by Craig Durgan | Dec 8, 2020 | General
We have all heard of Trickle Down Economics. But, there is another concept called “Trickle Up Poverty.” In Trickle Down Economics the concept is that the rich and/or the government basically spend or invest their money. That in turn allows development to occur where people get employed. Thus the money trickles down to others. But, what is Trickle Up Poverty? That is where there is no investment by the rich or the government and no jobs created. Poverty, which is a creation of the government, becomes more prevalent.
Of course, there is a glass ceiling to Trickle Up Poverty. Heaven forbid that the Elite should suffer in poverty. So, where is trickle up poverty practiced? Plenty of places–North Korea, Venezuela, and the United States of America. Socialism is a good example of Trickle Up Poverty. Everyone suffers together, except for the few at the top.
What? This could not happen in this country, no way we would do that!!! But it is happening right here in Jefferson County. Yes, right here.
Why would anyone want to promote poverty? Simple, it drives out the lower classes of people. Take any place here in Jefferson County and gentrify it. What do you get? Higher property values that translate to higher revenue for government and more income for the few that can afford to buy out the poor. It is happening right now. People with money are moving in and buying out those that either die, want out of the socialist mecca in process or are forced to leave due to no jobs and unaffordable taxes. The policies imposed on the county by the elite are having the intended effect of making Jefferson County the very sort of Carmel North, Aspen-by-the-Sea and Martha’s Vineyard West those same elites constantly doth protest too much.
Look at what they’ve done with the power they’ve had for two decades. That says it all.
Trickle Up Poverty is not new. It has been practiced in many parts of our country. Typically, the elite and the politicians they control create a dying economic model, usually by restricting property development. Once the local people have no jobs they are forced out and their property becomes available to gentrify. At one time, back as far as the 60s, Port Townsend was a working town where the working class stood a chance at upward mobility and better lives for their children. No longer. In fact, given enough time the last remaining larger employer, the pulp mill, will likely be forced out. Then the cycle will be complete.
[Editor’s Note: According to the Economic Research branch of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, the overall poverty rate in Jefferson County climbed more than 10% between 2016 and 2018, to 13.3%. That is 33% higher than Washington’s statewide poverty rate. The overall poverty rate hides an even uglier story. The census tract for Port Townsend has a poverty rate of 16.2%. The census tract for the southern and western county has a poverty rate of 16.5%. These figures come from the Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey The poverty rate for the areas immediately south and west of Port Townsend and around Discovery Bay stands at 14.3%. The considerable wealth of households on Marrowstone Island and in Port Ludlow pulled those census tracts down to 7.8% and 10.9%, respectively. The extreme poverty in Irondale and pockets of the Tri-Cities was masked by the extreme wealth a few miles west on Marrowstone Island. Likewise, the surprisingly high poverty rate within Port Townsend city limits, with its million dollar homes and exclusive neighborhoods on Morgan Hill and near Fort Worden, reveals the severe economic divide in our community. Lastly, the Census Bureau’s latest employment data shows the job base for Jefferson County shrinking, not growing while at the same time the cost of housing continues to increase.]
by Jim Scarantino | Dec 6, 2020 | General
Violence ended the career of Port Townsend Police Officer Mark DuMond. After sustaining severe head injuries preventing an assault that could have killed a Jefferson Healthcare nurse he was never able to resume his full duties.
DuMond knew the man who injured him. All the police and Sheriff’s deputies know Jamie Beal. An Officer Safety Advisory is added to every dispatch when he is involved. In an altercation with around seven officers he dealt out punishment and lifted men, two at a time, with all their gear–well over 600 pounds in total–completely off their feet. He weighs about 250 pounds, is massively built, and likes to fight. He has mixed martial arts and jui jitsu training. He says he has been a cage fighter and combat veteran. He knows how to use his hands and his fantastic strength to hurt other people.
Before that incident he had attacked a person for no reason right in front of several Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies just outside the Sheriff’s Offices. It took a bunch of them to subdue him. A bunch of them were left seriously injured.
But this powerful, dangerous man can also be a sweet, caring person…when he’s medicated.
On the night of March 26, 2020 his meds weren’t working. He knew he needed help and walked to Jefferson Healthcare where he was well known. Police were called. The pills medical staff gave him didn’t work. Actually, it was Officer DuMond who handed them over because nurses were too scared to get close. Two hours of de-escalation didn’t work and the violence officers knew was coming erupted. It took Dumond and five other officers giving everything they had–including DuMond’s career and physical well-being–to stop the attack on a nurse and protect themselves from a man huffing and roaring like a charging grizzly bear and swearing he was going to kill them, “weak pieces of shit” that they were.
