Tent camp for homeless to be at suburban church | Seattle P-I

[Ediacara]

Tent camp for homeless to be at suburban church

By KRISTEN GELINEAU
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SEATTLE -- After fierce opposition from local residents, King County officials on Friday moved the site of a proposed tent camp for the homeless to a Bothell church.

The camp was supposed to open Monday for 90 days at the Brickyard Road Park-and-Ride lot, on county land in Bothell, northeast of Seattle. Instead, it will open at St. Brendan's Catholic Church, several miles from the parking lot, County Executive Ron Sims said.

Sims insisted he wasn't bowing to public pressure, only that he didn't want the case to jeopardize the homeless.

More at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

[mike1963]

1. Tent camp? what, they ran out of big cardboard boxes?

:eyes:

[juajen]

2. I would much rather live in a tent than a cardboard box, thank you

I think this effort is admirable and I commend the efforts to find solutions to a national problem. Would that all cities spent 24 million on the homeless.

[Johnyawl]

4. It's not the city of Seattle spending 24 million on the homeless...

...It's King County. The difference is Ron Sims, the county Executive. He's one of those rare democratic leaders who's not trying to pretend he's a moderate republican. He believes government should help the less fortunate. He believes government should spend money on education, and transportation. He believes government should protect the environment, and guarantee everybody's civil liberties. And he believes government should raise that money by taxing those that have it.

He will, hopefully, be our next Governor.

[jsw_81]

5. No way

Sims arrogance (and stupidity) in this matter was astounding. What kind of an idiot decides to place a homeless shanty town right in the middle of a nice suburban neighborhood filled with young families without even consulting them or holding a single hearing? This fiasco only made Sims look like the stereotypical Seattle liberal. If he (heaven forbid) gets the gubernatorial nomination, get ready for a Republican governor come next January.

[leesa]

3. Catholic church, huh? Where are the self-righteous Fundies??

No tent cities in their suburban, white-bread churches??

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. There are much better solution to ending homelessness

than things like tent cities.

This is in your face stuff, that some homeless advocates have decided is a good way to get attention for their cause. However, all it really does is pit people against each other.

Kind hearted as it may seem, tent cities and other forms of 'temporary sheltering' do little to really help anyone. A lot of money is spent on these programs that for the most part keep people homeless.

For a lot less money, most people can be 'rehoused' even if that mean paying for all of their expenses. Rehousing is still cheaper and certainly better than setting up 'tent cities' and so-called Safe Space shelters. Of course, if we rehoused people instead of letting them live in shelters, year after year, we wouldn't need so many shelters?