Any politician who smiles while a resident is angry should be immediately removed from office !!!

Seattle; where plastic straws are banned but not needles

I used to be homeless I used to use drugs God help me get off of drugs I've been clean for 40 years.

Im an OTR trucker who runs West Coast . Seattle ,Portland and Oakland were the worst places I had to go to. Think about that for a minute.

“The government you elect is the government you deserve.” - Thomas Jefferson

This documentary is FOUR years old. Nothing has gotten better. Heart wrenching.

i'm a retired psychiatric nurse and once upon a time we used to be able to put the mentally ill in hospitals and supervise their medication , That was deemed unconstitutional and agaist their several rights. yet it doesn't seem to be agaist our rights to be exposed to the Travis's of this world

What an excellent program. I am a recovering alcoholic/addict and this program was my meeting for today. Thanks for showing the ugly truth of addiction and the hope that comes with treatment and structure!!🙏🏿

The only thing that isn’t going downhill in Seattle is the cost of living. Absolute insanity.

Portland is dying too. Only difference is our news stations here don't have the cojones to produce a documentary like this one.

5 years later and it’s still bad :(

Meanwhile, in Spokane, my stepson, only 3 months out of prison relapsed on meth two times. He entered a house, stole only their phones and left. When the police found him, he begged them to shoot him. He was given 16 years in prison. The contrast is insane. He had no violent crimes and had never been to treatment. Just prison over and over again. Sad.

People mocked this documentary at the time of it's release. "No!! Seattle isn't dying!! It's thriving." Four years later and it's worse than ever. I used to love Seattle. We don't go there anymore and haven't for years. This *is* a long, slow and painful death. It's heartbreaking and shameful.

The people of seattle and portland voted this in. They got what they voted for. what seems to be the problem--- if you don't like it change the way you vote-period

5 years later, it’s only gotten worse.

I live on the opposite side of the country and love this video. one of the best examples of journalism of all time.

"They live in filth and despair, like animals." Animals don't live like that.

Good thing there’s no plastic straws cluttering the streets

When I was a kid I remembered the US was a dream country, now it is scary to even think about to go there, so sad about this

Here I am watching this 4 years later and I bet it's worse than ever.

ABC did this? *ABC did this!?!* It's actually _journalism_ . I almost forgot how to spell that word. Well, good job Eric. I hope they don't fire you.

Scoop everyone up in busses, hand them 50 bucks and drop them off on city councilors lawns to their new home.

This makes me so sad. I used to spend a lot of time in Seattle around 2005/2006 and i fell in love with the city. Last time i was there in 2018 i didn’t even recognize it anymore. I hyped it up so much to my family about how beautiful and amazing it was there, to call it "embarrassing" is an understatement.

One thing to note is that putting homeless people and drug addicts in prison doesn't solve the problem. It costs about $30,000 to take care of one prisoner per year and about $7000 to take care of one homeless person per year in homeless shelter. Homelessness and drug addiction should be handled by the federal government with delegation to state, county and city authorities. That way if someone is deemed to be drug addict or homeless, they can go into a recovery program anywhere in the states. This will remove pressure from cities like Seattle.

Citizens, you don't have to accept this. Recall your city council person. Put someone in office who will tell the police to enforce the law.

I lived there, paid taxes, paid fees, I never recieved any COMPASSION, I sold everything and moved away. YOU can provide COMPASION, I'm out.

I moved out of Seattle to find out it’s all of Washington as a whole. Small towns smaller cities. Moved out of state and wow felt like pleasantville. Happier and nicer people and when I talk about crime in Washington they say wow that’s like our small pockets of ghettos. Just blows my mind how people in Wa thinks it’s so great or it will eventually get better. Only get worst. As a German that was hired as an engineer I thought sorry U.S my time is limited here but my new home begs to differ. Oh and before you say go back… U.S hired me due to limited in my profession. I’m what U.S use to be get the best.

Sad to say, it's worse today. DON'T VISIT SEATTLE.

Vote out these city Council members if you want to see change

The mayor and all the city council members need to get LOCKED UP 🔐

homeless is a whole differernt story than drug infested crimials PERIOD

As a former social worker in Seattle, I was outraged when I first saw this video, furious at the lack of compassion I perceived by those speaking out against what homelessness has done to the city. Now, I can’t help but to agree with it. And to think… it has only gotten worse in the last 5 years.

The elected officials of Seattle and Washington continue to take their salaries, benefits, per diems, and live in gated homes while not taking care of their city and state.

