By Nick Goodwin
Special to the Reporter
Last night, about 5,000 people in King County tried to cover themselves up in blankets, sheets and sleeping bags in order to get a nights rest. About 5,000 people in King County fell asleep feeling unworthy or hopeless. Last night, 5,000 people in King County felt belittled.
The One Night Count this year had been suspended due to federal rules narrowing. The local priorities have shifted.
Last year, 4,505 homeless people were found by King County groups that were spread out across the area between the hours 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. on a January night. That’s not counting the people who weren’t seen, or the people living in shelters, or the people struggling every month to pay more than they can afford for an over-priced apartment.
This morning, while thousands of people in the King County region woke up in a house that has two or three stories, more than 4,505 people in the King County region woke up wondering how they were going to get their next meal. The wealthy are becoming richer while the bottom are continuing to struggle. Resources are not reaching the people who need them the most and our communities are suffering. These people are our people.
They are living out in the streets in one of the wealthiest regions in the state. It’s hard to concentrate on this issue because it’s so big and easy to overlook, especially when we have our own needs to take care of: feeding kids, paying the mortgage, funding college, day-to-day duties. Numbness is real and many people have succumbed to it, but people need to be aware of what is going on. There are many different circumstances as to why people are in this position — growing up in a broken family; a wrong path taken somewhere down the road; or something as simple as not having enough money to fund a college education. But it shouldn’t change the fact that they are struggling and they need help.
There were 1,202 students in East King County school districts who were homeless during the 2014-15 school year. This number has continued to grow despite supportive services. Students are the future; these homeless students are the future. They are the next great generation with brilliant ideas. How can they use these bright ideas when they don’t have the opportunity to live in a home?
An individual earning minimum wage would have to work more than 121 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Bellevue. That just isn’t fair. What do landlords keep doing though? They continue to raise the price on rents. This isn’t all on the landlords though, employers are paying minimum wage to adults who need to earn a decent living.
Minimum wage on the Eastside isn’t paying the bills. It isn’t even minimum wage that is the root of the issue. With all the big businesses in the area, it is pushing financially well-off people out of the buying market and into the renter’s market. The really wealthy are able to get homes and apartments in Seattle, Bellevue and Kirkland while people are getting pushed further north or south.
Housing is a major issue and it is past time to address it.
So let’s fight against the system in place, let’s fund more affordable housing projects and let’s help the struggling people around us. When you see someone in the water desperately trying to stay afloat, it’s a human reaction to jump in and help. Let’s do the same with the homelessness issue.
Today, many people are acting like homelessness is a completely normal thing. Nothing about humans living on the streets is normal. I encourage you to look into this issue. I encourage you to challenge the people who turn the other cheek as soon as they hear about homelessness. I encourage you to vote the way you need to vote to help this problem. I encourage you to let your heart break that society has allowed homelessness to become normal.
Change is coming and it’s about time it does.
It’s coming slower than it should be but let us all try to look into the root causes of homelessness and jump in and help out the people struggling. Let us all try to stand the homeless population back on their feet and help them reach solid ground together. We can do this by volunteering, advocating, contributing and continuing to educate ourselves, our families and the people around us.
