Homelessness in Seattle

[4] A 2022 study found that differences in per capita homelessness rates across the country are not due to mental illness, drug addiction, or poverty, but to differences in the cost of housing, with West Coast cities like Seattle having homelessness rates five times that of areas with much lower housing costs like Arkansas, West Virginia, Detroit, and Chicago even though the latter locations have high burdens of opioid addiction and poverty.

[5][6]: 1 The name "Skid Road" was in use in Seattle by the 1850s when the city's historic Pioneer Square neighborhood began to expand from its commercial core.

[7] The first homeless person in Seattle was a Massachusetts sailor named Edward Moore, who was found in a tent on the waterfront in 1854.

[10] Since 2006, counts have occurred on one night of the last ten days of January as specified by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

[citation needed] Common causes of death among homeless people in the Seattle area include exposure, intoxication, cardiovascular disease, and homicide.

[39] In December 2007, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a measure prohibiting malicious harassment of a homeless person and declaring the act a misdemeanor.

From 2010 to 2020 the King County added 67,000 units to the 112,000 lost due to the growth of rental canons which overcome the 80 percent of area median income (about $23,000 per year for a family of four in 2017).

Four days later on July 6, while most of the residents met with City Council member Peter Steinbrueck (who was attempting to delay action against the settlement), the police bulldozed the camp site and private possessions.

The Seattle Block Project builds tiny homes in volunteers' backyards to house a single vetted individual.

Through housing an individual and asking others to participate in the project the return is twofold, a person gets a safe place to live, and a community comes together to help the homeless.

[58] The plan put money towards direct cash assistance and aid programs, housing resources, enhanced shelter and outreach services and small business recovery.

According to a report issued by the mayor's office, these causes include issues with mental health and addiction, economic disparities and poverty, lack of affordable housing, racial disparities, the criminal justice system, the decentralized response to a regional crisis, and lack of wrap around services for youth within and exiting the foster system.

[62] Some reasons for homelessness have been attributed to the cost of living in Seattle having significantly risen in the past decade due to gentrification, lack of publicly owned affordable housing, and the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic[citation needed].

[63] Another contributing factor to the rising price of housing has been Amazon establishing its headquarters in downtown Seattle and the subsequent influx of high-wage tech workers due to the tech boom, between 2010 and 2017 the median rental cost in Seattle rose 41.7%, while the national average was only a 17.6% increase.

[5][6] They found that mental illness, drug addiction and poverty occur nationwide, but not all places have equally expensive housing costs.

"[6] Operation Sack Lunch is a city-funded outdoor feeding program begun in 2007, located under the Interstate 5 viaduct at Cherry Street in downtown Seattle.

In 2012, Seattle Human Services Director Danette Smith said that because of poor conditions under the freeway, it should close or move indoors.

[73] Real Change news is a newspaper sold by homeless street vendors; they buy the paper for 60 cents and sell it for 2 dollars.

[76][77][78] Several competing media outlets in the city and homelessness advocates criticized KOMO-TV and Johnson for what they said was an inaccurate and biased picture of the issues, and that the contents of the documentary were motivated by the right-wing agenda of the nationwide Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has little interest in local Seattle politics but benefits from sensationalism of local issues to both maintain newscast ratings and to portray a negative and alternate view of the city's politics.

[82] The documentary states there is a homelessness crisis in Seattle and claims the causes include a lack of an urban social policy and the rampant drug use.

[78] Johnson advocated for a set of solutions, and claimed local officials failed to engage with what he said were documented problems.