I used to say Seattle looks like a clean San Francisco. Now it just looks like San Francisco.

Compassion becomes neglect when there is no support system or meaningful intervention. Thank you for this thoughtful and thorough reporting.

It's an absolute disgrace! What has become of our society?

The trash in Seattle is located in city hall. The trash IS THE CITY COUNCIL.

''Drug problem not a homeless problem'' I guess the Seattle Space Needle is the city icon for a reason.

Thank you for showing me that our cities, in Canada and the US, have similar problems and the solution is quite simple. Thoroughly enjoyed the documentary and would love to see more.

THE VOTER IS RESPONSIBLE. If I was still using drugs, I would take a bus to Seattle.

If people of Seattle are fed up with what’s going on, why aren’t they voting out the Mayor and the city council??

Seattle Mayor: “It is wrong to conflate homelessness with a rise in crime”. SMH 🤦‍♀️

When this came out I was in a master of social work program and I heard it was biased against the unhoused. After watching it just now, 5 years later, I think it is the opposite actually. I am an ex-drug addict and the ONLY reason I made it out and on to get my MSW and now in private practice is because I was arrested in 2003 and the judge required that I get a drug assessment. Had I not been arrested, had the judge not looked beyond the standard 8 hour class for misdemeanor marijuana possession, had the system not worked, I would not be where I am today. What is going on in our city is actually cruel to the unhoused, addicted, those who struggle with mental health. Gabor Mate has written and spoken about the links between childhood trauma and addiction, yes drugs are a major factor, but it's what is driving the behavior. We CAN do what Rhode Island does and have unhoused rehabilitation just like drug rehabilitation centers. Eric Johnson deserves a lot of credit for this. I didn't see it at the time and wish I had. Editing to add that the majority of chronically unhoused were previously in the foster system, meaning they have no family and a traumatic childhood, and veterans. We can and should do better

Eric and team did a good job on this documentary. There's no simple way out of this mess, but one thing is certain: ignoring the law and its enforcement is exacerbating the problem.

Anyone else watching this after the police chief resigned?

The Seattle city council and the state legislature have obviously confused compassion with stupidity.

I'm french , and I came from Paris to visit Seattle for the 5 times ... and I was shocked by this problem ... My sister can't smoke cigarette in the city with a lot of advertisement on the front of building every where and we agree that with ... but in same time we seen some people take a shoot of heroin on pavement during afternoon , with a police car at few meters from them .. On the front of McDonald's on Pine street , this is a not a "food store" anymore , but a "drug store" , drug dealers sold their products without any problems , no incident for them... As European , I love to travel in US , I worked and visit US so many times , Chicago , San Francisco , Las Vegas , New York , Seattle ... but I think it's my last travel in Seattle ... can't come with kids to be unsecured and see this decline ... I hope the situation will be lead by responsible people.

Seattle doesn’t have a homelessness problem it has a Godlessness problem.

Somebody should be brave and discrete, pick up all of the garbage and dump it in the politicians front yards.

Seattle - why don't you start at the root cause, vote the current city leaders out of the office!

Seattle was once a beautiful city.....

Mr. Johnson, what you said about McNeil Island is what would work, if Federal, State, County, community etc all work together. I’ve been saying this for years. It takes people to collectively help the lost souls. This is a great documentary, thank you for your hard work.

Two years after this aired, Seattle is worse than ever

Seattle is being assaulted from within. Clean out city hall and then clean up the street.

We should also blame news reporters, for never reporting the truth and questioning the corruption

Interesting documentary. The global movement away from institutionalisation pushed people at risk of mental health and addiction disorders out into the community without adequate supports in place. The solution presented is returning to Institutional models. I know that Britain continues to have rehab facilities where addicts and mental health patients can recover before a structured return to life in the community. As long as these places are run properly where abuse isn’t able to go hidden then I think this is a good solution for many.

TELL IT LIKE IT IS KOMO NEWS. you earned my respect

Glad I left when I did. They forgot to tell you how horribly expensive it is to live there to pay for all this... privilege.

This video is 5 years old and people started complaining that time and in 2020 they have voted for same people and government…😢

5 years later and it’s just getting worse.

Wow this is a year old. Probably could never imagine how much worse it has gotten in the last few months.

Who’s watching this after Oregon decriminalized coke, heroine and meth?

Actually the “third world” doesn’t have this level of trash and despair. My cousin from Mexico came here and was shocked at the dysfunction and overt inequality in the U.S.

I would like to know if Seattle and Washington in general vote Liberal. Possibly the citizens are getting what they asked for. The grinning city councilman tells the tail.

