Proposed homeless hygiene facility sparks opposition in Ballard
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SEATTLE - A local organization wants to build a hygiene facility for the homeless in Ballard - but some who live in the neighborhood of the proposed site say it's not the right location.
The proposed site for the urban rest stop is in the 2000 block of 57th Street - across from a funeral home, near the library and between townhomes.
"We want a place where people can get their lives back together," says Sharon Lee, director of the Low-Income Housing Institute that's proposing the project.
The Urban Rest Stop would provide hygiene services to the homeless - laundry, bathrooms and showers.
"We take it for granted - everybody who has a home. We wake up, shower, brush our teeth," says Lee.
The need for services is growing. There's been a 5 percent increase in Seattle's homeless population compared to a year ago.
Lee says there are not enough public restrooms in Ballard, so many homeless come to the library and take sponge baths out of the sink. If an urban rest stop were available, the library could send people there to clean up, she says.
But some neighbors who live near the proposed site worry about the impact the hygiene center would have on the overall neighborhood and pedestrian traffic.
"We don't think it's an appropriate location for an URS," says one neighbor, Ethan Vaneck. "One of the things we pride ourselves on here in Ballard is the walkability of the community. Walkability doesn't mean large crowds of folks waiting to go into use the bathroom and the laundromat."
Some residents here would rather see the center in a commercial area. Currently, there are two urban rest stops in Seattle - downtown and the University District.
David Rosner, who uses the urban rest stops, says more of them are needed.
"The facilities ... really are helpful to everybody in society," he says.
The proposed site in Ballard is not yet permitted for an urban rest stop. The Low-Income Housing Institute will submit a formal application to the Department of Planning and Development in a few months.
The proposed site for the urban rest stop is in the 2000 block of 57th Street - across from a funeral home, near the library and between townhomes.
"We want a place where people can get their lives back together," says Sharon Lee, director of the Low-Income Housing Institute that's proposing the project.
The Urban Rest Stop would provide hygiene services to the homeless - laundry, bathrooms and showers.
"We take it for granted - everybody who has a home. We wake up, shower, brush our teeth," says Lee.
The need for services is growing. There's been a 5 percent increase in Seattle's homeless population compared to a year ago.
Lee says there are not enough public restrooms in Ballard, so many homeless come to the library and take sponge baths out of the sink. If an urban rest stop were available, the library could send people there to clean up, she says.
But some neighbors who live near the proposed site worry about the impact the hygiene center would have on the overall neighborhood and pedestrian traffic.
"We don't think it's an appropriate location for an URS," says one neighbor, Ethan Vaneck. "One of the things we pride ourselves on here in Ballard is the walkability of the community. Walkability doesn't mean large crowds of folks waiting to go into use the bathroom and the laundromat."
Some residents here would rather see the center in a commercial area. Currently, there are two urban rest stops in Seattle - downtown and the University District.
David Rosner, who uses the urban rest stops, says more of them are needed.
"The facilities ... really are helpful to everybody in society," he says.
The proposed site in Ballard is not yet permitted for an urban rest stop. The Low-Income Housing Institute will submit a formal application to the Department of Planning and Development in a few months.
Many comments are missing the point of the article and edited comments. The residents in this community arenât dehumanizing the homeless people, or denying that the service isnât needed, valuable or deserved. This report isnât about the homeless issue as a whole, itâs asking the question âis this the proper location for an Urban Rest Stopâ, and vaguely alerting viewers to the controversy and concerns of both positions.
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This is the second news report to miss the bigger issues in this case, and why many in the neighborhood are rightfully concerned. No one is denying that while the majority of people using the service wonât cause any problems, there is still an unavoidable negative element that would be drawn to the area and increase already unmanaged problems.
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There are 3 key issues with this proposed location:
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1) This Urban Rest Stop will share property with a low-income SENIOR housing project, with faulty planning, security and funding.
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2) That there is already a daily average of 4-7 people living in vans on this particular street that are actively dealing drugs, being violent and littering. This group and their visitors would be enabled to continue this behavior by having âstreet sideâ access to services, and more would surely move in. This street is favorable to the van living lifestyle, because there are no parking restrictions outside of the standard 72 hour requirements.
