[throwawaysea]

Two points:

1. I find the use of the word 'dehumanize' to be unnecessary and hyperbolic. This is commonly used to shut down opinions that concern some cohort of people. It is not precise or helpful, and is an appeal to emotion. I didn't state anywhere that homeless people aren't human. I did state that people need to live within their means, obey the laws, respect public spaces, and not be coddled by lax/unequal enforcement of laws. That's not dehumanizing, it is common sense. The proliferation of tents, trash, drug abuse, and property crime in Seattle is wholly unacceptable and the result of short-sighted governance. Pushing back on bad policy to protect my interests is not dehumanizing someone else - if anything, those who trash this otherwise beautiful city are dehumanizing its residents.

2. I addressed this specific survey that you linked to in my comment. The point in time survey is not rigorous. It does not verify the identities or past backgrounds of any respondents. It relies solely on their goodwill to answer truthfully. The homeless who respond have an incentive to lie about where they are from, because making it look like they are long-time local residents is more likely to result in public support for them. The volunteers who conduct these surveys are all either participants in the homeless industrial complex (see https://www.city-journal.org/seattle-homelessness) or are activists who ideologically support the homeless. These volunteers coach homeless to respond in ways that are favorable to the homeless themselves, to these organizations that constitute the homeless-industrial complex, and the ideologies of those same activists. The only data that would be acceptable regarding the origins of the homeless is strongly-verified/provable identification of respondents. Anything short of that is not rigorous and acceptable, and therefore it is not a myth to claim that the majority of homeless people in Seattle are transients from elsewhere.