Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is taking sharp criticism over the plan she unveiled last week to address the homeless and drug crisis in the city, using the same partnerships with organizations that have coordinated with the city for many years, even as the issues have dramatically worsened.
“We’re going in the wrong direction in Seattle and have been for a number of years,” said Jon Scholes, CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association in an interview with The Center Square.
In the plan announced last week, Wilson stood alongside Scholes with DSA, three city council members and local service providers announcing they would expand an ongoing pilot program in Pioneer Square called Streets to Housing.
The plan includes increasing coordination with service providers the city has contracted with for years as homelessness has increased in Seattle, which she blamed on poor coordination across the system.
Scholes stood with the mayor last week, stating he is on board with the new plan, while conceding the city has failed in its approach to the unhoused and drug crisis to date.
“We’ve got more people on the street today than we’ve ever had and if you look around the country, that’s not the case," Scholes said in a Tuesday interview with The Center Square.
"Other cities like Denver, San Francisco and even Portland are making progress and Seattle is not. So, we need to shift and evolve our approach.”
The Center Square asked Scholes on his recent comments suggesting that drug addicts on the street are not resistant to services.
“There’s certainly folks that are resistant to treatment. That is a thing I’ve dealt with in my own family. We can offer folks a safe place to be inside with good services and most of the folks living on our streets want to come inside. We haven’t offered them the right thing,” he said.
The Center Square asked whether putting drug addicts inside but not requiring them to get clean and sober is the right approach.
“We shouldn’t be warehousing substance users. We need to be offering treatment. We need more recovery housing where drugs aren’t allowed,” Scholes answered.
One of those pushing the loudest against Seattle’s Housing First approach and critical of the city’s new plan is Andrea Suarez of We Heart Seattle.
“It’s like being in a corner with your hands over your eyes like a little kid that thinks they’re hiding and saying, ‘you can’t see me’. You can’t change my mind, even though I can see the reality and hear the truth, because then they’d have to act on the truth,” said Suarez in an Oct. 27 Washington Policy Center webinar.
Eric Zimmerman is Washington Policy Center’s Director of Public Safety Solutions Policy and is also pushing on Seattle to change course into prioritizing recovery first over housing first.
“If we're going to save lives in Seattle, we cannot be investing in a new homelessness strategy that does not have any element of trying to enforce our drug laws and separate people from the drugs that are killing them,” Zimmerman said during the webinar.
“As someone who has worked in life-saving programs for more than 20 years, it just breaks my heart to see all of the people who might have hope in this now. Hope that lives will be saved and lives will get better. But to know that the future ahead will be more addiction, more death, and more destruction in downtown under this terrible crisis,” he added.
Art Dahlen with Battlefield Addiction told The Center Square he too believes Wilson’s approach to the crisis will not make anything better.
“When you bring someone addicted to fentanyl inside, one of two things happen. Either they have to be allowed to use fentanyl, or they will be withdrawing from fentanyl and who’s going to care for them. Who’s going to take care of them?” questioned Dahlen.
He noted that the newly opened tiny house village, Cloverleaf in South Park will be a test of the mayor’s next phase for dealing with the unhoused and drug addicted crisis.
“Who is going to watch the detox process and make sure that they don’t get too sick? That’s very dangerous and there’s no doctors on site. That has to be the question right now,” said Dahlen.
Zimmerman at WPC says it’s an entirely different mindset in Seattle where open-air drug markets are prominent and drug possession is not criminalized.
“I understand that there are people who've been successful in other places around the country that are behind this. I have an appreciation for what they're doing. I don't think they have any idea what they're getting into in Seattle….a place where drugs are basically legal, and a place where camps are basically legal,” said Zimmerman.
Dahlen told The Center Square he believes with Seattle embracing the same organizations who are unwilling to acknowledge that drugs are the root of the city’s problems, nothing will change.
“When you bring a person addicted to fentanyl inside, they either have to use fentanyl, or they have to detox off fentanyl and go through the withdrawal process. We’re in the heat of the debate right now. Fentanyl addiction ends in detox or death, that’s it.”
The Center Square contacted Wilson's office for reaction to criticism of her new homeless plan, and received a response after initial publication.
The Streets to Housing strategy includes required case management in most cases, which is why 70 out of 80 people in Pioneer Square were successfully moved into lasting housing," wrote Ansel Herz, Wilson's press secretary.
"This strategy, based on a common sense framework adopted by other cities around the country, is responsible for the noticeable improvements in our public areas before the World Cup. That event was a resounding success for our city. And that is why we are taking action to expand this approach to other neighborhoods."
"The mayor expects partner organizations to operate efficiently and with high standards, and where that does not happen, the city will take appropriate action. It’s important to note that this strategy shift based primarily on reallocations of existing resources, in keeping with the mayor’s commitment to a responsible budget. With the support of the DSA and others, we will make rapid, visible progress to return public spaces to the public," the statement concluded.
