Each day that I come in to work at the Seattle Weekly offices, I walk by the crowds of Seattleites gathered outside Lazarus Day Center and the Union Gospel Mission on Second Avenue. And each and every one of those days I am reminded that homelessness is more than a political problem. It is an everyday reality for people who are more like you and me than we would perhaps like to admit.
The proximity of the Seattle Weekly offices to these shelters and the other social service agencies concentrated around Pioneer Square has not gone unnoticed by the rest of the staff here either. It is something we talk about every day and that we write about a lot, always aiming to bring the voices of the people on the streets into our stories about the city, county, and state policies that affect them most. We want everyone in Seattle to see what we see.
And so it is with great enthusiasm that we accepted an invitation from Crosscut to take part in Homeless in Seattle, a one-day media blitz featuring more than 20 Seattle-area outlets, all focusing their efforts on the current homelessness crisis in Seattle. Collectively we will all be flooding the zone in an attempt to get more attention paid to these people who have no place to call home.
For its part, Seattle Weekly is cross-publishing a Crosscut story that investigates what is being done right now to alleviate homelessness, and if it is enough. We are also resurfacing a few of our longform features from the past two years that look at the causes of homelessness, explore the realities of living unhoused, and promote solutions.
We have also asked Joe Bernstein, a Weekly contributors who has lived in a state of homelessness for the past four years, to take part in an AMA on Reddit this afternoon.
And, of course, we will encourage you to read as much from other outlets as you can today and in the days to come. Just look for the hashtag #SEAhomeless and see the homeless.
mbaumgarten@seattleweekly.com