Kincaid for Congress – Washington’s 1st District

Three Crises, Three Solutions: A Smarter Strategy to End Homelessness "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." By that standard America's approach to homelessness has lost its mind. We spend more every year. The crisis gets worse every year. The problem is not a lack of money and it is not a lack of compassion. It is that we keep applying one solution to three completely different problems. Homelessness is not one crisis. It is three  addiction, severe mental illness and economic hardship. Each one demands a different response. Until our policy matches the cause to the cure nothing will change. Decades of Failure Billions Spent For decades  agencies from HUD down to county programs have spent billions to fight homelessness. The spending goes up. The promises pile up. The encampments keep growing. Why? Because most of our programs rest on a theory that does not survive contact with reality. That if a thousand people are home...

Understanding the Problem Before we can solve this problem, it is important to understand how it originated. Did the people of Bellevue want, ask for, or vote for homeless shelters in Eastgate? So how did this happen? A small ruling class a group of people who believe they are superior to everyone else made this decision. King County, Bellevue, Kirkland, and Redmond came together and reached an agreement to move forward with these shelters. It is important to note that this agreement was not legally binding . Bellevue was under no legal obligation to participate. The agreement called for Bellevue, Kirkland, and Redmond to host homeless facilities operated by Plymouth Housing and it did not matter what residents had to say. The facilities were going to be built regardless. The public hearings and the Bellevue City Council vote were little more than formalities. There was very strong opposition to the Eastgate location, and that opposition was ignored. To the People of Eastgate a...