Homeless in Seattle

I’m sure, dear Reader, that you will remember the film ‘Sleepless in Seattle’, the romantic comedy from the 90s, starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. I so loved that film and promised myself that one day, I would visit the city. Last year I decided to ‘just do it’ and a friend and I spent a brilliant week there, exploring as many neighbourhoods as we could manage, plus riding the Puget Sound ferry to visit Bainbridge Island. As well as the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, the Starbucks Roastery, the Wing Luke Museum and masses more cool shops, cafes, bars and galleries to discover, the ‘homeless people of Seattle’ presented in guidebooks as a feature of the city, almost like another visitor attraction. And we did see homeless people though not where the guides suggested, around historic Pioneer Square. Instead we glimpsed shadowy people just slipping away from sight, rambling down the alleys and passageways around the crumbling buildings of Downtown and beside the Waterfront. As the fastest growing city in the US, Seattle can’t re-develop its old waterside businesses and warehouses fast enough. Abandoned buildings and doss houses are becoming more and more scarce for even ramshackle shelter as slick new apartment blocks zip up to the sky to accommodate the growing population of wealthy young newbies. 

No surprise then that last week, I was immediately drawn to a press article about Seattle resident and mega-employer, billionaire Jeff Bezos.  Amazon gave $5m to homeless charities in Seattle last year.  But don’t be fooled by that philanthropy. In 2018, the city council voted to introduce a $275 per employee tax on large employers to fund homelessness programmes. Amazon launched a fierce attack and the scheme was soon scrapped. It would have raised over $40m annually so Bezos got off lightly. Not so the homeless in Seattle.