Category Archives: Homelessness

Homelessness

New Documentary Examines Homelessness in Seattle

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by Carolyn Bick

Tomasz Biernacki is a West Seattle photographer, documentarian, and former architectural graphic designer. His first film, Trickle Down Town, follows several different people who are experiencing or have experienced homelessness in the Seattle area. The film first premiered in October, and has since been shown around the Seattle area. The Meaningful Movies Project will screen Trickle Down Town at Centilia Cultural Center, 1660 S. Roberto Maestas Festival Street Jan. 8 at 7 p.m.

Biernacki spoke by phone with the Emerald from Camp Second Chance, where he was building tiny homes.

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Homelessness

Finding Spare Rooms for Homeless Young Adults

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Accelerator YMCA has facilitated 21 host homes since 2016 and aims for 50 more over the next two years.

by Judy Furlong

For Scott Schubert of Accelerator YMCA, the equation is simple:  In December 2016, Gene Balk of The Seattle Times estimated there were 200,000 empty bedrooms in King County, and in January the All Home King County Count Us In Report counted over 1,500 young adults with no place to call home.

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Homelessness

From Pilot Projects to Systemic Change: Seattle City Council Mulls Solutions to Homelessness in Biennial Budget

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by Aaron Burkhalter

Councilmember Mike O’Brien took a stroll through a new solution to homelessness and the city’s lack of affordable housing.

It was a short walk — the length of a long trailer. At just a couple hundred square feet, the tiny cottage has enough room for a small table for two — maybe three — people, a downstairs queen-sized bed and an upstairs loft where children could sleep. It has a kitchen, indoor plumbing, and electricity, but it sits on a trailer hook up that is secured to the ground in the backyard of a home in Kent.

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Homelessness

Burning the Slums, a War on the Poor

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by Bypolar

The Northwest Daily Marker published an article by Jason Paulus arguing that these shanty towns that have been popping up all over the city are breeding addiction and killing addicts. He argued that we must ban addicts from housing, requiring sobriety and enrollment in treatment to be housed.

Because we are approaching the cold and rainy seasons, Jason, it seems like you are the one trying to kill addicts. Paulus takes the stance that people experiencing houselessness must hit rock bottom before they can get clean, because that is what he needed.

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Homelessness, Perspective, Public Policy

The Seattle Architecture Lobby Hosts Tour of Hostile Architecture in Pioneer Square

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by Alexander Froehlich and the Seattle Architecture Lobby

The Seattle Design Festival comes downtown every year to celebrate “how design improves the quality of our lives and our community.” This year the Seattle Architecture Lobby will be conducting a Hostile Architecture Tour to explore who has the power to design, who doesn’t, and which communities are affected by design choices. Through a 10-stop tour we will examine design as the result of deliberate processes that serve some and not others. We will also discuss our role as designers with power and complicity in those processes which shape our city.

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Homelessness, Opinion

Punishing Shelter Providers Won’t Solve Seattle’s Homelessness Crisis

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by Kayla Blau

There have been rumblings that the City of Seattle may fine local shelters that don’t move enough clients into permanent housing. When it comes to homelessness in Seattle (which has one of the most expensive rents in the nation), our city leadership must have better solutions than charging struggling nonprofits that are working diligently to house clients in a city with no available affordable housing.

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