Social Services

One reason to support Crosscut Public Media, a regular contributor says, is its commitment to covering the vulnerable among us.

Ending homelessness: How are we doing?

Posted Thu, Oct 29, 6 a.m.

Those vaunted 10-year plans to solve the problem are halfway in, or more, and yet homelessness persists. Even so, we're making progress and on the right track.

It's like a full-time gig

Posted Mon, Oct 19, 6 a.m.

By Michele Matassa Flores

Navigating the unemployment system is no easy task ... for people seeking jobs, hiring, or even those advising the applicants. Anybody need a professional hoop-jumper?

Shiga's Garden: fittingly, a story of sunshine and cooperation

Posted Tue, Oct 13, 6 a.m.

Volunteers, artists, and an absentee landowner are together creating a P-Patch honoring the father of the University District Street Fair.

Homes, not handcuffs

Posted Tue, Sep 29, 6 a.m.

Seattle isn't close to becoming one of the "meanest cities" listed in a national report, but may soon try its own take on the often-harmful "civility laws" sweeping the country

For some of our homeless, why not managed campgrounds?

Posted Wed, Sep 16, 6 a.m.

By Kent Kammerer

Many homeless people don't want to be in shelters or the housing officials think they ought to have. So here's an idea: provide campgrounds and revive trailer parks.

At the food bank

Posted Mon, Sep 14, 5:28 p.m.

By Anthony B. Robinson

Many languages. Way too many carbs and sugars. Few takers for the gallon bags of mustard.

Back to school homeless

Posted Wed, Sep 9, 6 a.m.

There are federal mandates and some stimulus funds, but not nearly enough to keep up with this heartbreaking problem.

Inside a Tent City near Microsoft

Posted Mon, Aug 10, 6 a.m.

As a national video shows, these encampments have much to commend them. But they are no substitute for more permanent living places.

'How I wonder how they are'

Posted Tue, Jun 9, 6 a.m.

A Seattle MD makes a courageous documentary, showing at STIFF this week, about her father's estrangement from his family, owing to schizophrenia, and its toll on the families.

'The Soloist': an extraordinary duet

Posted Tue, May 12, 6 a.m.

The movie, a sentimental cheapening, grows out of a remarkable book about a columnist's encounter with the almost-intractable problems of a homeless drifter/musician, and the healing power of friendship.

Cutting assistance to the unemployable would be costly

Posted Thu, Apr 16, 11:52 a.m.

By Stacey Schultz

Cutting General Assistance for very-low-income people temporarily unemployable, which Gov. Gregoire proposes to do, would prove cost-inefficient, an advocate for GAU argues

Hard times. What would Forrest Gump do?

Posted Wed, Apr 8, 6 a.m.

By Kent Kammerer

He may be the last person highly educated Seattleites would turn to, but he had excellent lessons for coping with a deep recession.

The State of the City speech Mayor Nickels should have delivered

Posted Thu, Feb 19, 6 a.m.

By Matt Fikse

Mayor Nickels' annual address missed the mark by failing to recognize the urgency and by not calling for sacrifices, beginning with hizzoner.

A Christmas essay: a better way to help the homeless

Posted Thu, Dec 25, 9 a.m.

By Monte Paulsen

Vancouver faces a potential public relations embarrassment during the 2010 Olympics, owing to the city's tremendous homeless population. An architect proposes a bold solution: temporary, modular housing.

Charlie and me

Posted Thu, Nov 27, 6 a.m.

By Kent Kammerer

A Thanksgiving story, learning from a wise homeless man.

A City Hall reform effort is brewing

Posted Fri, Nov 14, midnight

By Ted Van Dyk

A breakfast meeting the other morning sponsored by Real Change sounded a lot like a rally to dump Mayor Greg Nickels and, for that matter, much of the Seattle City Council.

ACORN's bad seeds

Posted Sat, Oct 25, midnight

By Lisa Albers

The Republicans didn't need to manufacture a voting scandal to hang on the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Besides sloppy voter registration — not actual vote fraud — the organization has plenty of real problems worth scrutiny.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS (SEATTLEPI.COM BLOG)

The geniuses who aren't on Wall Street

Posted Sun, Sep 28, 2 p.m.

By Steve Clifford

The MacArthur Foundation names 25 people who, together, could probably get us out of this mess.

Other media

Seattle may lose nearly a quarter of library hours In one of the nation's most book-friendly cities, Seattle proposes to close 21 of 27 branches on Fridays and Sundays. Meanwhile library usage is up nearly triple since 2000.

SEATTLE TIMES

Dow Constantine's Q&A with the Seattle P-I It's time to move beyond the old battles of Seattle vs. the suburbs, the exec candidate says, and realize King County is one big city made up of a lot of urban centers.

A lesson in politics at 5:20 a.m. The writer, a political science prof and dedicated bus-bike commuter, confronts her own conflicts when panhandled early one Seattle morning.

SEATTLE POST GLOBE

12 arrested as Port breaks up Nickelsville The homeless encampment is moving next to Northeast Seattle.

SEATTLE POST GLOBE

Nickelsville gets personal Homeless protesters show up at the mayor's house for a sleep-in.

SEATTLE POST GLOBE

Blog posts

A witch's brew of political scares in Congress

Posted Tue, Oct 13, 6 a.m.

by Ted Van Dyk

From Afghanistan to health care to ethics, lawmakers head toward Halloween with distractions aplenty.

A Seattle daughter learns a California way

Posted Sun, Aug 30, 5:25 p.m.

A Dad going blind teaches the wisdom of socks.

News from Nickelsville: Tony's story

Posted Mon, Aug 3, noon

Two heartbreaking small incidents point up the fragility of life for a leader in a homeless village

Vonnegut's village, and mine

Posted Mon, Jul 20, noon

In praise of urban errands, and all those friends on the street.

Dignity and pity in a tent city

Posted Wed, Jul 8, 6:43 a.m.

Notes from Nickelsville: fragile communities with fragile people like Chris in them

A narcissist goes volunteering

Posted Thu, Jul 2, 6 a.m.

The wisdom of Mina, putting me in my place at our weekly coffee

Two brothers, and a lifetime's quarrel

Posted Sun, May 31, 11:35 p.m.

In her series about having conversations with homeless and isolated individuals, the author tries to patch up a fraternal war between Alfred and Kenneth

Gerald keeps his job

Posted Tue, May 19, 8:31 p.m.