Where’s The Homeless ‘Contractor?’

By Larry Coffman

King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn had it right when he told KIRO Radio (see link below) that the new Regional Homelessness Authority is simply “designed to give politicians in Seattle political cover because they’re failing at this.”

The 11-member Authority board and an executive director will be appointed by King County Executive Dow Constantine, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and a Steering Committee, which will be composed of nine politicians and two people who’ve been homeless.

While Dunn accurately calls the move a “political cover,” I’d call it a huge band-aid that’s more likely to fester than heal the worsening homeless/lawless wound that’s centered in Seattle. The move, in effect, takes Seattle off the accountability hook and brings in a host of satellite cities who already are voicing concerns about what kind of clout they’ll have in the new Authority—when it eventually gets up and running—and who knows how long that will take.

Those concerns aside, there’s a more pivotal point that’s been completely overlooked in my and others’ dissection and discussion of the crisis.

When they built the Space Needle, when they rebuilt Ground Zero and when they rehabilitated a feces-infected Lake Washington, what was the basic step that the public and private entities responsible for those huge projects did, once they’d given them the green light?

They hired a contractor, who immediately established an on-site center staffed with managers, engineers and tradespeople who were on the job round-the-clock. Without that center and those workers and their 24/7 attention to the project, nothing ever would have been built, rebuilt or rehabbed. Period.

Ergo—where’s the contractor on the all-important homeless/lawless project?

The Action Central facility that we’ve been stumping for here this past many months would be that “contractor,” if you will, in dealing with the homeless/lawless crisis. And NASA’s Mission Control, that we’ve been using as an analogy, is in the same category as the other projects mentioned earlier. It’s certain that we’d never have achieved a moon landing or countless successful space probes without it.

When will our public and private influencers come to the realization that this is a crisis that simply can’t be solved by a scatteration of hit-and-miss efforts—no matter how well intentioned? More importantly, when will they classify this crisis in the same category as other crises—like earthquakes, hurricanes and wars—that receive 24/7 attention—rather than bureaucratic band-aids?

King County Councilmember: Regional Homelessness Authority a political cover

P.S. Here are links to prior posts in the fantastical Action Central series: 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; The Perfect Site!; ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’; Reaching For Reality; Town Hall Takeaways; Eric’s National Exposure; ‘Head Chef’;  ‘Our Mission Control’; The No. 1 Deliverable—Synergy!; Proactive Vs. Passive; Action Central: Guest Proposal-Part I; Action Central: Guest Proposal-Part II; Action Central: Guest Proposal-Part III;  Homeless/Lawless Quiz Results+m Call For A Homeless ‘Cza.’ and ‘Hooverville’…’Nickelsville’…‘Seattleville.’