zlacker

> Completely overrun by homelessness and drug addiction

I lived in capitol hill for a decade, 3 blocks from CHAZ, and recently moved a mile away. The city is not even remotely overrun with homelessness.

Sure, there are people without homes. Do they seriously impact the lifestyle of others? Hardly at all.

This characterization of the Puget Sound feels way out of touch to me. It's a wonderful place to live.

>>acidbu+(OP)
I lived there in 2016, next to the Rite Aid outside (or maybe inside?) the CHAZ. The homeless situation was absolutely terrible for an American city. Sure it's not as bad as shanty towns I've seen in India or Malaysia, but it wasn't good. Housing was/is insane with shared rooms anywhere near the city being $700 and a 1 bedroom to yourself going for ~$2k. Not as bad as SF/The Bay, but still not good by any means.

Sure it's not "overrun," but there are a lot of them, and not enough jobs or affordable housing.

People complained about homeless people coming into the city for the benefits and I thought that was just a myth the Amazon employees would spew, but I talked to a social worker who told me that's true and that her office dealt with a lot of people who came to Seattle because of their programs and benefits.

>>djsumd+t4
I lived 1 block from there, by Lindas until a year ago. What kind of interactions with homeless people did you have to say it is absolutely terrible?

I occasionally saw a homeless person, but that was about the worst of it. And I was out on the town a lot. Oh my car got broken into once as well. Once in 11 years.

>>acidbu+O5
I just saw so many of them .. more than I have in any other city in the developed world (and I've lived a lot of places).

I never had any bad interactions with them I guess, but I broke my heart to see that many of them, especially in the downtown areas and further out towards the Interstate and underpasses.

I dunno, maybe I'm too sensitive, but it broke my heart. It's one of the many reasons I left Seattle.

>>djsumd+T8
Homeless people exist everywhere. In my Wisconsin city they were out of sight because cold kills. In my Missouri city they were out of sight because we’d just arrest them if they didn’t stick to a few block radius.

Consider: if you don’t see homeless people, it might not be because there’s less homelessness. It might just be that they were driven out.

>>acidbu+O5
I've lived in Capitol Hill for 9 years. I've been attacked twice by crazy people. One time it was a physical attack, the other time it was a man singling me and my family out and approaching within a few feet while screaming very aggressively (my family was visiting me at the time).

I'm a large man. It's worse for people who are not physically imposing. A woman I knew worked an early shift job (leave at 3:45am to open up). She was regularly followed and harassed while walking to work sometimes by gangs of men, she left the city in less than a year.

These problems are getting worse because there's literally hundreds of thousands of citizens (you can see them in this comment chain) who will rush to disagree with anyone who raises these problems. I'm well-equipped to buy a house here, but we decided several days ago to stop looking for one. We decided we're going to leave the Puget Sound area to get away from this.