A homeless encampment in Hing Hay Park (Photo by Assunta Ng)
We’ve covered the protests and City Council meetings about the new, expanded homeless shelter at the site of the current Salvation Army shelter in the Chinatown-International District (CID)—the funding for which was approved by former Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan.
We’ve heard the arguments and outrage from CID community members and leaders that this shelter was announced without community input.
We reported on the closing of at least three businesses in the last couple of months—a Starbucks store, Bartell Drugs, and Viet Wah supermarket.
Last week, for three consecutive days, an unhoused person parked himself right in front of our office.
Pile of trash under the I-5 freeway on Jackson Street. (Photo credit: Patty Fong)
The CID is already home to the Navigation Center (another facility sited without our consent or input), dozens of unauthorized encampments, and this shelter will be yet one more place for the unhoused to congregate.
Come to the CID, why dontcha? We’re the “one-stop shopping” place for everyone unhoused.
We are sympathetic to the unhoused. But we don’t like the problems that come with it.
They have rights and we have rights, too—to live and work in a safe and clean environment.
Photo credit: Patty Fong
Over the years, the problems have become progressively worse.
It’s unsafe for residents, especially the most vulnerable among us. There is physical violence—seniors are being beaten!—and thefts and assaults are commonplace. Businesses and cars are constantly being broken into, not to mention the hygiene issues.
There are currently 10 shelters within a one-mile radius of the CID.
Apparently, an emergency order put in place by Durkan during COVID lifted the need for getting any permits for shelters. Will the City now use that loophole to ignore our concerns and expedite approval of this shelter?
This shelter expansion and its operations for only five years will cost $66.5 million, most of which will come from the American Rescue Plan, federal funds. And at the end of the day, the space will be leased and not even owned. We believe this is a gross misuse of taxpayer money! As protester Matt Chan rhetorically asked, “Who is being enriched here?”
This mega-shelter—proposed with no community input—will be the death knell for our neighborhood!
It’s easy for elected officials to make decisions from the comfort and safety of their homes (most likely in more affluent and white neighborhoods), where the problems they supposedly want to solve aren’t staring them in the face every day, and do not have a direct impact on their business, safety, or life.
Come live in the CID for 30 days. Step outside for a walk, and see and smell the trash and human waste on the streets.
See first-hand senior citizens getting harassed and assaulted. Hear from business owners —who’ve poured their blood, sweat, tears, and possibly life savings—about their bottomline shrinking because of fearful customers who stay away due to safety concerns.
If the shelter is so great, why not spread it to other communities?
Stop dumping on the CID. This megaplex will surely kill us.
Stop with the hyperbole and show some facts. Let’s see the data that these shelters equate to more crime.
Why don’t you go walk through the CID or stay for 30 days as the editorialist suggested? You don’t need “facts” if you can see and smell the problem.
Thank you.
Thank you for this editorial!!! it is right on!!