Mayor Jenny Dukan announced a one-time $11 million plan to create more shelters for homeless people in Seattle and to do so quickly. Now, the local group Speak Out Seattle says what Seattle is doing is not working.
The group is referring to a document released in May by the United States Interagency Council On Homelessness (USICU). The document says cities should use caution when attempting to combat homelessness by using things such as tiny homes.
“This demonstrates what we have long been saying — that we need a real strategy to reduce homelessness in Seattle, one based on data and what experts say is effective, not an approach that is driven by ideology and special interests,” said Elisabeth James, founder and co-chair of Speak Out Seattle.
Mayor Durkan’s latest plan includes some of that $11 million to be spent on tiny homes. The city also just built a new tiny house lot on 18th Avenue and Yesler Way in the Central District neighborhood.
Just last week, King County announced there was an overall four percent increase in the annual snapshot of homeless people – now up to 12,112. More than 70 percent of the county’s unsheltered homeless people were in Seattle.
In the document, USICU says creating “sanctioned encampments” or “safe zones” may look and feel like a community is taking action to end homelessness, but by themselves, they have little impact on reducing homelessness.
The document also states that maintaining the areas can prove to be costly and are difficult to close once they open despite being considered temporary.
