Three teens arrested in connection with shooting at Seattle homeless camp ‘the Jungle’

[jpak]

Source: Washington Post

It wasn’t much. But it was something.

Two weeks ago, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray (D) had a new idea to deal with an endemic problem: homelessness. The city was tired of encampments like “the Jungle,” a notorious strip around and under Interstate 5 where people lived in cars and ragged tents. So the mayor, who announced a state of emergency to combat homelessness in November, announced an initiative called “Safe Lots” — parking lots with sanitation and garbage services where homeless people can park vehicles — slated to open this month.

“These are not long term solutions to end homelessness, but temporary locations that can be managed to provide a safer environment for those living on the streets and have less impact on our neighborhoods,” the mayor’s press release read.

But just days after Murray’s plan was announced, “the Jungle” was rocked by a multiple shooting on Jan. 26. Three people were wounded; two more, James Quoc Tran, 33, and Jeannine L. Zapata, 45, were killed. At first, witness accounts evoked images of terrorist attacks — one said at least six people dressed in black riding bikes arrived at the encampment before the attack, and police moved to check other encampments in the region.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/02/02/three-teens-arrested-in-connection-with-shooting-at-seattle-homeless-camp-the-jungle/

[The Blue Flower]

1. The homeless numbers have exploded in Seattle

Housing prices have risen so much and so fast, many old timers (like me) have had no choice but to leave Seattle. Those who couldn't afford to relocate are doing whatever they can, like live in cars. When I started volunteering at my neighborhood food bank in 2001, about 300/week were coming in for a bag of groceries in a normal working-class area. When I left last summer, we were getting around 1,500. Everywhere you go in the neighborhoods, modest one-family homes are being torn down to put multiple $400K+ condos and townhouses on properties. A new big thing is "apodments." The one that was built across the street from me had 30 units of 165 sq ft each, renting for $1K/month. In 2000, some of us thought we could end homelessness in the city. Now, out-of-control development is only making things much, much worse.

[CountAllVotes]

2. Its is sickening

Know how you feel!

Where I am now living they have a homeless camp known as the "Devil's Playground". On the news last night they were discussing plans to house the homeless (at the expense of the tax payer, using local property taxes paid for this plan) and also to have what is required for wireless phones, etc. to work at this encampment as well installed.

Many thoughts on this; bottom line is, there doesn't seem to be the facilities necessary to house the homeless. I don't think putting up what is required so your iPad, iPhone, etc. will work is something that will solve this problem however.

[mike_c]

7. I think perhaps we live in the same place....

Of course, Devil's Playground might be a common homeless encampment name. Behind the mall?

[CountAllVotes]

11. Must be!

Personally, I've never checked it out but heard the above info. on the local news last night. Sad situation at best isn't it?

[maxsolomon]

9. What is "out of control development"?

Seattle's problem is not development, per se. Development is increasing the supply of housing, but not affordable housing. Affordable housing providers cannot compete for the real estate, nor can they secure funding to meet the demand. Apodments aren't the problem, they're basically SROs, which we need desperately.

The continuing influx of people in to the region (70K/year) has driven up housing costs across the board. Escalating rents have pushed people barely hanging on, especially in the case of the unemployed or the unemployable, out on to the street.

Where a previously affordable, yet underdeveloped single-family rental has been torn down to row-house 10 Amazon UX Designers and their families, yes, those displaced people have to find a place they can afford to live, and some of them are failing to do so.

But that's Capitalism/The Free Market operating according to plan, not "out of control". Its the way America is designed. We need 2,000 more Apodments, a 1,000 SROs, 1,000 more Chronic Alcoholic units, 1,000 more family units, etc.

As stated elsewhere on this thread, there just isn't anywhere left for these folks to go. The Inns are full, unless you mean the Inns on Aurora Ave.

[Sunlei]

3. homeless teenagers. I've read that about 50% of youth go homeless when they turn 18 & lose support.

America has a decent safety net for foster children and kids, medical treatment, medicine- food and all.

But when they turn 18 they're cut off and there is nothing for them.

[w0nderer]

4. loosely mis quoted

are there no poor houses - not really
are there no prisons - some
is there no military ready to take these youngsters and grind them into human offal for the benefit of the powers that be - sure

for the people missing it

[trillion]

5. Wow. I had no idea.

" I've read that about 50% of youth go homeless when they turn 18 & lose support."

[Sunlei]

6. I was one of the 'street kids' when I was 16, its a very hard and dangerous life.

I was extremely lucky after a few months on the street to gain a live-in job and not mess-up that opportunity.

[mike_c]

8. I spent several years couch surfing between 16 and 20 something....

Mostly lived in the homes of my high school friends whose parents didn't hustle them out right away. I slept on a lot of basement couches.

[maxsolomon]

10. Where does it say the suspects were homeless?

I didn't see that in the article.

[haele]

13. Foster kids, you mean?

That's a major problem with the foster child program. Kids are "graduated" from the system as soon as they turn 18, in some cases whether or not they've graduated high school (depending on the state). Foster families no longer get support to care for them, and there are way too many foster parents are like that LeVoy asshole, who uses the kids as income.

So yes, you get up to 50% of foster kids going homeless or to a friend's house while they try to figure out what they're going to do with their lives. We had one of the kidlet's friends live with us in the spare room while he was finishing high school and helped him to transition into a youth trades program run by the state that housed him while he got his certificate and looked for a job.
Good kid; he wanted to get a decent job (ended up shipyard welding) and a place to live so he and his girlfriend could get his little brother out of the foster system. I always have a full pantry just out of habit, so an extra mouth wasn't too difficult for us.
But he was still just a junior in high school starting to get his act together when his foster parents stopped getting money for him and told him they couldn't afford to take care of him any more.


Not to mention the number of typically urban kids who are told by their parents "if you're 18 and not in school, get a job that gets you enough to pay rent until we get tired of you hanging around..." which happened to many of my contemporaries. I suppose they're trying to be all helpfully "tough lovey", but failure to launch is a big problem when there's a high cost of living and few jobs available with affordable school/training being limited.

Haele

[KamaAina]

12. San Jose recently demolished its largest homeless encampment, also called "The Jungle".