If not for "Nickelsville" would the issue of homelessness be in the news?

I don't think so.

So for all the people who keep asking me how I've continued to support homeless tent cities over all these past years, there's my answer.

For more than two months, the illegal shenanigans of "Nickelsville" have helped keep homelessness in the news and on our minds.

When a tent city in Redmond packs up for a move to Woodinville, the ensuing controversy spotlights the desperate lives of people trying to struggle back to normalcy.

There are just over 1,700 shelter beds in King County.

Conservative estimates put the number of homeless at over 3,000.

You do the math.

Yes, there are people who embrace being homeless as a lifestyle.

But the far greater number are made up of folks who've been caught up in the turmoil of life.

Maybe they're military veterans battling post traumatic stress, or people whose depression or mental illness left them fallen through the cracks.

Many are working poor or recently unemployed.

You bet I support tent cities like "Nickelsville."

Not because they're an answer to the problem, but because they won't allow the issue of homelessness to be tucked out of sight and out of mind.

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