$230M of Taxpayers' Money Later, Seattle Area Has Barely Scratched the Surface of Its Homeless Problem
King County, Washington, home to Seattle and its suburbs, has poured $230 million into homeless housing projects in the area since 2020, but half of those properties are vacant and they have yet to meet even half their goal of housing 1,600 homeless people, according to The Seattle Times.
In Ballard the City of Seattle is starting to clear the second homeless tent encampment in as many days. At least 12 people surviving in tents here will be forced to move despite there not being enough housing or shelter space available in Seattle. pic.twitter.com/1itLP9xXAa
— Casey Martin (@caseyworks) April 15, 2022
The county is still buying up hotels and apartment buildings with funding from a special property sales tax passed in 2020 in order to house the homeless, the Times reported Thursday.
It is purchasing a 35-unit apartment building in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood to house LGBT individuals and racial minorities in order to meet equity goals: 7 percent of the county population is black, and so is one-quarter of the homeless population.
“That’s within our initiative to annually reduce racial disproportionality within chronic homeless communities,” Mario Williams-Sweet, a major initiatives manager for King County, told the outlet.
King County expects to pay another $25,000 annually for the operational costs of each unit, according to the Times.
King County wants to keep buying homeless housing even as many of its buildings sit empty. The price tag so far: more than $230 million. @annaleapatrick: https://t.co/bRHvG3TUYG
— The Seattle Times (@seattletimes) September 29, 2022
County leaders also recently proposed a 500-person homeless megaplex in Seattle’s Chinatown, sparking outrage among locals.
The facility is projected to cost $66.5 million dollars to build and $22 million per year to operate.
King County did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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