Reducing the number of homeless people will take support, $1 billion

It may take more than 10 years and $1 billion to make a significant dent in Seattle’s homeless population.

The man who has spent 31 years leading Seattle’s Downtown Emergency Services Center said the city has about 9,000 homeless people in the area.

“I think it’s very possible for Seattle/King County to dramatically reduce the number of homeless people on streets, but it’s going to take a much larger infusion of public resources,” Bill Hobson told KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross. It could take as much as $1 billion and a decade to make it happen, he added.

“Is the city still trying things to help homeless people that don’t work?” Ross asked.

The city does a good job of disregarding programs that don’t work well, Hobson said. The biggest investment the city has made that doesn’t work is transitional housing, he said. Because of the “super-heated” housing market, there is no housing for someone to transition to, Hobson told Ross. People still operating transitional housing are trying to figure out ways to convert that housing into permanent housing.

With all the money being pumped into programs to support the homeless population, has the city become a magnet?

Every metropolitan district is a magnet, but not just for homeless people, Hobson said.

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“Next time you’re standing in front of a room of 50 people, ask how many are born and raised in Seattle,” he told Ross. It would probably be about 15 percent, he added.

Whether or not Seattle really wants to invest in the homeless population has yet to be seen. Taxpayers are willing to build new stadiums and other large projects, Hobson said.

“We take on public works projects of equal or greater magnitude all the time,” he said. “As a community, if we really want to dramatically reduce the number of homeless, it’s going to cost us.”