[jlgreco]

> "If you want to find a scapegoat for panhandling, I'd first turn to the recession..."

How many of those homeless people are on the streets because they lost their factory jobs and the bank kicked them out of their McMansion? I am guessing very few.

The recession didn't make these people heroin addicts or mentally ill. The homeless people that make people concerned about walking around downtown Seattle during the evening aren't the "couchsurfing until I can find a new job" kind of homeless people.

Pointing at the state of healthcare, mental or otherwise, hits the nail on the head. That is a problem larger than Seattle though.