[EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a Letter to the Editor, written and submitted by a resident. It represents the opinion of the author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of South King Media or its staff.]
DESC in Burien is a drug den. Essentially, it is just a better tent. Could it be something better? It should be for the money taxpayers pay for it.
What is the return on investment for Burien taxpayers in terms of “resident” outcomes? Is it just a better tent? Treatment for substance abuse? Becoming a contributing member of society? If just a better tent, then there are other locations that would cost taxpayers far less than the cost in downtown Burien.
SMART goals or goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bounded are essential in serious planning along with these goals being rationalized and implications documented.
A few goals are reasonable; many goals are not. A short list could include treatment, wellness, education, employment, among others or be combined into one overarching goal. The key thing is to create a positive outcome for both “resident” and community.
For example:
- Goal: Each “resident” is provided with a room, treatment, wellness checkups, education, and counseling upon entry and employment within one year.
- Rationale (s): If a “resident” cannot be habituated within a reasonable period of time and taxpayer expense, then a different approach (location, treatment, …) is required.
- Implication (s)
- “Residents” are to be treated for health-related issues, to stay off drugs, to learn employable skills, and become ready to be a contributing member of society.
- Staff are required to maintain a secure and drug free building, provide treatment, education, and employable skills.
Money, time, effort and other resources are limited and with federal funding cuts, are likely to be more limited in the future and not just for the homeless, the addicted, the mentally challenged and others. Other groups that want to improve could use additional investments and help such as food bank recipients, students and teachers, unemployed workers, marginal workers, small businesses …. There is an incredible demand for help and while certainly the homeless are one group, they are not the only group that is struggling. Groups that want to help themselves, are willing to help themselves, and can do something with help are important criteria.
Given ongoing and increasing demand for resources, if DESC cannot transition their “residents” into becoming contributing members of society, then why are we funding them? If “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results” DESC is winning.
– David Gould
Do you have an opinion you’d like to share with our highly engaged local Readers? If so, please email your Letter to the Editor to scott@southkingmedia.com and, pending review and verification that you’re a real human being, we may publish it. Letter writers must use their full name, as well as provide an address and phone number (NOT for publication but for verification purposes). Read our full Letter to the Editor policy here.
100%, Yeah the main problem is, we have no control of DESC and now we get to preach to King County.. which doesn’t listen. Many Burien residents want the policy’s changed for this place but how? ( the common sense approaches arn’t too hard to come up with.. but getting King County to change is another story.)
Unfortunately, DESC is a private entity. Neither we nor King County have any say over what goes on in their facility. From the outset, plenty of us were aware of their reputation, empty promises and what we were in for, but it was shoved down our throat-despite lawsuits and much public pushback, under the guise of affordable housing, which it never was, nor will it ever be.
Their “good neighbor policy”, is not worth the paper it is written on, both at the corporate level, and as far as individual residents are concerned. One only has to drive by to see they have no interest in upholding any of it. Simply naming it Bloomside and painting flowers on it are akin to putting lipstick on a pig. Their residents and the crowd they attract have caused nearby businesses to have to fortify their properties to stay safe. It is filthy and a consistent drain on public resources, paid for by taxpayers. DESC pays zero property taxes.
Their onsite “counselors” do nothing of the sort. If a current resident wanted to partake of services to help them get off of drugs and alcohol, those services are not available. So what is the point? DESC can provide no measurable statistics as to the effectiveness of their “program”. If people don’t have the opportunity to grow, evolve and improve, what are they doing here, besides indefinitely warehousing them? Additionally, (and I know I’m not alone here), I will not be lectured or shamed into silence by the cadre of local activists who insist myself and others do not care about the homeless. That is categorically false. My approach involves common sense and fiscal responsibility. When someone is offered an opportunity to turn their life around, given free access to resources and services, they should have some skin in the game. Otherwise, it is a cycle that never ends. King County has thrown more than a billion dollars at the homelessness issue. To keep doing the same thing, expecting different results, is insanity.
DESC operates in close partnership with King County, with the county often contracting with DESC to provide services like mobile crisis teams and supportive housing.
