Fight for the Soul of Seattle.
That’s what they called the follow-up documentary to the one that came out in March.
It came out last night. NBC Montana had the link on their site to the Seattle NBC site, and I managed to watch it last night.
It was really good.
I think the real star of the program is the formerly-homeless woman that now is a senior at the University of Washington, with tons of honors.
She said 100% of the people she met on the streets had substance abuse problems.
It’s an eye-opening documentary, and I can see the same trends in Missoula.
Here we coddle, but we don’t try to change. Change might mean the homeless and the addicted get better. There’s no money in that for the non-profits.
Think of it like war - the longer it goes on, the more the companies supplying the war effort make money.
Same with the homeless.
Here in Missoula we recently spent $100,000 to move the “illegal” Reserve Street Homeless Camp to the other side of town.
They built tent sites for 40 people. Just 8 showed up.
And there’s nothing wrong with that. I think that’s part of the plan.
I think this person nailed it:
The Pov used to house upwards of 150 people a night, but then when covid hit, they cut that in half.
They said it was too dangerous to have too many people so close together. A few months later they opened a second homeless shelter by the mall, one that could house 150 people. A month after that they erected the new homeless tent camp and began to close the Reserve Street Homeless Camp.
Very few of the homeless at the Reserve Street Camp want to move to the new location.
I doubt Mel moved there. I talked to him in the summer of 2018, about a month after the disastrous floods washed away much of the Reserve Street Homeless Camp.
He had the best shelter in the camp, on the highest ground in the area. He’d already been living there for two years when I talked to him. I wonder if he’s still there. I know the idea of ‘freedom’ was important to him, so I doubt he’ll live under the dictates of the new tent camp across town.
Missoula officials are going to do a public comment on the new homeless tent camp on Wednesday on Zoom.
We already know that most of the business owners in the area are upset about this. We learned that they’ve been having problems with the homeless ever since the $7 million Reserve Street Pedestrian Bridge was installed.
In 2011 Missoula put forth their 10-year plan to end homelessness. Five years into it, the city saw a 265% increase in the homeless population.
This is a success.
The more homeless people we have, the more the non-profits can make in donations. Homelessness is also a convenient excuse for the city and the county to get covid relief money from the federal government.
Remember, this city is $250 million in debt and desperate for money. City councilors won’t even listen to anyone talk about affordable housing without demanding the legislature puts forth a local sales tax option.
Do you really think the veto-proof GOP legislature is going to do anything other than laugh at the delegation from Missoula?
What leverage does the delegation from Missoula have?
None.
Here in Missoula we spent $4,500 that the feds gave us to give phones to 60 homeless people.
I wonder if one of the people they gave a phone to was the guy that beat the other homeless guy to death.
Residents living near the new homeless shelter by the mall are already complaining about the bums loitering around in the area.
The idea was to open this new homeless shelter for the winter, then close it. But I think it’ll remain open indefinitely.
I wonder what’s going on with the Reserve Street Homeless Camp.
What are they going to build there? What is the plan for that small parcel of land?
Why such a rush to get rid of the homeless camp there? Why all this talk that it’s illegal, when for years they said they could do nothing?
What authority does the city/county have to fine the state for this homeless camp?
When the state gets the bill from Missoula for the illegal camp, are they going to pay it...and what happens if they don’t? How much are the fines, and how are these determined?
They built the new tent camp for 40 people, but just 8 showed up.
Local media reported that 120 people were living in the Reserve Street Homeless Camp earlier this spring.
Even if you fill up the tent camp with 40 people...where are the other 80 people that were living in the Reserve Street Homeless Camp supposed to go?
If you don’t let people feed their addictions at the new tent camp, do you really think they’re going to move there?
Do you think having homeless people sign-in and sign-out is really going to work?
$100,000 was spent to make a new homeless camp to replace the one the homeless created themselves.
And the homeless don’t want it.