Pub. Note: For those who may have missed an installment in our fantastical approach to addressing the problems posed in the Seattle Is Dying documentary, here are links to: Mayor Durkan’s Address; Homeless Central, a First Step; background on Action (nee Homeless) Central director John Shannon; his distinction between Homelessness and Lawlessness, The Stakeholders and The Perfect Site! And the fantasy continues…
At our exclusive weekly meeting with Action Central director John Shannon, he was ready to do all the talking. Seems like he’d spent the past week in nearly continuous meetings with prospective Action (A) Team members from the police, fire, homeless, mental-health and legal services and had lots to share.
[Ed. Note: Think of the fluidity between the A and B (backup) Team members like that between the Mariners and their AAA affiliate in Tacoma. Team members are moved back and forth as the situation dictates, and such will be the case at Action Central.]
“I’ve spent a lot of time seeking input from the potential key personnel before we get down to the brass tacks of designing the facility,” John said. “It’s essential to listen to the key players because the buy-in of all concerned is critical. Fortunately, there’s near unanimity with how the mayor and I view the role of Action Central. And this is all the more remarkable because there’s nothing quite like what we envision in any other city anywhere.
“Of course, there are control centers galore, even in the City of Seattle, for the police, the fire department and the department of transportation, for example. But we’ve yet to find a single city with a center that unifies all of these activities.
“Everyone we talked to was highly complimentary about the initiatives on a dozen different fronts to deal with the homeless/lawless crisis,” John said. “But they all complained that there too often is a lack of coordination among these commendable efforts. For example, they believe we need a means of tracking the daily status of the 400 encampments and what happens to a homeless individual who is arrested, or moved or referred for drug or mental-health treatment.
“While there may be a lot of tracking going on, the perception is that the city doesn’t have a good handle on the big picture, especially in how it relates to the efforts to obtain more low-income housing inventory and increased mental-health services. This creates the impression that the situation is like a revolving-door, with no real progress, despite the millions of dollars being invested to address the crisis,” John said.
We suggested that a good analogy might be trying to complete a huge jigsaw puzzle with no picture on the box cover to guide you.
“Actually, that’s an excellent analogy,” John enthused. The very thing we’ll be doing at Action Central is displaying the situation 24/7/365. The reason this is critically important is that—even more challenging than your crossword-puzzle analogy—the picture is constantly changing, which makes it all the more imperative to have the kind of overview we’ll offer in this unique facility.
On John’s (aka Action Jack) upcoming schedule were meetings with the Big Three—Microsoft, Amazon and Google—to gauge their interest in funding, designing and equipping Action Central. He feels getting their buy-in is an important next step before trying to nail down a site, whether at the IMAX Theater or elsewhere.
Again, back to reality… And if you haven’t voted already, please do.
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—Larry Coffman