SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Councilmember Mike O’Brien wants $5M for shelters, ‘vehicular living’
Oct 25, 2017, 4:30 PM
Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien wants $5 million for emergency shelters and vehicular living services.
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What that means is that instead of telling people they can’t live in their car, the city would provide services for people living in their vehicles.
O’Brien wants $1.7 million for “addressing vehicular living through safe parking sites and programming.” He wants $3.3 million for “mass-entry shelters, including capital costs and services for low-barrier shelters, emergency shelters, tiny house villages, and sanctioned encampments.”
The proposal, he says, would be funded through an interfund loan in advance of $5 million in 2019 revenue from a business tax on large employers.
One safe site, according to O’Brien, would cost the city thousands per year. Here’s how he breaks down the cost of a single site per year:
- Toilet/gray water — $4,800
- Sewage — $5,760
- Electricity — $2,400
- Water — $3,600
- Garbage bags — $1,440
- Dumpster — $12,00
There would be a one-time cost of $3,500 for electricity start up per site, according to O’Brien.
Annual costs for 30 sites include:
- Supplies — $100,980
- Shower and laundry — $125,000
Cost of supplies and shower and laundry per site were not available.
The last time the city dedicated efforts and funding to vehicular living, officials discovered a single lot in Ballard cost $35,000 a month to run, with $25,000 setup costs.
Why keep people in their vehicles when you could use that money for rental fees?
Sawant wants $500,000 for encampments
If O’Brien’s proposal doesn’t surprise you then councilmember Kshama Sawant’s may.
She wants $500,000 for “authorized encampments.”
“These funds are to be used to support increasing the number of encampments in Seattle, and increasing contracted administrative and case management services at existing authorized encampments.”
That includes increasing capacity for the Ballard Nickelsville encampment after it relocates.