** Look at who’s on DESC’s board as well – there tied with King County – (in some senses, similar to how proxy organizations/wars can work)
Some background on DESC from a fellow Burien resident in a previous DESC response:
“DESC = (1) Its nonprofit Federal tax return, supposed to list top earners in leadership, lists 15 leaders earning zero annually and only 7 earning a total of $1,430,000 annually, yet annual management salaries are over $12,000,000.
(2) DESC’s tentacles are in deep: King County Sheriff and Burien antagonist Patti Cole-Tindall is on DESC’s Board and State Rep Nicole Macri is DESC Deputy Director-but her salary is concealed, year, after year, after year.
(3) This band of selfless DESC do-gooders dumped $1,357,000 into leadership pensions during 2024 alone. That’s not counting salaries and other benefits for the over 120 management earning over $100,000 annually. DESC is sitting on over $418 million in assets, including over $36 million in cash.”
Tom T. thinks that DESC is broke and relies on Federal funds, talk about not doing his research and realizing it’s just the king of grift.
Per the financial disclosure portion on her PDC page, her salary is between $100,000 and $199,000. Her title is Deputy Director of Strategy. This is addition to her job in state legislature.
This is a very thoughtful letter with common sense solutions. Compared to the letter signed by a number of well meaning, but uninformed residents it is meant to help people not to coddle them. It would be nice to offer people a future that does not include addiction and living off the government for a lifetime.
Shoot, my one and only time I got mixed up in my 30’s landed me a DUI.
Residential driving locally here and was driving under the speed limit but he smelt it when he pulled over, so I was caught. First offense as well
Long story short, I was FORCED to pay for outpatient rehab ($1000’s) and attend twice a week for 6 months with random UA’s. Also 1 AA meeting each weekend with signature , this was judge ordered
I have zero sympathy for this behaviour, if a judge got involved they would be getting a similar sentence!
Good to see common sense, like minded people speaking… actually being able to implement great change(s) is another mountain itself.
Previous DESC Letter (in favor): https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1NBs3fd98U/
I agree something must be done with DESC.
Thank you for posting that on facebook John ! Great open perspective and I agree with everything mentioned here as well!
DESC is a permanent supportive housing development. In other words, it’s an apartment building. What is proposed in this letter is illegal. They can’t force anyone to participate in any of these “solutions”, just like the Maverick can’t force people living their to not drink alcohol.
It’s nice that you want to imprison the residents of DESC inside the building, but again, that’s illegal. The city doesn’t have the authority, YOU do not have the authority. Here’s an idea: go to Bloomside and say hi to the residents there. Maybe if you get to know them, and not just make assumptions, you’ll realize just how wrong you are. Maybe.
I have no problem helping those that cant help themselves but not unconditionally. Your example of the Maverick is interesting. The folks at the Maverick pay to be there and have rules and regulations, HOA, etc – contracts that must be followed. The people at DESC are not paying anything to live there so the terms can be dictated to them and they can choose to accept or not. As is the the DESC facility is a slow moving morgue.
August, how about you and the other supporters go by daily and pick up the trash stewn around the building and especially on the private property across the street, the residents seem incapable.
DESC Bloomside residents make up less than 0.2% of Burien’s population. These people are not the cause of all of Burien’s problems, yet they seem to be on the receiving end of all the hate. If you want better quality services, DESC will need more money for staff (both quantity of people, and level of training). DESC programs are largely grant-based, and many of those grants come from the federal level. The current administration has already passed an Executive Order to limit grants for housing-first programs, which means we can expect DESC funding to decline. With it, so will the quality of service.
Don’t want housing-first? The alternative is forced institutionalization, like we had 50 years ago, and which was notoriously underfunded, overcrowded, and inhumane. There are many reasons we as a society stopped doing that, and shut those facilities down. Additionally studies have shown time and time again that forced rehabilitation is less effective than voluntarily rehab, meaning a lot of that funding — assuming there’s enough of it — would be wasted.
Yes, housing-first means some people might not ever be able to “contribute” to our society in way that you find palatable, but forced rehab/institutionalization would cost even more, for inferior results.