What happened that night should be a lesson to the Port Townsend City Council and everyone who thinks police officers can be replaced with social workers. With one less officer, the officers may not have been able to restrain this man before he caused more injuries. A single officer, even a pair of officers, would have needed to use their firearms to stop him. If it had been a social worker confronted with this situation, there likely would have been at least one murder in the Jefferson Healthcare ER that night.
Just last week a social worker was stabbed to death by a client in Seattle. Several years ago Marty Smith, a social worker who had worked in Port Townsend, was beaten senseless by a man he was trying to have committed. The client then got a knife and proceeded to stab Smith to death.
In its meetings as the Ad Hoc Committee on Law Enforcement and Public Safety, the City Council has considered only ideological and ivory tower stuff–statistics, tables of data, generalized reports, program reviews. It has not drilled down into what police officers face every day and night. It has not examined a single case study of any of the gross number of “mental health” incidents reported to it each week by the City Manager.
This incident is by no means an outlier. This man is exceptional for his fighting ability, but not unique. You don’t need to search the archives of the Port Townsend Leader or The Peninsula Daily News very long to find other incidents of police officers being attacked and injured. Every officer and deputy I have met, from leadership down, has suffered some injury. They don’t volunteer the information. They’re like Officer DuMond on the night of March 26, barely able to stand, slipping in and out of consciousness, blood pouring from his mouth and nose, assuring everyone he was alright.
There is something simplistic in way the City Council has been considering the work of police. An air of naivete hangs over their discussions as they presume to “reimagine” the work of law enforcement to suit a perfectly peaceful and crime-free community that does not exist, here or anywhere.
This case is an antidote to that naivete. The following narrative is compiled from police records and the sights and sounds captured by body recorders.
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Just Another Mental Health Incident
Jame Beal of Port Townsend, age 31, was anxious about his medications. He’d been in and out of Jefferson Healthcare that week with his concerns. He didn’t trust his meds. Were animals used to make them? Where were they made? Why wasn’t he feeling right? Maybe he was hurting his daughter by taking his meds.
He had been seen pacing downtown in an agitated state of mind, but had not yet reached the point of violence with which local law enforcement had become familiar. Family members and mental health professionals warned he was “cycling up” to violence. It was only a matter of time.
Around midnight on March 26 Beal walked into the ER. Immediately hospital security was alerted, and just as quickly a call went out to police. Beal pushed and shoved staff. The hospital needed law enforcement help. As soon as Beal was identified by name, law enforcement knew it would take a good number of officers to handle the situation. In addition to Port Townsend police, the Jefferson County Sheriff and Washington State Patrol responded. Five officers gathered outside the room where Officer DuMond was talking to Beal.
DuMond was worried. Beal was in a room that had not been cleared. He saw multiple items that could be used as weapons. Nurses would not enter the room. They were scared and spoke to Beal only over the shoulders of the officers who formed a protective cordon in the hallway. It was determined that injecting Beal was too dangerous. DuMond persuaded him to accept a pill or two (the exact dosage and medication was redacted from the records obtained by Port Townsend Free Press). Beal, once assured that the medicine was plant-based and made in North America, seemed to welcome the prospect of feeling better and spoke of hoping that meds started working. But DuMond remained worried about being in the room with Beal and asked JCSO Sergeant Shane Stevenson to stay close in case an attack came, an attack DuMond would have no hope of fending off alone.
The medication had no effect. For nearly two hours officers tried to calm Beal, but his body language and eye movements showed he was becoming increasingly agitated. He occasionally exploded with profanity then switched over to talking nicely with DuMond, who was filling the role of law enforcement officer, medical ombudsman, mental health counselor, family counselor, friend and social worker. They talked through all of Beal’s many problems and delusions, such as people in video games being real and actually being killed. DuMond was the go-between for Beal and his physician. The other officers helped when DuMond had to leave to talk to hospital personnel. He was trying to get a formal commitment order so Beal could be detained. That formal order never came, though hospital staff said Beal should be committed. Reportedly one doctor told police, “He’s going to kill someone.” But the officers never received the legal go-ahead required before they could formally detain Mr. Beal for his protection, and the protection of everyone nearby.