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3) There is already a consistent and growing issue with drugs and transients at the small community park a half-block away, There are people who live in this neighborhood that arenât comfortable walking at night because of the people in the park, the vans, or the groups of young homeless men who gather under the shelter of the church and mortuary for the night. Itâs been compared to walking down a downtown alley at night. More of this would come, along with the homeless population that cause no problems. Itâs unavoidable, and it doesnât belong on a primarily residential street.
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The local residents have much right to a good quality of life as the homeless population in need. This doesnât make the residents bad people, or people that donât care. They just care properly, and proactively.Â
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Where does the URS belong? Many who care about the safety and security of everyoneâs community are proposing the Urban Rest Stop be moved several blocks down to the commercial area near the existing food bank.
It sounds like a very good idea in a number of respects. i cannot imagine how it must feel to have no place to shower.  The library is for books, etc. . .not hygiene.  the Puget Sound area is overwhelming democratic and i think it is time that we accept our responsibilities as such and help those for whom we claim to advocate.Â
Kristen Drew, your claim that Seattle homeless population increased 5% is such a wild claim.  You are basing this off of a head count that was never intended to be used as you use it.
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The truth is simply that nobody knows if the Seattle homeless population has increased or decreased from the previous year. It may have increased by well over 5%. Maybe it decreased. But using the One Night Count as a basis for your statement is really poor journalism and frankly wouldn't pass the requirement for a high school research paper.  Â
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Before any of of the 'Not in my back yard" folks put down the homeless you might want to think of how easy it would be for you to end up in hard times. Job security went the way of the Dodo years ago and all it would take is another downward shift in the economy for you to find yourselves along with many others on the verge of losing everthing. Savings , 401ks might hold you for a little while but they would also be likely to be worth less if the economy crashed. Even if it did not your job might be outsourced or eliminated as most companies are still edgy about keeping employess long term with an unstable economy.
This part of Ballard is grim. That library reeks of BO and stale booze. Tough call
Send them to Kitsap County, they treat their Homeless better there.
Funny, the typical residents of this place are the kind that vote on higher taxes for freebie welfare programs that the rest of us pay form, but when it comes to actually putting those into place they turn into hypocritical NIMBYs.
Homeless people are in every neighborhood. If you are sleeping on your sister's couch or friend's futon... you're homeless, no matter what the zip code is.
 We need one in Bellingham too!  I help in a soup kitchen at night and the street people really need and appreciate clothing.  Instead of giving to the Goodwill all the time, consider dropping off items at churches/soup kitchens or any place who provides services for homeless folks.  Many young woman have children who live with relatives while homeless, and they cried when we provided wrapped toys on Christmas eve.  Opened toiletries are welcomed, if you have some you don't use any more. Â
Everyone thinks its a great idea. Nobody wants one in their neighborhood.
 @mstipton I live two blocks from here and think it's a great idea. Not everyone in Ballard is a hypocritical NIMBY. Those yuppie scum give Ballard a worse name than any of the homeless ever could.
Homeless people actually migrate to Seattle from all over the country because of our liberal accomodations and mild weather. A few years back, a State official told me there were 27 different agencies between Pioneer Square and the 2200 block along First Avenue dispensing some sort of aid for the homeless. A majority of the homeless are that way by choice, refusing to abide by shelter rules re: drinking and drugs etc. No...what we need are fewer agencies and a different set of laws about public drunkeness and vagrancy whereby these people are forcibly placed in some sort of detention facility or camp, dried out, cleaned up and given some real help and the means and tools to reintegrate into society.
The sterotype skid row drunk is what you believe all homeless are and only a small percentage fall into that catagory. Most are just down on their luck and surviving. Given a job and a place to live they would be doing well. That is what I am and what I was. I was homeless in 2004 after my unemployment ran out and the last of my savings were spent. I did not give up though and crawl into a bottle or lose myself in drugs. I moved into a homeless shelter called the Aloha Inn. At first I did day labor then I found a short term job then a better long term job. I am a machinist by trade and thankfully I have managed to keep a roof over my head since 2004. I never had a drug or drinking problem nor will I ever. I just had a period of hard times that ran longer than I had savings to keep me in house and home.
