Seattle’s Head Tax made national news before approval, as approved, after approval, and after repeal of the new tax on businesses who gross over twenty-million dollars. The Seattle City Council cited a McKinsey & Company report, The Economics of Homelessness in Seattle and King County, to justify their approval of the new tax on jobs even though it was soon revealed that this report was flawed and the Council had not actually read the report. The report cited aggressive growth in Seattle as the main cause to the growing homelessness, yet the reports focus was on the increase in money spent by Seattle to alleviate homelessness vs. the growth of the number of homeless.
Below is an image of people in Seattle on both sides of this issue filling a hallway before a Seattle City Council meeting where the council was expected to vote on a "head tax" Monday, May 14, 2018.
This problem did not occur overnight and cannot be fixed anytime soon, but it is clear that spending money to alleviate homelessness has not curbed the issue. Is it time to shake up the status quo and work with business and communities to find a win-win before Seattle (and Bellingham) are the hot spots for homeless migration? What do we have to lose?
These articles from Forbes, McKinsey & Company, and the Seattle Times, are a good place to start educating yourself on the problem in Seattle and how their issue is our issue, too
