Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier today (August 20) informed the Pierce County Council that he intends to veto Ordinance 2024-540s.
Dammeier’s letter reads, in part, “This ordinance would permit large tent encampments to be legally established throughout Pierce County with little to no public notice. I cannot support this.”
He urged the Council to set aside the ordinance and adopt his budget proposal that redirects stability site funding to more cost-effective, longer-term solutions like the Tacoma Housing Authority’s Aviva Crossing project and other homeless and housing services programs that can be more quickly delivered to the community.
The full veto message is available here.
Thank you Bruce for your rock solid LEADERSHIP!!!!! The counsel should let the homeless live on their property.
My suggestion is to allow homeless tent cities to propagate on the properties of County Council members who voted for this legislation! See how fast it would stop then! “Supporting” homeless behaviors only encourages more of them. Hasn’t the Council figured that out yet? The other alternative seems to be for Council to raise our taxes to fight the homeless problem they are responsible for aggravating.
To put a finer point on it:
Co-dependency:”An unhealthy dependence on relationships. The co-dependent will do anything to hold on to a relationship; to avoid the feeling of abandonment. An extreme need for approval and recognition. A sense of guilt when asserting themselves. A compelling need to control others.”
Ever see a program that addresses a 600 pound person’s struggle with weight loss? They aren’t getting out of bed to trot down to McDonald’s to order a dozen Big Mac’s. Someone in the co-dependency relationship with them is doing that for them.
This is the same unhealthy mental relationship that many politicians have with the homeless. The homeless use the politicians to maintain their unhealthy lifestyle while the politicians assuage their guilt and virtue signal as reasons to keep them in office while the homeless situation only gets worse, feeding upon itself.
To the extent that we keep re-electing these same politicians is yet another co-dependent relationship. Do the homeless need mental health services? Yes but I’d suggest politicians and public also need the same mental health services to break this “chain” of co-dependency that does society no real good. To do otherwise is no different than stuffing a 600 pound person with a dozen McDonald’s Big Macs.
Thank you Executive Bruce Dammeier. The county, and cities in it, need to follow the leadership of Lakewood and quit enabling drug addiction/crime by allowing “campiing” on public property and prioritize helping those with mental illness. In addition, property owners should be held responsible for crime, safety and sanitation on their property should they decide to allow it. Politician who want to throw money at results, instead of addressing causes, are either naive, self serving, and/or lazy, in my view. As a side note, there is a reason Tacoma is listed as 142 of 148 metropolitan on how the government is run (Wallet Hub).