The Seattle Times rails against Tent City, showing stunning ignorance at the same time:
“Tent City,” which camped in Kirkland in late winter, and is in Bellevue now, is scheduled to move to Mercer Island Aug. 2. This encampment has been on the Eastside since 2004, migrating from one church or temple to the next, 100 people living rent-free in camping gear. What is the point?
[…]
As a protest, it had whatever impact it is going to have. Now it becomes tiresome. There are shelter beds. There are opportunities for work.
Itinerant tent camps are not acceptable in a modern city. We didn’t have them before the 1990s, and most other American cities don’t have them now. They look at us and wonder why we ever allowed it.
Many of the homeless folks who live at Tent City have jobs. What they don’t have is first and last month’s rent, or don’t qualify for public housing.
So, they have jobs but they just spend their money on meth and alcohol? Oh, ok.
Unfortunately the Share/Wheel work requirements for those staying in tent city pretty much preclude anyone from pursuing paying jobs. In effect the residents of tent city become indentured servants of Share/Wheel. Just ask them what percentage of their tent city residents successfully transition to permanent housing. As much as I hate to agree with a Times editorial, they’re essentially correct in stating that the tent cities are advertising for Share/Wheel.
It’s been quite a while since I rented, but my daughter is out on her own now, and we were quite surprised to find out how difficult it is to rent these days. Credit checks, criminal records checks, references from previous landlords over past five years, first and last month’s rent plus security deposit plus non-refundable “cleaning deposit”. A lot of people have to put down a couple grand to get into a place.
Not that I blame the landlords, they have to protect themselves and their property (as well as their other renters). But I can see how someone who has to start from scratch, for whatever reason, with no family or friends to assist them, can find it darn near impossible to climb over that barrier.
Especially when you consider that everything is a bit more expensive when you are homeless – budget “weekly rate” hotels charge almost as much over a month as having an apartment. Living out of a car or hotel means not being able to store or cook food yourself very well, so you spend more buying fast food. But even if you do manage to save up the couple of grand required to get into an apartment, how do you supply the references from your previous landlords? How will the new landlord look upon “homeless – last nine months” on your application when it askes for your residences over the past five years?
Sure, there are people on the streets on drugs or alchohol. Those are the most visable among the homeless. But there are a growing number of “working poor” who are either homeless, or just one paycheck away from being homeless.
By the way, I heard from a fellow at Boeing that they have clamped down on how long Boeing employees can be on-site when not on their regular shift. It seems that Boeing Security found some employees who were homeless and sleeping in the tunnels under the factory at night. They figured they didn’t have a home to go to, so they might as well live at work!
Interesting – there are some Boeing workers who are homeless. I’m assuming that they were among the recent new hires, but it still says something about the difficulty in finding and affording a decent place to live these days.
I’ve been expecting the growing inventory of houses to increase the supply of rental housing, thereby driving down rental rates. But that hasn’t happened. Instead, the credit crunch has made it more difficult for people to buy houses, so it’s actually a “landlord’s market”. And the foreclosed homes in this area aren’t really showing up as rental properties yet – banks don’t want to become landlords, they wait for an invester to buy it from them, and it takes a while for that to go through the process.
Well this is certainly the forum to discuss people who don’t work and have jobs. Nice.
Well, everyone here who claims to be a “progressive” should just go over to the tent city and pick up a couple of folks and take ’em home.
I’m sure there are lots of people who are regulars on this blog who have an extra room or sofa whereby they can provide housing for some of the people living in these tent cities.
While you’re at it, would you make sure these homeless folks get some medical care (paid for by you) and get their inoculations? Thanks!
Oh yeah, be sure to take care of their kids, too, if applicable. And how about a little spending money for these unfortunates? I’m sure you “progressives” can help out!
Progressives: it’s time to step up to the plate and hit a home run for Neo-socialism!! Now get over there and grab a few homeless folks to camp out at your place for a few years.
Tent city was a good idea when it started, but its been around long enough that those folks should/could have been helped to find housing.
Migrating tent camps are not a solution to homelessness.
That, and the Time editorial board is historically ignorant.
Recognize the skyscraper in the background?
Politically Incorrect @ 6. I’m already doing my part. What are you doing?
