I have to be honest — when I initially saw this advertised, my first reaction was negative. Over the past 8 months, I have heard a lot of feedback from Pioneer Square residents that they are tired of church organizations and people with good intentions coming to our neighborhood to feed the homeless. Oftentimes, they leave our parks full of trash, and when confronted about picking it up, they get angry and don’t feel like it’s their responsibility. It also brings more and more homeless to our neighborhood — people ask why they don’t advertise that they’ll feed them in their neighborhood.

After talking to the Marketing + Communications Director for the Bread of Life, however, their event is different.

“The Bread of Life’s intent is not to be a band-aid,” she said. “When someone comes here for a meal, they realize that there is a transitional opportunity and there is a program and a way to step out of this cycle of homelessness. When we are in the park, we are also marketing that opportunity to the people on the streets.”

The have done this three times already– usually the third Saturday of the month, and plan to keep up the program. In January, a homeless person talked to someone in BOLM’s Life Change program about how he changed his life. He later came down and signed up for their program. They also see it as a way for the men in their Life Change program to give back.

They send out runners to the train station, occidental park, places they know there are homeless — telling them where the food is, with the goal of spreading the word about getting off the streets and changing their lives.

In that way, they are different than many of the other groups that come to our neighborhood. Plus, they have their own trash receptacles and make sure to clean up after each event.

When: Saturday, February 27th from 1 – 4pm (volunteers meet at 12:45 for a safety/info briefing)

Where: Meet at the Bread of Life Mission (1st + Main)

One group will set up by the courthouse park, and a second team will go out in a van to a few spots in Seattle where homeless usually gather (under an overpass or by the West Seattle Bridge, I-5 and Pike Place Market)

For more information, click here to email our volunteer coordinator or visit their website.

See how many of these questions you know: (no cheating)

1. The number of Senators in Washington
2. The number of Representatives in the WA House of Reps
3. The number of legislative districts with low-income people
4. The name of your Senator and two reps?
5. The state gem

(answers listed at the end of the post)

These are just a few of the things that we learned at the “Beyond the One Night Count” workshop hosted by SKCCH and Catholic Community Services. Almost 1,000 individuals showed up in the hours of 2-5 in the morning to count homeless out on the streets of Seattle.

For those who were interested in doing more than a few hours of service, BONC was set up to teach people about how they can become advocates for homelessness. After detailing a few bills coming up for vote, including the Housing Trust Fund, and the Disability Lifeline, we were lucky to hear from the main speaker, Nancy Amidei. Amidei has been called a “relentless advocate for changing public policy to better serve the most vulnerable populations.”

She kept the audience laughing while teaching us how to become advocates – and not just for homelessness, but general tips for how to get more involved. One of the problems with our system is that the people who are going down to advocate seem to fit a certain stereotype: they have money (+ can afford to be down there often), they’re retired, and are usually white. This is a problem for the bills that need to be passed regarding human services and affordable housing – there simply aren’t the right type of people there that can advocate for them.

She listed five things that you can do anytime, anywhere and said that they all come from one simple fact: Advocacy just means speaking up.

1. Be sure you’re signed up for a good legislative alert group that can monitor your issues
2. Communicate – write, call, visit “The most effective is the one you will use.”
3. Empower others – bills need a lot of votes
4. Advertise your issue
5. TALK! Think of opportunities wherever you are

As a retired teacher, Amidei gave us a lengthier quiz than listed at the beginning of this post, but let’s see how you did:

1. 49
2. 98
3. all of them
4. http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/
5. petrified wood

If you’re interested in getting involved and possibly taking a trip down to Olympia to meet your Senator and/or Representatives, Amidei said she’d be happy to be your personal guide.

Link to Part 1, Social
Link to Part 2, Economic
Link to Part 3, Political
Link to Part 4, Physical

The Revitalization Committee for Pioneer Square is meeting again tomorrow morning (open to the public)  to continue the discussion about revitalizing our neighborhood. I’ve been posting clips from the presentation, but if you’d like to see the whole 60 min presentation, click here.

