Stop Seattle From Turning Our Parks Into Homeless Encampments

Please do not do this crazy plan!!!

This proposed legislation appears sorely ill advised. Piles of trash as well as increased crime in and around our public areas will be the result without really helping the homeless at all. It will render those areas useless to the rest of the citizenry. Tim Burgess is apparently the only councilman with a sensible vision of how to not treat this intractable problem of homelessness..

I do not like camping in parks. The vibe is creepy.

THe council and mayor need to come up with real solutions to get people off streets now! Camping in parks and streets is ridiculous. Why not let them camp inside city hall?!?!? Huge lobby, lots of bathrooms. Dry.

We pay taxes to keep these spaces open for family use; the homeless encampments are not safe and do not allow families the use of the area. The risks this presents are high!

Please do not turn the public parks into homeless encampments. Definitely not the answer to this special populations needs nor that of the general public.

Don't give away our parks. It enables homelessness, burdens the City with costs for cleanup and public safety in parks, drives park users away. Homeless people need to participate in the solution, take advantage of services available to them, not just expect to be taken care of.

Our city needs a more effective plan than allowing people to camp in parks and on sidewalks. The tent city model is working to provide safe, sanitary and structured support.

Seattle resident, homeowner, and tax payer at 216 30th Ave.

Its clear that this bill is just a tactic by the homeless activist community. Once we have legions of homeless irremovably encamped in plain sight, in public, they will be used as leverage to force new taxes and housing subsidies. This may end up being what is needed, but this law is underhanded.

There is no excuse for us not to follow the best-practice models of Boston and Salt Lake City of housing first. However, if we do that, we will be diverting funds from "advocacy groups" that have yet to prove with statistics and data that they are actually making the situation better for our homeless population. Compassion and accountability are NOT mutually exclusive.

This proposal was tried in Portland and it failed. City parks need to be available for all citizens not just the homeless. You need to find a better solution.

This is absolutely ludicrous! As taxpayers we pay money to enjoy our parks, not to allow the homeless to live there.

The proposal to opening up parks and green spaces for homeless camping is a misconceived plan which will do nothing to solve the serious issues of homelessness and drug addiction and will be a threat to the evironment, public health and safety. Enough is enough!

Due diligence needed before a decision is made

Thank you for working to improve the plight of homeless people in our community. However camping in Parks is not the right solution.

The proposed measure is not a solution to the homelessness problem, nor is it a safe use of our public spaces. Portland, Oregon has already tried it with disastrous results. What does work is support for organizations that already feed and shelter homeless persons. These programs need to be supported and expanded.

All communities need open space and parks for the betterment of our neighborhoods and communities. Moving tents from one encampment to parks and green spaces does not provide the help and services our homeless neighbors need. I have a niece who suffers from mental health and addiction issues. I can not see how providing yet another location to pitch a tent in the woods around other people with similar issues would help her! I believe she has a better chance of learning how to plug back into society by getting into a shelter or housing with access to desperately needed services.

Need to study this before it is implemented

Our City should provide assistance to those who need it, in the form of education, housing, healthcare (including mental health), and job placement. These services are provided already. The tent-dwellers have mostly made a choice to reject those benefits and instead choose to do drugs, trash our beautiful city, and commit crimes. These people need to be removed from the community, not granted sanctuary in our parks and sidewalks.