by DCG
In November 2015 former demorat Seattle Mayor Ed Murray (who resigned due to child sex abuse allegations) declared an emergency and announced new investments to respond to homelessness. Between the city and King County, they initially pledged $7.3M to address the crisis.
Fast forward to 2019 and this is the state of the homeless crisis in King County:
Number of homeless: 11,199 (down 8% from previous year)
Total spent in 2017: $195 million
Estimated annual price tag to solve homeless crisis: $1 BILLION
So what is the Seattle bureaucrats’ new solution? A new government bureaucracy between the city and county called, “King County Regional Homelessness Authority.”
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan
According to current demorat Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, “Today marks the start of a new era.”
Philadelphia Mayor, demorat Jim Kenney, has a homeless problem, too. An article from January of this year explains that at a July count (I’m assuming from 2018) found that the number of homeless had more than doubled from the previous year’s count.
The streets of Philadelphia
And of course we know about the homeless crises in Portland, Los Angeles and San Francisco. And the horrendous conditions to be found on their streets: urine, feces, rats and needles. And bonus: Diseases such as typhus and leprosy.
Funny how all the cities experiencing such catastrophes are demorat-run cities.
In essence, NONE OF THESE CITIES has been able to comprehensively and effectively deal with the homeless problems in their cities despite spending MILLIONS and MILLIONS of taxpayer dollars.
Seattle Mayor Durkan and Philadelphia Mayor penned a piece on the homeless for Politico entitled, “Don’t let Trump take the lead on housing.”
The sub headline reads, “Housing affordability is a big issue in cities like ours. Democrats should debate it more.”
Yeah, more talk is EXACTLY what is needed…
Excerpts from their opinion piece:
“Walk through any major city today, and it’s easy to see why housing affordability and homelessness are top concerns across the country. Minimum wage workers are relying on food banks and overnight shelters. Unsheltered veterans, families and neighbors are living in desperate, unsanitary conditions. Students leaving school after the final bell meet their parents and siblings where they live together: in their cars, unable to find affordable homes. Too many families in cities like ours are now living in cars, vans or RVs.
Last week, the Washington Post reported that President Donald Trump is ordering a “crackdown” on homelessness and that his aides have been mulling the possibility of the federal government moving into cities to round up people experiencing homelessness. This week, Trump’s Council of Economic Advisors released a report that focuses on misleading assertions that this crisis could be cured by deregulation of the housing market. Afterward, the president visited California and spread more false narratives about the problem of homelessness.
Let’s be clear: Cities have been asking for help. We desperately need collaboration from the federal government, with its unique ability to catalyze fundamental policy change and make investments at the scale the problem demands. But instead of looking for ways to support and partner with America’s cities to help solve this human crisis, Trump hurls insults, floats poisonous policy proposals and pushes sensational headlines, not solutions. It is time to end this political game.
But at the same time as the president is blaming cities for the problem, he is ignoring how the federal government is contributing to it. For instance, his administration has cut resources for health care, mental health programs and housing, and those cuts are feeding the roots of this crisis. In the meantime, cities have had no choice but to become the social safety net. Mayors across the country are spending unprecedented local taxpayer dollars to build affordable housing, roll out new rental assistance for low-income households, propose new renter eviction protections, and create an emergency homelessness response system of shelters, meal programs, and outreach services.”
Read the whole thing here.
Of course in the end they ask for more federal funding. They ALWAYS need more taxpayer dollars to solve anything.
The last sentence of their opinion piece states, “U.S. mayors are ready to work with Congress and the current and future administrations to address the housing crisis that our voters want us to solve.”
This is rich considering that the title of their piece highlights their TDS. I highly doubt they are sincere in their desire to collaborate with the current administration (make sure to watch the video above where Mayor Kenney states President Trump “frightens him). They just want him to write a blank taxpayer check.
These cities have had YEARS and MILLIONS of dollars to try and solve their problems. The reality is that their cities have turned into sh*tholes.
Putting their TDS on display only reinforces they hypocritical stance that it’s time to “end this political game.”
DCG