Realities and Observations

1. There is a sense among Pioneer Square stakeholders that the commercial district is suffering.
2. Declining rents, vacancies and deferral of major reinvestment projects support this premise.
3. However these characteristics are true of commercial districts all over America, and the primary forces creating these consequences are national in scope and beyond the ability of one city, state or region to quickly overcome them.
4. But even in its current condition, Pioneer Square is one of the great historic commercial districts in the country.
5. The quality level of the retailers in Pioneer Square is very high, and a vast majority of them are independent, locally owned businesses.
6. There seems to be an inadequate recognition by Pioneer Square stakeholders of how extraordinary this commercial district is.
7. The number and quality of great historic buildings in Pioneer Square is certainly the major defining characteristic and strength of the district. At the same time the “edginess” and concentration of locally owned businesses is also an asset. But both “edginess” and independent merchants are fragile assets. In economic downturns, many independent merchants struggle to simply survive. In economic boom times the “edginess” can often be lost in a wave of cash and investment from national chains who prefer a more antiseptic environment.



8. The clients of Pioneer Square social service providers (who are readily apparent in the district) are seen as a significant adverse factor on both commercial activity and more market rate residential development in the district.
   1. There is a concentration of social service providers (and, therefore, their clients) in Pioneer Square.
   2. Many of these service providers predate any of the existing businesses in Pioneer Square. Further, many own their own buildings and are not going elsewhere.
   3. There seems to be a significant difference among social service providers their sense of responsibility for their clients once they leave their facilities.
   4. The congregation of unemployed and often homeless persons in a relatively small commercial district does create a sense of uneasiness among many customer and stakeholder groups.
   5. The criminal predators – drug dealers and others – exacerbate the sense of unsafety and frequently target the homeless and their not-infrequent addictions and physical and mental health conditions.
   6. The reality is that people who may have a bed but neither a job nor a daytime residence have to be somewhere. And until there is a day center for them to go, they will be on the street.
   7. While there is a role for police in addressing these issues, it is not solely a police function.
   8. While being homeless is not a crime there should be an expectation of civility in an urban context, and many of the actions of some of the homeless far cross the civility threshold.
   9. At the same time there is a political position among some advocacy groups that the expectation of civil and hygienic behavior is a violation of some imaginary “right”. The concept of rights without responsibilities violates the basic principles which functioning urban life requires.
9. This concept of rights but not responsibilities is not limited to some homeless or their advocacy organizations, however. There are numerous examples in Pioneer Square of property owners leaving properties vacant, unmaintained, or suffering demolition by neglect. This is defended by the argument “It’s my property and I have the right to do with it as I will.” But this ignores the property responsibility side of the equation that recognizes that a deteriorating and vacant property is essentially stealing value from adjacent properties. The concept of property rights should not be extended to allow one property owner the right to diminish the property values of his neighbors.
10. The Pioneer Square Community Association as lost considerable effectiveness and credibility in recent years.
11. The Pioneer Square Community Association needs to be a comprehensive economic development organization, not just the “voice of the neighborhood” or a promotional organization. Currently it is neither staffed nor funded to serve in that role.

Here are the final recommendations from Rypkema (commercial revitalization expert):

1. Establish an entity that is a comprehensive economic development organization. This could be a new organization, a reconstituted Pioneer Square Community Association, or a subset of another organization.
2. Systematically assemble and evaluate reliable economic data for the Pioneer Square for the last 5 to 8 years.
3. Create and then implement a communications strategy targeting both Pioneer Square stakeholders and the larger Seattle community regarding the organization and its role and the economic facts (as opposed to anecdotes) of the Pioneer Square economy.
4. Actively recruit and involve the growth sector business segments in Pioneer Square beyond retailing and food and beverage.
5. Incorporate these and other priorities into a comprehensive strategy for Pioneer Square.

