Amid booming economy, homelessness soars on US West Coast

[Jimi Swagger]

As the West Coast’s economy booms and more people move to the area, the number of homeless people has spiked to crisis levels. The Associated Press found that the number of homeless people is now 168,000 in California, Oregon and Washington.

By GILLIAN FLACCUS and GEOFF MULVIHILL

SEATTLE (AP) — In a park in the middle of a leafy, bohemian neighborhood where homes list for close to $1 million, a tractor’s massive claw scooped up the refuse of the homeless - mattresses, tents, wooden frames, a wicker chair, an outdoor propane heater. Workers in masks and steel-shanked boots plucked used needles and mounds of waste from the underbrush.

Just a day before, this corner of Ravenna Park was an illegal home for the down and out, one of 400 such encampments that have popped up in Seattle’s parks, under bridges, on freeway medians and along busy sidewalks. Now, as police and social workers approached, some of the dispossessed scurried away, vanishing into a metropolis that is struggling to cope with an enormous wave of homelessness.

That struggle is not Seattle’s alone. A homeless crisis of unprecedented proportions is rocking the West Coast, and its victims are being left behind by the very things that mark the region’s success: soaring housing costs, rock-bottom vacancy rates and a roaring economy that waits for no one. All along the coast, elected officials are scrambling for solutions.

“I’ve got economically zero unemployment in my city, and I’ve got thousands of homeless people that actually are working and just can’t afford housing,” said Seattle City Councilman Mike O’Brien. “There’s nowhere for these folks to move to. Every time we open up a new place, it fills up.”


(Long read, not pasting all of this) : Amid booming economy, homelessness soars on US West Coast

 

[hashmander]

used needles and homelessness go hand in hand.

 

[88m3]

@Ed MOTHERfukkING G

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

@Ed MOTHERfukkING G

Socially Seattle is absolutely disgusting. I could write a novel about how superivially socially aware the city is while being morally bankrupt to it's less fortunate. People will donate tens of thousands to a non profit for a museum but not work to end housing and education inequities. The drug problem isn't a problem if you can powerwash the needles away in the morning...and the homeless problem is tier 3 to building a new luxury condo.

 

[Pressure]

I see the numbers they are using, but conventional homeless numbers include more than "street dwellers." I wonder how many of these people are doubling up, staying with family members, hotels, etc.

 

[88m3]

Socially Seattle is absolutely disgusting. I could write a novel about how superivially socially aware the city is while being morally bankrupt to it's less fortunate. People will donate tens of thousands to a non profit for a museum but not work to end housing and education inequities. The drug problem isn't a problem if you can powerwash the needles away in the morning...and the homeless problem is tier 3 to building a new luxury condo.

Damn that's evil. After all the money that I imagine is being raked in out there... what is local and state government spending all their revenue on then?


Reading this article it makes me feel like NYC is doing a half decent job.

 

[mson]

 

[re'up]

Downtown San Diego, more 'luxury' condos then ever, yet, homeless litter the streets and have set up communities across the area.

 

[Take It In Blood]

Thats how capitalism works

Can't have people at the top if there aren't individuals at the very bottom

We'll learn one day though

 

[DEAD7]

Rock-bottom vacancy rates? So there simply isn't enough space to house everyone?
Insane demand + very little supply =

 

[TELL ME YA CHEESIN FAM?]

Homeless while employed?Interesting

 

[ADevilYouKhow]

Homeless while employed?Interesting

It’s very common now

 

[Wild self]

Rock-bottom vacancy rates? So there simply isn't enough space to house everyone?
Insane demand + very little supply =

Landlords are too greedy to put a cap on their salary. Jacking up rent prices just makes the homelessness problem a whole lot worse, all for the sake of drowning out the "undesirables"

 

[pete clemenza]

This is happening all over the west coast.. Its a monster here in LA. One of the biggest reasons is the "its better weather to be homeless in a west coast city" and alot of mental hospitals and hospitals in general dump people in Skid Row's and homeless areas once their benefits and family give up on them. They literally drive them to homeless encampments and drop them off. And alot of these people are fighting mental illness and drug/alcohol abuse so all of that "pulling yourselves up from your bootstraps" is not a factor in a big percentage of these people living on the streets. Can't hire people that scream and have arguments with invisible people and take shyts in the alleys.

 

[afterlife2009]

capitalism