The Politics of Ruinous Compassion: How Seattle’s Homelessness Policy Perpetuates the Crisis — And How We Can Fix It Christopher F. Rufo
Abstract
The City of Seattle has failed to address its current KEY POINTS homelessness crisis. In fact, because of ideological capture and poor public policy, the city has created • Seattle spends $1 billion per year on a system of perverse incentives that has only made the crisis, but homelessness continues the problem worse. In order to truly confront the to grow problem of homelessness, the city’s leadership must embrace a policy of realism: dismantle the system of • Seattle’s policy of “unlimited compas- perverse incentives, quickly build emergency shelter, sion” has enabled street homelessness and enforce the law against public camping and and made the problem worse drug use. Ultimately, the city currently has enough • The main driver of homelessness is not resources to solve the crisis—it needs to summon rising rents, but a combination of eco- the political courage to make the right choices. nomic dislocation, addiction, mental illness, in-migration, and broken rela- *** tionships • Seattle’s public policy has created a SEATTLE is a city under siege. Over the system of perverse incentives and an past ive years, the Emerald City has endured a unaccountable homelessness bureau- cracy that has failed to show results slow-rolling explosion of homelessness, crime, and addiction. In a one-night count this winter, there were 11,643 people sleeping in tents, POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS cars, and emergency shelters.1 Property crime • Immediately build emergency shelters has skyrocketed to rates two-and-a-half times with 2,500 beds with on-site addic- that of Los Angeles and four times that of New tion, mental health, and medical ser- York City. 2 Cleanup crews pick up tens of thou- vices sands of dirty needles from the streets and • Empower law enforcement to move parks across the city.3 the street homeless into shelter and At the same time, according to the enforce a strict ban on public camp- Puget Sound Business Journal, the Seattle ing metro area spends more than $1 billion on the • End policies that create perverse in- homelessness crisis every year.4 That’s nearly centives for service providers and $100,000 for every homeless man, woman, break up the “homeless-industrial and child in King County, yet the crisis seems complex” to only have deepened, with more addiction, • Recognize that the true cause of more crime, and more tent encampments stak- homelessness is disaffiliation and the loss of human relationships ing their claim in residential neighborhoods. By any measurement, whatever the city is do-