In his first Veterans Day as mayor of Seattle, today Bruce Harrell thanked and saluted hundreds of local homeless veterans as his newly formed Unified Care Team compassionately swept them into Tukwila.
“Today is a day we remember everything these fine American veterans put on the line—their lives, limbs, mental health—to protect this country and/or a bunch of lucrative defense contracts that funded countless assholes’ fifth waterfront homes,” said Harrell as the homeless veterans’ few belongings were respectfully tossed into a dumpster truck. “Today, we salute you as you bravely figure out how to use one of the 1,300 shelter bed referrals the Unified Care Team has given out this year for one of 1,300 open shelter beds that don’t exist.”
Earlier this year, Harrell cemented his dedication to solving local homelessness issues for everyone including veterans with a budget proposal to funnel millions of dollars away from a JumpStart tax created specifically to fund solutions to and prevention of homelessness including affordable housing.
“I know that sort of sounds like it doesn’t make any sense, but I swear even though I’m proposing to cut city budgets on everything except for SPD, I’m totally not doing that just to increase spending on SPD,” Harrell said, still saluting homeless veterans as they scrambled again for where they were going to sleep tonight. “I’m using it to fund the Sweep Encampments Somewhere Else Squad – I mean, Unified Care Team—that lovingly helps homeless people self-resolve their homeless situation in Tukwila.”
Harrell said he looks forward to the team making the city’s public parks more accessible to everyone including disabled veterans as long as they’re not a homeless person with nowhere else to go.