“Far from being a commercial district in its last gasp, Pioneer Square is a commercial district of both relative economic health and extraordinary economic opportunity. The physical fabric of the neighborhood, the considerable but largely invisible growth of knowledge based businesses, and the proximity to both Seattle and international markets that the district provides would be envied by almost any other commercial district in the country.

But those opportunities will be foregone if stakeholders in Pioneer Square don’t approach economic development comprehensively, continue to make decisions based on anecdote rather than data, and fail to include and capture the currently untapped human and financial resources that could be available.”

Donovan Rypkema
PlaceEconomics
Washington, DC
December 20, 2009

Top Image Credit Link

Almost 1,000 volunteers showed up this year to participate in SKCHH’s One Night Count of homeless in King County.

Here are the stats from this year’s count (to see the pdf report, click here):

There was a 5% decrease from last year — from 2,827 in 2009 to 2,759 in 2010. SKCHH attributes this to an increase in awareness of homelessness, as well as an increase in available services. To celebrate, it looks like their website got an upgrade — go check it out.

The unsheltered number released this morning does not include the estimated 5,800 people staying in emergency shelter and transitional housing overnight.

Here are the results from the 2009 ONC (which showed a 2% increase from 2008):

As a reminder, don’t miss out on a follow up free event called “Beyond the One Night Count.” Details are in this post, or you can go directly to their site to register.

The annual One Night Count of people who are homeless in King County is happening tomorrow morning from 2am – 5am. This will be the 30th year that the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness (SKCCH – pronounced “skitch”) and Operation Nightwatch have organized volunteers to see how many of our neighbors are homeless and without shelter.

The One Night Count has two parts:

1. A survey of emergency shelter and transitional housing providers. Staff provide a written summary about who is staying in their programs or facilities on that night. Staff from the King County Community Services Division, Homeless Housing Program coordinate the survey.
2. A street count of people who are homeless and without shelter and staying outside or in vehicles or makeshift shelters. Volunteers go out with trained team leaders to pre-arranged areas in parts of Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Shoreline, Kenmore, Bothell, Woodinville, Kent, Federal Way, Renton, Auburn, and White Center.

How does the count work? Teams of Count Volunteers will meet at 2:45 am at Seattle Mennonite Church (3120 NE 125th St., Seattle WA 98125) and go out with trained team leaders to pre-arranged areas.  Teams ride “Night Owl” buses, and collect information from area hospitals, the Sobering Center, and Tent Cities. (via Shoreline blog)

For more information, please see the SKCCH web site (which appears to be down right now) or call SKCCH Executive Director, Alison Eisinger, at 206-357-3148.

Beyond the ONC

What: BEYOND the ONE NIGHT COUNT: a free and fun advocacy 101 workshop and local issue briefing.

Where: St. James Cathedral in Seattle

When: February 6, 10am – 12pm

Cost: FREE. Please pre-register by calling (206) 357-3149 or sending a message to BONC@homelessinfo.org

In January 2009, there were at least 2,827 men, women, and children without overnight shelter in King County. In total, 8,961 people were homeless in King County during our 2009 One Night Count: sleeping on mats in church basements, staying in transitional housing programs, or wrapped in blankets trying to keep warm outside.

Beyond the One Night Count workshops are one way that concerned people can carry that work forward all year to make a real difference.

Image Credits: Header, Image 1, Image 2

Back in December, I wrote a post to “kick off” discussions about Donovan Rykpema’s presentation to the Mayor’s Pioneer Square Revitalization Committee. It took a little while to break up the clip and transcribe it, but I’m finally ready to go. For those who can’t stream the video on YouTube, here is the link, and if you still can’t watch it, send me a note, and I’ll email you the transcript.

Rypkema talked about four “Forces of Value” – things that push the value of a given commodity. For Pioneer Square, he defined these as Social, Economic, Political, and Physical. He said that “if the purpose of Pioneer Square revitalization is to increase the value, and if the forces of value increase it, or change value, then it makes sense to look at the challenges and priorities in those four forces.”

