Seattle voters may be at the point of “compassion fatigue” when it comes to homelessness in their city, wrote Christopher F. Rufo in a piece for City Journal.
After KOMO reporter Eric Johnson released the documentary “Seattle is Dying” in March, Rufo wrote that the report has resonated with Seattle residents and others – with 38,000 Facebook shares at that point and almost 2 million views on YouTube. Rufo cited a Seattle Times report that showed 53 percent of Seattle voters supported a zero tolerance policy on homeless encampments, and more believe that the city is inefficient with their funds and lacks accountability.
Rufo notes that Johnson’s information is backed up by county data on homelessness, and even by then-candidate for city attorney Scott Lindsay’s “prolific offender report” that notes 100 individuals are responsible for thousands of criminal cases. He also pointed toward reporting he’d done for City Journal that cites the 2017 point-in-time report by King County’s social services agency, All Home, which said that more than 11,500 individuals were sleeping in tents, cars and emergency shelters.
In spite of this, Rufo says the “activist class” of the community is pushing back. The city and allies have engaged the services of a crisis communications firm and are firing back at Johnson’s documentary. A campaign aims to show that “'Seattle is making progress to end homelessness, and proven solutions are working,'” Rofu writes.
He says that the activist class is now losing the narrative and is changing its message. When voter support declines, he writes this group of citizens attacks those who disagree, calling them bigots, fascists and white supremacists.
He said in 2019 that Mayor Jenny Durkan has use taxpayer money to attack Johnson and try to convince taxpayers that their own experiences shouldn’t be trusted.
Rufo suggests that there may be a reckoning on homelessness as citizens grow increasingly tired of seeing a problem that doesn’t appear to be getting any better.
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