Real Change News | Eating her words?

January 25, 2012
Vol: 19 No: 4

News

Eating her words?

by: Aaron Burkhalter , Staff Reporter

Human Services Director Dannette Smith's emotional baggage almost bagged Operation: Sack Lunch

Photo by: Aaron Burkhalter , Staff Reporter

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Steam rose from the scrambled eggs and potatoes as the temperature fell below 30 degrees, and snowflakes floated to the ground. About 25 people — mostly men — lined up under Interstate 5 on Jan. 19, waiting for a free breakfast.

Nearby, mounted on a freeway support, a large sign bore the City of Seattle seal and the words “Seattle cares.”

Dannette Smith, embattled director of Seattle’s Human Services Department, says she cares, too.

Now she’s trying to prove it.

Earlier this month, the City of Seattle told Operation: Sack Lunch it could no longer serve meals under the freeway. Smith had called the outdoor feeding program, which is served in the shadow of her high-rise office building, “undignified” and “inhumane.”

Similar words were soon used to describe Smith, as media commentators cast her as uncaring and insensitive.

Ken Schram, of KOMO News, issued perhaps the most striking blow, bestowing on Smith a “Schrammie,” his satirical award mocking people who’ve messed up big time.

Baby, it’s cold outside, and these days Smith is feeling the chill.

“What people don’t know about me is that I’m a compassionate woman, that I believe in the work that I do, and I love the work that I do,” she told Real Change in a candid Jan. 19 interview in her office on the 58th floor of the Seattle Municipal Tower.

While others struggled through inches of snow at street-level, Smith was knee-deep in damage control. She said she never meant to insult the volunteers who work every day under the freeway feeding the dozens of people who come there.

Smith already reversed her decision to end the program and pledged to work with the meal program’s employees and volunteers to find a new, better location, however long it takes.

She chalked up the whole affair to a simple misunderstanding. Smith, who started her job in Seattle in June 2010, remembers receiving services when she was younger. She said those experiences account for her reaction.

“When these comments were shared, they were really coming from my own personal story,” Smith said.

But when pressed by Real Change for details about her own personal story, Smith demurred.

The former head of Atlanta’s Fulton County Department of Family and Children Services sounded contrite, but she stopped short of actually saying she’d made a mistake.

Such incidents, she said, simply come with the territory: “I’m not new to controversy, because of the work I do.”

Not for tourists

Operation: Sack Lunch Executive Director Beverly Graham said her program is used to getting moved around. The group has been booted from parks and even churches when neighbors complained. She’s had to fight for the outdoor meal program with every mayoral administration, she said.

“We don’t do this work with rose-colored glasses,” said Graham, who has been at it for two decades. “I think it’s not popular to feed people who are unhoused or food insecure … we’re not tourist friendly. We get it.”

The program manages $650,000 worth of food to provide more than 150,000 meals in a year. The City of Seattle contributes $132,000, which pays for the location, portable toilets, storage and security.

Shouldering the load

As the white van from Operation: Sack Lunch hauled in the morning’s meal, people hauled backpacks and garbage bags with their own personal belongings. Most did not appear burdened by the emotional baggage Smith seems to have shouldered since childhood.

Standing in line Brian Miller, 45, said he’s not ashamed to get a free breakfast outdoors.

But he does get the feeling the city officials are trying to push homeless people out of downtown to somewhere less visible. He pointed to increased mass transit and the removal of the Alaskan Way Viaduct as the beginning of a new, cleaner downtown.

“And we’re not part of it,” he said.

A 40-year-old man waiting for his first free breakfast said despite losing his apartment recently, he’s still enrolled in classes at Seattle Central Community College. He’s studying social work and noted that Smith broke a cardinal rule in the world of human services — don’t decide what other people want or how they feel.

“You’re not supposed to go by your views, your feelings, your beliefs,” he said. “Sometimes you have to put that aside.”

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