It appears that Frank Blethen, who lives in a $4 million waterfront mansion, just doesn’t want to look at Hoovervilles.
Perhaps he has nightmares of losing his fortune, becoming poor, and living in a tent that no amount of sleeping pills and Jack Daniels before bedtime can chase away.
After all, newspapers aren’t exactly profit gushers right now.
8,10
Good ones!
But, it’s way past time for the folks that run tent city to be working on better solutions than a roving Hooverville.
The Tent City did a stint at the church next to my house for 3 or 4 months several years ago. I didn’t see any problems, actually. Some of the tents were just tens of yards from the bedroom. The only thing I remember that didn’t thrill me was the Honeybucket guys coming at 6 am with their trucks beeping right outside.
I wouldn’t object if they came back for another few months, especially in the summer – the presence of people kept a lot of other undesirable activities away, like teens partying and dumping their trash and still lit cigarettes, and vandalizing the church dumpsters.
@11 That’s a great idea. What would you suggest they do?
The CCC and WPA did a good job of getting people employed in a healthy, outdoor atmosphere during the depression. Maybe it’s time for that again?
When I was growing up in AZ and fishing and hiking in the northern part of the state, I would frequently find some improvement that had been constructed during the great depression — a little dam, bridge, or trail. I think we should have these sorts of programs available to the able bodied unemployed during good as well as bad times.
@4 There used to be a guy that overnighted in his truck for almost a year in the parking lot of the church mentioned above. He came in late in the evening, parked discreetly in a corner, and was gone by 7 am every morning, so I assumed he had a job as well. We never bothered him – as I said, teens partying in the parking lot are a larger problem, and the presence of the truck caused them to go elsewhere. I guess somebody else must have eventually noticed the truck and called the police, or he changed jobs. I think it’s shameful that even people with jobs can be homeless in this country.
Since you mention Hoovervilles… I wonder if Obama gets elected, whether they’ll call them Obamavilles.
The similarities between Hoover and Obama… scary.
Did someone say, “CHANGE?”
The most scary:
Hmmm… Obama wants to eliminate NAFTA, raise taxes… all during tough economic times.
Yeah, kids, that sure sounds like a winner of an idea!
[Yes, I know that Hoover was allegedly a “Republican”]
Tent City 4 stayed at my church in Kirkland. We learned a lot about the homeless BOTH times they stayed with us (2005 and 2008), as did the community around us, so much so that this year there was NO opposition or problems of any kind with them at all. It was all positive, helpful for all to learn and live together.
I just cancelled my Times subscription. This was the last straw. Picking on the least of those among us is just the most pointless thing I can imagine.
calvin @ 17 “Picking on the least of those among us…”
You arrogant ass. Because someone doesn’t earn as much as you do, they’re “lesser?”
One of these days, the various “voting blocs” of the Democrat Party are going to realize how you patronizingly look down upon them and then you’ll really be in trouble.
Tent city is a political statement, nothing more. It solves nothing, nor is it meant to. Good for the Seattle Times for having the courage to go against how all the politically correct lemmings dictate one must think on this matter. I applaud them.
@16 “The similarities between Hoover and Obama… scary.”
You just don’t give up, do you? No more how ludicrous your spews become, nothing can deter you from making an ass of yourself. You deserve everything the Bushies have done to you. Enjoy paying $4.35 for gas!*
* P.S., thanks for your business! I appreciate your patronage. My oil stocks have tripled since I bought them.
@18 Your self-mocking satire isn’t bad for a wingnut, though.
@19 Tent City isn’t a political statement. It’s safe shelter for people who otherwise would be sleeping out in the weather on the mean streets. Its residents are simply poor people who want to be warm and dry. It takes an ass like you to turn it into a “political statement.”
Roadkill @ 20
Funny how you won’t even address the issues.
Assuming Obama is elected, there are many similarities between him and Hoover. Economic tough times. Tarriff and tax like mad.
The only reason you don’t care about any of these things is that you’re no longer a productive member of society.
Considering these times and Obama’s proposed policies, if Obama is elected, the U.S. WILL enter a Depression.
Those who ignore history…
re 16: It’s a good thing that that noted conservative, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, replaced that crazy, liberal-progressive, Herbert Hoover! We also needed a conservative change from those wack-a-doodle liberals, Calvin Coolidge and Warren Harding.
