When gunfire rings out in Seattle, we often ask ourselves what could have been done to prevent it. But last week, when two people were murdered and three seriously injured in The Jungle, a long-standing encampment known well to most individuals living outside, it was Mayor Ed Murray asking what his own role was.
“I can’t help but wonder, did I act too late?” he asked. “Maybe I should have issued the state of emergency months earlier.”
The following day, the mayor walked back the statement, stating that he’d “shown too much frustration in the moment.” But the question lingered.
The short answer is yes: You acted too late. You should have issued the state of emergency earlier. But also, yes, we waited too long as a city — and hindsight isn’t going to help us now.
It’s not too late for those huddled under blankets and in doorways tonight, for those who are still trying to get inside.
At The Jungle, Murray repeated statements he’d made just hours earlier during a special address on homelessness. “We’re in a homelessness crisis,” he emphasized, making it clear that his declaration was not hyperbole and that this is an emergency.
But therein lies the answer to his question: Something only becomes a crisis when you’ve waited too long to address it.
During the Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness, we saw homelessness increase, rather than disappear. The actions of the previous mayors, Murray and the previous city council have been too conservative, too tepid — and demonstrably ineffective. They are measures to appease voters, not eradicate the problem, and it shows.
The mayor proclaimed a state of emergency intending to send a message that, as a city, we could no longer treat homelessness as a second-tier issue. But that, too, was rife with short-term solutions: 100 new shelter beds — far too few to bring everyone inside, and besides, those beds are prohibitive to couples, families, people with pets, trans folks and those living with addiction; more funding for crucial social services but no funding for the actual construction of transitional housing; lots of resources for data collection but no indication of how that data will be used to help.
Representatives from the city have admitted encampment “clean-ups” are imperfect and do very little to help communities in need. They are incredibly disruptive and even devastating for residents, offer next to no data about the realities of homelessness and are executed under the most vague of protocols. And yet Murray has stood by the sweeps, noting that The
Jungle was slated to be swept, as if that would have helped prevent the violence.
Hearing the pleas of advocates and those experiencing homelessness, Councilmember Lisa Herbold addressed the sweeps issue head-on. In a briefing the week before the shooting, she and Councilmembers Debora Juarez, Lorena González, Kshama Sawant, Tim Burgess and Mike O’Brien asked difficult questions of those leading the sweeps: Are we really helping the people who live in unsanctioned encampments? Are we actually doing our best effort to connect them with services? Are there even shelter beds available for those who are having their current shelter, a tent, confiscated? The answers: No, no and no. But still, Murray stands by the way we’ve been doing things.
These are not emergency provisions. This is business as usual.
It’s important to acknowledge homelessness as a crisis, an emergency and a tragedy. But it is equally important to take direct, meaningful, bold and salient action, and to truly evaluate how we’re serving individuals sleeping outside tonight, tomorrow and for the foreseeable future.
We often hear that the solutions proposed by the mayor and Seattle City Council are “imperfect,” but does that mean we shouldn’t try them? RV parking, encampments, tiny house villages, lockers and increased sanitation services for areas where people are already living — none of these may be the perfect answer that concerned neighbors hope for, the answer that ensures they need not see unhoused and impoverished members of our community, but they are the answers that work to solve the problem right now, tonight.
Yes, Mayor Ed Murray, you waited too long. But no, it’s not all your fault, and no, it is not too late. We cannot continue to settle for half-measures.
Hanna Brooks Olsen, Sarah Anne Lloyd and Alex Hudson are the brains behind Seattlish, a tumblog covering Seattle, politics, drinking, obscenities, cute animals, sports and social justice issues. Visit seattlish.com to read more or follow them on Twitter: @seattlish