So let’s get it started with what seems to be the hottest topic for Pioneer Square: Social. This includes social service providers, homeless, drug dealers, and people’s perception of our neighborhood.

Take a look at what Rypkema has to say:

One of the statements he made that originally upset me was that “social service providers were here in Pioneer Square long before any other business in Pioneer Square, and they’re not going anywhere.” I used to disagree with that statement, but after my conversation with Bill Hobson, Executive Director of DESC — he agreed that there is a slim to none chance that any will actually leave the neighborhood. So what next?

Here is one of the questions from the Q&A:

“Pioneer Square appears to be unusual in that we have a really high concentration of low income and homeless people in a progressive city, with a complicated history with law enforcement. There is a push/pull.”

• My evaluation is that it’s always in flux – crack down/ease up/tolerate/less tolerance. To try to put the issue resolution or mitigation solely in the hands of the police is the wrong approach – they need to be PART of the solution. Perception and reality are also an issue. Perception magnifies the issues.

Here’s where Rypkema suggests we start:

Rypkema said that “the issue isn’t crime, but a bunch of people hanging around scaring people.” I know that the issue also comes up for how safe women are in our neighborhood — when I’m walking down the street in the evening and there’s a group of people just standing on a corner, that’s when I start to feel a little nervous.

The real difference between this and a neighborhood like Queen Anne is that there are lots of other residents out on the streets that will make you feel more comfortable, even if the group is standing there. What does it take to get more residents to move down here and balance out the social problems? Will Rypkema’s solutions to the “social” problems help?

After attending a lecture on “Understanding Addiction,” many of us left Town Hall wishing that there had been more discussion on what’s happening in Seattle right now regarding “street addiction” and how to face it as a community.

Bill Hobson has been the Executive Director of DESC (which prefers to be known as its acronym over it’s name… just like KFC) for 25 years now, and has been involved in Pioneer Square for over 30 years. He was the founding board member of a few different neighborhood boards and associations and has a real passion for the downtown core of Seattle.

In his experience, Pioneer Square and Belltown have the largest numbers of homeless — Hobson says that his organization is “committed to getting people out of Pioneer Square.” DESC is now located in 6 different Seattle neighborhoods from South Seattle to Belltown, with a new building planned for South Lake Union. “Neighborhoods for the most part are understanding and willing to listen when our clients do something that’s injurious to the neighborhood,” he said. “They just want to hear how DESC is going to fix it when it does happen.”

The favorite child of the “harm reduction approach” in Seattle is 1811 Eastlake, a project that has received extreme positives and negatives in the news (all archived on DESC’s site). Before 1811, drunks would pass out on the street, be taken by ambulance to an ER, treated, and kicked out on the street, only to repeat the cycle again and again. After 1811, the cost to the public was drastically cut, and 1811 has experienced major successes.

Myth: The only way to approach an addiction is abstinence
Hobson gave me a statistic that makes the above statement very difficult. If you take an individual over the age of 45 who has a history 15 years of chronic “street alcoholism” and who has had 6 or more failed attempts of conventional treatment, they have a less than 5% chance of achieving sobriety. It’s important to not lose sight that there’s a small subset that conventional treatment simply does not work for.

Myth: Alcoholics wouldn’t accept housing even if it was offered to them
When this idea began back in 1998, DESC asked the city for a list of 200 names of the most expensive individuals that frequented Harborview Medical Center. They had 75 spots to fill, and only needed to ask 79 to fill the need. Two of the individuals who turned them down simply didn’t believe that they would be able to drink onsite. After vacancies opened up, they changed their minds and moved in. Even social workers who feel that this is a population that doesn’t want to be housed, DESC has proved that you can house anyone, given the right circumstances. Other centers/housing projects will ask an addict to move in, on the condition that they stop drinking or using – and their automatic response to “no” because it’s not something they’re willing or able to do. 1811 allows them to drink in a safe environment, and works to help them reduce and potentially to quit.

