Ashley Archibald | Real Change

Real Change

One Table group recommends more housing

by Ashley Archibald | August 15th, 2018

Months-long effort finds ending homelessness will require shelter and money

Dozens of people gathered in City Hall’s Bertha Knight Landes room on a Friday afternoon for the last meeting of the One Table coalition, the vaunted regional push to align to end homelessness and the message was clear — thinkers, practitioners and planners from Seattle to Auburn believe that the solution to homelessness is more money and more housing.

And with that, over a fruit spread and coffee, the One Table effort ended, having created a list of recommended actions as a final product.
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Real Change

Showing up for the Showbox

by Ashley Archibald | August 15th, 2018

An unusual coalition of characters have declared tentative success following the City Council’s vote to temporarily expand a historical district to include The Showbox Theater. Organizers began mobilizing in an attempt to thwart the theater’s demolition and replacement with a luxury apartment complex as soon as the proposal was announced in July.

The vote means that the music venue will be added to the district for 10 months while the city weighs “the permanent expansion of the Historical District.”
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Dave Meinert accused of sexual misconduct

by Ashley Archibald | August 15th, 2018

The number of accusations against an influential restaurateur have increased to 11.

In a series of reports, KUOW online editor Sydney Brownstone detailed the accounts of women who have accused Dave Meinert, including many who used their full names. The allegations include accounts of kissing without permission, unwanted advances and rape.
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Blue wave

by Ashley Archibald | August 15th, 2018

Democratic candidates dominated in Washington’s Aug. 7 primaries in both state and federal races.

If they can repeat the performance in November, the party could increase its majority in the state Legislature. Additionally, Republican congressional incumbents Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Jaime Herrera Beutler both face difficult challenges.
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Real Change

You asked: Does Seattle's exclusionary zoning really contribute to homelessness?

by Ashley Archibald | August 15th, 2018

The answer is complicated

Last week, Real Change answered the first of two questions put to us by our readers about whether or not people nearing retirement age become homeless and if long-term care, such as nursing homes, are available to them (quick answer: Yes and not often enough).

This week, you asked us to look into one of Seattle’s favorite topics to sue over: Zoning.
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A Tiger Tied Up in Knots

by Ashley Archibald | August 8th, 2018

Remembering Michael Wiggins, September 1963 - July 2018

The day that Kristina Giscombe, a case manager with the Plymouth Housing Group, walked Real Change vendor Michael Wiggins to the David Colwell building on Yale Avenue North, the pair made it there in 10 minutes. Surprised staffers thought they must have driven.

Wiggins had insisted that they walk. He was a walker. There was a freedom, a lightness to being outside, unenclosed by walls, that Wiggins found therapeutic.
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You asked: Do Retired folks become homeless?

by Ashley Archibald | August 8th, 2018

The short answer is yes. The long answer is dark

On July 19, Real Change participated in a #SeaHomeless event, along with other local media outlets including The Evergrey, soliciting questions about homelessness. One in particular caught our attention, due to the magnitude of its implications:

“Do many people who are retired or aging end up homeless? Can people afford nursing homes?”

Strap in, folks. This is about to get dark.

The short answer is yes, many people who are retired or aging do end up homeless and no, many cannot afford senior housing.
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The deck chair shuffle

by Ashley Archibald | August 8th, 2018

Mayor Jenny Durkan announced a reorganization of the bureaucracy responding to the homelessness crisis last week. The new plan creates a new deputy director of homelessness position and expands a police unit that responds to homeless encampments under the auspices of the Human Services Department (HSD).
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There’s no app for this

by Ashley Archibald | August 8th, 2018

Seattle is a city that has embraced tech and adores committees, so the most surprising thing about the creation of the Innovation Advisory Council (IAC) last week wasn’t that it happened, but that it hadn’t happened already.

The IAC brings together representatives from private companies and organizations including Amazon, Microsoft and Tableau to ostensibly find new, innovative solutions to Seattle’s most pressing problems such as the homelessness crisis and the oncoming transportation apocalypse.
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Back away from the printer

by Ashley Archibald | August 1st, 2018

Once again, Attorney General Bob Ferguson is taking the Trump administration to court.

Ferguson, who has filed nearly 30 lawsuits against the administration, announced Monday that Washington and other states are working to block the federal government from allowing the nonprofit firm Defense Distributed from uploading manuals that teach people how to make untraceable weapons using a 3-D printer.
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