Sarah’s mom is in town visiting, so I’ve spent a fair amount of time this weekend wandering around the city. After a pan handler had approached us for change, she commented that Seattle seemed to have a lot of homeless people and that the city should do something about it.

I just did a few searches and discovered that even though Seattle is the 23rd largest city in the US by population, we’re 7th in terms of number of homeless.

Huh.

I went to school in Philly and I work in Pioneer Square, so I don’t really think twice about bums on the street. Still, I was a bit surprised by these statistics, especially considering Seattle’s liberal culture. This is purely conjecture, but perhaps its the liberal culture that’s the root of the high homeless rate. Seattle is a pretty tolerant city - maybe the stigma of living on the street is blunted here.