The hard times I experienced were because manufacturing between 2001 and 2004 was essentially dead with Boeing laying off tons of machinists and other workers. I had one employer tell me then he had over a hundred applcations for one job after only one days listing.
We are still slowly recovering from the housing and banking crash of 2008 with jobs still difficult to find and harder to keep. Most employers are relying more and more on temp agencies and dumping temp workers at the first sign of economic trouble. Many people lost their homes in the banking crash through no fault of their own . So please do not think that all homeless is that way by choice. It was not a choice for me and quite a few others I have met while I stayed in the Aloha Inn.
 @bagsofdirt there are many more invisible homeless than the people we stereotype as homeless with a sign on a corner. Many of you may know a homeless person and not realize it because they look "normal".
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Homeless can be within your family, coworker, fellow church parishioner, the baresta who served you that fantastic tasting mocha at the coffee house in Ballard.
Ballard must be full of snobs.
 @Sarah Foot Unfortunately, there are a ton of snobs that live here.
 @skottedont  @Sarah Foot Snobbish? Moi?
 @Sarah Foot I work near Seattle's Urban Rest Stop and I walk right by it everyday. The problem that places like these have is the large amount of drug and alcohol activity that occurs there, I have also been harassed and panhandled in the neighborhood that this rest stop is. I have a strong option about homelessness involving the mentality that you help those that want to be helped, and those people should be respectful of the environment around them. A great number of homeless people are that way by choice and prefer to panhandle, rather then earn a wage...its these people that I will not help because I feel that they ARE capable of taking care of themselves if they tried.Â
I always say put it in SODO around the industrial district.Â
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We can complain about them all we want, but they do need some sort of facility to clean up. How in the hell do you expect them to get a job when they cannot bathe?Â
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There are people in this position of their own choice, others are not. MANY people are a paycheck away from being homeless. The whole thing boils down to it is there whether we like it or not, it is real, and we need something.
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@Melissa Angevine I am not a paycheck away from being homeless... I am two paychecks..
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I do see the need, yet, I also see the resistance on where they are placed. They also need to be safe.
Since they will be using resources such as water and electricity, who pays for this?
 @Melissa Angevine One of the homeless people here in Port Angeles gave me a run down on what happened to him. He was a drop out of high school and went partying with his friends. He was pulled over and got a DUI. With the present computer software you can do a background check on anybody. If you are hiring or a landlord you would be stupid not to do this, so he can't get a job and the only apartment he can get is the sleaziest, he tried to get in the Army but they will not take him as he has showing tattoos and a record. He shares an apartment off and on with other people. He is learning how to work the system and is on food stamps now, still drinks too much and buys his cigs at Safeway ($9.00) a pack here with taxes.
 @whitewings2003  @Melissa Angevine a DUI does not prevent him from getting a job. No HS diploma does. Thankfully the military declined him he is not worthy of being a soldier. Stop making excuses for him. he isn't someone that got laid off and can't find work.Â
"There's been a 5 percent increase in Seattle's homeless population compared to a year ago."
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Translation into a factual statement: There was a 5% increase in the number of homeless counted one on particular night during the One Night Count from the previous year.Â
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lets make it the funeral home
 @futhi151 That is beyond the pale.
As a Ballard resident who lives VERY near to this, I don't have a problem with it. There are already a ton of resident, permanent homeless folks here; this isn't going to change anything. The fact that this might make life easier for a couple of the more choice, yelling-at-passers-by-and-trying-to-get-into-fights residents is a really piss-poor reason to deny basic human services to the majority who are either decent, permanent homeless, or the temporarily homeless trying to get back on their feet. Plus, it stands some chance of at least shifting some of the loitering away from other public spaces (the library, the Commons), while providing necessary services, so it sounds good to me.
 @Jolly I live on 20th and 58th and I totally agree with you. I'm so glad to finally hear someone in the neighborhood supporting this. It seems that all I ever see in these forums is snob, yuppie NIMBYs talking trash about the homeless population.
 @Jolly Well said.
Why not put this thing on the east side, say Redmond or Bellevue or Sammamish?
 @NickM1979 OOOO! Bellevue gets my vote! Those snobs NEED their noses rubbed in it!  :-D
 @NickM1979 great idea. Every neighborhood needs one of these type community service locations.
