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Erin Walker
Jeffery Jones
English 101 – Argumentative Essay
October 16, 2019
Word Count: 1,136
Homeless in Seattle
Seattle Washington is one of the top twenty largest cities in the United States. Seattle’s
population has an approximate of 766,983 people living in this beautiful Emerald City. This
wonderful city is surrounded by lush forests and is situated between the Puget Sound and Lake
Washington. Seattle is an incredibly popular tourist attraction. Home of the first Starbucks, the
Amazon Spheres and the famous gum wall. What was once a beautiful place to live, and visit is
now a crime ridden and drug infested city. These issues are due to the homelessness epidemic
that has taken over and spread throughout the City of Seattle.
Over the years as Seattle has been growing economically, the homeless issue has also
been on the rise. In May of 2005 many groups within the King County region, such as nonprofit
groups, faith groups and local government put into action something called the Ten-Year Plan.
This plan is a blueprint for how the County should approach the matter at hand, homelessness,
and how to prevent this issue from spreading within the City of Seattle.
The Ten-Year Plan ended in May of 2015. Since then, The United Way of King County
writes, “Despite our community’s commitment to the vision of a future without homelessness the
problem has gotten worse… We’ve also struggled to change our approaches and realign funding
to support our vision.” Over those ten years that this plan was put into action over thirteen billion
dollars was spent. Although, many will say that funds are what will fix this epidemic. Money is
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not the issue, homelessness is, Seattle’s city council believes that the more money spent on this
issue the better it will address the problem. This perpetuates not only the homeless, but the
organizations that are helping the homeless. There is no money in curing the homeless, but these
organizations are getting funded by the city to go out and help. Therefore, they are being
rewarded for doing nothing. So, what would motivate them to get out of their current situation?
From the magazine, Seattle Under the Siege, Christopher F. Rufo, who is an editor for
City Journal and a researcher at the Discovery Institute’s Center of Wealth, Poverty, and
Morality. He identifies that, “The real battle isn’t being waged in the tents, under the bridges, or
