Seattle Parks are now Becoming a 'No-Go' Zone (Williams Place Park in Capitol Hill), Primarily due to Homelessness and Trash

i'm sorry, i missed your solution wrote:

I'd be glad to hear your ideas though if they will.

Here's an unpopular opinion, but an idea I believe will go a long ways to effectively root out the problem. Not just hemorrhaging tax payer money trying to cover up the symptoms.

Promoting and strengthening families, namely fathers taking responsibility to be good role models, mentors and providers for their family.

Learn about one organization in Seattle who is making a difference by doing just that:

DADS (Divine Alternatives for Dads Services)

Here's some excerpts:

"Demand for DADS’ services is growing rapidly. Their total number of client visits was nearly 800 last year, a 43-percent increase over 2016. The number of first-time clients topped 250, a 33-percent increase over the previous year. They do not charge for their services, operating on donations with a small staff and many active volunteers.

Because the average DADS client makes $1,000 more in monthly wages after working with the organization, the group has helped increase child-support payments significantly. DADS estimates that its fathers have saved the state of Washington $2.3 million in 2016 in reduced TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families), SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), and Medicaid payments."

"-- Randy W. has been mentoring since the CUBS program began. His son was murdered in a gambling dispute several years ago. Randy led a life of addiction, crime, and incarceration. But he is now straight and sober, and active in his church. “We need to help save the black community,” said Randy. “There are no people better to do it than the people who helped tear it down. That’s all of us—me and all the other guys from DADS.”"

"-- Greg A., who was formerly on “Washington’s Most Wanted” list, ran a drug-distribution house and was nearly killed in a prison knife fight. He is now drug-free and works full-time for a catering company. Every Monday, he and other CUBS volunteers serve a hot breakfast to all the students. The kids fill their plates with eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, hash browns, biscuits, gravy, fruit, or whatever is on the menu. “Using my culinary background, I have the privilege to provide and serve breakfast for the entire school,” Greg said. “We want the students to be hungry for education and not food.”"

"-- Reddics J. was a leader of the Bloods gang in California and did a total of 17 years in prison. But he now runs his own small nonprofit organization, Faith Over Fear, that helps young people find jobs or apply to colleges or vocational schools. When I asked why he’s doing this, he replied: “I do not want to see any more youth do time for simple crimes. I done enough time for all of them. I teach them to do better: Go to work, stay out of jail, raise your family, enjoy life.”"

"-- Will H. was a drug dealer and a pimp for many years, but now works in information technology for Costco, is happily married, and chairs the board of directors of DADS. “My earlier life was drug dealing and prostitution. My own personal integrity was lost. I didn’t know what was right. I didn’t care if I lived or died. But those days are gone.”"

"In a speech delivered on Father’s Day 2008 at a church on Chicago’s South Side, Barack Obama chastised black fathers. Too many black fathers, he said, are missing from too many lives and too many homes. “They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. We know the statistics—that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.” He got that right."

Though a lot of the article tends to put more focus on the black community, this is a problem affecting our society as a whole.

Here's some sobering statistics:

1. 43% of US children live without their father [US Department of Census]

2. 90% of homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes. [US D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census]

...

5. 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes. [US D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census]

6. 85% of children who exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes. [Center for Disease Control]

...

8. 71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. [National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools]

9. 75% of adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes. [Rainbows f for all God’s Children]

...

12. Fatherless boys and girls are: twice as likely to drop out of high school; twice as likely to end up in jail; four times more likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems. [US D.H.H.S. news release, March 26, 1999]

....

Behavioral Disorders. 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes (Source: What Can the Federal Government Do To Decrease Crime and Revitalize Communities?)

...

Achievement. Children from low-income, two-parent families outperform students from high-income, single-parent homes. Almost twice as many high achievers come from two-parent homes as one-parent homes. (One-Parent Families and Their Children, Charles F. Kettering Foundation, 1990).

...

Criminal Activity. The likelihood that a young male will engage in criminal activity doubles if he is raised without a father and triples if he lives in a neighborhood with a high concentration of single-parent families. Source: A. Anne Hill, June O’Neill, Underclass Behaviors in the United States, CUNY, Baruch College. 1993

Looks like efforts to promote and strengthen families, namely taking responsibility and ownership for parental roles checks all the boxes in combating and stemming the tide of the homelessness epidemic happening today.

Improved Mental/Emotional health (check)

More productive, successful members of society (check)

Combat drug use/drug dealing (check)

Healthy and loving support system (check)

Don't underestimate the importance and value of the family unit in society. Public voices/leaders/organizations will do far more good touting and promoting personal responsibility and family values. Then they will by lobbying for more low cost housing, and more access to public mental health, addiction services. Not an effective way to focus the majority of the ever rising demand for increased tax dollars directed at addressing the ever increasing homelessness problem.

Great documentary/ story about Seattle's homeless issues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpAi70WWBlw&t=38s

srs question:

at what point will Seattle-ites realize they have the wrong people in office and they are incorrect in pandering to the lowest common denominator?

from a 10,000 foot view (from flyover country might I add), it is clear to see they have strayed far too left. is the consensus among the people in Seattle that its gone too far?

