If you haven’t watched Seattle Is Dying in its entirety, read no farther until you have!
Good! Now you’re among the several million who’ve viewed this powerful—and chilling—documentary, either on KOMO-4 TV or online. And perhaps you’re among the thousands who’ve offered Comments on Facebook or LinkedIn. We can’t let that unprecedented cry for change fade away from indifference.
Paradoxically, Seattle-King County ranks third in per capita income among the nation’s major metropolitan areas and also is third in number of homeless (11,600), trailing only New York City and Los Angeles. And as the documentary pointed out, Seattle trails only San Francisco in property crimes per 100,000 residents.
The Seattle area has a long history of failing to act until the situation becomes dire. The cleanup of Lake Washington began only when human feces were found floating in its waters. And the area missed two golden opportunities, in 1968 and again in 1970, to build a BART-style regional rapid transit system for the bargain price of $1 billion; it took looming traffic gridlock to move the electorate finally to form Sound Transit, at more than triple the cost.
In a letter to Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, I proposed a practical first step in dealing with the current crisis: The establishment of a command center to monitor—and act upon—all elements of the city’s homeless/drug/mental health situation on a real-time basis, 24/7.
[With the State Legislature and the King County Executive now appearing to have renewed interest in the situation—thanks to the KOMO documentary—the center could be countywide in scope, but Seattle is the driver and the place to begin.]
The WSDOT communication center that monitors traffic flow on the highway system and acts immediately to resolve problems, in concert with law enforcement, first responders and other stakeholders, is an excellent model. Ask yourself how we’d cope with our frequent freeway-traffic woes without it.
The tech capital of the world clearly has the capability to create a state-of-the-art center that could collect and display all relevant information needed for constant and concerted action. At present, we’re dividing and conquering ourselves for want of this kind of tool to achieve a truly coordinated effort.
The beating heart of the new Homeless Central would be a collage of video monitors displaying, in real-time, 24/7:
• Every homeless encampment (from one to many individuals) within the Seattle city limits;
• Readouts of the names and records of repeat drug or criminal offenders among that population, with emphasis on dealing with the worst offenders;
• Every criminal activity—affording a clear overview of the possible correlation between the encampments and the crime scenes;
• The police actions taken in each instance (i.e., warning, citation, incarceration, referral to drug treatment, placement in a mental facility, other);
• The legal actions—or inactions—resulting from the citations;
• Before and after visuals of encampment cleanups by the Seattle mayor’s Navigation Team, with data on the disposition of the residents; and
• A running record of performance in dealing with homelessness, drug abuse, mental illness and crime vs. established objectives.
The key to success would be around-the-clock presence of a representative—with authority to act—from every agency involved in solving the crisis, The ability to take action on the spot is absolutely critical. To do otherwise would be like WSDOT identifying an accident on I-5 and doing nothing to clear it away.
The center also would have individual monitors displaying a variety of relevant information, such as available housing and jail inventory, mental health resources and applicable government legislation, to name a few of the many possibilities. And it would complement the existing 911, Crisis Clinic and other public-service call centers, which would be integrated into the overall communications network.
[If Homeless Central is created as a Seattle-King County facility, monitoring and acting upon situations in the satellite cities of the county—like that being done in Seattle—also would be accomplished there.]
Think what a morale boost it would be for the beleaguered cops on the increasingly mean streets of Seattle (and the county) to know someone is watching and that their enforcement efforts would not go for naught—as they too often are today.
A sustained solution to the crisis simply can’t be achieved without a complete and constant picture of the problem—and concerted action. Homeless Central provides that critical capability. After that lies the long road of increased intervention and enforcement that Eric Johnson calls from is his conclusion.
As the Chinese philosopher Lao Tsu wrote, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Homeless Central is that first step.
Your feedback on this idea—and others—are encouraged, because failing to act on the outrage and momentum generated by Seattle Is Dying is not an option.
P.S. Also read about the timely debut of Dave Remer’s iWitness app and Stanton On… Guts
—Larry Coffman, Publisher, marketingnw.com