Ron Upshaw: ‘Politicians doing politician stuff’ won’t help the homeless

Don O’Neill has waged his own small battles in a war on homelessness. But he learned that may have been fighting the issue in the wrong way.

“I’ve taken homeless people into my house before … It was the biggest mistake,” the KIRO Radio host said. “I had everything that I own stolen from me. I let a guy sleep on my couch.”

The problem, Don said, was that he wasn’t treating the larger issue of homelessness, rather, just providing a bed.

“It doesn’t mean that I don’t help homeless people anymore,” he said. “But it means that we can’t all sit here and open our doors and say ‘come on in.’ There’s a reason why people are on the streets.”

And the reasons why people experience homelessness is what needs to be addressed. Not fighting the issue in the right way is why co-host Ron Upshaw doesn’t believe Seattle and King County’s recent effort will do any good. The city and the county declared a state of emergency over homelessness.

“I’m really disappointed in this thing,” Ron said. “I thought they were going to try something different. When you declare a state of emergency that means, in my mind, that there is going to be something different in there, or a new approach, or an emergency mechanism put into play. But as I read through this, is just seems like the same-old-same-old.”

Related: Murray: Loss of life warrants homeless emergency declaration

Seattle is the latest in a string of cities that have made such declarations, such as Portland and Los Angeles. Even Hawaii has called for a state of emergency over its homeless issue. It’s something Puget Sound residents are well aware of while walking down city streets past sleeping bags and tarps laid in doorways, or driving past tents set up along the freeway.

Ron notes that the City of Seattle already spends $40 million on services for the area’s homeless. The state of emergency will offer $5 million more. So far, Mayor Ed Murray has mentioned adding more beds to homeless shelters and adding a van for outreach to the homeless community.

“If we’re going to really do anything about homelessness in our area, we have to think radically,” Ron said. “We have to do something different. Taking your budget from $40 million to $45 million, adding some beds and a van, that doesn’t do anything in my mind. If you are going claim a state of emergency, then act like it’s an emergency.”

Don noted that the city spent $43 million last year on homeless services. King County spent another $35 million. With the emergency declaration, Seattle will add $5 million, and King County will add $2 million more to that effort. With a state of emergency, it also means the local governments can reach out to the federal government to ask for more money.

Related: If order is maintained, Seattle’s new homeless camps won’t damage property value

“The reason they are calling this a ‘state of emergency’ is they want the federal government to write a check,” Don said.

Though writing a check can go so far, Ron admitted that he didn’t have any answers or solutions for the problem. He just knows that what the city and county have been doing hasn’t stopped the problem from persisting, and growing. He would like to see something new attempted.

“This is just politicians doing politician stuff,” he said. “There is nothing different or better than what we were doing before … in true government fashion, ‘let’s throw more money at it, let’s not get better at what we do, let’s not get more efficient at what we do, let’s not attack his thing in a different way, let’s just take more money and throw it into this bottomless pit.’ And in a year from now we will be in the same spot we are in right now.”