Perceived Harms and Policy Preference: How Community Attitudes Toward Visible Homelessness Shape Policy Support in Seattle, Washington

Abstract

On the morning of July 1, 2024, the City of Seattle dispatched homeless response crews to clear an encampment of 30 people living beneath the West Seattle Bridge. The sweep, which was one of more than 2,800 conducted that same year, followed a swell of complaints from nearby residents and business owners who characterized the encampment as a public safety hazard and a nuisance (Real Change, 2024). In just a few weeks, many of the homeless individuals displaced had relocated to another part of the city, once again repeating the cycle. Although no one had been housed, the sweep was widely described as a necessary response to community concern by city officials. This pattern, in which visible homelessness produces tangible community pressure, community pressure produces punitive policy, and punitive policy displaces rather than resolves the problem, is exactly what this study strives to understand.