Comments on An Earful from the Inner City
Dear King County Councilmembers,
Here's what I would have said if I'd been able to stay after 8:45 PM:
You heard tonight about the Clean Dreams project in Seattle's south end. It is one of two innovative pilot projects funded last year by Seattle's City Council.
The other project, with which I am familiar, is the G.O.T.S. project, implemented by the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct, in collaboration with the Seattle Neighborhood Group and POCAAN. The project is the brainchild of Lt. John Hayes, the East Precinct's Operations Lieutenant.
Lt. Hayes came to Police work via social service work, and that is the essence of the project. For one afternoon each week there is an "amnesty" at a known trouble spot (initially 22nd & Madison in Seattle, now 23rd & Union) and Police and social service representatives reach out to disenfranchised people on the street and seek to help them reconnect with society and to access social services. The Police are familiar with the participants, and help provide security and confidence for the social service workers, who may otherwise be reluctant to approach certain clients.
I would encourage you to contact Lt. Hayes and his colleagues, and to pay a visit to the program, to see if it can be replicated in other parts of King County. The name G.O.T.S., by the way, was coined by one of the program's clients: it stands for "Get Off the Streets".
Thank you for all your hard work, and for staying at the meeting longer than I was able to.
Andrew Taylor
About time someone woke them up to the reality of what they are doing to the TAX-PAYING CITIZENS who also live in Seattle.
DWB should just be a problem in the South and NYC - not in Seattle.
it is encouraging that the king county council puts on town hall meetings such as this one. having 70% of county spending going to criminal justice is ridiculous. that is money that is not going to other things, like programs that in the long run prevent crimes - early childhood education, mental health clinics, drug treatment clinics, adult literacy programs, etc. and with 10% of african americans in this county being locked up, we have got to examine what that 70% of county spending is REALLY going toward.
it is encouraging that the king county council puts on town hall meetings such as this one. having 70% of county spending going to criminal justice is ridiculous. that is money that is not going to other things, like programs that in the long run prevent crimes - early childhood education, mental health clinics, drug treatment clinics, adult literacy programs, etc. and with 10% of african americans in this county being locked up, we have got to examine what that 70% of county spending is REALLY going toward.
In other news, "Clean Dreams" sounds dirtay. At least to my ears.
I'm pretty ignorant of all the services the county provides. However, it seems like a pretty big one is criminal justice. How do the county's other responsibilities compare to law enforcement and the court system? I'm genuinely curious to find out if spending 70 percent of general tax revenue on criminal justice is actually unreasonable or if advocates of alternative programs are using that number disingenuously.
Keshmeshi, the County's Web site breaks down the 2007 budget. I don't recall anyone saying that spending 70 percent of the general fund -- which is less than the full budget -- is excessive. But plenty of people take umbrage with the comparatively small amount of money allocated to alternatives to incarceration.
Dominic,
Why did the County cut funds for Clean Dreams? Sounds like the kind of program they're looking for.
Just to clarify, the county never directly funded Clean Dreams.
Clean Dreams was funded through a contract between the City of Seattle's Human Services Department and Street Outreach Services (SOS).
The County (well, Public Health) terminated its contract with SOS for syringe exchange on the Hill and in the University District and for street based HIV prevention in the downtown core at the end of July.
When the county pulled the plug on its contracts the city decided to not renew its contract with SOS for the Clean Dreams project as well as a pilot project doing outreach and case management to street based prostitutes. Both of those contracts ended on August 31.
The reason the county terminated its contracts was because SOS failed to get its 2005-06 audit completed on time.
The County was preparing to fund Clean Dreams at the time the health dept. contracts were terminated. Needless to say, that didn't happen.
Kris - King County absolutely *did* fund Clean Dreams by the legislative budget authority of the King County Council. the failure to allocate that funding is an entirely different issue...but Clean Dreams WAS funded in the 2007 King County budget! It's a distinction with a difference (someone I once knew used to refer to such bureaucratic bullshit this way) cuz the $$ is still there in the 2007 budget and Dom's piece may help unleash it which may in turn help unleash the bollocked up 2008 city funds...
@ 5...not dirtay...read on
and
LH...you are correct, the County Council allocated funding for Clean Dreams and some (not all) of that money is still in unspent in the county budget. But, my point still stands, SOS never received any funding for Clean Dreams from the County.
And, yes let's hope it finally gets released.
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