To understand how this is proof that progressive policies are failing, you need to know how HUD defines the chronically homeless.

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Washington state’s chronic homelessness is worse in the country

The proof of Washington state’s progressive failures on homelessness is in the pudding — or, rather, intentionally dense and convoluted definitions of the terms used.

HUD defines the chronically homeless as “an individual with a disability who has been continuously experiencing homelessness for one year or more or has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness in the last three years where the combined length of time experiencing homelessness on those occasions is at least 12 months.” When the agency references a disability, they include alcohol and/or drug abuse and an untreated mental illness. These represent the bulk of the chronically homeless, with at least 63% of Seattle/King County homeless self-reporting one or both of those issues.

Policy failures can be best assessed when looking at the data on the chronically homeless.

These are the homeless who generally cause the most problems for a community. They cause property damage, frequently break laws, and make people feel the most unsafe when they take over sidewalks and parks. If this number gets worse, it usually means we’re converting the homeless into this more serious category while not getting the current chronically homeless into treatment. It’s easy to see why we’re failing them in Washington state.

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Washington Democrats are to blame for worsening homelessness

Washington Democrats at the state, county, and city levels are to blame for this crisis. Even if they are to deceptively blame “housing affordability,” they can’t escape blame. Which party has singularly controlled the state and largest counties and cities? It’s not the Republican Party.

When it comes to homelessness, Democrats embraced and aggressively pursued housing first and harm reduction policies. And they did it right as Democrats effectively legalized drugs in Washington. It became a recipe for disaster.

Housing first is an approach to put homeless into permanently subsidized housing without meaningful conditions, such as getting treatment for drug addiction. Harm reduction claims to mitigate the risks associated with illicit substance abuse by giving out clean drug paraphernalia so that diseases aren’t spread. All it does is enable a drug user to keep using.

Rather than focusing on treatment and shelter for homeless individuals living in encampments, cities like Seattle and counties like King opted to ban sweeps, permit open-air drug use, distribute needles and kits for fentanyl smoking or freebasing to anyone who requested them, establish low-barrier tiny home villages, and purchase abandoned hotel and motel properties for permanent subsidized housing.

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A head-in-sand mentality

As Washington Democrats embraced their progressive policies and claimed homelessness to be the result of housing that isn’t affordable and systemic racism, homeless people died in record numbers.

They kept their head in the sand despite the overwhelming data showing their failures. They insisted on spending more money on their approach, while making members of the homeless industrial complex wealthier. Democrats love to pour money into programs with proven track records of failure when it is perceived to benefit them politically. As homelessness gets worse, the very groups that have been given millions in tax dollars are rewarded with larger budgets.

King County saw a 214% increase of drug overdose deaths between 2019 (before drug legalization) and 2023 (the last year of drug legalization). The homeless are disproportionately represented. But here comes the gaslighting.

In 2024, King County will finally a year-over-year decrease in fatal drug overdoses of about 25%. Washington Democrats will claim this is proof their strategies are working. What they won’t do is highlight two realities: 1) we started to enforce drug laws again in 2024; and 2) we only have so many drug addicts in the county to die.

Washington Democrats continue to cost us lives

How many more homeless people have to die because Washington Democrats won’t acknowledge their homelessness policies are failures? Unfortunately, we’re going to find out.

The HUD report does little more than provide cover for ideologically radical Democrats in Washington to continue to blame the so-called housing affordability crisis on homelessness. They won’t even admit that a homeless drug addict will always find housing unaffordable. They’ll just blame developers (the ones who don’t contribute to their campaigns, at least) for not building enough affordable housing (in cities where it’s unaffordable to build because of Democrat policies) and hope the voters don’t catch on to their scam.

Unfortunately, Democrats in and around Washington state have reason to believe their lies will continue to get a pass. Left-wing media outlets, especially in Seattle, just parrot the HUD study’s press release, and amplify voices on the Radical Left while almost entirely ignoring conservative counterpoints or data that conflicts with their world view. The average person, while distrusting of the media, are understandably too busy to do their own research and realize who and what is to blame.

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