Downvote away, I come here for the drinks.

There are organizations in Seattle that work hard to address people living with addiction, homelessness, or mental illness. Unfortunately there is only so much funding to go around unless you are the nonprofit du jour.

No organization can mandate that people with mental illness take their prescriptions, and have you tried to get WA voters to approved a facility for mental illness? Who is going to pay for it? Because voters are not going to fork over their taxes for such a facility.

Organizations exist to reduce harm in drug use, and thank goodness there are people living with an addiction that possess the mental clarity to exchange dirty needles for clean. But that’s just for heroin. There’s a long list of drugs that come with their own unique challenges that have to be addressed. The resources to keep this all going are thin.

The people working these jobs don’t get paid a lot of money; their hours are long as they go out and visit with people in known encampments; and the work taxes one’s soul.

Businesses don’t want these organizations anywhere near their buildings. These organizations are threatened nearly every day to keep their people in check. So if an organization isn’t trying to find employees willing to work long hours without a lot of pay, struggling to receive grants/funds or become a darling of elected officials, or dealing with businesses that don’t want to see any issues, then they are working with human beings with their own unique mental, physical, and emotional states. And if you are a homeless girl who got her t-shirt taken by another girl, you better believe that you have to put aside your entire day to track down all the people responsible in the group attack with a boxcutter.

Seattle, SF, NYC, and others are not ignoring the issues you described. The issues happen to come with their own level of issues that have nothing to do with being blinded by population growth and a job boom.