As a north Everett resident, I see the plight of the homeless daily. Like others, I have been victimized by petty crime, and witnessed addicts shooting up in odd corners of my neighborhood.
Despite this, I want to help these people, not arrest them. I want to see their addictions and mental health issues addressed, and help them get the support they need to lead healthy and productive lives. And I am willing to pay more in taxes for a concerted effort to accomplish this.
However, I cannot support the County Council’s newly proposed “homeless tax,” which largely proposes hiring more cops, lawyers and prosecutors. This solution falls far short of the real — and cheaper — solutions, which are to provide housing, health care, treatment,and jobs. Instead, it actually seems to exploit the human misery on our streets to bolster a county bureaucracy that already receives an 75 percent share of our county tax dollars. These same agencies have shown themselves to be both slow and largely ineffective in addressing the issues around homelessness, which has been growing in our communities for years. Instead of providing sustained services for those who need it — the cheaper alternative — this proposal would create an additional revenue stream for county agencies that already receive the lion’s share of our tax dollars, and only deal indirectly with this problem, with no real accountability for solving it.
As an alternative, I suggest a tax to restore our county Health District, and realign it with state, federal, and nongovernmental organization dollars to bolster local social services, to provide for the needs of homeless and poor directly. That I can gladly support.
It is not the role of cops, prosecutors and lawyers to provide housing, treatment and jobs, and it is unreasonable to expect that they will, especially given the largely ineffective responses of the past. As a voter, I cannot support this approach, and it is with great sadness and frustration that I will be voting no on this proposed tax measure.
Ann Morgan
Everett
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
