Seattle councilwoman likens fence around 'The Jungle' to wall along US-Mexico border
SEATTLE -- Seattle city councilwoman Lorena González said she would not support a proposal to build a fence around a 150-acre homeless camp underneath Interstate 5, likening it to building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In an op-ed for the Seattle Times, González said the $1 million proposal floated by State Sen. Reuven Carlyle would create “an artificial magnet for crime and tragedy” inside “The Jungle,” a 3-mile long homeless camp at the southern edge of the city.
“I think that as a policy issue, we sometimes think that just erecting these barriers is a solution, that it will ultimately resolve in preventing people from being in a certain area or create some sort of disincentive for people to come into that area,” González told Q13 News This Morning.
“We understand that as a nation, the use of fences has frankly been a failed policy in regards to public safety, in regards to our immigration policy, and I think that the analogy is very similar in a sense that we know that polices around erecting fences don’t work.”
González said she would support fencing off or barricading some of the more dangerous areas of "The Jungle," where a drug-related shooting left five people dead in January.
The city has been mulling whether to close the camp, with Mayor Ed Murray saying he supports shutting it down once those living there have had an adequate opportunity to receive services.