Compassion & A Doctor For Mayor
As a physician, I’ve spent my life caring for poor and ignored people on a daily basis who struggle with homelessness, addiction, mental illness, and have nowhere else to go. I understand their struggles and I take the time to listen and make a difference in their lives. My personal creed is to always provide the kind of care I would like to receive. I am committed to providing real options for treatment and housing for those who have nowhere else to go.
Affordable Housing
It is important to note that the cause of people living in tents in our city parks is not the lack of affordable housing. People who need affordable housing move to affordable neighborhoods, - rarely tents, and rarely tents for a long time. Tent dwellers are in our city parks primarily because they are unemployed and struggle with addiction and mental illness.
Our city needs a public works project of affordable housing available to those who work in our city and make less than 70% of the median household income.Our city loses community strength, meaning, and diversity when our service workers, our firefighters, our teachers, our police, our artists, and others who can’t afford to live here move to another city. I would build pre-designed and pre-permitted mid-rise units situated all around the city. People would live close to their jobs to limit traffic, travel, and our carbon foot-print. Bottom floors would preferentially house businesses to create urban villages, so people can meet most of their needs in their neighborhoods - and we put an end to food deserts. Building affordable homes units would provide construction jobs for people who live here as well.
We will meet our need for affordable housing is important, but no amount of affordable housing will alleviate the problem of tent dwellers living in our public spaces. Our homeless problem is a primarily medical problem, not just a housing issue, and it needs someone who understands medical issues to solve it.
Our city needs a public works project of affordable housing available to those who work in our city and make less than 70% of the median household income.Our city loses community strength, meaning, and diversity when our service workers, our firefighters, our teachers, our police, our artists, and others who can’t afford to live here move to another city. I would build pre-designed and pre-permitted mid-rise units situated all around the city. People would live close to their jobs to limit traffic, travel, and our carbon foot-print. Bottom floors would preferentially house businesses to create urban villages, so people can meet most of their needs in their neighborhoods - and we put an end to food deserts. Building affordable homes units would provide construction jobs for people who live here as well.
We will meet our need for affordable housing is important, but no amount of affordable housing will alleviate the problem of tent dwellers living in our public spaces. Our homeless problem is a primarily medical problem, not just a housing issue, and it needs someone who understands medical issues to solve it.
Homelessness & Housing
We will meet our need for affordable housing is important, but no amount of affordable housing will alleviate the problem of tent dwellers living in our public spaces. Our homeless problem is a primarily medical problem, not just a housing issue, and it needs someone who understands medical issues to solve it.
The Medical Definition of Addiction
The medical definition of addiction is someone who will choose to support their habit over anything else in their lives. Addicted individuals will choose their habit over their partner, their parents, their children, their jobs, their bodies, their health, their reputation, and their housing. If you have personal experience in working with addiction you can testify to this. Addicted people live in tents because it’s free. Housing is not their priority, their addiction is. And unfortunately, if housing can be traded to support their habit, they will trade it away. In fact, some people living in tents in our city receive disability payments that could pay or housing but they use their disability payments to support their addiction.
Addiction is a Disease
Addiction is a disease. People come to be addicted through different pathways and for different reasons, but once addicted to a substance, most people are powerless to get clean alone. Addicted individuals need opportunities and limits just like everyone else. Punishing them for living in our parks when they have nowhere else to go is unreasonable and cruel, as the courts have determined.
We have the moral and legal responsibility to provide a place to live that is safe. A safe place has real limits with restrictions on who comes and goes and what is brought in and out. It is not a free-for-all. This is what all treatment facilities for addiction and mental illness look like, whether voluntary or involuntary.
Safe places are not city parks or streets with no restrictions. We must give our less fortunate Seattlelites the opportunity to do the right thing. The opportunity to live in a safe place where they can recover from their disease and lead meaningful and productive lives.
We have the moral and legal responsibility to provide a place to live that is safe. A safe place has real limits with restrictions on who comes and goes and what is brought in and out. It is not a free-for-all. This is what all treatment facilities for addiction and mental illness look like, whether voluntary or involuntary.
Safe places are not city parks or streets with no restrictions. We must give our less fortunate Seattlelites the opportunity to do the right thing. The opportunity to live in a safe place where they can recover from their disease and lead meaningful and productive lives.
A Doctor for Mayor
I believe that I am the most qualified candidate to manage our pressing medical issues of addiction and mental illness that drive homelessness in our city, the one who will make our city streets safe and the one who will bring us real affordable housing.
Join me in Solidarity. Vote for wise action. Vote Dr. Bliss for Mayor. I would be honored to have your vote.
Join me in Solidarity. Vote for wise action. Vote Dr. Bliss for Mayor. I would be honored to have your vote.
