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Category Archives: Homelessness
Audit This! ~ Bringing Seattle’s Human Services Department to heel
December 7, 2016 The Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) dispenses city, state, and federal money to a hundred-odd contractors that provide various services to Seattle’s poor and homeless. HSD has regulations requiring the contractors to track and submit financial tracking … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness, SHARE
Tagged Seattle Human Services, SHARE, state auditor, Troy Kelley
1 Comment
Sex, Lies, and the Seattle City Council
November 21, 2016 The presence of transient sex offenders in Seattle points up why the city’s current approach to illegal encampments is so dangerous. In 1998, the man pictured below was convicted of sexual assault on a child. (Reference RCW … Continue reading
Anatomy of a Failure: Why Seattle isn’t solving its homeless crisis
November 18, 2016 Seattle’s disastrous homeless policy has resulted from a combination of three things: -Ideology -Paid advocacy -Lack of accountability
Posted in Homelessness, Politics
Tagged failure of government, government accountability, homelessness, paid advocates
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Homeless Policy Questions for the WA Gubernatorial Candidates
November 3, 2016 Below is a list of ten questions that I and my friend Harley Lever of Safe Seattle devised for Washington gubernatorial race candidates Bill Bryant and Jay Inslee. The document format is QUESTION followed by ANSWER from … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Homelessness, Politics, Tent City
Tagged Bryant, homeless policy, Inslee, Washington State governor
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Seattle Shelter Contracts
October 18, 2016 – The document below is a summary report of Seattle’s homeless shelter and outreach contract payments for 2015. It was sent to me by one of my readers (Thanks, Deena!) who got it from Seattle’s Human Services Department (HSD) … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness
Tagged city budget, City Contracts, graft, homelessness, HSD, Human Services Department
3 Comments
If you see something, trash something.
October 10, 2016 IRONY ALERT! This ad on a Seattle bus tells people to call in if they see trash dumped on the street or sidewalk. I’ve called the number myself, many times; however, the trash I called in about wasn’t taken … Continue reading
Posted in Complaints, Crime, Homelessness, Photos (Stuff), Squatters, Tent City
Tagged encampments legislation, homelessness, Lisa Herbold, quality of life, trash pick-up
1 Comment
Risky Business: Is Seattle’s Encampment Bill un-Constitutional?
October 7, 2016 A hot mess gets hotter In each of the past several years, ever greater numbers of homeless people have been camping out on publicly owned land in Seattle. Conditions around the encampment areas have steadily deteriorated, and … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness, Nickelsville, Squatters, Tent City
Tagged 14th Amendment, ACLU, due process, encampments ordinance, equal protection, legal jeapordy, Scott Morrow, squatters
2 Comments
Ask the Experts
September 24, 2016 Seattle’s Task Force on Homeless Encampment Clean-up had one of its weekly meeings at City Hall Wednesday. I attended at the invitation of a friend who’s on the task force. It was not encouraging. But it was … Continue reading
Anatomy of a Swindle: How a Rogue Non-profit Captured the Emerald City
September 13, 2016 The Set-up For four years I’ve been investigating a publicly supported non-profit homeless group in Seattle called SHARE. SHARE runs 14 indoor shelters around Seattle, for which it annually gets several hundred thousand dollars from Seattle’s Human … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, General, Homelessness, Media, Nickelsville, SHARE, Tent City
Tagged corruption, David G. Jones, Efren Agmata, HSD, LIHI, Low Income Housing Institute, Mayor Ed Murray, Peggy Hotes, Pete Holmes, Scott Morrow, Seattle City Auditor, Seattle City Council, Seattle Human Services Department, SHARE, Sharon Lee
63 Comments
Tell the whole story please, Mr. B
September 5, 2016 On August 24, the Seattle Times ran a piece by columnist Daniel Beekman about the struggle between Mayor Murray and the city council over homeless folks collecting in hot spots around the city. In this post, I look at one … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness, Media, Photos (Stuff), Politics, Squatters, Tent City
Tagged Camp Second Chance, car camping, Daniel Beekman, media bias, Polly Trout, seattle times
2 Comments
Why I’m voting ‘no’ on the Housing Levy
July 29, 2016 Seattle Proposition 1 is a tax levy on the August 2016 primary ballot for Seattle voters. The levy would double the total amount currently levied for “affordable housing.” See the King County Voter’s Guide description on this … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, General, Homelessness, Politics, SHARE
Tagged accountability, government waste, LIHI, sanctuary city, Scott Morrow, Seattle Affordable Housing Levy, SHARE, Sharon Lee, taxes
1 Comment
Jungle Boogie, continued (and continued?)
June 29, 2016 Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said today that there might not be enough people left in the Jungle to bother with kicking them out. Which is an understandable (if not exactly courageous) stance, given the amount of crap he’s … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness, Politics, Tent City
Tagged Dorothea Lange, drug gangs, DTO, Ed Murray, gangs, homeless camps, John Steinbeck, migrant camps, public safety, the jungle
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Can’t Buy Me Likes
Followers of this blog will recall that I have penned a handful of articles on Seattle’s own Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) and its director, Sharon Lee. Ms. Lee runs a $50 million taxpayer-funded operation and hobnobs with the Mayor and … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness, Humor, Politics, SHARE
Tagged cheating, Facebook, fraud, Home Depot, LIHI, likes, liking service, Low Income Housing Institute, popularity contest, scams, Sharon Lee
4 Comments
No Strings Attached
June 18, 2016 A recent Facebook post from Seattle Mayor Ed Murray is at once a study in courage and a window onto the political nightmare that is homeless policy in Seattle. Murray is currently getting skewered by the church-lady left … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness, Politics, SHARE, Tent City
Tagged Ed Murray, LIHI, Low Income Housing Institute, Real Change Newspaper, Sally Bagshaw, SHARE, Tim Harris
3 Comments
“Dear Scott . . .” Will SHARE ever fire Boss Morrow? Can they?
