Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced the number of tents in Seattle has been reduced by nearly 80% since 2022, The Seattle Times reported Monday. The media outlet stated in the past two years, the city has removed more than 8,000 tents—going from 1,558 to 215 since the mayor took office.
However, this led KIRO Newsradio contributor Angela Poe Russell to question what the best approach is regarding homelessness, mentioning that fewer tents do not necessarily mean fewer people on the streets.
“A lot of the homeless advocates are saying that this has not reduced the number of homeless people, that it’s just pushed them back into the woods,” she said on “Seattle’s Morning News” Monday. “And I don’t know—on one hand, I think research has shown us that when people are OK, there are some people who fall in hard times, and I think we need to support everybody—then there are those people who there is a drug issue, and until they are made to feel uncomfortable, change doesn’t happen.”…