Seattle mayor’s plan to increase tent cities a crazy approach to homeless problem

Commentary from 770 KTTH host David Boze as heard on KIRO Radio.

The mayor of Seattle is throwing the gauntlet down. For too long people have assumed Mayor Mike McGinn was the worst mayor in the history of Seattle, but now it looks like Mayor Ed Murray wants to contend for that title as he looks to add more tent cities.

Murray wants to make it easier for tent cities to operate in the city of Seattle on private and public property. The Seattle Times reports that the mayor will send proposed legislation to the City Council next month “to make a limited number of unused, vacant lots on private and public land” available for encampments. The areas included are not in residential neighborhoods or parks.

I would think perhaps these vacant lots could better provide for city residents if they were sold to fix some of the problems we keep saying we can’t afford to fix, but apparently to the mayor it looks like a better solution to use those lots for a bunch of vagabonds to put up some tarps and tents.

Before you say I just don’t care about the homeless, that is nonsense. There are great organizations out there that I encourage you to donate to. For example, the Seattle Union Gospel Mission or the Tacoma Rescue Mission, both are great organizations, both are working hard to help people get back on their feet and to get them into permanent housing.

What have tent cities done?

I live in Tacoma but drive into Seattle every day. It used to be you’d drive into Seattle and you’d say ‘Wow, there’s a reason they call it the Emerald City’. It was just a beautiful place. Now, you drive in and the gateway to Seattle is a gauntlet of graffiti and tarps and tents with garbage. It looks like some sort of terrible garbage bomb exploded.

What happens if we allow more of these tent encampments? Do you really think other homeless people from around the country aren’t going to be thinking, ‘You know I’d like to go hang out in Seattle, because that is my scene.’

Remember, for some people this is a scene, a scene where you can say: Why bother paying taxes? Why bother paying the rent? Why bother contributing to a productive society? You can just hang out in the tent city.

As a city, you want to be able to help people who need help, but you don’t want to enable people and create a situation where they don’t ever move to seek help or improve their situation.

I share this view that if you build it, they will come. In other words, if you keep allowing for more and more tent cities, for as many as you build, there will more and more people to fill those.

That’s not an invitation to a more civil and beautiful city. Everywhere you look now driving around I-5 it sends a message that we don’t care about the city anymore. It doesn’t send a message that we’re compassionate about the downtrodden or we want a safety net for people who’ve hit a hard time.

Garbage and tents are now part of people’s first impression of our city, and what it says does not bode well for our future.

Commentary from 770 KTTH host David Boze as heard on KIRO Radio.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

JS