[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.]

Dear Neighbors,

A couple things happened last weekend that made me think. First, power went out at my house on Saturday night during the big wind and rain storm. Second, on Monday a friend mentioned that they had been doing some campaign door knocking, and that when the subject of unhoused community members came up, a lot of people expressed relief that so many of the tents are gone and they aren’t seeing as many people out on the streets.

The power outage ended up, for me, to be a minor inconvenience. After some fumbling around for the battery-powered lamps we use in outages, I drove around for a while, partially to get a feel for which areas of town had power and partially to charge my phone. When I got home, I went to bed in a warm, quiet house and woke up to full power.

What bothered me was that my minor inconvenience was a horrible night, actually a couple of days, for people in our community with no home to shelter in. Worse, in terms of solving the problem, is that so many of us who live in secure housing of one sort or another seem to be relaxing their interest or concern because they can’t see the effects up close and personal. 

The fact that we aren’t seeing as many tents as we did before doesn’t mean there aren’t still a lot of unhoused community members out there. People are still scrambling to find shelter during cold, windy, rainy storms like what we saw last weekend, and it’s just barely the beginning of November. This winter, they will continue to be victims of severe weather, shortages of food and medical attention, violence, etc. Some of them will die.

In Seattle, the Leaves of Remembrance Project is a touching, ongoing act of remembering those who have succumbed after being exposed to the harsh realities of living without adequate shelter. They place a bronze leaf as a memorial for each person who has died. It’s a wonderful act and an ongoing tradition that not only focuses attention on the reality of the unhoused who are still living among us but also reminds us of their humanity and their dignity. 

But I wonder, “Why do we still need to be memorializing people who are dying on our streets?” Why haven’t we moved more decisively at every level to solve a problem that is killing people and is caused by issues we ourselves have created, like lack of housing, poverty, discrimination, lack of medical care, mental health issues, etc.? And why are we allowing ourselves to disengage and relax once we don’t see a bunch of tents? Sure, it’s a complex problem, but it isn’t cancer! We could change the way we do things!

We are better than this. These are human beings who need help. There are admittedly difficult issues that arise when thousands of people have no dependable, suitable shelter, but when these difficulties are temporarily alleviated, we must still work at solving the underlying problems. We can’t continue to ignore our most vulnerable neighbors just because we don’t see them as often.

Grace and Peace,
– Don West

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8 replies on “LETTER TO THE EDITOR: ‘We can’t continue to ignore our most vulnerable neighbors just because we don’t see them as often’”

  2. My successful friend was homeless once. She said that two nights on the streets and she felt Crazy.

    We know how to end homelessness. There are many successful models.
    DESC is one, King County has had success, too.
    It was cheaper to start yesterday.
    Let’s recommit to ending homelessness, today.

    1. I don’t even know where to start with this comment… sigh…… this is probably why there is no hope at all. This is what DESC would say and has been for years……… The “problem” has been boldly showing its face for years now and this is your response to bettering that? …….. Wow.

    2. According to the last 5 years of data (I’m sure this goes further back), King County shows a year after year increase of homelessness, and not to mention DESC has already been well discussed, including all its current issues so I won’t get into that.

      Burien needs to get away from DESC or they need to get new policy’s and actually work with city leaders.

  3. Thanks for writing the letter! The issue is deep, tied into money and power with politics the deeper you go… Would be nice if Burien could get rid of the relationship with DESC altogether and start a new rehabilitation center or if DESC had common sense, they would want to work this issue out with all the help they could get. But I don’t know of the costly finances for that to happen, let alone the provider(s) or details of doing such.

    The other problem is the few times DESC has spoke, its been full of blanket statements, or what turned out to be fake ~political statements released and not to mention they have already lost everyone’s trust in them as a tax-payer funded organization because they have failed to uphold their own policies they promised to the public for years now. They have shown they are not capable

    The homeless policies for rehabilitation in this state are the problem. You can look at other states and their rehabilitation programs, but you look at this state or the other blue states that have this style of rehabilitation, and you’ll see they harbor the highest numbers of homelessness in the US… so what does that say?

    I don’t understand how anyone could advocate with passion for the homeless and not want the situation better than it currently is, if anyone does… I’d highly question the authenticity of their reasoning. We have “tested” this “style of rehabilitation” for far too long with 0 results across many states in the US – hello? ?

  4. There are many service organizations who are more than willing to give people help. Also, The More We Love has placed a lot of folks as well. Of course, they need to take the help being offered. Tents lining main streets, open drug use, overdosing people, and the mentally ill wandering around is not the answer. If you really want to help, contact a city council member and they will give you specific information. Foisting people on a community because you feel guilty does not work. If you visited Town Square a few years ago, you should know. Ask our small business owners about the crime and stealing that took place. Contact the city of Burien to find out how much money is available and you can contribute if you wish. Put your compassion to work. I don’t want to feel the fear again because folks like you feel guilty.

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