DESC’s approach and how they measure “success”
DESC’s approach to drugs and alcohol is as follows: “If you’re using in the privacy of your own room and that’s all you’re doing – we want to treat that as a clinical issue instead of a property management criminal justice issue.” Hobson feels that drug laws are a little over the top and that it should be a public health problem instead of a criminal justice problem, even if it would increase the levels of addiction – at least it was being dealt with in a different manner than criminalizing the addiction.

They also don’t track a “success rate” as far as how many people they get off of the streets – he says that it’s meaningless to do that. Instead, they just continue to provide services and wait for more affordable housing to show up so that they can place people.

1811’s real success
Hobson gave an example of their approach – say someone comes in who is used to drinking a certain amount of hard liquor – they try to take them from hard liquor to 6 beers – then to 6 light beers – then to 4 light beers, and so on. He said he didn’t want to go all mushy on me, but they “let them start to feel life and to think about what life was like when they were healthier.”

The goal for this project was never to save the taxpayers money – but they have. By $4 million. But that’s not the most surprising outcome – Hobson was even surprised that some of the 1811 residents are getting better. In a study of 95 residents over a 24 month period, alcohol consumption was reduced by 30% and even 11% achieved sobriety. Hobson says this says a lot about conventional drug/alcohol treatment and that it challenges the opinion that abstinence is the only way to get over addiction.

Creating more responsible neighbors
One of the items that is included in the lease of any DESC resident is the stipulation that they don’t panhandle in the neighborhood or “piss in a planter box.” (although probably not in that exact language). Hobson says they are strongly encouraged to recognize the fact that it is their neighborhood now and they should take care of it. He is not an advocate of excusing crimes just because they are homeless, an alcoholic, or on drugs. “They should still be held accountable for their behavior, under the influence in particular.”

New project coming to SLU
Hobson is working with the SLU neighborhood to build an 84-unit complex that will target the mentally ill (50-55% will have co-occurring substance abuse problems). He says that South Lake Union has been wonderful to work with – to the point that they have even written letters of support for capital financing options for the new project.

Typically neighborhoods cause major problems when they announce locating a complex in the area. 1811 took 7 years from start to finish because of all of the obstacles they faced. When looking for where to locate a new project, they look for a place that will help stabilize people’s lives – and the best place to do that is a stable neighborhood (aka not Pioneer Square or Belltown).

What can members of the community do?

1. Hobson was very adamant that one of the most important things is to vote for politicians that promise to increase taxes and use a portion of that to create permanent, “supportive” houses. Because the reality is, and Hobson is willing to admit this – having them on the streets degrades the livability of the neighborhood. “Human service advocates don’t want to admit that, and I find it sad that they won’t.
2. They can help by insisting that the community develop proven, responsible responses to this issue.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m sold on the idea and I definitely support more of these centers being built (just not in Pioneer Square. And you can’t get mad at me because Hobson agrees – it’s too concentrated and not stable enough). In the meantime, remember that “once you understand the what, you will figure out the why.”

In the meantime, there are incredible people out there who have already figured out the “how.”

Part 2

On Tuesday, I wrote some insights to what the police do in Pioneer Square and some of the general problems our neighborhood faces. Today, I’m writing about the exciting part of the ride along: catching the bad guys.

After chatting in the coffee shop, Sgt. Hancock and I headed over to the Smith Tower to (hopefully) participate in a drug bust. People complain about the presence of the police on the street and how that would make visitors and residents feel safer. While I don’t dispute that, here’s an example of where it’s better that they were not seen.

One member of the bike squad, Frank, was in the Smith Tower with binoculars, while another member was in Masins, both watching… (drum roll)… the Lazarus Day Center and Fortson Square. Apparently the city prosecutor has requested that before anyone is arrested for anything drug related, that they are observed making three contacts (or three drug deals).