Beal invited officers to fight–“to roll.” He talked of when it would be acceptable to kill someone. He cursed an officer for accepting a bottle of water from a nurse. He would not drink water unless one of the nurses shouted to him that she consented. He said “I’m here for the women,” and didn’t like it that the female nurses were attending to other patients.
Beal slowly worked his way into the hallway where the officers had been standing for nearly two hours. His thoughts turned dark. He spoke of serving Satan and how evil had a purpose and mocked deputies for worshipping “something dead.”
Officer DuMond communicated to Sgt. Stevenson his increasing concern. He hoped to get Beal seated again, perhaps laying back on a bed so he could be more easily restrained when they could make that move. Suddenly Beal pushed into the nurses working area. “Buddy, where are you going?” DuMond asked and all hell broke loose. “No, no, no!” DuMond shouted. And though they knew Beal’s power and his ability to kill any one of them with his bare hands, none of the officers now hesitated.
Beal grabbed a male nurse and swung to strike a blow, but thankfully did not connect as DuMond grabbed him. The next punch was for DuMond and it landed solidly on his face, snapping his head and upper body back violently. DuMond crumpled to his knees and may have lost consciousness (he had to watch video later to remember what happened after the blow to his head). Even then he held onto Beal as other officers brought Beal to the floor. Beal landed hard and the back of his head was cut. But nothing seemed to dampen his fury. Beal tried to break DuMond’s fingers then grabbed his face with his huge hand, while struggling to gouge out DuMond’s eyes. DuMond’s eyeglasses were broken but saved his eyes. Blood poured from his nose, mouth and open wounds all over his face. He wiped his blood on Sgt. Stevenson’s uniform so he could see as officers wrestled with Beal. Beal got his thumb and fingers inside DuMond’s mouth and was pulling at his cheek. DuMond’s blood must have been running down Beal’s arm.
Two officers, very large men, had Beal’s left arm as he was on his back. He lifted them both off the ground with that one arm. PT police officer Trevor Hansen, another large man, had a leg but Beal was able to buck him. In the audio Beal is screaming, “I’m killing you motherfuckers. I’m killing you.” Except for heavy breathing the officers are silent as it took all their energy to hang on. A nurse managed to inject something–probably ketamine, a powerful horse tranquilizer–into his left thigh. (The exact medication is redacted in the records obtained by Port Townsend Free Press). Whatever it was it had no discernible effect. (In prior incidents, dosages well above normal had been necessary to chemically restrain Beal). Beal continued to fight as DuMond bled on him and other officers, but hung on. The nurse gave him another shot, this time in his shoulder. Finally Beal quieted and the officers rolled away exhausted.
It must be said here that law enforcement has compassion for Beal, despite the injuries he has inflicted on them. Whatever mental health condition he has, that is what is responsible for his behavior. He does not act out of malice when he is in his right mind. During his two hours of talking with DuMond he spoke of his respect for law enforcement and how he did not wish to see them hurt. Even after taking blows and nearly losing his eyes, DuMond continues to speak with compassion for Beal and his hopes that he gets the treatment and care he needs.
Jefferson Healthcare failed Beal and the officers that night. They dumped a huge problem on six men in uniform. They did not promptly give officers the legal authorization they needed to act more decisively, before the situation exploded. The medication given Beal in pill form was insufficient. He paid the price, and so did DuMond.
End of Service for Officer Mark DuMond
As he held onto Beal, a nurse wiped blood from his eyes and nose. After the fight DuMond had to spit repeatedly into a waste basket to clear the blood from his throat so he could breathe. He said he was okay, though officers could see he was badly injured. He had sustained lacerations over his forehead, jaw and cheeks. His entire face began to swell immediately. DuMond had difficulty with his balance when he tried to stand up. He complained of dizziness and blurred vision, but he somehow assisted in lifting Beal onto a gurney. Then his mind starting failing him. He realized later he may have been blacking out at times after the blow to his head. He soon suffered problems with verbal communication. He was in pain. He was admitted to the emergency room for evaluation and treatment of his injuries.
The ER doctor opined he may have a broken nose. No MRI was done. He was sent home with no further treatment. WSP Trooper J.T. Hodgson drove him. DuMond was incapable of driving himself.
