[EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a Letter to the Editor, written and submitted by area residents. It represents the opinion of the author(s), and does not necessarily reflect the views of South King Media or its staff. NOTE: This letter has been lightly edited to comply with the B-Town Blog’s pre-election policies.]
Dear Neighbors,
The undersigned group of Burien community members is writing to share our support and gratitude for the work of DESC Bloomside. As Burien residents we want all of our community members to have their basic needs met. We are stronger as a community when everyone has a safe place to sleep, enough food to eat, and the support of a kind and welcoming community.
Racism, a lack of affordable housing, and jobs that don’t pay enough to meet the rising costs of food, gas, and healthcare are the main reasons people find themselves homeless. Safe and stable housing provides people who have been pushed into homelessness the opportunity to thrive, to rebuild their lives, and to reconnect with family and community. DESC’s Bloomside answers this call and the best way to help residents of Bloomside receive more health services is to provide more resources.
Fortunately, Bloomside isn’t the only resource Burien has to offer. Many of us participate in a weekly supper service for food insecure or unhoused people in Burien. We’ve witnessed people’s lives before Bloomside and after. We’ve seen how the transition from living in tents on the streets of Burien to living in an apartment has improved their health, wellbeing, and sense of stability. We wish more of the critics of Bloomside could see this, too.
Transitioning out of unsheltered homelessness into an apartment is not like flipping a switch. Many people experiencing homelessness have years of trauma, as well as mental health conditions, physical disabilities, or substance use disorder. These do not vanish when they receive housing. These conditions do become easier to manage and treat when a person has the basic stability of housing: an address to receive mail, benefits, and regular contact from case workers, a safe place to sleep, and a community they can feel connected to. These are all crucial to getting treatment, support, and resources. We urge our community to consider the importance of permanent supportive housing like DESC, which is currently helping dozens of formerly unhoused Burien residents.
There are several options to support our neighbors who are struggling to put food on the table, choosing between healthcare and paying rent, or find themselves pushed into homelessness. Check out the Wednesday Night Supper Club, the Highline UMC Day Center, the Burien Community Fridge, the Highline or White Center Food Banks, Alimentando al Pueblo, or Transform Burien. Learn more about or donate to DESC, Evergreen Treatment Services / REACH, Mary’s Place, or Hospitality House. Stay engaged in local efforts to address homelessness and support programs and services that recognize and respond to its complex causes.
We invite our community to consider what each of us can do to support all residents of Burien, especially those recovering from years of unsheltered homelessness. We will all be better off in a city where everyone has a safe place to sleep.
Signed,
Kelsey Vanhee, Boulevard Park
Jody Rauch, Hazel Valley
Elisabeth Boyle, Hermes Pond
Daniel Martin, Hazel Valley
Nancy Kick, Seahurst
Krystal Marx, Evansvale
Patricia Hudson, Burien
Jennifer Fichamba, 5-corners
Sierra Campbell, Gregory Heights
Sarah Phillips, Alcove
Kerri Solheim, Gregory Heights
Erin Stuckey, Three Tree Point
Amy Robinson, Sunnydale
Hayden Bass, Burien
Joy Milstid, Burien
Matthew Wendland, Seahurst
Megan Durham, Boulevard Park
Molly Lyman, Burien
Andi Newman, Old Burien
David Feindero, Boulevard Park
Margery Gullick, Downtown
Alex Broner, Sunnydale
Michelle Bundy, Burien
Natalia Fialkoff, Burien
Zakeri Humm, Burien
Anna Micklin, Burien
Christine Mahar, Boulevard Park
Adelle Comfort, Seahurst
Rosie Wilson-Briggs, Seahurst
Stan Milstid, Boulevard Park
Matthew Michalik, Hazel Valley
Amy C Saba, Burien
Tricia Jenkins, Burien
Stephen Lamphear, Upper Shorewood
Rebecca Gobeille, Allentown
Teri Crosswhite, Burien
Tina Wooten, Southern Heights
Michael Stein-Ross, Gregory Heights
Phillip Wood-Smith, Downtown Burien
Laura Ann Gravel, Burien Boulevard Park
Jenifer Powell, Chelsea Park
Eric Thompson, Boulevard Park
Kathy Hazen, Burien
Emily Inlow-Hood, North Burien
Angie Weiss, Downtown Burien
Austin Bell, Downtown Burien
Damon Vanhee, Burien
Maggie Block, Gregory Heights
Jade Selle, Seahurst
Paul Hood, North Burien
Sam Mendez, Seahurst
Alex Hyman, Boulevard Park
Beatrice & Paul van Tulder, Hurstwood
Sophia Keller, St. Bernadette
Grace Stiller, Hazel Valley Burien
Maria Balsiger, Burien
Roxana Pardo García, North Highline
Kellie Bassen, Evansvale
Rhonda Brown, West Seattle
Andrea Conver, Gregory Heights
Marni Jacobsen, Burien
Marisa Figueroa, Boulevard Park
Angela Burgess, Burien
Pamela Jorgensen, Shorewood
Bonnie J. Munkers, Burien
Celia Artis, Chelsea Park
Sean Phillips, Burien
Irene Danysh, North Burien
Annie Sieberson, Gregory Heights
Zoë Bermet, Gregory Heights
Jodi Escareno, Burien
Sami Bailey, Burien
Margret Alley, Seahurst
Leit Myers, Salmon Creek
Kathleen Richardson, Gregory Heights
Vince Cottone, Burien
Jen Greenstein, Lake Burien
Cydney Moore, 5-corners
Emily Brink, Highline
Justin Brink, Highline
Rocco DeVito, Seahurst
August Hahn, Burien
Mia Gregerson, 33rd LD
Edwin Obras, SeaTac
Sam Flesher, Burien
Linda Stryker, Seahurst