I mean look at seattle now. The mayor seems like she doesnt care about that damned place.

If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention! Bravo, KOMO and Eric Johnson!

Once they voted for no police interference. It all went to shit

The lady that relocated her boutique to another city is going to be the norm. The officials are encouraging it

Simple way to fix the problem. The locals pool together and pay the drug addicts to live and camp outside the Mayor, the city council workers and Attorneys houses Watch it change overnight.

I am born and raised the PNW. Seattle is about 20 minutes from me. Between the insane housing costs and the homeless, I don't know anyone who plans to live in Seattle. It's sad. I won't be bringing anymore of my friends to Seattle.

You should never compare it to a concentration camp. A concentration camp meant you were forced to go oh and nobody made you take a pill or put a needle in your arm the first time. We’ve taken the guts out of the law and we’ve taken compassion out of helping the desperate and we’re basically running lawlessness in favor of what?

I agree, mandatory treatment or jail!

THIS guy is a journalist. I am completely moved.

I'd bet those on the city council live in protected, gated neighborhoods, and never go downtown Seattle. They don't care about anyone else.

Every state is dealing with this and now with the borders wide open it's only going to get worse.

I thought this was a Harris/ Walz campaign ad.

^They are getting exactly the leadership they voted for.

If Seattle is dying then LA is already a zombie

OUTSTANDING journalism!👏

5 years ago. And look at it all now. Born in San Diego. Served in the Marine Corps. I kept my standards but realized this is the way civilians are by nature. I hold myself above all of that because I am a Marine Corps veteran whether I am down or up in life.

2020: Seattle is DEAD. Drugs and homelessness aren't your only problems, Seattle, but you knew that.

The only cure is to replace the politicians that are ignoring the problems or outright denying that the problems exist.

and what has changed ? Nothing

Don’t forget to write and thank your democratic leaders. They did this!

The politicians don't care. This is how they stay rich.

first real journalism i have seen in years thank you

An excellent documentary which honestly and fairly represents all the issues.❤ and all these homeless situations have the same thing in common so you can replace it with any other City😢

What a thoughtful man. Heartbreaking 😢

You would be hard-pressed to find a single conservative among the prosecutors, judges, and city council members.

HOW does that guy flipping out NOT get tazed??!! Allowed to spit? And still no consequence? Spitting alone is an act of assault. Very perplexed.

Excellent documentary reliable, objective and with facts. Hard to find nowadays.

This makes me do angry...Seattle Arise!!! Vote these EVIL people OUT!!!

The city council literally sits back and smiles as the people voice their outrage.

Hey, Im a homeless guy. Ill tell you exactly why people leave shelters: they cant take being degraded by the staff. I live in one and i can barely hold it together. I can assure you, doing drugs in here isnt an issue so long as you pay your rent and the manager and his inner circle get their nazi salutes. Lots of the staff are nice, but a lot get into the business for a power trip and either dont know or dont care that theyre treating their fellow humans as garbage. Long term id like to work in a homeless shelter. Most of the staff dont know what its like, but i do. And no, im not injecting drugs and leaving the needles in parks or stealing stuff. That sort of behavior is out of order. But i dont see whats wrong with me smoking some marijuana while i go for a walk. I dont bother anyone and i dont even like to drop cigarette ends. They go in my pocket. I respect nature. I am on ritalin, which helps a lot, but at the end of the day, its hard living in a place where you have no autonomy and you dont know when someone will suddenly shout at you, ask you questions and be unsatisfied with the answers etc. I am not addicted to hard drugs, but that doesnt make me any better than someone who is, so long as they try to be a good person. I found this documentary pretty degrading. Most homeless people i know are not like this. I wouldnt associate with them if they were. I have tried to get a job and i cant. The job center said i "wasnt ready" because i self harm. I wouldnt do that if i could feel safe, which isnt an option when your life is controlled by people you dont trust, with good reason.

One of the problems with creating a housing community, even with tiny houses, is it will require a lot of policing also

Being in LA I always thought Seattle was a great city. I had no idea Seattle is suffering like the quiet cousin who's hooked on drugs but no one noticed.

That guy laughing needs to be fired immediately.

Wow, I was raised in the islands since 1959. Moved to Colorado in 1988. This makes me so sad. 😢

What an excellent documentary. We all need to do better. Few realize how close we all are in the comfort and security our lives to the streets and life of loneliness, self-medication, deteriorating mental health and death.

So this is dated March 19, 2019, Seattle's problem is much older than chaz/chop.