DuMond continued to have problems with communication and cognition. He was dizzy and had headaches. His personal physician told him he had likely suffered a concussion and neck and back injuries, along with the facial lacerations that would leave him with permanent scars. He was not able to return to work in any capacity until April 5. His closed head injuries continued to plague him and adversely impacted his memory and cognitive abilities.
DuMond was never able to return to full active patrol duties and was eventually sent home after struggling for a few weeks. He remained on disabled status until his last day as a Port Townsend police officer on September 11, 2020.
DuMond had always dreamed of being a police officer. He served with the Marines and later in life he and his wife, Kris, bought Autoworks and turned it into one of Port Townsend’s most successful businesses. At age 47 he told Kris that it was now or never if he was going to realize his dream. He turned 48 in the Police Academy, decades older than the men and women in his class. The physical demands were especially challenging for a middle-aged man. But once a Marine….
In August 2015 he became a Port Townsend Police Officer.
He was the department’s liaison with our town’s transients and knew many of them on a first name basis. He was at the scene when a vehicle hit a bicyclist on 19th Street. Life-saving efforts failed that time. But he saved other lives and was awarded two life-saving recognitions by PTPD.
Mark DuMond was also an author. He had self-published one novel and had hopes about doing more writing in his retirement. The head injuries he suffered may make that a difficult dream to achieve. I’m not counting him out. He has a regular column here if he ever wants it.
Lessons for Port Townsend City Council
Reducing our police force any more will get people hurt and killed. Already officers patrol the city alone. That is extremely dangerous for them and the community. It makes it more likely they will have to use the weapons at their waist to defend themselves and others. A single officer could never have handled Mr. Beal. If four officers from other agencies had not been available to join the two from PTPD, Officer Dumond would likely not have been the only officer whose career came to an early end. (JCSO Deputy Brian Peterson was also injured but recovered. This article initially incorrectly identified WSP Trooper Hodgson as the other injured officer.).
A social worker cannot deal with these situations. A social worker would have been quickly killed. PTPD recognizes the limitations of its social worker–the navigator–who frequently requests police presence when he contacts individuals in homeless camps or those who may pose a danger to him or others.
The circumstances of every “mental health incident” need to be examined. They are not just nervous breakdowns or anxiety attacks. It is frequently individuals with a mental health issue who are responsible for some of the most horrific and senseless acts of violence. The focus must first be on the primary obligation of government: protection of the public’s safety and well-being, and that of first responders. If first responders are not safe, no one is.
The solution is not to reduce public safety resources by replacing trained officers with social workers with a badge. The solution is to supplement our law enforcement agencies with resources to keep these events from happening. Sheriff Joe Nole has it right on this point. He has resisted the quiet, behind-the-scenes talk of filling an open deputy position with a social worker. Instead, he is seeking a grant to hire JCSO’s own navigator. Most of law enforcement’s interactions with the public are with the same troubled individuals, over and over. Whether it is mental health or addiction, they consume law enforcement time and resources. Nole hopes that a navigator can work with these individuals to avoid repeat encounters. That is realistic. The notion that a social worker can handle these people when they’ve crossed their personal double-yellow line is beyond foolish.
De-escalation models have their place, but first responders must have wide discretion to decide when to use them, or when use of force is necessary. Decisionmakers must address the fact that de-escalation models may likely result in more frequent and greater physical injury to first responders. That is because they must often use their bodies in place of other tools to control a situation.
Decisionmakers should also not do anything to make first responders hesitate when they must act quickly and decisively to prevent injury and loss of life. Worry about being run through a gauntlet of investigation, second-guessing. litigation, and public excoriation when they use force to save life can make an officer pause, or decide it is not worth the risk to him or her to act. The threat of prosecution and jail time for making a wrong split-second decision–or just the risk that their actions will be unfairly judged–would freeze anyone in their tracks. Yet officers continue to step up whenever they are called upon to act.
Every member of City Council should do two things before their next meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Law Enforcement and Public Safety. They need to get out of their ivory tower and into a patrol car to learn the job of the police, and what is out there on our streets and in our dark woods. One or two have done this, but that is all. The remainder continue to cling to their ignorance as though that is a more comfortable place from which to make difficult decisions. And they need to do these rides more than once. My first ride with a PT officer was an almost comical night, the sort of caricature you get in the selectively reported police and sheriff’s logs The Leader chooses to publish. You know, the angry man shouting at racoons in the woods scenarios. On my second ride, I saw an officer assaulted and threatened with harm to his family, and a man in Kah Tai Park who was almost dead until Officer DuMond brought him around.
