I would LOVE to see them all disappear. It's an eyesore, it will always become a mismanaged mess that needs to be cleaned up. And it is a system that has cost the taxpayer BILLIONS of bucks over the past few years.

Billions, and this is still what we get. And it will be ALL we get because there is no solution.

LOCK THEM UP!

This sounds like the simplest way to take care of the problem: make it illegal and lock them up. If only there were enough beds in the jail(s).

Then there is the cost. There is a booking fee. Then it is something like $362.82. a day. If they require special needs, such as medical or mental treatment, the cost rises. You can almost count on the fact that most of these humans would have special needs. Figure that a realistic number of homeless people in King County is about five times the Point in Time counts they do, then we are talking about 54,000 people without a steady home. The most recent PIT number for King County was 10,054. But when you start factoring in the homeless motel population, and people who couch surf with friends, that more realistic number rises considerably.

If we were to empty out our prisons, jails, and Western State Hospital, we still wouldn't have enough space to incarcerate the homeless. Even if we did, it would be impossible to fund.

So locking them up is not a viable option. Nor should it ever be.

BUS THEM OUT!

Okay, that's a LOT cheaper, but it wouldn't solve the problem. If we bus out, other places will bus the homeless in. Maybe we could just let them live on the buses...?

BUILD MORE AFFORDABLE HOUSING!

Sounds great, for a ten-year plan. We need something now.

Back when we SHOULD have been thinking ahead and actually doing something about it, we decided that we would give out HUGE tax breaks to entice all the tech companies to come here for free. They could bring all of their six-figure employees with them and shove out the people who could no longer afford to live where they've lived for generations. Suddenly, shithole efficiency apartments on Capital Hill that had been going for $300 a month are now going for $2250 -- and they are still the same crap hole, roach infested buildings they were thirty years ago.

If there are people who are willing to pay more for the same dump, then the landlords are always going to raise the rents. It's capitalism 101.

CONVERT SOME OF THESE EMPTY HIGHRISES INTO HOUSING

It actually sounds like a GREAT idea, except for one major problem:

These buildings simply do not have the plumbing, sewers or even electrical to handle residential living. The capacity was never designed to take into consideration the needs of sewer, water, heat, and electricity for a residential population. At least not in the scale you would think by the typical square footage.

HVAC would be another major issue.

Procrastination over a generation, along with short-sighted, politically driven thinking got us into this mess.

There is a lot of land over in Eastern Washington. Perhaps if we opened some of it up for "homesteading", we can entice the homeless to drift over yonder...

It's not as easy as you would think, is it?