Homelessness is an addiction crisis disguised as a housing crisis. In Seattle, prosecutors and law enforcement recently estimated that the majority of the region’s homeless population is hooked on opioids, including heroin and fentanyl. If this figure holds constant throughout the West Coast, then at least 11,000 homeless opioid addicts live in Washington, 7,000 live in Oregon, and 65,000 live in California (concentrated mostly in San Francisco and Los Angeles). For the unsheltered population inhabiting tents, cars, and RVs, the opioid-addiction percentages are even higher—the City of Seattle’s homeless-outreach team estimates that 80 percent of the unsheltered population has a substance-abuse disorder. Officers must clean up used needles in almost all the homeless encampments.

An Addiction Crisis Disguised as a Housing Crisis

Ignoring or rebranding the problem never helps and this is one that is now flooding and destroying cities.

The addicted homeless is nothing new. You can safely go back to the 80s when the problem began to get bad and see the reaction from the Liberal side and which has been the script ever since: The homeless are by far poor families thrown out in the streets by the economic policies of the Republicans and Capitalism  with a smattering of Vietnam Vets dealing with problems. Junkies? Never mentioned. We even had a full fledged “Hollywood Cares!” virtual signaling in the form of HBO’s Comic Relief, fund-raiser shows with comedians donating time and jokes to provide a family of NY Okies a place to live so they wouldn’t have to keep living in their Model T in rest area of the New Jersey Turnpike.

And then there was the strange issue of what I call the Disappearing Homeless: The moment a Democrat was elected President, the homeless problems in America seemed to disappear from the Media. You could not find but a very few local articles in the printed press and probably because the state or local administrations were not Blue. But the moment a Republican won the White House? Dear God! Homeless all over the place! How is it that this people do not care? And I am not kidding about the timing, George W. Bush was barely sworn in as President and within hours there was at least article berating him about the homeless.

We know the great maxim from Scarface: “Don’t get high on your own supply.” Unfortunately the Liberal Intelligentsia does not comprehend this and since they branded the Addict Problem as a Homeless Problem, the solution then is to provide them with a place to shoot up sleep. If they have a “home” they are no longer homeless and the problem will disappear, right?

Welcome to abandoned RVs and Tent Cities.

Let me reiterate the “Don’t get high on your own supply” part of Liberal Intelligentsia: that last photo comes from a news item from radio station  KUOW of Seattle where the recommendation from Homeless Task Force about Tent Cities like this is to create more Tent Cities.

The packaging of the addicts into tarps, nylon and abandoned vehicles has not solved the problem of rampant drug abuse. They are not addicts because they do not have a home, they do not have a home or families or any kind of worthwhile belongings because they are untreated addicts.

This is literally government pouring rainbow sprinkles over a turd so it can pass the “WE CARE AND DID SOMETHING” test so they can feel good about themselves and get more taxpayer’s money.

Hat Tip Steven T.