Stop Seattle From Turning Our Parks Into Homeless Encampments

Our city council needs to balance the needs and rights of the homed to enjoy our streets and parks free of crime against the need to be sensitive to those less fortunate. This Council isn't balancing; they are forfeiting livability and safety in the name of a senseless effort that isn't part of the recently-commissioned Poppe assessment and proposals. It's our park too!

I consider myself very progressive and open-minded but this is disastrous and irresponsible public policy. The proposal to allow homeless encampments in public parks causes me to question the intelligence of its supporters and their fitness to serve on the council. Please do not allow this to happen. There are better solutions for ALL involved.

How does the Chief of Police feel about this proposed legislation??

This is ridiculous! It's not going to fix the problem.

Homeless transients and vagrants are not “residents” of the city. I would like the press and the politicians to stop using the term in an erroneous, misleading manner. By definition, a resident is somebody who permanently resides in a location. Generally, residents (and their dependents) also contribute to society, pay taxes, and have responsibilities to follow rules such as not dumping trash or defecating in shared spaces and rights of way. The most correct, dictionary term for 95%+ of the homeless population in Seattle is “vagrants.” Many, if not most, were lured to Seattle by the promise of cheap, or free, drugs, mild weather, and no consequences for living a life free of rules. In addition, large political “nonprofit” agencies with an inherent conflict of interest (matching dollars for Medicaid signups), such as DESC, are incentivized to keep recruiting more and more such individuals to the metro area. This is a non-virtuous cycle that is leading to the destruction of quality of life for the responsible, taxpaying masses (“residents”) of Seattle. On the whole, affordable housing is pervasive in the state of Washington as well as across the entire USA. The exception is a tiny, landlocked jewel of geography and economic convergence known as Seattle, and especially the miniscule downtown core of approx. 10 square miles which acts as the nuclear economic zone for the most important city in the state. For those that are “priced out” of this increasingly gentrified zone, many options exist. The most natural option is to move to where it is more affordable, including north of Puget Sound; south of Puget Sound; or nearly all of Eastern Washington; not to mention huge swaths of the Southwest, Midwest, and much of the rest of the United States. There is nearly zero barrier for vagrants to move. By definition, it’s their natural state of being. They are not tied to jobs or to family heritage or to mortgages, assets, or contractual obligations. They can, a

City Council is clearly not listening to real solutions that have proven to work like in Texas.

I fully support this petition. The city council's plan is not a solution. Please, please re-think this.

Please stop this madness!

This is not the solution to a very difficult issue. This Bill will have a major negative impact on our city, that we have worked so hard to make great.

The real hammer is to tell Seattle politicians that you will not vote for them.

Please don't turn our lovely parks into homeless camps with the crime and the drug problems.

We need to focus on the root of the problem this is not a solution.

Your are threatening my family's welfare, safety, and property. As a taxpayer, voter, home owner, business owner, and life-long resident of Seattle I am deeply opposed to this bill.

parks are for kids, families, play and sports activities. They are designed to be sanctuaries for happiness. Please don't destroy that.

Portland just ended a similar trial after six months declaring it a failure, and other cities that have tried this approach say it failed. Let's not repeat.

Thanks!

Homeless camps in public parks is absurd. Long term solutions are needed.

I live in the University District and the homeless population has grown here recently exponentially. Lately, we have seen encampments move into the city park at 50th and 9th Ave. N.E. The encampments are cleared and within hours the people are back again. There has to be a better solution than turning our parks over to the ever growing homeless population.

This is not the best plan and will not solve the problem and will very likely make things worse.

This is a horrible idea -- camping in public parks--for all the reasons this petition states.. The payment idea is even more ludicrous!