First tiny house installed at South Lake Union encampment

And so it begins. I saw the first tiny house being installed at the new city-sanctioned, low-barrier lot on Aloha Street in South Lake Union over the weekend. You know the one right behind the Marriott where the old Auto Hound repair shop used to be. It’s a prime piece of real estate about 300 yards from the shores of the lake.

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I’ll let others dissect the obviously suspect way this encampment was approved by local politicians, I want to do a little thought experiment on the low barrier part.

In case you’re unaware, the City of Seattle has several classifications for encampments: unauthorized, low barrier, and drug & alcohol free. Low barrier means that drugs and alcohol are allowed inside the camp. Which means they are allowed outside the camp, too.

Now this is my neighborhood, so I got to thinking: What would it cost to be a drug addict or alcoholic in South Lake Union?

First up, the lay of the land. There are no grocery stores by the Aloha homeless encampment. The nearest ones are a Whole Foods on Westlake, known for their inexpensive prices. Or there’s a Trader Joes at the top of Queen Anne. That’s a steep climb if you’re huffing it, but it’s possible to walk there. Their wine section is much more affordable.

The encampment is directly between the Dexter Brewhouse and Chucki’s Tacos on one side and Art Marble and Bucca de Beppo on the other. All of which do serve alcohol if you want a $9 beer or $15 cocktail. There’s a few bodegas servicing all the new condos surrounding the Facebook building, but again, you’re not getting a bottle of wine out of there for under $12-$15 bucks.

There is a pot shop up the street about a mile, but again, at South Lake Union prices.

I’ve known a few alcoholics in my life, and they consume a surprising amount of booze. I’ve known one of the beer variety. That was about 8-12 beers a day, sometimes more. I’ve know a wine alcoholic, and that averaged about two bottles a day. And I’ve had the acquaintance of a hard liquor alcoholic — that was at least a bottle of spirits a day.

What I’m driving at is to be a homeless alcoholic in the Aloha encampment, you would need to generate at least $700 a month just to keep your buzz going.

I have less experience with drug users, but I would assume that hard drugs are at least as expensive as booze. I could be wrong. Like I said, I have no experience with drugs.

So just to get their fix, people will need somewhere around $25 a day in cash. My question is, how are they going to get that money?

You can hear “What are we talking about here?” everyday at 4:45 p.m. on 97.3 FM.

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