Story by Martin Barrett
Video by Jonathon Choe
In this video, you will hear and see the thoughts and experiences of someone in the trenches. Kristine Moreland provides a relational approach to Burien’s homeless epidemic that reaches beyond the bureaucracy.
Here are some key takeaways:
- This is a drug epidemic, not a housing crisis.
- You have to get people detoxed, clean, and in a safe place at the same time.
- Housing someone behind a closed door, as DESC does in their “Housing First” model, where they can just shoot up in private, is not going to help; it is not effective housing.
- Camps are a “predator heaven” for drug dealers and traffickers.
- Burien is a free-for-all and a magnet for the homeless around the region; they are not “local” Burien residents.
The results speak for themselves. Burien News is asking LEAD, Reach, and other government-funded organizations to share their results so we can compare outcomes. This matter is too important to play games or use for political positioning and vote-getting. We need to put funds where they can be effectively utilized. Lives are at stake!
Agree with all 5 points. Housing First is not effective. Detox, drug rehab first.
I have worked inside desc, (asked to never go back) drugs everywhere, spray painted graffiti in rooms, doors made out of plywood due to thefts, people sleeping in tents inside the room. Base board heaters stolen off the wall…. I along with the employees would not even enter one of the rooms, when they opened the door to show me why cockroaches came out the door Crack. Poorly ran and managed.
D, may we have a conversation about your experience? Martin Barrett
So thankful for their help. May God bless them.
It’s awesome that you understand the problem. Having worked around homelessness for 30 years volunteering in different soup kitchens you understand that it’s a drug and alcohol problem. Providing a room
Just brings the problem inside affecting everyone else. I fully support you and your efforts
I’ve tried to get mobile medication-assisted treatment. I’ve tried to get NAVOS to do outreach. The state won’t fund high enough doses of buprophenine, the most effective against meth AND fentanyl. My contingency management efforts are ignored though they are most effective. So please, push for those efforts specifically. You used them on the holdout camper at the ‘dog park,’ and will definitely have to use them in moving these two camps.