Seattle to fence out homeless

[SunsetBengal]

That's right, one of the most Liberal, people loving cities in America plans to fence out thousands of homeless people from their encampments.


http://themindunleashed.com/2017/11/seattle-plans-to-erect-miles-of-razor-topped-fencing-to-prevent-homeless.html

Quote:Seattle, the city with the dubious distinction of the nation’s third largest population of homeless people, plans to fight that fire of a crisis with gasoline, allotting more than $1.1 million — not toward services, shelters, and programs to help people find shelter — but to erect miles of razor-topped fencing to block underpasses, highway access, and other areas commonly used as transitory encampments.
“It’s a statewide issue,” Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) spokesman, Travis Phelps, told the Seattle Times of sizable camps which often return as soon as police perform one of the highly contentious ‘sweeps’ — wherein police force campers out and throw away all their belongings — purported to be for public safety. “We’re going to be collaborating with cities and other jurisdictions, to make sure that folks who are experiencing homelessness and other issues are not camping underneath highways and other spots, and putting themselves at risk.”

Here's how it's portrayed in the City's newspaper.

https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/closing-the-jungle-homeless-camp-begins-with-fencing-it/

Quote:THE lawless, fetid homeless camp known as The Jungle, along the western slope of Seattle’s Beacon Hill, has conditions you would expect in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, or Nairobi, Kenya.

More than 750 emergency calls, including 250 reporting fires, originated from the greenbelt along and under Interstate 5 over the past five years. Law enforcement says assaults, overdoses and rapes are routine — police responded to 17 violent incidents just last year, although most went unreported. Human waste flows from open latrines.

The recent killing of two homeless people and the wounding of three more awakened the public to the danger and immorality of allowing such a camp to fester right in the middle of this affluent city, as it has for decades.

How do some on the Seattle City Council respond to this awakening? By blasting a prudent response — to clean up and fence off the greenbelt — with a flat “no” and making an absurd analogy to America’s incendiary immigration debate.
“We shouldn’t be building a fence on the southern border and we shouldn’t be building a fence on the I-5 corridor,” said Councilmember Lorena González. Councilmembers Sally Bagshaw, Debora Juarez and Kshama Sawant joined the fray, alternately describing fencing of The Jungle as insane and a waste of money.
Seattle deserves better from its leadership. The humane response to The Jungle is to offer its squatters a wide-open exit door to shelter and human services. The city and All Home King County do deserve criticism for shelter options that don’t appeal to Jungle campers, including homeless couples, or those with dogs. Meeting those needs remains a work in progress.