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Since the announcement of a homelessness crisis three years ago, the leaders of King County and the City of Seattle have proposed a number of ideas, ranging from more villages to little ones at home to "mega tents".
However, when it came to the original thinking, there were few solutions to what a relatively unfamiliar candidate for the Port of Seattle commissioner suggested last year.
Ray Armistead wanted to buy a cruise ship to house the homeless of the city.
As SeattleMag wrote in July 2017, the retired captain's captain was aiming for a 40,000-ton ship. People in need of accommodation would live in crew quarters, while passenger rooms would be rented at less than $ 1,000 a month. Some rooms would be used as a kind of hotel. He estimated that it would cost $ 20 million to commission an old cruise ship.
RELATED: No magic answer three years after declaring the emergency of homelessness
The idea of Armistead has never materialized. He received 1.5% of the primary vote for the position of Commissioner No. 4.
But he was not the first to launch the idea. And he was not the last.
Ken Capron, the founder of MemoryWorks in Portland, Maine, believes this could work. Earlier this year, he was asking for a $ 250,000 grant through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the idea. A spokesperson for the Foundation was not allowed to say anything other than that, if it was formally presented, it is probably under review.
Capron points to other places in the world that have studied similar concepts to host refugees and other people in need. After the 6.9 earthquake in the Bay Area in the 1980s, the USS Peleliu hosted 300 casualties while providing additional support. Years later, after the decommissioning of Peleliu, a former mayor of San Francisco suggested turning the assault ship into a shelter capable of housing the homeless population of the city.
It may seem far-fetched, but it's an alternative to solutions that have been badly received by other residents who do not want shelters near their homes, says Capron.
"It could help avoid NIMBY [not in my backyard] stigma … "he said.
It would cost millions to buy a cruise ship. However, Capron says it could cost up to five times cheaper than building a new onshore facility.
His land is not far from that of Armistead. There would be shelters, extra low-income housing, premises for social services at sight, and even rooms that would be rented to help make things work. The idea, he says, is that people would disembark from the ship weeks or months later with vocational training and, ideally, their own place of residence.
There are, however, obvious concerns. In addition to the essential elements, such as heat and drinking water, there is the problem of the rapid spread of the disease by such a vessel. In addition, a city will have to overcome many obstacles to make the idea of Capron a reality.
But he says maybe this is not the time to be discerning to house the homeless.
There are approximately 6,500 homeless people in the state of Maine. King County alone has more than 12,000 homeless people before. The homeless population of the state of Washington has grown to about 22,000 people.
"People do not seem to realize that we are in a desperate state," he said. "And desperate situations call for desperate solutions."
Of course, there is no guarantee that it would work. Capron says that he just wants to deepen this idea.
As Capron continues on this path, the city of Seattle is ready to spend $ 89.5 million next year to fight homelessness. That's an increase of about $ 3 million compared to what it will spend this year.
King County was told that he had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to properly solve the homelessness problem. Meanwhile, leaders offer their own creative solutions, including using part of King County Penitentiary as an emergency shelter.
Many people agree that more affordable housing and permanent support housing is the answer. But with minimal increases in the amount of funding that local jurisdictions must spend, it seems that the homelessness problem is not resolved in the short term.
© 2018 ROI
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