Seattle homelessness up sightly in annual count/Operation
Tom Boland (wgcp@earthlink.net)
Sun, 25 Oct 1998 06:42:23 -0400
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GON_NEWS/o1027_AM_WA--SeattleHomeless
VOLUNTEERS RECORD SLIGHTLY MORE CITY HOMELESS IN ANNUAL COUNT
The Associated Press
10/24/98 8:17 PM Eastern
SEATTLE (AP) -- An annual volunteer head count of the city's homeless
population found slightly more people than before huddled against the
predawn chill in parks, bus shelters and doorways.
=46riday's count was the 16th annual survey by Operation Nightwatch, a
coalition of volunteers who fan out citywide.
The group found 784 homeless people. More than 100 were sleeping in cars
and trucks, and 154 were located under the city's roads and bridges.
Volunteers recorded 421 men, 64 women and three children. The gender of
nearly 300 homeless was not determined, since the 131 surveyors did not
disturb bundled, slumbering people.
There are about 2,400 shelter beds in Seattle and King County, but an
estimated 5,500 homeless persons, according to the Rev. Rick Reynolds,
Operation Nightwatch executive director.
"You can't help but be moved by even one person under a blue tarp in a
sleeping bag, doing their best to get through the night," Reynolds said.
Volunteers said the count was a sobering experience.
"We were crawling under freeway ramps and finding people in the most
amazing places," King County Councilman Dwight Pelz said. "It gave us a
sense of how pervasive the problem is. It's almost like there ought to be a
tax on all the luck the rest of us are having."
King County Executive Ron Sims, for years an Operation Nightwatch
volunteer, said Friday's count showed a variety of homeless people,
including chronic alcoholics, battered women and the working poor.
Homelessness "is moving out of the core cities," Sims said. "It is a huge,
countywide problem."
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<paraindent><param>right,left</param>VOLUNTEERS RECORD SLIGHTLY MORE
CITY HOMELESS IN ANNUAL COUNT
The Associated Press
10/24/98 8:17 PM Eastern
</paraindent>
SEATTLE (AP) -- An annual volunteer head count of the city's homeless
population found slightly more people than before huddled against the
predawn chill in parks, bus shelters and doorways.=20
=46riday's count was the 16th annual survey by Operation Nightwatch, a
coalition of volunteers who fan out citywide.=20
The group found 784 homeless people. More than 100 were sleeping in
cars and trucks, and 154 were located under the city's roads and
bridges.=20
Volunteers recorded 421 men, 64 women and three children. The gender of
nearly 300 homeless was not determined, since the 131 surveyors did not
disturb bundled, slumbering people.=20
There are about 2,400 shelter beds in Seattle and King County, but an
estimated 5,500 homeless persons, according to the Rev. Rick Reynolds,
Operation Nightwatch executive director.=20
"You can't help but be moved by even one person under a blue tarp in a
sleeping bag, doing their best to get through the night," Reynolds
said.=20
Volunteers said the count was a sobering experience.=20
"We were crawling under freeway ramps and finding people in the most
amazing places," King County Councilman Dwight Pelz said. "It gave us a
sense of how pervasive the problem is. It's almost like there ought to
be a tax on all the luck the rest of us are having."=20
King County Executive Ron Sims, for years an Operation Nightwatch
volunteer, said Friday's count showed a variety of homeless people,
including chronic alcoholics, battered women and the working poor.=20
Homelessness "is moving out of the core cities," Sims said. "It is a
huge, countywide problem."
END FORWARD
** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is=
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in=
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. *=
*
HOMELESS PEOPLE'S NETWORK <<http://aspin.asu.edu/hpn/> Home Page
ARCHIVES <<http://aspin.asu.edu/hpn/archives.html> read posts to HPN
TO JOIN <<http://aspin.asu.edu/hpn/join.html> or email Tom <<wgcp@earthlink=
=2Enet>
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