In the Smith Tower, Frank paced between one spot and another, trying to get the best vantage point on all of the action down below. They communicated through radio with the rest of the squad, calling the drug dealers, buyers, and homeless by name (which was very impressive). At one point, there was a dealer in the square that they had heard was kicked out of Belltown the previous day for dealing. When I asked them how they knew it was him specifically, they said that he was wearing the same pants as yesterday (which were covered in iron-on sports logos).

I don’t know how many of you have noticed, but drug activity has exploded at Lazarus/Fortson Square –hereafter called “The Corner” (and decreased in Occidental and Chinatown). The police believe this is due to a few factors:

1. Lazarus has had a cut in funding — as a result, they’ve reduced the security officer’s hours from 2-6pm
2. Even when there is a security officer on staff, police have been told that the dealers have been paying off the security guard

I know that this may make some people angry, but there are problems at the Lazarus Day Center. I have no problem with services provided to the homeless. I have a problem when my neighborhood is overrun with drug dealers that are targeting the recovering addicts in and in front of the Lazarus and the Day Center does nothing.

This isn’t just opinion — it’s a fact that it’s happening. The Lazarus Day Center is only supposed to be for homeless men and women over the age of 50. According to their website, “the Center opened in July 1990 to serve this special population of elderly people who are vulnerable to the weather, street predators, and illness.” But there’s a problem: Lazarus is freely letting the predators into their center.

The police conducted another “drug bust” on the Corner last week — one of the people they arrested was down in the center with the other individuals. Was he homeless? No. Was he over the age of 50? No, he was 19. Did he belong there? Absolutely not. And this just keeps on happening.

According to the bike squad, the employees there didn’t seem to care about what was happening on the Corner, or in the center. I’m going to try and start a dialogue with the Catholic Community Services to see how they feel about all of this.

So, back to the actual ridealong — after observing the action for about 20-30 min, they had all of the information they needed and the squad headed to the Corner to make some arrests. I was given the option to stay in the car, but chose to tag along and see how the dealers/users reacted. As they approached, no one ran (as I expected them to… too many tv shows), but just stood there and denied that they had been dealing or using.

As someone on the outside, the bike squad had great chemistry together and seem to be really effective at what they do. They questioned the drug dealers/users, asked them if they had drugs on them, or had been dealing any drugs (of course, they all answered “no”) and then disbelief that they were being arrested turned to indignation as they asked over and over again “Are you really arresting me? Are you really arresting me, man? I wasn’t doing nothing!” To which Frank responded “Yes, we’re really arresting you — we watched you deal drugs. And we’re going to keep arresting you until you stop.”

The third part of the title, “a positive outlook,” comes from the knowledge that these guys really know their stuff. They are out in our neighborhood every single day, watching what’s going on, making arrests when they can; they notice when things change, or when there are people there that don’t belong; they know people by name. And not just the drug dealers — they know the homeless that have been around, they interact with the business owners and to get to know them, and they’re always willing to stop and talk with the residents/office population. And although it sounds cheesy, they really care about making a difference in the downtown core.

Near the end of the ride along, Sgt. Hancock got out of the car to talk to one individual that they’d been watching earlier in the shift. He said that he had a wife and a house in U-district, and freely admitted that he had just done some crack (but had nothing on him, so he couldn’t be arrested). His wife had given him $5 for drugs, but he didn’t want to go home, and was instead heading over to the Union Gospel Mission for a free meal.

As he finished the conversation, Sgt. Hancock told him to head back to his home in the U-District immediately after and that he didn’t want to see him in the neighborhood at all for the rest of the day. When he got back in the car, he joked that he didn’t want to tell him to go home because it was sending him back to his own neighborhood.

But on their shifts, they’re proactively arresting people for drug use/dealing, stopping suspicious people on the streets, and being aware of everything going on in the neighborhood.

