Sunday, August 07, 2005
"This Is Messed Up": A View Of Tent City 4 You Won't See In The Puget Sound Media
I received this information over the weekend from a regular Orbusmax visitor, who lives up in the Woodinville area. As you can see, he is not a huge supporter of King County's plan to deal with the "property-ownership-challenged". And he brings up an interesting point regarding how crime was monitored during a previous Tent City 4:
Well said.
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UPDATE - ADDL INFO
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Here's is some background info the e-mailer sent me, regarding coverage by various news outlets:
Okay, so I went to the Tent City Public Meeting last night...
http://www.nwnews.com/editions/2005/050725/front6.htm
Oh, I was f***ing amazed! This was not a meeting to gather input from the community but rather a meeting to let the community know what their government would soon be forcing down their throat. The church has already been granted their TUP (Temporary Use Permit) so if you're a property owner in the area, tough sh**, it's going to happen and you have no say about it.
This church is on a septic system, not a sewer system so they will likely not be able to install showers for the up to 100 (currently around 90) residents of Tent City 4. So, close to 100 homeless folks, without showers, in August directly across the street from a public park on a lake. Yeah, off to a good start.
The claim that about half of the residents have jobs (I'm more than a little suspicious of that number) and about half of them work graveyard shifts. So I suppose that means that only about 75 of them will be bathing in the lake each day.
http://www.komotv.com/stories/33551.htm
There were a bunch of arrests when Tent City 4 was hosted in Bothell, but that's because Bothell police posted an officer there 24/7 (at the cost of around $100,000 to Bothell taxpayers). When Tent City 4 was hosted in unincorporated King County (under the jurisdiction of King County Police) the arrests we significantly fewer, this is likely due to the different policing model employed by King County Police (they didn't post an officer, fewer police, fewer arrests - problem solved).
More interesting reading:
http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/168859
I really liked this part:
"Police have reported 83 contacts during the camp's stay, including eight arrests. Since the camp moved in, a patrol car has parked outside the camp around the clock, at a projected cost of $94,000 in officer overtime."
"Police say crime in the neighborhood has not increased during this time."
If there were eight arrests at Tent City 4, then it would stand to reason that there would have needed to have been at least eight fewer arrests in the neighborhood surrounding Tent City 4 for there to genuinely be no increase in crime, right? Funny, they didn't mention that.
This is messed up.
Well said.
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UPDATE - ADDL INFO
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Here's is some background info the e-mailer sent me, regarding coverage by various news outlets:
http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/178972
"Tent City is not an answer to homelessness..... It's an effort to keep the issue in front of people who would rather it be invisible."
- Ken Schram KOMO TV
http://projects.is.asu.edu/pipermail/hpn/2000-April/000523.html
"We feel strongly that tent cities are a diversion and not part of the solution." - Tom Byers, Seattle's deputy mayor in charge of community development
http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/176770
"There will not be any additional police patrols." - Sheriff's Office spokesman John Urquhart
Interesting read:
http://www.realchangenews.org/pastissuesupgrade/2004_07_08/issue/current/features/coverstory.html
The part I liked:
"I asked SHARE/WHEEL, 'if we could get housing for all 100 people, would you shut down Tent City? They said, 'Well, we [in the entire county] have 8,000 homeless people.' But that's disingenuous, that counts 4,600 who are in shelters and transitional housing. I asked again, if we could provide housing, bricks and mortar, for all the residents of Tent City, would they shut it down, and they said no, they want to keep the issue in front of the public."
That pretty much sums it up.
Comments:
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I don't think you have to worry much about these people overloading any shower drainage system. I think they are predisposed to.. well... stink...
I was at the evening meeting in Woodinville also. This meeting started out as a LOVEFEST of the 'newly infatuated' and caring NUUC Cult Members and quickly turned out of control when neighbors saw the meeting for what it was--a shameful rolling campaign for HOMELESSNESS in our faces.
This isn't about helping the HOMELESS. It is all about Ron Sims' inability to take a problem and break it down into workable proportions. Instead of endorsing a system for treating these people as individuals with individual needs, he chooses to warehouse them in gulag style camps not fit for dogs, horses or migrant workers. Churches that sign up for hosting this form of 'neighborly charity' definitely show their true dark side. You won't find mainstream evangelical churches opting for this immoral behaviour. It's shameful for the victimized homeless who are enlisted to this organization by basic want of food and shelter.
This isn't about helping the HOMELESS. It is all about Ron Sims' inability to take a problem and break it down into workable proportions. Instead of endorsing a system for treating these people as individuals with individual needs, he chooses to warehouse them in gulag style camps not fit for dogs, horses or migrant workers. Churches that sign up for hosting this form of 'neighborly charity' definitely show their true dark side. You won't find mainstream evangelical churches opting for this immoral behaviour. It's shameful for the victimized homeless who are enlisted to this organization by basic want of food and shelter.
# posted by 
: 4:54 PM
: 4:54 PM
All of you good conservatives and moderates out there wake up! This tent-city crap is clearly a socio-economic experiment by King County. Portland is doing 'well' with Dignityvillage (Scary!).
It's only a matter of time before they will take all of our land and our guns. If it were up to Ron Sims and his evil entourage, we would all be living like this because we will be easier to control when we have nothing.
Your worst dystopian nightmare is in the engineering and Quality Control Process!! We need to stop it now!
It's only a matter of time before they will take all of our land and our guns. If it were up to Ron Sims and his evil entourage, we would all be living like this because we will be easier to control when we have nothing.
Your worst dystopian nightmare is in the engineering and Quality Control Process!! We need to stop it now!
# posted by : 5:15 PM
: 5:15 PM
Buford said....."Portland is doing 'well' with Dignityvillage (Scary!)."
Dignity Village is a TAKING of public property owned by all citizens and reallocated to a minority of squatters. Google the term SQUATTING and you will find that taking property is what it's all about and that it is becoming very popular.
Dignity Village is a TAKING of public property owned by all citizens and reallocated to a minority of squatters. Google the term SQUATTING and you will find that taking property is what it's all about and that it is becoming very popular.
# posted by : 6:01 PM
: 6:01 PM
For $100,000, the state could put each of those homeless in a double occupancy hotel room for a month and buy them a bar of soap and 2 professional outfits to go interviewing for a job each. Or they could the 100 tenters $1000 each to get into a cheap apartment if they truly do have jobs. And for $200,000, they could do even more.
For $100,000 the problem could be solved. But I get a feeling that solving the problem is not the intention here.
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For $100,000 the problem could be solved. But I get a feeling that solving the problem is not the intention here.
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