2007 Homeless Taskforce Updates According to a report titled “Hate, Violence, and Death on main Street USA: A Report on Hate Crimes and Violence Against People Experiencing Homelessness from 1999-2002” by the National Coalition for the Homeless, Seattle was ranked the 7th most dangerous city and Washington was ranked the 3rd most dangerous state for people facing homelessness. The homeless are a vulnerable group in our city. Seattle & King County Public Health reports that in 2005 ninety-four homeless people died and 9% of the deaths were due to homicide and 71% of all the incidents leading to death occurred in Seattle. Despite these disturbing figures, this data highly underestimates the actual number of attacks based on information received from service providers. Most crimes go unreported due to many factors including mental illness, fear of reporting or retaliation, distrust of system, etc. The study also revealed that the majority of the attacks are perpetrated by youth ages 16 to 19 years old. These youths have been known to even video tape themselves doing these attacks. The National Coalition for the Homeless statistics proves that,
nationwide, violent attacks against the homeless have increased
dramatically over the last three years. The Ending Homelessness
Taskforce seeks to create protections even if we do not have data
stating the national spike in violence against the homeless is happening
in Seattle. We want to do this partly to continue Seattle's role
as a leader in human rights protections and partly to advance protection
for a vulnerable community before we see a further escalation of
violence. Contact Information Commissioner: Marissa Chavez Commissioner: Lubna M. Mahadeen Community Resident: Charles Hodges Key Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 3: Everyone has the right to Life, Liberty, and Personal Security. Article 6: Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Article 7: All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. Our Goals
Our proposed ordinance revision and subsequent education campaign would help promote the Seattle Human Rights Commission’s work in the community by carrying the spirit of the Declaration for all the citizens of Seattle. 1 The National Coalition for the Homeless Factsheet Documents All files are in Acrobat PDF format.
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