Another Seattle Red Flag
(from FAQ PDF)
How is the City working with state and federal governments to address this issue?
Seattle cannot address the homelessness crisis alone. Long-term solutions require commitments and support from our state and federal government partners. The Mayor has been working with King County, Washington state, and the federal government on ways in which we can jointly address this crisis. The City is asking our partners to extend and increase their support to provide immediate and long-term assistance, including:
Washington State
- Allocate additional resources for mental health and substance abuse disorder treatment;
- Set Medicaid rates for inpatient treatment at an amount that is sufficient to provide effective treatment;
- Identify state-owned property to host authorized encampments, vehicle parking, emergency shelter, and housing;
- Allocate intervention and other resources to address the public health and safety crisis associated with unauthorized encampments on state property along I-5, I-90, and SR-99, including implementing physical changes to those areas to minimize ongoing and longterm public health and safety risks.
- Increase the amount and expand allowable support services in the Consolidated Homeless Grant (CHG), including Housing and Essential Needs Program and stabilize funding for CHG;
- Restore the Housing Trust Fund (HTF) to pre-recession levels; and
- Authorize additional financing tools to expand affordable housing and ensure affordability and protections for tenants.
(Emphasis added by me!)
The question is who do you think is going to bear the brunt of this expense?
Especially when two of the 12 bullet points indicated on the Preamble are about Housing needs:
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WHEREAS, based on reports, studies and statistical analyses performed concerning homelessness within our City and King County, I am aware of the following facts and information:
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6. Poverty is on the rise in Seattle and King County, and housing costs have significantly increase. A recent study highlight key predictive factors to homelessness found that a $100 a month increase in rent correlates with a 15% increase in metropolitan homelessness.
7. The number of low-income households in Washington State paying more than half their monthly income in rent -- which has shown to increase the risk of homelessness -- has grown to 221,800 in 2014, a 20% increase since 2007.
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