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Why cities can’t afford to solve homelessness

caption: Downtown Salt Lake City, which proclaimed it had solved chronic homelessness in 2015.
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Downtown Salt Lake City, which proclaimed it had solved chronic homelessness in 2015.

The homelessness crisis makes cities victims of their own success. Salesforce comes to Seattle. Washington gets an icebreaker (not that kind). And housing goes on the City Council docket.

Listen to the full show by clicking the play button above, or check out one of the show’s segments below. You can also subscribe to The Record on your favorite podcast app.

Michael Hobbes, homelessness

All across America, homelessness is falling. Which is hard to believe from a perch in Seattle or San Francisco. Journalist Michael Hobbes points out the fact that homelessness is rising only in cities that are generating more wealth – and that in spite of that extra capital, it’s not a problem they can afford to solve alone. He wrote about it for the Huffington Post in a piece called “Why America Can’t Solve Homelessness.”

Todd Bishop, Salesforce

HQ2 is coming to… Seattle. You heard right. But this time we’re talking about Salesforce, the cloud computing company. Today the company announced the acquisition of Tableau, and said that Seattle will become its second headquarters. Salesforce has moved aggressively to develop real estate in San Francisco, and Geekwire CEO Todd Bishop has been looking at what the deal might mean for Seattle residents.

New icebreaker

Senator Patty Murray has commissioned a new heavy icebreaker – the first in 40 years. She says the ships play a critical role in our national security. Scott Montgomery, lecturer at the University of Washington’s Jackson School of International Studies, explains what role the Arctic plays in keeping the nation safe.

Mosqueda on city council housing docket

The Seattle City Council is currently deliberating on whether or not to turn the old Army site at Fort Lawton into affordable housing. Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda provides insight on that vote, as well as another housing-related one that would renew the ban on rent-bidding.

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