Bloomside residents are not the problem – they are a symptom of the ineffective policies put forth by the far left. They dont work. Show me any example of scale where these programs are working. So the cancer spreads all over the city. And of course your solution is right on track – more money, more of everything applied to programs that dont work. The mentally ill and chronic drug addicts will most likely remain wards of the state for their lives. Bloomside is institutional living – but almost certainly guarantees a fatal outcome overtime for its residence.
Tom, 600 police calls since January of this year.. I was shocked to hear this – respectfully your wrong – sorry. Find the facts and collaborated eye witness reports, anyone with these statistics in a governing position would be alarmed – there’s nothing positive with those stats. Not to mention the over abundance of residents and even city councils members speaking out about this problem.
If I was in the business for rehabilitation- helping and rehabilitating the homeless.. why wouldn’t you work with all available resources possible, why wouldn’t you have great communication with city officials, police, mental health providers, fire department/ER? why wouldn’t you listen to concerning issues and obvious problems involving your business, why wouldn’t you come back with resolutions or speak about these issues being brought up? ?
I disagree with Tom 100%. And I apologize but I’ve sacrificed my entire life helping and assisting in rehabilitation for the homeless.
Let’s start with the obvious: the size of the DESC Bloomside population is irrelevant to the scale of the problems it creates. Saying they make up “less than 0.2%” of Burien’s population doesn’t mean their impact is proportionally small. If a handful of people are responsible for a disproportionate number of emergency calls, police incidents, or community disturbances, that matters and it’s not hateful to point that out. It’s reality. Communities have the right to demand safety, cleanliness, and accountability. Pretending criticism equals cruelty is an attempt to shut down legitimate concerns.
DESC has already received millions in taxpayer dollars for housing-first programs, yet visible homelessness, addiction, and crime keep rising in every city that follows this model. If more money automatically meant better outcomes, (Seattle) one of the most heavily funded homelessness hubs in the country, would be a success story, not a cautionary tale.
So I disagree you from my lived experience being a homeless provider, its the program being put in place for rehabilitation (there is none at DESC) that lacks sustenance, disipline, accountability, expectations, and the honor/need to graduate from a homeless lifestyle to full independence.
As for the claim that the alternative is returning to the horrors of 1950s-style institutions, that’s absolutely false and emotional manipulation.
Nobody’s calling for a return to underfunded asylums. What people are asking for is accountability, treatment requirements, and structure. There’s a wide gap between forced institutionalization and unregulated chaos, and pretending it’s one or the other is intellectually dishonest.
And the bit about forced rehab being less effective?? That’s cherry-picked and outdated. Recent data from modern drug courts and mandatory treatment programs show significant reductions in recidivism and overdose deaths when treatment is coupled with accountability.
Voluntary rehab is great, when people actually volunteer. But for the many who are deep in addiction or mental illness, “voluntary” means never. Allowing people to slowly kill themselves on public sidewalks isn’t compassion, it’s neglect dressed up as empathy.
Thank you Sarah!
Sarah,
Thank you for a thoughtful response. While I don’t agree with all of your points, I think you do make some good points that I hadn’t considered. I still don’t understand, though, how these demands could be met without additional funding. If DESC isn’t welcome, what should we do, shut it down and force those people back out onto the streets with no alternative, while we argue for years about something better? Because, from what I’ve seen, Burien’s leadership has shot down every single alternative except for the “camping ban,” which is no solution at all to the core problem, and only succeeds in hiding our societal failures. (And if we really want to talk about transparency and accountability, TMWL is even more opaque than DESC.)
We both agree about neglect being dressed up as empathy, but we also cannot forget that people who are seen as “contributing” members of society can just easily “slowly kill themselves” in private, and that doesn’t make it better.
Requiring rehab for homeless people to take shelter sets a class-based precedent that, if you have a home, you can slowly poison yourself in private, and that’s OK as long as nobody has to hear about it. But if you don’t have a home, you have to go through a painful, traumatic, and occasionally fatal treatment plan?
I just don’t buy that it’s any more empathetic to require treatment than it is to let someone at least have a roof over their head even if they have no will to get better.