Every member of City Council should review the file on this incident and study the body cam recordings. The images are artificially blurred because events transpired inside a health care facility. But one can sense the size of Mr. Beal and feel the ferocity of his violence when it erupted. And one can hear the extreme professionalism of every officer, especially lead officer Mark DuMond. And with that will come an appreciation of what Port Townsend lost when it lost the services of a remarkable public servant.
Epilogue
Mr. Beal served about four months in jail on a sentencing deal recommended by the Jefferson County Prosecutor. He is back in the community.
The Port Townsend Police Department held a ceremony to recognize Officer DuMond’s contributions and sacrifice. He received the first purple heart medal awarded by the Department in decades. The City Council did nothing to recognize his service. The next meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Law Enforcement and Public Safety is set for December 28, 2020.
[This article has been edited for accuracy.]
by Jim Scarantino | Dec 1, 2020 | General
The homeless/transient camp at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds has doubled in size since this summer. I am adding the descriptor “squatters camp” because that is what this is. The occupants of the tents and RVs, whatever the reasons for their circumstances, are squatting. They are taking and using camping spaces, bathrooms, water and sewer utilities and trash collection services without paying for what they are getting.
But almost all of them, maybe all of them, are capable of paying for all or some part of their way. Starting this summer a collective decision was made and word passed through the camp that Governor’s eviction moratorium to address fallout from the COVID crisis meant they could stay without paying. Nobody could could tell them to go.
During my first visit three months ago, the spokesman for the largest faction was cooking steaks for everyone and boasted how he and others had plenty of money to pay but were not going to pay a cent since they could not be evicted. (A female camper complained to the Board of County Commissioners that this man was using his power over the camp’s food supply to punish people who displeased him and was also involved in drug dealing. She requested anonymity. The Commissioners spoke her name out loud in public meeting and she had to flee to the camp in fear of reprisal. Yes, these people watch the BOCC’s Zoom meetings and cruise the Internet where they see stories published here.)
The occupants of the camp are mostly those who will not live in organized shelters. They will not observe rules against drug and alcohol use. Some of them have been thrown out of shelters for their aggressive behavior. They want to keep their pets instead of accepting the charity of a warm, dry bed. They don’t want the accountability that comes with supervised communal living. Some are just criminals. Those “bad apples,” as one of the occupants of the camp called them on my latest visit, “are smearing the rest of us.”
But “the rest of us” are also squatters escaping accountability on various levels.
They have their many problems, many of which are deserving of sympathy. But they also bring big problems with them, problems that get dumped on other people.
Please see our earlier stories for the costs this sprawling camp is imposing on the surrounding neighborhood, the Fairgrounds Association and the camp manager who never signed on for anything like this. He and another helper are caring for, picking up after and cleaning bathrooms for this constantly expanding encampment that has rendered the Fairgrounds unusable and undesirable for anything else.
by Brett Nunn | Dec 1, 2020 | General
In April of 2020, a professor of medicine at Stanford University led a study to determine what percentage of the population had actually been exposed to COVID 19. He was testing for seroprevalence, or evidence of COVID antibodies in a person’s blood.
He was able to show that there were fifty times more infections than identified cases. His results were affirmed with eighty-two similar studies from around the world. What this scientifically derived data demonstrates is that the actual WuHan COVID fatality rate is 0.2 percent, not 3.0 percent, that is two deaths for every thousand, not three deaths for every hundred.
For perspective, in 2018, the most recent year for which I could find data, the plain old influenza/pneumonia fatality rate from Washington State Department of Health statistics was 1.7 percent.
The majority of people who are infected by COVID have very mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. These people were not identified in the early days, which resulted in a highly misleading fatality rate. That is what drove public policy. Even worse, it continues to sow fear and panic, because the perception of too many people about COVID is frozen in the misleading data from March.
From A Sensible and Compassionate Anti-COVID Strategy, by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University, October 9th, 2020
More good news,
We have all heard the rumors of asymptomatic spreaders. It could even be you or me feeling fine as we walk about town, shedding the COVID virus everywhere we go.
Research early in the pandemic suggested that the rate of asymptomatic infections could be as high as 81%. But a meta-analysis published last month, which included 13 studies involving 21,708 people, calculated the rate of asymptomatic presentation to be 17%. Bianca Nogrady, Nature.com, November 18, 2020.
The study referred in this article at Nature.com, Estimating the extent of asymptomatic COVID-19 and its potential for community transmission: Systematic review and meta analysis, was published October 9, 2020 on the peer reviewed website of the Journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada.
The authors found asymptomatic individuals to be a much smaller percentage of the population that was much less likely to transmit the virus.
“Our estimates of the proportion of asymptomatic cases and their risk of transmission suggest that asymptomatic spread is unlikely to be a major driver of clusters or community transmission of infection”.
Last, but not least.
In Denmark, over the months of April and May of 2020, when “masks were uncommon and not among recommended public health measures”, researchers completed a study using 4862 participants above the age of eighteen as a test of the theory that masks reduce the risk of contracting SARS-cov-2.
The study revealed, “Infection with SARS-cov-2 occurred in 42 participants recommended masks, 1.9% and in 53 control participants, 2.1%” who did not wear masks.
The researchers concluded, “The recommendation to wear a surgical mask when outside the home did not reduce, at conventional levels of statistical significance, the incidence of SARS-covid-2 infection in mask wearers.”
Check out the study for yourself at ACPjournals.com, Effectiveness Of Adding A Mask Recommendation To Other Public Health Measures To Prevent SARS-cov-2 Infection In Danish Mask Wearers.
In a world in which facts no longer matter and the truth is relative I don’t expect accurate data provided through scientific research to change anything. The bureaucracies that rule our lives are like the giant container ships that cruise by Port Townsend every day. Once they are up to speed and moving in a certain direction there is very little anyone can do to change their course. Regardless, I provide this information with the hope that as individuals we can decide whether we want to continue to live in fear of each other, or lead the way forward to a time when we can be together once again.
by Craig Durgan | Nov 30, 2020 | General
“There wasn’t a county in the U.S. where a minimum wage worker clocking in 40 hours a week could afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment in 2019.” That’s according to a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. This seems to be a sad reality. Right here in Jefferson County it is a very big concern.
Of course, politicians talk about affordable housing. They spout important- sounding proclamations. They empanel task forces and have meetings and churn out lots of paper about affordable housing.
What has all this wheel-spinning accomplished?
The only incorporated city in Jefferson County, Port Townsend, has spent a ton of money and donated valuable land in a pathetic attempt at a solution. I speak of the Cherry Street Project. It has been written about in detail on this website for going on four years. Cherry Street is a fiasco. In the end it will likely have to be demolished. It never did make any sense.
A while back the county donated land to OlyCap to build affordable housing. They rolled out plans for a costly multi-story apartment building. Nothing more has happened.
About the only thing happening is the growing homeless camp at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds.
Why is there so much talk and no meaningful action? Well, it would appear that government is not the answer. They can’t seem to get anything done. They have the land but they lack the skill set and/or the will to produce tangible results.
According to the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University there are four reasons for the lack of affordable housing.
The first is that incomes for many workers are just too low compared to the cost of housing.
“Some people think that full-time workers can afford housing, but that’s a myth. In some housing markets, only workers earning hourly wages of $30 or more can comfortably afford housing. In fact, there is no metro area in which full-time workers earning the Federal minimum wage can comfortably afford the costs of a typical 2-bedroom rental unit.
“On average, a worker needs to earn $20.30 an hour to afford a typical 2-bedroom apartment. In other words, someone earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour would need to work almost three full-time jobs in order to afford a typical two-bedroom apartment. And the problem is getting worse, not better. Incomes for low- and moderate-income workers have largely stagnated while housing costs have risen.”
The second reason is closely related to the first: for-profit developers generally don’t respond to the demand for housing among lower-income households.
“It’s not because they don’t want to, it’s because they can’t. The rents and home prices that many households can afford to pay are too low to cover the costs of developing and operating newly constructed housing. Some households’ incomes are too low to cover even the costs of maintaining and insuring existing housing.”
A third problem is that certain types of government regulation raise production costs and reduce the overall supply of all types of housing.
“For example, limits on density restrict the number of homes that can be built on available land, and complicated and lengthy approvals processes can slow down the construction process and even cause developers to go elsewhere, making it difficult for the supply of housing to keep pace with increases in demand and rising housing prices throughout the entire housing market.
