Yesterday was an anniversary of the Kingdome implosion which they continued to pay for for several years after the implosion and apparently the money went to the arts.
What gets me is when Atlanta wanted the 1996 Olympics, they bussed all the Homless and low income out to the burbs or out of state and made those houses part of the Olympic Village. When the Olympics were gone, those people weren't able to come back because the rates for their houses were now well out of their range. This is why you saw no homeless or low income people during the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics.
Did you also know that all the 4 yes colleges in the state got upgraded to university status for the Olympic hullabaloo? Don't believe me? I was accepted to West George College and Kennesaw State in 1994. I went to WGC with my sister whom eventually graduated from that school and her diploma says State University at West Georgia. Kennesaw State is now Kennesaw State University.
Just after I moved into downtown Seattle I knew all too well about the homeless population and situation. We had peeps sleeping in doorways, in tents under bridges, on benches, in the raised tree/ flower beds, etc.
There were shelters. The time period I'm speaking about is the late 90's early 2000's. The shelters were there but not available during the days so peeps would use the library, etc. since you would get an hour and a half free internet access and they knew the trick to get around that time limit. So they could stay all day until closing as long as they didn't fall asleep. They were able to stay warm, cool, and dry when needed.
Then Seattle did an ordinance where you could no longer sit/lay on the sidewalks or raised landscaped areas. To drive the point home so to speak, they attached metal spikes to the edges of the raised landscaped things to deter people from sitting/laying on them.
Then came the infamous 6.8 earthquake in Feb. 2001 which shut down at least 2 of the shelters due to being unsafe. It took,them over a decade to do something to help the homeless help themselves with living arrangements.
I personally worked with a company for several years in downtown Seattle that was partnered with many agencies in the city to help the homes, low income, and those fresh out of jail to get back on their feet. But, when the housing isn't there, we couldn't help them.
Being homeless is not completely the individuals fault/choice/decision. Try talking to some and find out their situation and thepossible opportunities/amenities open/available to them in the situation.
Judge least you have been in their situation or have been there to help!
