A New Seattle "Hooverville"?

[Speck Tater]

This Wednesday, a group of four men plan to pile into a car in Pioneer Square and head off on a unique Seattle real-estate tour.

They will be shopping for some of the largest undeveloped lots left in the city. Their wish list: flat, vacant, hopefully remote.They aren't looking to buy. They're looking to squat.

They are the "site-search committee" for Nickelsville, a planned Hooverville-style shantytown of wood shacks the homeless hope to build here later this summer.

Says James Lucas, 38, one of the leaders: "Everybody knows there is a screaming need for low-cost housing, not just more fancy condos. So we're going to do something about it."

more at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2004478032_danny15.html

[maxsolomon]

1. Hoovervilles get rousted.

good luck with your property search - the property you seek likely doesn't exist.

[Warpy]

2. Right, the city threatens the property owner with liability issues

and the property owner is forced to call the cops. Anyone living in a Bushville needs to realize s/he had better stay packed and ready to leave on a moment's notice, which means no tents, just tarps and scrap wood. Compassion means the cops allow everybody an hour to pick up what they can. Frustration means they just raid the place, clubs swinging.

As the economic disaster continues to play out, expect to see a lot of this.

[99th_Monkey]

5. They need to camp on PUBLIC property, not private land.

Homeless people: "hello America. we're part of the PUBLIC who happens to be homeless; and
this is PUBLIC land, so we'll be calling this 'home' until we can get into affordable housing."

[maxsolomon]

8. that's just it

there IS no flat public land left in seattle.

as to public land, public parks are full of the homeless all day, and the hilly blackberry copses are already occupied by the homeless at night.

seattle is full to the seams with the homeless. it's time for other cities, towns, and nations to step up & take their sons & daughters back. or help us pay for services & housing.

[99th_Monkey]

9. sounds like you're buying into the "my town's become a homeless haven" line of thinking.

which is too bad, because that's part of the problem: localities blaming "foreigners" in order to continue
to shirk their responsibility as a communnity to address the problem squarely.

EVERY urban center, including Portland where I live, feels they have "more than their fair share" of homeless,
yet studies here have shown that most have regarded Portland as their home on and off for most of their lives.

It's even worse in cities with milder climates, where there probably IS an inordinate number of homeless people
in migrating to survive the winters without freezing to death.

[maxsolomon]

11. yes, my town IS a homeless MAGNET

i wouldn't say HAVEN, but I have seen anecdotal evidence to suggest that Seattle attracts indigents through a combination of services & climate. there's also the western "circuit" for homeless youth: Seattle-SF-LA-New Orleans-Denver. the homeless population fluctuates seasonally, though the year-round population has been increasing steadily.

cities attract transients from small cities, towns, and indian reservations. go down to victor steinbreuck park & meet the Sioux who've come out on trains from the Dakotas.

my point is that when a tourist from East Jesus tut-tuts our "homeless problem", they're not realizing that this is a NATIONAL problem - the homeless aren't ALL Seattle or Washington natives. federal funding for SRO construction, or even flophouses, is ridiculously overdue.

on edit: and federal funding for services & housing IN SMALL TOWN AMERICA, too.

[99th_Monkey]

13. I couldn't agree more that this is a NATIONAL problem.

which only reinforces my point that it matters little where people came from, because we're
all in this together.

I don't honestly feel it should be a big deal, and when I hear that argument it sounds to me
like provincial xenophobia at work, but then I try not to assume the worse either and invite
finding agreement where we can. Speaking of which ...

I also agree that adequate funding for appropriate affordable housing is WAYYY overdue.

[99th_Monkey]

3. Right on!! I was instrumental in getting Dignity Village started up in Portland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dignity_Village

http://www.dignityvillage.org/

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=184394884

They are now permanently located, stable, and incorporated as their own self-governed
501c3 non-profit corporation... building a green sustainable urban village board by
board, nail by nail. They're already wind-powered.

Good luck on the land search. When I read your post it brought back many memories of
my DV experience. Thanks for posting it.

[Warpy]

6. Good for you!

While safe, affordable housing with amenities like indoor plumbing is the object, homemade villages on public land should be a stop gap, infinitely preferable to shelters.

Anyone who has ever spent a night in a shelter knows exactly what I'm talking about.

[Speck Tater]

4. Anybody remember "Sactuary Districts" from Star Trek DS9 season 3?

From the episode summary: En route to a symposium in San Francisco, Sisko, Dax and Bashir are lost during transport to Earth from the Defiant. The trio materializes in San Francisco, but in the year 2024. Apprehended by a pair of policemen, Sisko and Bashir are taken to a "Sanctuary District" — a gated area of the city where homeless, mentally ill and unemployed people are locked away from the rest of society.

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/DS9/episode/68196.html

Unemployment was not a problem, because the unemployed were simply locked up in huge ghettos. Out of sight, out of mind. It was a good (two part) episode covering the issues of unemployment and homelessness.

[CanonRay]

7. Let's call them by their correct name: Bushvilles

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

10. The big question is what happens after collapse?

How will the cops treat Nickelvilles when there are THOUSANDS of homeless in every city trying to build them. Will it be another 1932 Bonus Army debacle?

[Terry in Austin]

12. Time to settle the golf courses n/t