Isn't it time to stop spending on homeless and to insist, instead, that they begin adulting?

Two articles on my timeline, one directly followed by the next (in just the tiniest bit of irony) that are yet ANOTHER illustration of Portland wasting millions on the homeless.

Article one: KATU - Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said the city is on track to reach his goal of adding 1,500 shelter beds for the homeless.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1F6VgQ3uZS/



Followed by Article two: Willamette Week - Data released by Mayor Keith Wilson’s office last week shows that most of his new emergency shelter locations are struggling to reach 50% occupancy on any given night.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AYSZhU3Uz/



Hopefully... one day... the leftist morons running government on the left coast will wake up one morning and discover that they've failed to do anything but waste billions on a problem they've completely misread and have to get off their concept that throwing truckloads of money at ANY issue, let alone the proven failure of their efforts on the homeless... will, not, work.

Continuing to do the same things, over and over, while expecting a different outcome, is insane.

And the left's example of THEIR insanity continues to vaporize billions with nothing to show for it.

Earlier this month, a report from Portland State shows that the TriCounty area of Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas has spent over $730 million dollars on the homeless during the last 2 years.

And during that same time frame? Homeless numbers have skyrocketed over 61%. And of that number, 73% were living in that area before they became homeless, meaning the homeless destination resort Multnomah has built accounts for roughly 1 out of every 4 homeless uprooting from other areas around the country to join the Portland touristas.

PDX City Councilor Eric Zimmerman admits this area is the worst in the country for the homeless blight. And the hundreds of millions they've already wasted isn't enough.

“We’re the 51st out of 51. So we’re including territories now in terms of access to mental health. That is a failure. But that’s not something that right now the city of Portland can solve. I need the state,” Portland City Councilor Eric Zimmerman said. “We, the city of Portland, can work on the affordability, getting our communities more dense, getting more apartments and homes built. But that won’t help if a huge part of our population remains sick and untreated.”

As expected, there's no mention of the primary root causes of homelessness: self-accountability, self-responsibility and a desire to end their own homelessness.

Providing shelter without demanding these requirements does not solve the issue of homelessness... it enables it and increases it.

A blind squirrel could see it in a minute.

But the leftists allowing this insanity at ever-increasing costs to those paying the bills for this obvious failure?

They've got a Homeless Industry(tm) to support, and By God, they intend to support it. Costs be damned, results be damned.

Seattle continues to sink into the abyss...

This a quick reminder: Eric Johnson of KOMO was among the first to sound the clarion call with his seminal work "Seattle is Dying" and his follow up effort "The Fight for the Soul of Seattle" tore the cover off the conditions that few outside the King County area know of.

Screen capture for the opening scene of Seattle is Dying.

The "War on Drugs" was a failure. Not because, IMHO, it was the wrong cause.

But because we ignored the roots of the problems that brought us to this point.

Leftist government's response (frequently with the aid of GOP help) has been to legalize all drugs, everywhere.

(Yeah, I know... they eyewashed it enough to make it a misdemeanor. etc. But can anyone explain what difference any of that has made? And in this state, the GOP has been complicit in this abandonment of responsibility to those they would govern.)

As a result of these ongoing, continuing failures... more than 10,000 Americans a month are dying from illegal drugs generally and fentanyl/tranq particularly.

Government generally and leftist government particularly has surrendered. We have and continue to waste billions and the result is the problem gets worse every day.

And yet, we are just doubling down. Every year, we waste more and more money while we do nothing to hold those providing this stuff accountable.

There are some who turn a blind eye to this massacre. They claim that it's thinning out the gene pool or some such.

What would our response be to some foreign country killing 10,000 Americans a month? A slaughter that has been literally going on for years?

Open borders, lax to no law enforcement, weak to no deterrent penalties for the manufacture/distribution of these chemical death traps, inadequate rehab facilities and no emphasis on personal accountability.

We do not have the luxury of fostering such an environment.

We either have the will to address this issue and reduce the need for expanding the King County Medical Examiner's morgue, which is filled to overflowing with OD'd corpses awaiting autopsy...

Or we don't.

And it's pretty clear to me that we're nowhere near the point where we must end the confusion of motion (which accomplishes nothing while looking like SOMETHING is being DONE) and action (which accomplishes what actually needs to be done.)

If you haven't already done so, watch these two documentaries. To me, it represents the finest in journalism, an increasingly all-too-rare commodity.

And keep in mind that since these efforts were broadcasted, billions have been spent and the problems... drugs, mental illness, homelessness, sex trafficking and the other crimes supporting those... have become GEOMETRICALLY worse.

The second documentary is a follow up to the first. And sadly, the title is, I believe, prescient, in that Seattle's "soul" is long gone.

"Seattle is Dying"

"The Fight for the Soul of Seattle"