Nancy Siwiec, Burien, Gregory Heights
Charles Schaefer, Sunnydale
Meredith Stilwell, Burien
Kiarra Witcher, Shorewood
Michael Levkowitz, Burien
James Marx, Burien
Elisabeth Hurley, Burien
Elizabeth Jenkins, Burien
Mars Darling, Burien
Skyler Conley, Burien
Hannah Darling, Lake Burien
Abigail Wilson-Briggs, Seahurst
Sonja Sivesind, Gregory Heights
Rashell Lisowski, Chelsea Park
Lois van Hoyt, Boulevard Park
Kj cudney, Burien
Don Bennett, NERA
Sarah Conley, Glendale
Sandy Hong, Burien
Amanda Richer, Burien
Mary Soderlind, Blakely Manor
John Soderlind, Burien
Ken Gollersrud Ayala, Chelsea park
Kristin Edstrom, Burien
Ingrid Miller, Three Tree Point
Chris Guizlo, Seahurst, Burien
Matthew Whyte, Burien
Mary Montini, Downtown Burien
Rep. Brianna Thomas, 34th LD
Zoey Jordan Salsbury, Downtown
Teresa Mosqueda, King County District 8
Shania Bailey, Burien
Shauna Carlson, Burien
Jennifer Partch, Evansville
Terri Hewitt, Normandy Park
Tiffany Moloney, Manhattan
Laura Milleville, Burien
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I would recommend that anyone who wants to know the truth about DESC take the time to speak to our Burien police officers. Many of the officers have spent a lot of their time at DESC. Please get your facts straight rather than feeding readers untruths.
It is a fact that individuals arriving at DESC Bloomside are often struggling with severe mental health issues, chronic substance use disorder, and a long history of trauma. Many of us are lucky to not have had the everyday issues that they DESC clients have, and are lucky to have the resources to face everyday things.
It requires police and emergency services involvement, especially in the initial transition period. However, research on Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), the model DESC uses, consistently shows that the net gain is positive. This means that housing people first reduces the overall cost to taxpayers by decreasing their reliance on expensive services like ER visits, jail, and even more repeat police encounters over time. PSH (what DESC does) is designed to address public safety by helping the people they serve.
What this letter doesn’t mention is the cost to society when DESC doesn’t offer a safe environment for those looking to improve themselves, having a roof without a safe and drug free housing situation is not helping anyone. The lack of support offered and the well documented instances of rampant drug use and dealing within and around DESC makes it an extremely difficult for anyone who wishes to get clean to actually succeed. If any of the individuals who signed want to really help someone they should demand treatment, instead of just assisting the slow and condoned downfall of anyone in DESC that’s surrounded by rampant drug use, and help clean up the trash outside it while you’re at it.
Why does the letter or more importantly those who signed it not mention the running total of overdose deaths within DESC to date, I believe the total is quickly approaching 2 dozen in just over a year. All this talk of helping and compassion, yet continuing to to ignore the deep underbelly of what truly happens within the DESC when you put vulnerable people in a lord of the flies scenario without rules or accountability. What about that “Good Neighbor” agreement that DESC has failed to uphold, take the blinders off and refocus on the true reality of what mismanagement and how a tainted system really exists in there.
Wish I had known that this was being written because I would have signed my name to it as well.
For those people who keep claiming how much rampant drug use, trash, and police activity is going on there, why hasn’t the police chief actually written a letter with factual information regarding this “truth”? Why no report about all of this to the Burien City Council? Maybe because those people are exaggerating to the extreme.
While it is true we need to provide good density with reasonable regulations within the city limits, the idea that affordable housing is the issue for this population is misguided. Drug abuse, and mental illness are at the core for the majority of these folks. They will likely be wards of the state for a very long time if not for the rest of their lives. We have an obligation as a society to care for those but not without conditions. You dont get to sleep or set up tents on the streets that lower the safety and quality of life for those that are trying to live and run businesses that pay the taxes to fund your care. You dont get to use drugs or be provided drugs by the facility that has agreed to house you. Signatories of this editorial letter – save your righteous savior complex issues for programs that actually work. This model does not.
Permanent Supportive Housing benefits us all. I join over a hundred of my neighbors cheering on nearly a hundred of my other neighbors with this letter. DESC Bloomside houses and provides wraparound services to up to 95 of Burien’s most vulnerable, and I’m proud to count several of them as my friends. The tangible improvement that permanent housing provides can’t be overstated.
Not for nothing, I’d like to point out that among the signers here are several of our local leaders, including Rep. Edwin Obras (33rd LD), Rep. Mia Gregerson (33rd LD), Rep. Brianna Thomas (34th LD), King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda (D8), Rocco DeVito, and Sam Mendez. I think it’s important to note, as there are direct policy impacts to whether our leaders can see and respect people in need of Permanent Supportive Housing.
I love our community.