seattle's homeless

while wandering the streets of seattle last week, i noticed an oddly large number of wanderers and vagrants. it seemed more than in most cities i'd spent some time in. of course some of this can be attributed to the mild climate, it's easier to be homeless in a mild climate. but my colleague max borders pointed out another possible reason - that seattle just has better public services for these folks. this may not initially make sense - shouldn't such services actually reduce the number of homeless? but from a different perspective, providing such services (free food, shelters, etc) actually makes it easier to be homeless, and may attract more to the area.

sure enough, on searching the net for information on seattle policy towards homeless, they rank among the "best". and, they notice the odd phenomenon as well:

"It seems like a paradox, that numbers are going up while we're getting better at finding solutions," Steinbrueck said.

this is just another illustration of the hidden consequences of social services. is it really a solution if it creates more "problem?"