And furthermore, if Republican Poo-Bahs tell you that up is down and black is white, you’d best believe it, because if the source is ‘authoritative’, it cannot be untrue. Right?
5:
So Mark1, all liberals don’t work and are lazy to top it off and just sit in front of our computer screens wasting away?
Two questions, numbnuts:
1. What exactly are you doing here, trying to save souls?
2. Just who the fuck is working and paying taxes so the we have the services we require, you know, police, fire, roads, disease control, military?
Fuck you!!
(PS, I am retired. Did my time, now reaping rewards of my “government” job).
6:
What? And drag them off before you can take advantage of them, scorn them, hate them, then try to hire a couple of them to do your yard work at a substandard wage and then curse them?
Fuckwad!
Fake Mark @18
I can see that he meant the “picking on those WITH the least among us”….. You just chose to jump without thinking. You do that a lot.
You are as useful as a penis wrinkle.
Troll at 19
So being homeless is now a political statement?
I am going to let your post show how stupid you really are. No need for me to point it out.
From an August 12th, 2005 article in the Seattle Times, Bruce Thomas, a Tent City advisor says, “The eventual goal of Tent City is to be allowed to stay on public property.”
Read their ultimate goal again and tell me that Tent City not less of a solution to the problem, and more a political statement.
Mark(yet again)@ 23
History and learning? Hmmmmmmmmmm, Viet Nam, flash forward to, oh, I don’t know, IRAQ.
Sucks to be you. You can’t make an argument here without getting your ass handed to you.
What do you suggest we do with the homeless? What do you suggest they do for a living when some are mentally challenged, some are disabled, some are just victims of our economy?
How is again, that you have so much time to spend posting here?
29:
It is a solution to the constant moving. I see no political gain, just a place for an unfortunate few to exist. You can’t call it living.
“For George W. Bush, the race has begun to escape comparisons to Herbert Hoover.
With more than two million jobs having disappeared since Mr. Bush took office in January 2001, he finds himself in danger of becoming the first president since Hoover to oversee a decline in the country’s employment. “
I know the NY Times uses big words and has few color photographs, but many say it’s a fairly good paper. Give this article a read. I know you will be interested, because you’ve stated many times how important it is to look at all sides of a question.
Oh come on Goldy, its not like they were Christmas Trees that the Times and the Mayor want to run off, it is just the poor, the ill and the addicted.
@32 – that article was from 2003? I understand GWB has had the slowest job growth since taking office but I also understand the bottom number is still growth not loss. Clinton kicked ass in the 90’s with 10 million in growth and so far GWB is like around 2 million in growth.
here is a great job growth chart to really see the difference!
Job Growth Chart
The effectiveness of any program providing temporary housing to the homeless is demonstrated by the number of people that successfully transition to permanent housing. By that measure Tent City has been a monumental failure.
There are other providers of transitional housing for the homeless in Seattle that are much more worthy of our support than those who run Tent City.
@37
Thanks, that’s what I should have been saying earlier.
re 36: It does not take into account the people who have stopped looking for jobs, people who were forced to take any job they could find, and those who must work two jobs in order to make ends meet.
If you want to use your intelligence and ability to communicate to cover the ass of the retard you voted into the presidency, be my guest.
As for me, I want to look at all sides of the story, and come up with the correct answer — not the one that whitewashes ‘W’s’ ineptitude.
Scrooge: Are there no prisons?
Benefactor: Plenty of prisons.
Scrooge: And the Union Workhouses? Are they still in operation?
Benefactor: They are. I wish I could say they were not.
Scrooge: The Treadmill and the Poor Law, they’re still in full vigor, I presume?
Benefactor: Both very busy, sir.
Scrooge: Oh! From what you said at first I was afraid that something had happened to stop them in their useful course. I’m very glad to hear it.
Hoover was elected during good times, when people thought voting for a Republican would be safe and that they wouldn’t run everything into the ground. Thus: Coolidge and Hoover.
Then: The Great Depression. Bush’s Depression is going to feel a lot like Hoover’s. And Obama will be a lot more like FDR than HH.
34 Hannah
22 million jobs created under Clinton.