 @NickM1979 I will make sure to hold my breath on that. lol
 @NickM1979 We need them on the eastside as well.
LOL, and the people apposed to it are most likely supporters of the "great occupy" movement. Now that someone wants to help out these people who they claim have been victims of the "rich", they all scream "NOT NEAR MY HOUSE!!!"
OH! God FORBID that the Great Unwashed should become... WASHED! </sarcasm>
"Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?"
"Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me."
--Matthew 25
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Maybe that homeless organization can also get a really good deal on self-cleaning toilets. Â Just call the Seattle and see if there are still some of those around after that multimillion dollar boondoggle. Â
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Those toilets attracted drug dealers and trash deposits. Â That "hygiene facility" would quickly become the equivalent of a hostel with all the trappings of an Occupy Wall Street encampment. Â Â Â
 @Opus8no5 Or, if properly structured, would be functional. Those bathrooms were a joke.
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 @Opus8no5 Hmmm... in the UK they attract... CARPENTERS.
So how does this "impact" the neighborhood any differently than the library-as-homeless-shelter? How did Ballard families live with the fact that the only thing open past 8 pm were taverns for decades before their precious condos and "nightlife" appeared on the scene?Â
A 60-year-old homeless woman was recently found in Ballard dead of hypothermia. I doubt if she turned down jobs and instead chose to be homeless. People who are homeless are not "the homeless", they are human beings who have become homeless for all sorts of reasons.   Because they are human beings, they need to use the toilet, and they want to wash themselves and their clothes.  Denying them that opportunity will not make them magically disappear from Ballard. Acceptance of this hygiene center will make it more likely that those who try to find jobs will be accepted and be able to move up out of homelessness.  That seems like a good outcome to me.   Â
 @sarah70 The woman was found dead in S. Seattle. There was a man with a major alcohol problem found dead on 1/20.Â
@sarah70 I don't disagree there are plenty of homeless that have become so through hardships out of their control. These people and families usually find their way to one of the numerous shelters available in the Seattle Metro area. On the other hand the majority of folks that tend to stay homeless and live on the street choose to do so. They refuse to spend any length of time in shelters because they tend to be somewhat anti-social and have other issues with mental health, or some form of addiction. They avoid the structure of today's world and refuse to abide by the rules of shelters. We need to help these people but the Federal and State governments need to make it easier to require these people to get some sort of mental health assessment and treatment. All too often we try to help provide for them but not in a way that helps them with the root cause of their homelessness. I've lived and worked all over the world and as n example countries such as Singapore have virtually no homeless because the government doesn't allow public vagrancy and has very limited social welfare with the exception of medical and mental health support. Families take responsibility for helping each other and when families can't it's usually a mental health issue. I don't see why we don't move in that direction. In these cases I'm referring not to those who lost their jobs or had some unexpected hardship, but those that have refused employment and all of the assistance our government provides to help an individual get back on their feet.Â
 @sarah70 I love you, and your compassion. You are right on.
its a great start to humanity,,,, to infinity and beyond! we can do it!
A place to get ones life together is in a climate more conducive to being relaxed such a Arizona or Hawaii. Â Sleepless in Seattle is no fun. Grab the first bus and be gone.Â
 @george:Â
What bus runs to Hawaii? I would think THAT would be ALL over the news!
 @George that will run you $160.  don't think homeless have that...
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https://www.greyhound.com/farefinder/step2.aspx?
great another, that's a great idea, just NOT in my neighborhood story
I'm baffled about where this idea that Ballard is some progressive neighborhood comes from. Â In the last twenty years they've been fighting the bike trail, the monorail, dense housing, homeless shelters, tent cities, and any business or bar that doesn't cater to blue collar workers.
 @Travis Hartnett This must of been before they closed the majority of blue collar bars and replaced them with espresso houses and designer beer pubs. I was born in Ballard in '57 and I witnessed the mass extinction of Ballard Ave in the late 1990's. Ever since they " Visualized Ballard" I haven't been back.. I'm choosey about my neighbors.
 @joefuss:Â
And the bowling alley...sigh. It wsa one of the last in the greater Seattle area.