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Someone asked me yesterday what I thought about the kind of “backlash to homelessness” typified by the bad KOMO documentary that just aired.
Well, here’s what I think: I’m not sympathetic to the backlash narrative but I’m not surprised either.
Well, here’s what I think: I’m not sympathetic to the backlash narrative but I’m not surprised either.
Most people don’t think about homelessness & housing every day. But they know what they see with their own two eyes: Unsheltered homelessness becoming visibly more prevalent in front of them. That’s disturbing! It’s disturbing to see a human rights crisis unfold in your backyard.
Then they hear politicians describe what they’re seeing as a crisis, which sounds right — because it is. And then — this is the key part — they see those same politicians spend millions on crisis response and *don’t see the problem getting any better*.
And the problem, of course, is that although crisis response is necessary, so too are the dramatic land use and regulatory changes necessary to make our city truly affordable for everyone and thereby substantially limit the number of people forced into homelessness.
But politicians, for the most part — there are some exceptions — don’t want to make that connection. They don’t want to tell their constituents that addressing this crisis will require something more than a few shelter beds and tiny homes. Even more than building lots of PSH.
And so people end up feeling like they’ve been lied to — and told they’re hard hearted at the same time. Millions are spent with the promise of a solution. No results come, because those spending the money aren’t willing to give it to their constituents straight.
And all the while, people just like you and me are living on the street or in shelter, hanging on by a fingernail and batted around by forces well beyond their control. It truly is a moral crisis, and we are failing to meet it.
So yes, I’m horrified by the doc yesterday. But I also want to make clear that if we as advocates keep our framing of this issue as crisis response, we’re going to see lots of people who don’t think much about this radicalized against people they should be compassionate to.
It’s why I keep banging on about land use. We need to keep making the connection between the choices we make about how our city works for all of us and the crisis of homelessness our choices produce. We can end homelessness. But it takes being honest about what’s necessary.
Anyway, that’s what I think. Sorry for doing *a thread*. I’ll save you the time you’ll spend to find this image:
