Seattle's efforts to clean up its streets for the World Cup were merely a temporary facade that hid the city's ongoing struggles with homelessness and drug addiction, according to a local commentator. Charlie Harger, host of KIRO Newsradio's "Morning News," argued in an op-ed that officials "managed the view" rather than solving the underlying problems.
Harger contends that the improvements seen during the international soccer matches were superficial, with addiction and mental illness remaining unaddressed. "Addiction didn’t get better over those few weeks. Mental illness didn’t vanish. Permanent supportive housing didn’t suddenly fix what it has failed to fix here for years," he wrote. "People got moved. People got pushed away from the corners where a visitor might see them."
The city spent $153.8 million on homelessness services through its Human Services Department in 2024. However, Harger noted that despite a decade of spending billions on the crisis, the overdose rates have increased annually. A 2023 report by KOMO News indicated that nearly $1 billion spent over a decade had not curbed the rise in unsheltered individuals, and King County hosts approximately 16,000 people experiencing homelessness on any given night.
Harger criticized both tolerance that enables drug use on sidewalks and approaches that solely focus on removal without providing solutions. "Too many on the left have confused tolerance with compassion, as if letting someone use fentanyl on a sidewalk is kindness," he stated. "Too many on the right are right to demand order, but sometimes talk as if removal alone is a solution. I don’t buy either one. It would be nice if either were demonstrably true."
He expressed a personal perspective, comparing his concern for individuals experiencing homelessness to that of a parent. "When I pass somebody curled up in a doorway, gray-skinned and staring at nothing, the politics are the last thing I care about. The first thing I think is that this person was once four years old. Somebody packed their lunch. Somebody checked under the bed for monsters. Somebody looked at that kid and saw a whole life coming," Harger wrote. He argued that allowing individuals to die on the streets is not compassionate and that true care involves intervention.
Harger suggested that effectively addressing the crisis requires accountability rather than what he describes as "false compassion." Fox News Digital has reached out to Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson for comment.