Final message — if you see a drug deal or what looks like a drug deal, or drugs being used: Call 911. I know it seems pointless because the deals are so fast and the cops won’t make it in time anyways, but it helps the higher-ups (who determine where to allocate resources) know which areas are experiencing problems. Plus, the 911 operators are excellent – I visited the precinct this week and saw the operating center where all of the calls come in. Captain Brown said that they work 8 (very stressful) hours, but that they have excellent staff and leadership. We call 911 almost every day now – the 911 operators are very friendly and patient and make it easy to report drug deals in the neighborhood.

If you have information regarding drugs in the neighborhood, or want to share any concerns, there are a few (non-emergency) things you can do:

1. Email Sgt. Paul Gracy (of the Community Police Team): paul.gracy@seattle.gov
2. Email the Bike Precinct: SPD_West_Precinct_BikeBeats@Seattle.Gov
3. Email safety@pioneersquare.org

One thing is for sure: the more information the police have, the better they can serve the community.

As a quick follow up to the previous few posts and comments, here is a brief history of the homeless shelters in the neighborhood:

The Compass Center, 1920

Union Gospel Mission, 1932

Bread of Life, 1939

Chief Seattle Club, 1970

Downtown Emergency Service Center, 1979

Lazarus Day Center, 1990

There may be other shelters / homeless services in the neighborhood, but these are the ones I found in my initial google search.

For additional information, the city actually has a “10-year plan to end homelessness,” which is very ambitious of them. Although, as Paul mentioned, they started it in 2004, so time is running out. They also have a Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness (SKCC), including a One Night Count, where volunteers and members go out and basically do a census on the homeless numbers for each neighborhood.

On Seattle City’s websites, there are tons of shelters and services spread throughout many different neighborhoods, but Pioneer Square has had them around for quite a long time, mostly concentrated (as you can see in the map) within a few city blocks.

And silly me, I almost posted the map before adding the King County District Courts and King County Jail. I stopped before adding local drug hangouts. You’re welcome.

The post I did about the new banners for P2 was recently highlighted in The Stranger (link). My first reaction to it was a negative one. Instead of the usual sarcastic commentary about “what are the banners going to do” or “maybe banner will help stop the drug problem,” here is the main criticism of the banners in this short post:

As you read through the comments to this post, here are some of the other highlights:

“Poor people shmoor people! I’d love to take a camping vacation the rest of my life. the only reason I dont is that chicks dont dig it”

“It’s to execute brilliant ideas such as this that I wish I was an impossibly wealthy man. Mr. Hughes would have funding for his banner and panels in two shakes of a fortified wine bottle.”

After first reading it, the Husband suggested I write about the fact that other neighborhoods think that Pioneer Square is a joke. Something along the lines of the problems that we’re facing are something to laugh about — mainly the abundance of homelessness in the region.

There are other comments that ‘defend’ the square, such as:

“It would help if the actual homeless were allowed a place to live, like in Portland’s Dignity Village. Instead, we just have the police harass the homeless unless there’s a critical mass of them in a visible park or pushed around every few months in a tent city.”

[for other (c)rude comments, you'll have to go read the post yourself]

It does bring up an important conversation, though, related to Friday’s post. Do we actually have a problem in Pioneer Square? Or is the problem the negative perception people have of Pioneer Square?

Currently, it is an accurate statement that a banner with “homeless district” is fitting for P2. If you’ve read previous posts, you know that I don’t have a problem with homeless people. At least not the ones who seem to care about the neighborhood. The problem that I have is that the services are so heavily concentrated in our little square. It’s part of the reason I think Lazarus should move — as one of the most disruptive, disorderly homeless organizations in the neighborhood — it’s a start for reducing the concentration that leads to the homeless people and drug dealers outnumbering the residents.

I’m going to go off of the topic of Pioneer Square for a bit, although everything below is very relevant to our problem. I don’t want this blog to become a campaign surrounding homelessness. However, there are some serious issues that need to be addressed when it comes to solving some of the problems of the neighborhood. It begs another question: what is working in other cities? Would it work here?

