The deadly realities of our current approach

Permanent supportive housing - this is our solution for those most in need. Yet it feels like this is Orwellian. It’s only permanent until our most vulnerable die. Nearly every unit that opens up on PSH is due to the death of a former resident.

Those with substance abuse issues are forced to live in unit that nearly all have active drug dealers living wihtin. And to make it more appalling, rtaes of deadly overdose in PSH are nearly 2X those same rates for peole living on the street.

If that sounds appalling to you, good. it should, and it should make us deeply rethink what we’re doing on these isuses.

The economics

Due to vagaries in how we classify services, these numbers can get a little murky, but any fair estimate puts the amount we spend on housing at somewhere around 20-30 to 1 for housing vs treatment and recovery.

Between primarly Seattle and King County, our region has spent over $1billion in building and acquiring new housing, $500m on other services, and yet a paltry $30m over the past 5 years on tratement and recovery.

This doesn’t inlcude the simple gfact that across ther geion, only ~3 locations available for housing the formerly homelss are sober, reocvery oriented.

How’d we get here?

There are two main reason we approach our situation this way.

The first doesnt get talked about. Like most good livberals in the 2010s, our region pushed backon the war on drugs. We rightly realized that different punishments for the same drugs (crack vs powder cocaine in the 80s and 90s) was a major problem tied to racist roots.

We all rightly beleived incarceration for personal use of casual drugs like marijuana were terrible policy. Tons of people are caususal users, and in most cases, they live normal productive lives.

But let’s be clear. The drugs have changed. Think about how many “casual yet productive” fentaly users you know. They don’t rea;lly exist. These drugs change your brain, they reduce to zero your contrrol and agency over long-term decisions.