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by Escribe de VeritasLocal Opinion Writer.When the King County Sheriff's Office (KSCO) and the King County Executive have finished their Orwellian experiments on Burien residents, businesses, and the homeless population they have encouraged into the city, one must ask: what will become of the Burien Courthouse and the land surrounding it? Currently, the homeless population is composed mainly of mentally ill, drug-addicted people living in squalor, and they are creating ever-mounting environmental damage to the property owned by the KCSO. Add drug manufacturers, drug dealers, and criminal, non-historic Burien residents to this "quasi-sanctioned encampment," and we now have a massive public health and safety issue for the whole downtown.Through the chain-link fence and from the Burien District Courthouse, it is easy to see stolen goods stored on the property, as well as active and open drug use by the illegal campers. It is a threatening and dangerous location for people attempting to go to the Courthouse and for those who work and park their vehicles nearby. Will the Burien KC Courthouse become as dangerous as the Seattle KC Courthouse, which is currently the most treacherous Courthouse in the state? And when all is said and done, who will be responsible for cleaning up this mess and relocating the homeless population? (It appears to be currently sanctioned by the KCSO.)The Seattle Courthouse became a danger, thanks to neglect of public safety. Who is to blame? K.C. Executive; K.C. Council; City of Seattle who did not enforce laws in the adjacent City Park; and DESC Shelter and housing at the Morrison Hotel and staffing and resource shortages (located across the street from the Seattle Courthouse).The Morrison Hotel was once considered the most luxurious hotel in Seattle. Other hotels of its vintage are still operating in Seattle and have 4-4.5 star ratings. However, inappropriate management, inadequate staffing, and a "laissez faire", low-barrier permissive model used by DESC turned it into what was referred to as the Seattle "Hotel of Horrors" for decades. Mismanagement of the Morrison and other Seattle DESC properties has caused many Burien residents to question the wisdom of bringing a new DESC structure and program to downtown Burien.Hopefully, the Burien DESC-Bloomside will not suffer the same neglect we see at the Seattle DESC properties and programs. A major cause of DESC's failures hinges on the nonsensical notion that "Housing First" will solve the problem. DESC has no requirements for residents to partake in substance abuse recovery, mental health counseling, or job training that will stabilize and/or cure them. Housing First, like the Cabrini Green housing model, has been promoted and funded by Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Unfortunately, HUD has failed to provide adequate staffing and resources and has also fallen flat by not conducting ongoing research, data collection, and analysis. "Housing First" has been a roaring failure for a major portion of the homeless population and has resulted in increasing numbers of the homeless. Here are several articles that describe why "Housing First" don't work:
The King County Executive, in collaboration with 20+ years of failures of the Coalition To End Homelessness, All Home, and KCRHA, has been ridiculously unsuccessful and ineffective. King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA), founded in 2019, says it is "working to end homelessness." However, in less than five years, KCRHA has already run through several CEOs (they just replaced another one), and KC homelessness is now worse than ever.Contrary to its "grand opening" comments last month, the Burien DESC "Bloomside" did not come for *FREE* to Burien residents. The construction costs were approximately $400,000 per unit. Additionally, Burien has kicked in taxpayer dollars to defer the costs of numerous permits, the expense for deferring parking requirements and it will incur 50 years of lost taxes, now uncollectable due to its "non-commercial" usage. Once it is operational, Burien residents will shoulder the increased Emergency services and police services costs for the next 50 years -- essentially millions of dollars for a facility that will house predominately the most problematic, mentally ill, substance-addicted, and repeated criminal homeless of Seattle and King County.Longitudinal research shows that homelessness is more than just a "shortage of housing." Burien is facing the repercussions of KC's failed political, social, economic, environmental, mental health and public health and safety experiments. Who will pay for Dow Constantine and King County's choice to make Burien the dumping ground for the leftovers of other KC cities and Seattle's sweeps that the KCSO has appeared to sanction down here in Burien? P.S. DESC is now starting to bring in new residents...If you see violations of the DESC Good Neighbor Policy by DESC or its residents, please contact DESC Bloomside's Project Manager, Olivia Jelensky, at 206-776-2227 x7703 or email ojelensky@desc.orgRemember to report to the City of Burien or Burien police, as well; DESC "Good Neighbor" infractions may not automatically get reported to the police. [caption id="attachment_18041" align="aligncenter" width="624"]
Mural artwork by Angelina Villalobos, photo courtesy of barry johnson, overall creative[/caption]
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