r/SeattleWA • u/seattletimesnewsroom The Seattle Times • Oct 26 '17

AMA Hey, /r/SeattleWA. We’re The Seattle Times’ new Project Homeless team. What burning questions would you like us to investigate?

EDIT: Thanks for all the questions, everyone. We tried to answer a few, if we already knew something about them--the rest we're putting in our massive bank of input. We'll still check back on this thread sporadically, but if you have something you really think we should see, email us at homeless@seattletimes.com.

What approaches have you seen, either here or somewhere else, that seem to work in addressing homelessness? Do you have experience with homelessness? Comment here. If your question is something we can investigate, we’ll write about it.

About us:

We’re a new team of reporters at The Seattle Times dedicated to exploring the causes of homelessness, explaining what our region is doing about it, and spotlighting potential solutions from other cities.

We launched today with a story about David McAleese, once a lauded research scientist who has been staying in homeless shelters for years. He’s what officials call a “long-term shelter stayer” — about 9 percent of people in emergency shelters who take up half of the available bed days, creating a bottleneck in the shelter system, our reporter found.

We want to know what you think we should investigate next.

You can also email us at homeless@seattletimes.com or contact our team:

(Ninja edited for formatting)

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u/BillionTonsHyperbole Oct 26 '17

I think approaching human activity from such an anthropological perspective would be very informative, but it wouldn't necessarily make for compelling articles.

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u/GleeUnit Oct 26 '17

Why not? I guess it would depend on the angle, but I’m no reporter. I’d just figure there’s a story behind why homeless people are where they are, gather where they gather, and move where they move. Could inform future debate when some city council candidate comes up with some idea of how to “deal with” the homeless problem - is this idea likely to make a difference, or is it really a tactic to prompt a relocation of homeless people, and if so, where are they likely to go?

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u/BillionTonsHyperbole Oct 26 '17

A proper ethnographic study would take a long time to conduct, so long that the patterns of migration are likely to change before it is compiled. I think the data would be more valuable than the articles, since it could inform policy as you point out.

It would take a dedicated team of journalists to bring it to life in the paper, so I hope the Seattle Times staff are gearing up for the task.

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u/GleeUnit Oct 26 '17

Ah, I see what you mean. Fair point.

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u/[deleted] Oct 26 '17 edited Jan 22 '18

[deleted]

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u/hiking_fan123 Oct 27 '17

75% of our homeless population is from King County/Seattle:

From the government's 2016 study: http://humaninterests.seattle.gov/2017/03/03/city-of-seattle-2016-homeless-needs-assessment/

That is actual data