KP's Growing Homeless Problem

As a business owner in the Key Center Corral, I have had several very unpleasant encounters with homeless people. Some will argue that they are kind and sweet people and for the most part they are. However, when their demons take over and they need a fix, they become belligerent and downright dangerous. One actually picked up an 80-pound bench and was trying to throw it through my front window when the deputy sheriff arrived.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said they have exhausted all resources for these people, including putting them up free in motels (where they are soon thrown out because of causing a disturbance), free rehab (that they quickly leave to return to life on the street and drugs), and free rides to the edge of town only to have them make their way back a few days later.

They clutter the KC Corral with shopping carts overflowing with sleeping bags, blankets, food and water, leaving behind empty cans, bottles and plastic wrappers for the business owners to pick up. They think nothing of shooting heroin into their arms and legs right in front of the shop windows and then crashing, passed out on benches reserved for customers.

Looking at Seattle and now Tacoma, anyone can deduce that turning a blind eye is not the way to solve the problem. I would think that this would concern not only the business owners in Key Center, but the entire community.

Nita Garnier. Yankee Clipper Barber Shop, KC Corral