I do understand what it’s like to be a neighbor of places like that — I’ve lived at 3rd & Bell in Seattle, and plenty of high-crime blocks in other cities too. I acknowledge that DESC neighbors have to put up with a disproportionate amount of BS compared to others, and that I failed to take that into account in my original response.
I do want to see better outcomes, but not at the cost of establishing class-based treatment requirements.
Thanks for sharing your perspective. However I’d say, it’s also important to remember that we live in a democratic republic governed by laws that we, as citizens, have collectively voted on and agreed to uphold. These laws exist to protect the rights and safety of all citizens, not just certain groups. As members of this society, we each share the responsibility to ensure those rights and laws are respected and enforced fairly.
While compassion and rehabilitation are essential, we cannot ignore that public spaces and taxpayer-funded facilities operate under different standards than private settings. The argument that: -people with homes can harm themselves in private-, simply isn’t a fair or relevant comparison. In a private setting, actions can occur within the boundaries of one’s own property and their own responsibility. But in public or community-based environments, especially those supported by public funds, there are laws that protect the wider community from harm, including from the use or sale of illegal substances.
Allowing drug use or drug sales within or around rehabilitation centers undermines both public safety and the very purpose of those programs. It’s not empathy to enable destructive behavior in the name of compassion; again that’s neglect. True empathy means helping people regain stability, health, and dignity and while that can be situational per case, more often than not it requires some kind of structure, accountability, and consequences. Our goal should be solutions that uphold both compassion and accountability, because without both, we fail everyone involved. And there is a balance to be found, I can guarantee that.
This makes too much sense for Burien!
So, what am I missing? Where is the evidence of what is allegedly happening at Bloomside? Direct me to the data reporting the concerns listed above. Are there police reports? Has there been an official investigation that I haven’t read? I need facts not opinions or perceived observations.
Go talk to the Burien police since your so skeptical to fact check and watch the prior video of the burien city council meeting with council members discussing DESC.
https://b-townblog.com/tensions-flare-at-burien-city-council-meeting-over-desc-bloomside-tree-removals-and-zoning-plan/
Here’s one discussion on it, Watch the video
Also feel free to drive by the facilities, maybe even observe or talk, police ride alongs are possible as well
I just left the below ” ” comment on the “this a good thing” letter to editor. With my addition here… you signers you just keep thinking its a good thing so you all can sleep good at night and pat yourselves on the back because that is all you are doing, making it a feel good for yourselves.
“All that this letter is to all the signers is that old saying “out of sight, out of mind”. I’m retired and with my cup of coffee every morning before starting my daily chores if you will I sit and read the B Town Blog and others, not FB we do not have but I look at the B’s live emergency feed and practically every day and or every other day either at the DESC, Transit Center, and that general area there is an emergency call. Example: 10/29/25 @9:27pm listed as ODF at the DESC Bldg. so again to all you signers and believers—-being housed first isn’t working for these people, all it is doing is “OUT OF SIGHT/OUT OF MIND” to you all! SMH!”
I just want to say a few things..
Before you post something get your facts straight..
Most blomside residents pay rent.. 1/3 of their income,
Alot of the residents are veterans
Not all residents are on drugs,
At bloomside the residents have the same lease agreement any one of you have that are renters. So the police need to have a warrant to enter someones apartment the same as any of you..just because people living there have been homeless, battling addiction or mental health does not mean they are less than you in anyway. If you all took the same amount of time to go there and actually meet people as you do complaining and putting out false information then you can see most people there are really good people
For clarity of the facts where does that money to pay rent come from? Here’s the reality, some form of Taxpayer funded assistance or other means not tied to the actual ability of the residents, that’s where.
If Veterans, how did they end up there instead of the housing opportunities provided for them by the Veterans administration?
If you end up at a DESC facility you’re not just needing housing because there’s plenty out there, you end up there as a puppet of the Homeless Industrial Complex who makes money on keeping you in the system and letting you slowly with assistance meet your demise.
We need mandantory drug and alcohol treatment before they go into DESC housing. The Salvation Army and Union Gospel Mission have great one year programs, use them!!!!