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The Main problem of Homeless Shelter System In Seattle

The fact is Seattle spends nearly $ 50 million every year to address homelessness, however the number of homeless is continuing to get bigger. According to the latest count, in January, more than 3700 people live on the streets of King County. The number of people sleeping outside shot up by 20 percent in just the past year.[footnoteRef:1] The reason for this disappointed result is that some problems happened in Seattle homeless shelter system, but the city government was apparently quite unconscious of this. They keep on building some long term housing, but without considering homeless’ economic strength. Therefore, this is the time to look at the problems of Seattle shelter system. These problems include lack of space and publicity, unscientific location, time limits, and religions. [1: John Ryan, "Amid Seattle's Affluence, Homelessness Also Flourishes." Northwest Public Radio, April 7, 2015.]

There is a fact that nearly 6,000 units of affordable housing have been built in Seattle in the last decade, this number is higher than in any city except New York or Los Angeles.[footnoteRef:2] However, the cost of building affordable housing is high, and the rate of growth of homeless is rapid. In other words, the number of affordable housing cannot keep pace with the population of homeless. To deal with homeless problem, only spend money on building affordable housing is not enough. Instead of that, the government of Seattle should look at the problems of shelter system. It would be easier to improve the existing system. [2: John Ryan, "After 10-Year Plan, Why Does Seattle Have More Homeless Than Ever?" KUOW News and Information. May 3, 2015.]

First of all, Seattle is an acute shortage of homeless shelter. For example, a shelter website clearly points out “Homeless shelters in Seattle are usually at or near capacity, especially in cold weather.” So, they recommended that homeless should phone to ask about openings.[footnoteRef:3] We can also see in the picture below, homeless are queuing for a bed in winter. The weather looks cold, and the waiting line is not short. However, not all of them have the chance to get into the shelter, it has a limited number of beds. [3: "Shelters." Seattle Crisis Resource Directory]

The second problem is if you have no access the internet, you probably would never know where shelters are. I found a women shelter called Sacred Heart Shelter in the website.[footnoteRef:4] We can see there is no any signs on this building. When I first saw this picture, [4: "HomelessShelterDirectory." Sacred Heart Shelter.]

I thought this building should belong to a government agency or a school, but actually it is a homeless shelter. Therefore, the problem of drumbeating appeared. How can a homeless know the building near him/her is the shelter he/she really need? If the person doesn’t have smart phone or other internet tools, maybe he will never know where has homeless shelter.

The third problem is 80% homeless shelters were built in the Downton Seattle. Therefore, if a person have no money and lived far from downtown, it is really hard for him/her to travel to a shelter. Moreover, it may cause some social security problems because downtown is already a crowded place, and the increase of homeless population will make it become more difficult to manage. The picture below shows that only three shelters are established out of the downtown area, and much of Seattle is lack of shelters.

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The fourth problem is that a lot of shelters have limits of staying time, when leaving time arrives, homeless people have no choice but leave their shelters. Even though they are unsuccessful in getting a job, they have to leave the shelthers. Many of them choose to find other shelters, but there are still some homeless come back streets.

Finally, some shelters still require the homeless to attend religious services. It is a kind of payment for the bed in homeless shelters. For example, a homeless mother says, “Even if they tell you that you don’t have to be a Christian to get help, the expectation is very much one of conversion as I was told “I would still have to hear about Jesus”. ” [footnoteRef:5] In other words, if you believe in other religions, such as Islam and Buddhism, you still have to join Christian activities.  [5:  Carey Fuller, "Homeless Shelter Systems and What They Don't Tell You." The Huffington Post. December 27, 2011]

Only focus on one side is not possible to deal with the increasing of Seartle homeless population. The problem is not only caused by low cost housing shortage, but also the Seattle shelter system – the lack of space and publicity, unscientific location, time limits, and imperative religious services. Compare with building budget homes, improving the shelter system is a chealer way to help those homeless, and it is easier to achieve.

Citation:

Fuller, Carey. "Homeless Shelter Systems and What They Don't Tell You." The Huffington Post. Accessed April 28, 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carey-fuller/homeless-shelter-parents_b_1035952.html.

"HomelessShelterDirectory." Sacred Heart Shelter. Accessed April 24, 2016. http://www.homelessshelterdirectory.org/cgi-bin/id/shelter.cgi?shelter=7941.

Ryan, John. "Amid Seattle's Affluence, Homelessness Also Flourishes." Northwest Public Radio, April 7, 2015. Accessed April 4, 2016. http://www.npr.org/2015/04/07/398075834/amid-seattles-affluence-homelessness-also-flourishes. Ryan, John. "After 10-Year Plan, Why Does Seattle Have More Homeless Than Ever?" KUOW News and Information. May 3, 2015. Accessed April 11, 2016. http://kuow.org/post/after-10-year-plan-why-does-seattle-have-more-homeless-ever.

"Shelters." Seattle Crisis Resource Directory. Accessed April 13, 2016. http://www.scn.org/crisis/shelters.html.