In addition to the very well known program in NY flying the homeless out of the city, there is an interesting study that was recently completed in NYC by a local Architectural Design firm. They spent three years studying the cycle of homelessness in a project they call “Private/Public.” One of the conclusions they drew for their city is the same that John, my homeless friend, told me for the homeless in Seattle:

“less than 10 percent of this population resides in the public spaces of the city typically associated with sites of homelessness: the street, the subway, abandoned lots.”

and

“the majority of New York’s homeless are families living in the city’s shelter system, invisible to the public”

They’ve included many programs in NYC to combat homelessness, from funding emergency shelters and relief initiatives — solutions that are only considered “temporary solutions”– to flying them back to where they came from, a more permanent solution with a lower investment.

Or how about the Canadian’s (Surrey, BC) brilliant new plan for solving homelessness: city workers spreading chicken dung around a social services building and trees in a nearby park. They thought if the area smelled “less appealing to the homeless,” they would stay away from the area. Just think about this idea for a little while. (link)

There is an excellent article by Neal Peirce called “Homelessness in America: Finally, Glimmers of Hope.” It is stated that a positive thing that is currently happening in cities across America is that they are no longer trying to keep the homeless off the streets, clearing them out of public parks, or forbidding them to sleep on public sidewalks. All that that does is move the problem to another neighborhood.

One solution that has been suggested is to simply provide the homeless with a home. According to Housing and Urban Dev’t Secretary, Shaun Donovan, “it’s a myth that anyone wants to be homeless.” Providing them with services, such as overnight shelter, emergency medical services, food programs, easily run up massive public costs.

And what do these costs equal? Nothing. Because it doesn’t actually give them a place to live, making them all temporary solutions that are extremely expensive.

This article also highlights a project that I recently learned about from our community sergeant regarding homeless who are chronic alcoholics. When he first told me about it, I think I was appalled. (I can’t remember, but I’m pretty sure on the About Us page, I reference my lack of good memory). The more that I’ve learned about it, the more I think it’s the best solution I’ve heard yet.

For those of you who haven’t heard of it, the project is run by the Downtown Emergency Service Center and is called 1811 Eastlake. Their website states that they serve “75 formerly homeless men and women living with chronic alcohol addition.” I was initially appalled, I think, because I wasn’t sure how I felt about the city providing them with alcohol, essentially helping them drink themselves to death.

But look at some of the statistics from the program (and think about how this could be applied to the general homeless problem, and not just one dealing with chronic alcoholism).

Before 1811 Eastlake, residents:

–  spent a collective 1,200 + days in jail

–  visited the local medical center more than 1,100 times

Cost to taxpayers: $3.5 million

After the first year of 1811 Eastlake:

–  days in jail were cut almost in half

–  big reduction in hospital visits

Cost to taxpayers: down 40%

To read more about this program, and other federal strategies, read the article here.

Whew! Sorry for the long post.. I’ve been saving up some of those links. AND…. back to my original question.

Do I think that Pioneer Square is a joke to other neighborhoods? Maybe not a joke — but do the perceptions about the square have some accuracy to them? Is dealing with homeless and drugs something many other Seattle neighborhoods face? I think so (see my post where John’s answer to “where are you scared to go to in P2″ is …”Belltown”)

I think that Pioneer Square needs a little help coming up with a solution to this one. I’d be interested in whether or not anyone knows why all of the homeless shelters are crammed into a 3-4 blog radius, and how difficult it is to make changes to that.

Also, for the record, if people were free to “categorize” some of the other neighborhoods on banners any way they wanted, there would be some pretty interesting banners in Seattle. I can think of a few already…

p.s. I’ll be honest… I tried to google “how to make fun of capitol hill Seattle” to think of a good zinger but couldn’t find one. Off of a hint from MLIA’s website, I entered the same thing into “mystery google.” The result was Taylor University. So there Capitol Hill with your.. your.. Taylor University district.