“It may seem counterintuitive, but it’s true: limits on construction of middle- and high-end housing also affect affordability in the lower half of the housing market. Too little building for moderate- and high-income households hurts people further down the income spectrum, because moderate- and higher income households end up driving up rents on units that would otherwise be relatively affordable.
“There are good reasons for many government regulations. But it’s important to remember that increases in development costs are often passed on to families. We should at least take a hard look at regulations that affect development costs to figure out whether they are unavoidable and the benefits outweigh the costs, which can run to the tens of thousands of dollars per unit.
“Reducing regulation will not lower costs enough to make new housing development for low-income households economical without government subsidies, but it could make housing more affordable for families in the middle.”
A final problem is a lack of government funding.
“To expand the availability of affordable homes, federal, state and local governments fund a range of programs that successfully house millions of families. Unfortunately, these programs are not keeping pace with the need. Federal housing assistance over the past 15 years has been stagnant or declining at the same time that the number of renters with very low incomes (less than 50% of AMI) is increasing. Currently, only about one in four eligible households with a housing burden receives government housing assistance of any kind.”
In considering these four issues it would seem that our local governments could encourage and promote economic development to support a better job base, lower the cost to build by easing land use regulations and contribute part of their tax revenue from increased growth to very low income housing
Neither the city nor the county have done much to promote economic development. In fact, they have severely restricted economic development through tight land use regulations. This action means that there are not enough family wage jobs to support a healthy community. Because there are not enough jobs there is also a lack of tax revenue that could go toward affordable housing. In addition, due to the restrictive land use regulations there is no good place to build affordable housing.
We do not lack the land. We lack the will in our government to actually solve this issue. It has been government policy and regulation that has created the affordable housing crisis here. Why does it continue? Because that is what the majority of voters keep voting for. All the talk of affordable housing, living wage jobs or family wage jobs means nothing as long as voters do not want real change. As a result, we will continue to turn Jefferson County into a place for only the well off.
My school motto is “Acta non Verba.” Deeds not Words. That is the only mindset that will make any difference in our affordable housing crisis.
by Jim Scarantino | Nov 27, 2020 | General
[Update: In the 24 hours since this story was published, the death rate in Washington for COVID infections has dropped another 5.6%.]
The number of people currently hospitalized for COVID in Washington is higher than its has ever been, and so is the number of people on ventilators. But the number of people dying from COVID is now so relatively small that the overall death rate has dropped dramatically.
As of 11/24/20, the last Department of Health reporting date, 886 people with a suspected or laboratory confirmed COVID infection are hospitalized. 102 people are on ventilators. The number of people who have died from COVID from the start stands at 2,704. But in recent weeks so few additional deaths have been attributed to COVID as a cause of death (not the cause, which is very rarely the case) that the overall mortality rate for COVID infections has dropped to 1.8%.
That rate would be terrifying were it the daily, marginal rate, meaning that for every 100 new infections, almost two people would die. But that is the average for all infections since data started being collected. The mortality rate was over 5% earlier this year. To drop so sharply in the space of several months means that the absence of large number of new COVID deaths has pulled the overall average down by more than 80%.
That greater survival rate is no doubt due to the improved skill and knowledge of medical professionals in treating COVID, as well as the possibility that the virus may have weakened. It may also be due to the fact vulnerable populations are doing a better job of protecting themselves, and that state government ended the practice of sending elderly COVID patients to nursing homes to free up hospital capacity–which was never in danger of being overwhelmed, as we have previously reported.
For months at the start of the crisis, Governor Inslee returned elderly COVID patients to nursing homes where the virus raged. Those facilities accounted for large concentrations of COVID deaths. 90% of all COVID deaths are among those above age 60. These people suffered from pre-existing serious health conditions. His administration offered monetary incentives to nursing home facilities to take back COVID patients and he rolled back regulations that made it possible for nursing homes to take in sick patients, even as he was publicly making contrary statements about how the virus should be fought.
Reporters with The Post Millenial uncovered public records documenting Inslee’s actions that contributed to early COVID spread and deaths among elderly patients. Their report may be read and the records viewed at this link: Washington Governor Inslee revealed to have sent COVID patients into nursing homes | The Post Millennial
Jefferson County has had one COVID death, a ninety-year old woman who was at the time already in hospice. Of the county’s reported 152 confirmed infections, 15 of those people have been hospitalized, some as little as an overnight stay for observation.
Related: CDC Release COVID Survival Rates and It’s Very Good News, PTFP 9/24/20
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