Tentative

I was in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood yesterday, doing a little Saturday shopping. Between the parking lot and the store is a stretch of sidewalk that's become a persistent homeless encampment.

There's been at least one tent here for at least the past few years. The encampment ebbs and flows, almost is if it respires in the local atmosphere. Sometimes, it nearly disappears; other times it stretches into the next block.

Normally, the residents, if that's the correct term for them, are careful to avoid blocking off the sidewalk with their possessions. What actually piqued my interest this time out was that it was the first time that I'd ever encountered the path not being clear for people to walk through.

Conservative Americans like to point to scenes like this as some sort of proof of the mismanagement of liberal cities by Progressive Democrats in public office, but scenes like this are older than the current iteration of the culture wars. When I first arrived in the area, some 25 years ago, I was impressed at the number of homeless people to be found here. At the time, I had a ready explanation, unlike Chicago, the weather here doesn't present as being intent on punishing those who are forced (or choose) to live out of doors. Last year's nasty Heat Dome notwithstanding, the Seattle area has relatively clement weather. Even the rain that so many people love to complain about isn't as bad as it's made out to be; the thundering storms that would dump buckets of water (and likely wreck a shabby tent) back in the Midwest are vanishingly rare here.

Still, it's clear that homelessness has become cloaked in a Somebody Else's Problem field, and a durable one at that. To the degree that a fix would of necessity mean lowering housing values in the city and suburbs, solutions are politically unpalatable. Which is why even people like Seattle city councilwoman Kshama Sawant, who made a name for herself through constantly drawing attention to the homeless and their conditions, targets her fire at the technology companies, rather than the current owners of housing stock. Using a property as a regular VRBO rental gets her attention; seeking to keep the value of one's home high by lobbying against nearby apartments does not.

In any event, I have full confidence that the next time I pass through the area, there will still be tents there. It's only a question of how many, and what's piled up around them.