LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Housing is Only One Factor of Homelessness

Burien's comprehensive plan needs to address the homeless challenges to try and solve the problem; avoidance is one option, but it is not a plan.

This Letter to the Editor was submitted by Dr. David Gould, verified Burien Resident, regarding Burien's homelessness crisis.[NOTE FROM EDITOR: Letters to the Editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Burien-News or Daniel Media.  If you wish to submit a story, photo, article or letter, please contact us.  We look forward to hearing from you.]

[Regarding the homeless crisis in Burien:]

Housing is only one factor of the problem. Treatment, training, food, water, sanitation, and such are other factors. See Maslow’s hierarchy for descriptions. Additional factors include public health and public safety. If community residents do not feel safe, fewer will shop at near by stores, cafe’s, breweries, etc., and the City will lose needed revenue. See downtown Seattle, San Francisco, and other communities that have lost tourism, revenue, stores, and so on, as homelessness increased.

A win-win approach is required and the location of housing, treatment, and such can be moved outside of business, educational, and residential areas as services are mobile and can be delivered most anywhere. Then commercial areas can flourish in a safe and sane environment and the homeless can be treated and placed on a path to becoming contributing citizens to the extent possible.

Estimated costs for each homeless person are fluid, but range from about $50,000 per person per year to about $100,000 per person per year. Estimates of the number of homeless range from over 600,000 to about one million nationwide. Thus, cost estimates range from $30,000,000,000 to about $100,000,000,000 or about $30 billion to $100 billion per year. What community can begin to find the resources to address their share of this problem?

Of course, not all homeless are drug addicts and it seems that triage would be useful to separate the homeless by category: those that can be helped with minimal intervention, those that can likely never be helped, and those somewhere in the middle.

One thing missing from discussions and comments that I read is a comprehensive plan to actually solve this problem. Or, if it cannot be solved, then let’s say so and figure out what can be done.

Doing nothing is an option, but it is not a plan.

[NOTE FROM EDITOR:  If you wish to submit a story, photo, article or letter, please contact us.  Even if you wish to remain anonymous, please include your name and phone number so we may contact you privately. We look forward to hearing from you.]