Wake up America — leftistssuk wrote:

i'm sorry, i missed your solution wrote:

instead of just 'being a voice' she seems to be working on actual long- term solutions to help alleviate the problem at the root.

Will any of her ideas completely solve the issue? no

I'd be glad to hear your ideas though if they will.

Will people finally wake up to the fact that “progressives” are complete *diots who are wrecking America for the diligent and hard working?

You're an idiot. Say, in some alternate universe, California was a Red State. There would STILL be a ton of homeless flocking there, because of the weather. Believe it or not, that's WHY there are more homeless in California than in Minneapolis, for example.

So this said, what would YOU to do alleviate the numbers of homeless? You're so smart, you think, so let's hear it!

turtle1 wrote:

Great documentary/ story about Seattle's homeless issues.

That is a good documentary, an honest look and take from the community surrounding the issues at hand, addresses some effective solutions as well.

Thanks for sharing.

FFF wrote:

So this said, what would YOU to do alleviate the numbers of homeless?

I'd largely do nothing. People are responsible for themselves.

But I'd deter the societal intersection of the homeless with those who face their agitations.

That's the main problem here. E.g., the jurors are FORCED to walk in places they otherwise would (smartly) avoid as a matter of precaution. The Rich in their hi-falutin places have gates for their communities, ergo no riff-raff. Why can't the rest of us be the same way?

This doesn't belong here. But you take a place where the rents have been jacked up absurdly by deep pocketed corporate people and you will find a lot of homeless. There was a time when building affordable housing on a large scale was a politically feasible option. But amazon would pout if you did anything about this crisis.

Tokyo is now cleaner than MOST American Cities, less litter, less graffiti, less people going to the bathroom on the sidewalks, We got to learn what they are doing to keep their cities cleaner than ours?

I woke up this morning to my car having been broken into, I have to go clean up the glass right now. I have not had a break-in in four decades here ("nice" neighborhood). This is the second break-in this year already. It's like Dawn of the Dead out there at night. Never owned a gun but that may change soon. F### this liberal S###hole.

These are not hobos like when I was a kid. Hobos were really transient and would mostly stay out of sight when not moving. The homeless, build their own outdoor country clubs right in the middle of humanity now. I parked at a closed library next to a park where my son's xc race was last weekend , by the time it was over at 10 am there was a homeless festival going on taking over the whole parking lot. A few had cars and they were sort of at the center of it, but shopping carts were pulling up in big numbers.

Yep, move the problem else where.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/seattle-busing-program-homeless

douglas burke wrote:

Tokyo is now cleaner than MOST American Cities, less litter, less graffiti, less people going to the bathroom on the sidewalks, We got to learn what they are doing to keep their cities cleaner than ours?

Step 1: fill them with Japanese.

Wait a minute - Seattle has a place called Capitol Hill? Is there a Capitol building on it, and if so, what state's government does it claim to house?

When I lived in San Francisco in the early 1990s, the city was vibrant and diverse but still common-sense as it pertained to homelessness and small crime. This is how it was:

1) Homeless with shopping cart(s)? Say goodbye to that GD cart every time you settle down. The police and city trash dept. emptied Civic Center Park every morning of carts, equipment, anything the homeless didn't carry on their own backs. If a homeless so much as looked at the police funny, they were going to jail, right now.

2) Homeless and panhandling? Hmmmm, OK for a little while, but you best not settle in or get comfortable. If you do, you and all your stuff will be removed, forcibly if need be.

3) The general public were aggressively unfriendly to the panhandlers who were aggressive enough to get in their way, ever. The rule was 'don't give the bums anything or else they'll never go away'.

4) There were NO public encampments and homeless were seen as junkies, criminals, urchins, people who society had to keep moving, out of sight if possible, forced to find a non-homeless life better than sitting on the streets. If you make it anything but very difficult to exist dirty and on the street, some subset of the populace will do exactly that.

There were LOTS of welfare agencies, shelters, food pantries, etc in that city. I always felt as if the dirty homeless were that way by choice because of the plethora of places to get help there. If you chose to be dirty and asking for handouts on the street, my attitude (and that of most people I knew) was phukk you. Get help or drop dead, bum.

That city was fabulous in those days.

Man, the U.S. is quickly becoming the first-world shithole country:

http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/first-world-countries/

Hey, OP, whats a kugelhopf?

You may call me "trash" but I'm a human being with feelings. That was very hurtful.

I thought Seattle was a "woke" city.

douglas burke wrote:

Tokyo is now cleaner than MOST American Cities, less litter, less graffiti, less people going to the bathroom on the sidewalks, We got to learn what they are doing to keep their cities cleaner than ours?

Cleaner yes. It's cultural. Homeless are definitely less visible in Tokyo than here... But they still have homelessness problems, just of different sorts than we do here in the U.S.

Seattle is disgusting! Check out the Facebook site Seattle looks like *hit.

What your ignoring is the homeless in Japan aren't drug addicted and unable to move out of the parks in the mornings. They aren't shooting up, pissing, defecating, vomiting, harassing the public and overdosing all day everyday. Critical to your comparison.