Credibility Lost

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Staff Reporter

Blood, sweat and tears

By Rianna Hidalgo | July 19, 2016

Janitors say smaller crews and larger workloads are compromising their health and safety

Over and over, janitors who have worked for decades told the same story. Where they once cleaned one or two floors, they now clean three or four or five. Where the crews had 20 janitors, they now have 10. That forces them to rush, and compromises safety in a job where they are already at high risk for injury. ...

Brother, can you spare a click?

By Rianna Hidalgo | June 22, 2016

How social services and technology are coming together to help homeless people

It seems there’s always “an app for that.” They range from the practical — paying for parking, communicating with friends, navigating a new area — to what some might deem absurd — an app that helps you track all the places you’ve pooped is a fine example.

More and more, entrepreneurs are looking to harness technology in another area: helping people in need. In the last few years, there has been a surge in apps, social media pages and websites that aim to address gaps in services for those experiencing homelessness. ...

Silence is Broken

By Rianna Hidalgo and Martha Tesema | October 7, 2015

For weeks and weeks it seemed, Mara Willaford and Marissa Johnson left an entire country wondering, “What just happened?” after the Bernie Sanders rally in Seattle. They recently sat down with Real Change to talk about that fateful day, their philosophy and what people are missing about their activism

As they stroll down the pedestrian path at Green Lake, chatting and laughing, it’s hard to associate Mara Willaford and Marissa Johnson with the two black liberation activists who stormed the stage, took the microphone from Bernie Sanders and called the audience white supremacists at an August rally in Seattle. ...

Moms know best

By Rianna Hidalgo | September 16, 2015

Ballard parents reach out to ensure that tent city residents feel welcome to the neighborhood

In July, Molly Tallon received a letter via the “Ballard Parents” online group from Mike Stewart of the Ballard Chamber of Commerce declaring that a future homeless tent encampment in Ballard had “the potential for extremely negative consequences.”

Before that, she was unaware that 2826 NW Market St. had been slated as a potential city-owned site for an encampment. ...

Curbside Care

By Rianna Hidalgo | September 9, 2015

Student volunteers with University District Street Medicine program take pains to prescribe relief for homeless people

Krystal Koop lifted her shirt slightly and touched her right hip, as if reliving the burning blisters that were there decades ago.

Thirteen-year olds don’t usually get shingles. ...

Telephone Assistance Program hung up thanks to budget cuts

By Rianna Hidalgo | September 9, 2015

Although landline telephones have dwindled in the age of digital technology, a small portion of the population still relies on them for access to emergency services and vital resources. But on Aug. 31, a program that allowed low-income households in Washington to receive home phone service for $8 a month, plus tax, ended due to state budget cuts. ...

Crunching the numbers

By Rianna Hidalgo | September 2, 2015

UW summer program uses data to address family homelessness

To some, the terms “logistic regression,” “cluster algorithm” or “management information system” might seem a little wearisome. To the University of Washington (UW) students, who spent the summer crunching numbers on family homelessness in the Puget Sound region, they are tools for social change. ...

A call to landlords: Help eradicate veteran homelessness by Dec. 31

By Rianna Hidalgo | August 26, 2015

In King County, about 220 veterans have what Rebecca Murch, executive director of nonprofit organization The Seattle Stand Down calls “tickets to ending their homelessness” — vouchers for rental assistance. Finding a place to use them is the hard part.

“They’ve got a ticket to the carnival ride,” Murch said. “But there’s no carnival ride.”

On Aug. 10, the county launched Operation: WelcomeOneHome to raise awareness and recruit landlords and property owners to rent to homeless veterans. ...

LGBTQ panel calls for more help from the city

By Rianna Hidalgo | August 19, 2015

In the first seven months of 2015, there were 41 reported anti-LGBTQ hate-based crimes or incidents in Seattle, a 46 percent increase over last year. Between a rising sense of danger, concern over displacement from what has been considered the city’s queer district of Capitol Hill and frustration over the disproportionately high numbers of LGBTQ homeless youth, community leaders have been pushing for solutions. ...