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If Seattle doesn't want so many addicts maybe we should stop paying for them? Source: Resident of the city of Seattle

by forrestthewoods 10y ago

meowface 10y ago
You're paying one way or another. If not this, you're going to see increased hospital and law enforcement costs.
- forrestthewoods 10y ago
  I don't think that's true at all. Seattle has a disproportionately large homeless population when compared to other cities. We have the 3rd highest homeless population but are only the 18th largest city. And we're far from the only city experiencing a housing crisis. So it's a lot more complicated than "you're gonna pay for it one way or another".
  - meowface 10y ago
    Are you suggesting those homeless people will move to a new city if they can't get safe syringes or injections in Seattle?
    - forrestthewoods 10y ago
      I'm suggesting they first moved to Seattle because of the services offered here.
      - meowface 10y ago
        Certainly not impossible, but do you have any evidence to support that?
        forrestthewoods 10y ago
        Hard evidence? Nope. Maybe it's only 1%. Or maybe it's 20%. No one knows! My #1 frustration with the homeless crisis in Seattle is that we have almost zero data. In fact almost all of our numbers on how many homeless are in the area come from the annual January one night count! It's absurd. How long have the homeless been homeless? When was their last home? Where was that home? How many times have they bounced into and out of homelessness? When was their last job? What was their job? Why did they become homeless? We honestly have no idea. Solving a problem is particularly different when you don't even know what they underlying source of the problem is! Now gathering this data is actually pretty difficult. Many homeless don't have formal id. And many others have a justifiable distrust of the government and organizations which make them not want to use their real names. In Seattle it gets even more complicated. Different groups don't like to share their numbers as to how many homeless they shelter or how many services they provide. Because if they all start sharing their numbers some of them are bound to start losing their funding. And we wouldn't dollars to be spent more efficiently by another organization now would we? So why is Seattle's homeless population so wildly disproportionate to our city size? <shrug> No one knows and we're just guessing.
        rdl 10y ago
        Yes -- getting better data and then creating policy based on that data makes a lot of sense. I think the safe injection site is actually supported by data from other cities as a way to reduce junkie fatalities, but it has a lot of other negative externalities. (Fortunately for me, unincorporated King County is actually a completely illogical place to put such a center; no transit, no proximity to anything, etc. It will probably go in Pioneer Square.)

If Seattle doesn't want so many addicts maybe we should stop paying for them? Source: Resident of the city of Seattle

meowface 10y ago

You're paying one way or another. If not this, you're going to see increased hospital and law enforcement costs.

forrestthewoods 10y ago
I don't think that's true at all. Seattle has a disproportionately large homeless population when compared to other cities. We have the 3rd highest homeless population but are only the 18th largest city. And we're far from the only city experiencing a housing crisis. So it's a lot more complicated than "you're gonna pay for it one way or another".
- meowface 10y ago
  Are you suggesting those homeless people will move to a new city if they can't get safe syringes or injections in Seattle?
  - forrestthewoods 10y ago
    I'm suggesting they first moved to Seattle because of the services offered here.
    - meowface 10y ago
      Certainly not impossible, but do you have any evidence to support that?
      - forrestthewoods 10y ago
        Hard evidence? Nope. Maybe it's only 1%. Or maybe it's 20%. No one knows! My #1 frustration with the homeless crisis in Seattle is that we have almost zero data. In fact almost all of our numbers on how many homeless are in the area come from the annual January one night count! It's absurd. How long have the homeless been homeless? When was their last home? Where was that home? How many times have they bounced into and out of homelessness? When was their last job? What was their job? Why did they become homeless? We honestly have no idea. Solving a problem is particularly different when you don't even know what they underlying source of the problem is! Now gathering this data is actually pretty difficult. Many homeless don't have formal id. And many others have a justifiable distrust of the government and organizations which make them not want to use their real names. In Seattle it gets even more complicated. Different groups don't like to share their numbers as to how many homeless they shelter or how many services they provide. Because if they all start sharing their numbers some of them are bound to start losing their funding. And we wouldn't dollars to be spent more efficiently by another organization now would we? So why is Seattle's homeless population so wildly disproportionate to our city size? <shrug> No one knows and we're just guessing.
        rdl 10y ago
        Yes -- getting better data and then creating policy based on that data makes a lot of sense. I think the safe injection site is actually supported by data from other cities as a way to reduce junkie fatalities, but it has a lot of other negative externalities. (Fortunately for me, unincorporated King County is actually a completely illogical place to put such a center; no transit, no proximity to anything, etc. It will probably go in Pioneer Square.)