Tag Archives: Caedmon Magboo Cahill

Voices

OPINION | Hooverville Then and Now: Who Is Worthy of Space?

Echoes of the history of Seattle’s relationship with homelessness 80 years on

by Caedmon Magboo Cahill

My Great-Uncle Agaton settled into Seattle’s Hooverville when he immigrated from the Philippines sometime in the 1930s. The City and census records I can find indicate he lived very close to a current SODO shelter that has been in the news. 

Named for President Hoover and his disastrous economic relief strategy after the Great Depression, Hooverville was a collective of shacks built with discarded scraps of metal, tar paper, cardboard, and whatever could be salvaged to create shelter. While Hoovervilles cropped up across the country, Seattle’s might have been the largest and longest running. City records also show that by 1941, the City acted upon the recommendation of the “Shack Elimination Committee” and destroyed my great-uncle’s home along with all the others that comprised Hooverville.

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Voices

OPINION: Abolition Is Survivor-Centered Justice

by Caedmon Magboo Cahill, Shannon Perez-Darby, and DeAnn Alcantara-Thompson

Seattle local elections are underway, and for the first time voters are presented with two abolitionist candidates. In the race for Seattle City Attorney, much has been said about how abolition would negatively impact public safety. One of the more persistent refrains is the narrative that pursuing abolition is turning our backs on domestic violence survivors. We write to dispel this myth. As a former public defense attorney, a community organizer currently working at a local anti-violence organization, and survivors with a combined experience of over 35 years supporting survivors of domestic and sexual violence, we maintain it is abolition — rather than criminalization — that is the path toward survivor-centered justice. 

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