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RSS icon Comments on City Hall Campout to Protest Homeless Sweeps

1

Great, more people peeing on the walls, due to a lack of public bathrooms.

(sorry, that was the first image that flashed thru my head, based on what happens when you get that many people downtown without access to bathrooms)

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 22, 2008 11:25 AM
2

i, for one, will not be there.

the homeless situation has reached intolerable levels. it is time to distribute the homeless evenly across america, as it is ALL of america's problem.

yesterday, i got spare-changed by a crusty at the fucking wedgewood safeway (yes, i gave him my spare change)! i want america's small towns & suburbs to feel it, too.

Posted by max solomon | February 22, 2008 12:01 PM
3

Thank you for posting this Erica. Homelessness is a real challenge for our society. I do volunteer work for ROOTS, a homeless shelter for Teens and Young Adults in the University District.

As snipped from their website: "These young people are too old to access
youth shelter programs but often feel unwelcome or threatened in emergency programs serving older single adults. Current estimates suggest that there are ore than one and a half million children, teens and young adults trying to survive on U.S. streets today.

Runaway youth come from every socio-economic and racial group in America. More often than not, youth who are homeless have not chosen to live on the streets. Many homeless youth turn to the streets because of a combination of abuse, family problems and dysfunction within their home that causes them to feel unsafe."

http://www.rootsinfo.org/

Posted by Suz | February 22, 2008 12:05 PM
4

I've asked a few homeless people why they are homeless. Without exception they all said it was because someone else did something to them, stole their wallet, divorced them, took everything they had, etc. From what the mayor says there are enough beds for the folks that want them. Many prefer their freedom on the street. Once you accept a bed and home you accept responsibility. If the homeless are mentally ill, they must be treated with compassion. If they are fully functioning adults, I for one will respect their choice to live as they see fit. However they must understand that the "public square" is not their bedroom nor bathroom.

Posted by Sargon Bighorn | February 22, 2008 12:11 PM
5

I am not even going to comment on the above posting in hopes that it is a joke (if not - read a newspaper and learn some compassion, the fall from the middle class is more common than you think).

The last camp out at City Hall was a lot of fun. People from all walks of life, music, midnight snacks and coffee. It was great (a double porto-potty was included).

I encourage anyone interested in homeless advocacy to attend.

Posted by Natalie | February 22, 2008 12:13 PM
6

i was referring to max's posting

Posted by Natalie | February 22, 2008 12:16 PM
7

Actually, a lot of people can become homeless just from getting sick and running up massive debt as a result.

This society sucks a lot sometimes.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 22, 2008 12:19 PM
8

A lot of the homelessness problem can be traced to two things: liberal fuzzy-mindedness and conservative heartlessness. You've got the bleeding-heart factions that think all mentally-ill people should be able to "determine their own destiny" and no one should be institutionalized (oh, and building huts or similar shelters damages people's "dignity" - never mind that the option is a sleeping bag under a freeway overpass). Then you have those who are too fucking cheap to cough up even a couple more dollars in taxes for social services, so that people who need mental health care have nowhere to get it, so that people who develop chronic health problems lose their jobs, their insurance, and their homes. The latter are generally the people who want the homeless out of their sight, so that they don't have to think about what cheap, mean-spirited bastards they are. But both share responsibility for having created the problem in the first place.

It's popular to blame Reagan for closing down mental-health facilities and tossing damaged people out on the street with no resources, and indeed, he deserves a share of blame for that. But it was Carter's administration that started the process of deinstitutionalizing the mentally ill, with the idea that some sort of benevolent society would provide for them. Instead, they became the crazy - and sometimes dangerous - street people that we all walk past every day.

Posted by Geni | February 22, 2008 12:29 PM
9

Not to diminish the problem, but do we all really believe that the region's homeless problem is the exclusive responsibility of the citizens of Seattle?

Posted by rod | February 22, 2008 12:50 PM
10

natalie @ 5, 6: for someone who wasn't going to comment, you sure did comment!

saying that the homeless crisis is intolerable, and that i want middle america to feel it, too, does NOT indicate a lack of newspaper-reading or compassion.

SOME of the homeless come to the city from small towns, small cities, native reservations. those places therefore put the responsibility of their sons & daughters - be they alcoholics, junkies, mentally ill, teenage runaways, or fallen-from-the-middle-class - on the taxpayers & citizens of large cities. yet i regularly hear tourists blame US, large cities, for the homeless crisis.

Seattle has a 10-year plan to end homelessness. i think if the NATION had that goal, maybe. but one city CANNOT (and will not) do it alone.

Posted by max solomon | February 22, 2008 12:55 PM
11

@ Max solomon, I have only seen pan handlers at the Safeway in Wedgewood (35th and 75th I believe) a few times but those few times have been in the last 4 months and I have lived up here for two years.....

Give money to Urban Rest Stop. I make it a point to donate a few Jackson's every month.

Posted by Andrew | February 22, 2008 1:43 PM

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