Mary lives in a tent near Green Lake in Seattle. She can’t remember the last time she lived in a regular house. She can’t remember much. Most of her day is spent combing the streets and alleyways for things she can use or sell for heroin which costs about $20 a dose or fentanyl, which costs less. She gets a disability check once a month, but it doesn’t last long. She hasn’t taken her medication for depression and anxiety for a long time, and she worries about what would happen to her in a shelter, places where’s she’s been hurt before. They wouldn’t let her take her dog anyway. She doesn’t think she could manage an apartment either. The idea is terrifying.

Louise walks by Mary’s tent almost every day with her 6-month-old baby in a carriage heading for a walk around the lake. She is careful to cross to the other side of the street and not to stare. But the tents scare her, and it is annoying to have to avoid them. She wonders how long this person is going to stay here and if someone is doing anything to remove this tent and the others nearby. She listens to podcasts from NPR and reads the New York TimesNYT +2.4% often. She wonders why there isn’t more being done to use tax dollars, especially from wealthy people, to solve this problem. “Whoever this is in this tent, needs housing,” she thinks. “And we don’t even have an income tax in Washington State.”

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogervaldez/2022/10/03/housing-speech-we-dont-need-to-be-in-crisis/?sh=71ae7073238e