@2 & 37: Can you post some numbers, please? A link would be even better.
——
Frank must have read this – “From rich to the brink of suicide, man overcomes despair”, and it hit a little too close to home.
NAMBLA @ 41
Obama’s plans are almost word-for-word those of Hoover. Obama wants to increase tarriffs and skyrocket taxes (Hillary: Obama’s “Trillion dollar tax increase on the middle class”).
It will be Obama’s Great Depression of 2009.
re 44: Herbert Hoover’s policies did not cause the stock market crash of 1929. You need to look at the article I gave you to read. When you can explain how WW I, agricultural production, and the fact that farmers could not pay for the machinery they’d bought, coupled with the fact that many rural people moved to the city for jobs AND the fact that machines and industrialisation were making jobs more scarce, you begin to see how complex the problem was.
Yammering some revisionist crap about Hoover being a liberal progressive is just a simpleton’s way of trying to make sense of the world.
And you are a simpleton. What do you expect the seriously minded people on this blog to say to you?
“Gee whiz! Herbert Hoover a crazy socialist fruitcake?!?! Whoda thunk it?”
HL @ 14:
Great idea! For all the whining of the Busheviks, reinstating programs like those would certainly cost less than their War for Profit. And who could possibly be opposed to getting the homeless off the streets, out of danger and doing something useful, especially in light of how our nation’s infrastructure is near collapse after years of Bushevik neglect.
And for the Real Idiot @ 23:
We’re already in a depression, thanks to Your-President-Not-Mine, and Your-Candidate-Not-Mine, aka Bush III, will only make it worse, turning the greatest nation on Earth into a reincarnation of Czarist Russia circa 1917 in his masters’ mad lust for power and profit. And not having the stomach to see American fight American in the streets someday is why I will vote for Barack Obama.
Get used to irrelevance.
@23 “The only reason you don’t care about any of these things is that you’re no longer a productive member of society.”
Of course I’m not productive! Why should I be, when society gives me a favorable tax rate for being unproductive? Under Bush’s tax code, working or producing anything is irrational. Under laissez faire capitalism, I get paid for sitting on my fat rabbit ass doing nothing.
@36 Don’t overlook the fact that Bush’s jobs statistics are skewed by the notorious “birth-death adjustment.”
This refers to the birth and death of businesses, not people. It’s a statistical adjustment to raw jobs data based on an assumption. Its net effect is that about 80% of the new jobs reported by the Bush administration are phantom jobs that exist only in a government labor statistician’s calculator, and do not represent real people working in actual jobs.
From a web site called “The Big Picture”:
“The Accelerating BLS Birth/Death Adjustment
“Tuesday, July 10, 2007 | 07:20 AM
“I’ve mentioned the B/D adjustment over the years, and how its become an increasingly large portion of the reported BLS new jobs.
“What I haven’t previously mentioned is that over the past year, it is accelerating: the Birth/Death Adjustment has become an ever-large portion of the reported NFP payrolls.
” … year-to-date, the net fabricated BLS new jobs was 747k — versus NFP growth of 871k — that’s 85.58% of NFP job growth.
“Example of the absurdity of the new Birth/Death model — in place since 2001 — can be found in the specific employment sub-sectors. Construction jobs are an obvious error (housebuilders added 12,000 workers), big jumps in education while school is out for summer is another ….
“Prior to 2001, the B/D adds were less than 20k per month. Now, they dominate the Non Farm Payroll report.”
(Quoted under fair use.)
Roadkill @ 47 “I get paid for sitting on my fat rabbit ass doing nothing.”
No different than what you did when you were allegedly “employed” by the government…
@44
Your war profit boys got us into our current depression. And that’s what we’re in, look at credit card, mortgage defaults, the lack of personal and the level of personal and government debit. We’re in a depression and its got you boys name on it. Will Obama get us out of it? I haven’t a clue. But don’t go blaming your boys depression on someone else.
“9. rhp6033 spews:
Politically Incorrect @ 6. I’m already doing my part. What are you doing?
06/12/2008 at 11:08 am”
So, how many of the tent people do you have staying at your place these days?
As for me, I’m not doing a goddam thing for them. I’m NOT the “progressive”: you are!