June 4, 2016 Today I got a nice surprise in my mailbox. It’s a letter from someone who claims to represent some two dozen Scott Morrow critics: disaffected homeless campers, SHARE insiders, volunteers. The letter is being circulated ahead of … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness, Nickelsville, SHARE
Tagged democracy, direct action, Power Lunch, Scott Morrow, SHARE
1 Comment
The Doney Clinic
May 29, 2016 Every second and fourth Saturday, the Union Gospel Mission in the Pioneer Square area of Seattle hosts the Doney Memorial Pet Clinic. The clinic provides veterinary care and hands out donated pet food and supplies to homeless and very … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness
Tagged animal rescue, Doney Clinic, homeless pets, pet therapy, service animal, Union Gospel Mission
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Shocked!
May 21, 2106 The Seattle Housing and Resource Effort (SHARE), claims to have fired their “accountant,” Steven A. Isaacson, after TBQ broke a story on Isaacson’s lack of credentials ten days ago. (See The Accountant Who Wasn’t There). On May … Continue reading
Homeless Camps and Warrant Checks: Who’s minding the store?
May 16, 2016 Like hundreds of cities around the country, Sammamish, Washington has developed special regulations for organized homeless camps. And just like other cities, Sammamish has rules saying that if you run a homeless camp, you have to do “background … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness, SHARE, Tent City
Tagged Guerrilla Mail, Mary Queen of Peace, meth, Perry Debell, public safey, Sam Roberson, Sammamish, SHARE, Shoreline, tent camps, warrant checks
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The Accountant Who Wasn’t There
May 11, 2016 Back Story: Gimme Shelter The Seattle House and Resource Effort (SHARE) gets around a million dollars in government grants and in-kind donations each year. They ostensibly use this money to shelter homeless people, which they do through a … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness, Nickelsville, Politics, SHARE
Tagged accounting, fraud, homelessness, Scott Morrow, Seattle HSD, Seattle Human Services, SHARE, Steven A. Isaacson, tent camps, white collar crime
2 Comments
Derelicts: How a huge Seattle non-profit left a tiny homeless camp to rot
May 5, 2016 Back Story If you follow this blog, you’ll already know a lot of the Nickelsville Dearborn story. That’s the camp at 1010 South Dearborn Street near downtown Seattle that sheltered between 35 and 50 homeless people from the … Continue reading
The Not-So-Good Shepherd
RCW 36.01.290 “Authorizing religious organizations to host temporary encampments for homeless persons on property owned or controlled by a religious organization” –This statute was enacted by the Washington State Legislature in 2010. It grants churches the right to set up temporary … Continue reading
The Case of the Missing Homeless Camp
April 13, 2016 Do you see a homeless camp in this picture? –Yeah. Neither do I. So why was the landowner granted a two-year “transitional housing” property tax exemption on this pricey patch of real estate near downtown Seattle? Good question. … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness, Nickelsville, Politics, SHARE
Tagged Chris Koh, Coho Real Estate, corruption, fraud, homelessness, LIHI, property tax, Scott Morrow, SHARE, Sharon Lee
10 Comments
It takes a trash-heap to make a Village
March 25, 2016 A homeless man rummages through trash in an alley behind Seattle’s newest “sanctioned” homeless camp, Othello Village. The camp is run jointly by Seattle’s Human Services Department and the Low Income Housing Institute, a local non-profit group that oversees two … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness, Nickelsville, Photos (Stuff), SHARE
Tagged homeless camps, LIHI. Low Income Housing Institute, Othello Village, public health, rats
1 Comment
The End of Camp Dearborn
March 11, 2016 Today Seattle police moved to evict the small group of homeless campers who continued to occupy the Dearborn Street site formerly known as Nickelsville. This move was taken in response to a request from Chris Koh, who owned the … Continue reading
Othello Village: How a homeless camp came to one Seattle neighborhood
March 7, 2016 Seattle officials recently hosted two community meetings in the city’s Othello neighborhood to discuss their plans for citing e a homeless encampment in neighborhood. The camp has been dubbed “Othello Village” and will be located in 7500 block … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness, Nickelsville, SHARE
Tagged bruce harrell, city planning, Holly House, homeless camps, homeless families, LIHI, Low Income Housing Institute, neighborhood planning, Othello Village, Scott Morrow, Seattle Othello neighborhood, SHARE/WHEEL, Sharon Lee, urban blight, urban renewal
11 Comments
Othello Village
February 29, 2016 Seattle’s newest “sanctioned” homeless encampment is about to open. This photo came to me through a neighborhood resident who said: “They are already moving in, right around the corner. The entire community just found out about it … Continue reading
Posted in Homelessness, Nickelsville, SHARE
Tagged encampments, Othello Village, Scott Morrow, SHARE, tiny houses
3 Comments
Jungle Boogie
February 26, 2016 The Jungle is the unofficial name for a greenbelt that runs spottily for a few miles along Interstate 5 as it exits downtown Seattle headed south. The area has hosted scattered settlements of homeless people for decades. … Continue reading
Posted in General, Homelessness, Politics
Tagged homelessness, political crisis, Seattle, security fence, the jungle, urban blight, WSDOT
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Kshama Sawant and Occupy Camp Dearborn
February 26, 2016 Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant won’t respond to my complaints about the treatment of people in homeless camps. She won’t meet with me to discuss creating a streamlined and independent grievance process to protect homeless people living in … Continue reading
