Why You’re No Different from the Homeless

By now we’ve already seen the trash riddled homeless camps used as scare tactics in KOMO’s “Seattle is Dying” series. We’ve seen people drunk, passed out, in a total mess, and endless shots of living condition homeless people dwell in causing clutched pearls from Ballard to Issaquah.

KOMO aired this image of a homeless camp to scare people into seeing their living conditions. All it did was remind me how lucky we are we have garbage pickup in our city, or else Wallingford would look like this.

No, Seattle isn’t dying. We have one of the strongest local economies in the world. We have a massive population explosion because everyone is finally discovering what a wonderful gem this city is and what opportunity it brings for everyone. We have a $15 per hour minimum wage, we are paving the way for more density to try and wrangle our housing prices, and we are exploring ways to generate funds to essentially “share the wealth” in a very progressive, liberal ideology (even if we have hiccups along the way).

None of this matters to the national audience that believe this city is ‘dying’. That audience includes people in Ballard Seattle and Branson, Missouri. That “reporting” served exactly what that audience wanted to see. Trash everyone. People drunk. People on drugs. People generally up to no good.

But why are ‘you’ better than a homeless person? They don’t have trash pick up. But you do! If Seattle skipped garbage & recycle pickup for 6 months, imagine the amount of junk that would line our charming single family neighborhoods? Would Wallingford be clean or would it look like a garbage dump? NIMBYs get peace of mind dropping garbage into a box and having someone else take it away & deal with it. Nobody ever visits garbage dumps to see the impact their own consumption has, so why do we chastise the homeless for this?

Your NIMBY neighbor complaining about garbage in homeless camps might want to go see where his trash ends up after collection day. This is an image of a garbage dump near Seattle, where you can see Bald Eagles!

Then there’s the drinking, the drug use. I’ve been to breweries, bars, and walked around places like downtown, Ballard, Fremont, Belltown, etc on any given “out” night and found the same instances by individuals with a key & place to sleep at night. I’ve seen people stumble down, vomit, and then get into a cab. Why does that make them much better than a homeless person drunk and down on their luck? Attend any Seahawks home game and you will see housed people obliterated on alcohol getting in fights, getting arrested, and acting absolutely insane. And don’t even get me started on drug use. Why is marijuana legal? Because plenty of us housed folks were smoking it and wanted it legal when it wasn’t. These drug users advocated for common sense marijuana laws and got the law passed in our state. The same goes for prescription drugs. When a homeless person is using drugs, we call them “drugs”. When housed, mostly white, people use drugs we call them “opioids”. Again, why does this make you better?

A majority of homeless in Seattle actually want housing and actually have employment. They’re trying to feed themselves, their families, and get financial stability. There are a lot of people in Seattle that can relate to that, but already have the housing secured.

Again, the shots of homeless people are not to be mocked. You have your own system in place so you don’t have to see your neighbors drunk or strung out on legal or illegal drugs. You have a garbage collection service that takes your junk away and keeps your area clean. Why does this make you any better than someone who doesn’t have housing privacy or a city collection service to maintain their space? It doesn’t. Show some compassion.