Does Seattle Like Homeless People?

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports:

One year into the 10-year plan to end homelessness in King County, housing has been found for 1,300 people.

Now comes the hard part. The program's ambitious goals are running into opposition from neighborhoods that aren't willing to be a part of the plan's goal to decentralize Seattle's hard-core homeless population.

Advocates are finding that it's one thing to line up financing, draw up blueprints and hire contractors -- and quite another thing to find places for such housing in neighborhoods, even those where some residents are sympathetic to the program's goals but worried about its effects where they live.

United Way is one of the private, non-profit social service providers that has joined a broad coalition with government agencies to carry out the 10-year plan.

"We're talking about fundamentally changing the world we live in so that 10 years from now, the urban, suburban, rural landscapes are different, and we can say homelessness doesn't happen any more," said Vince Matulionis, director of the homeless initiative for United Way of King County.

The program, akin to the federal government's own 10-year plan, calls for dispersing the homeless from downtown Seattle and scattering new housing for them throughout the city and county.

Great moments in Blue America.