- Seattle may try San Francisco’s ‘radical hospitality’ for homeless, By Daniel Beekman, June 11, 2016, Seattle Times: “Denise and Michael were relaxing on a sunny Friday afternoon. She sat on their bed in pajamas, folding laundry, while he roughhoused with their friend’s pit bull. Soul standards were blaring from a boombox. There was something homey about the scene, even though the couple were homeless. Denise and Michael were inside San Francisco’s Navigation Center, an experimental shelter where guests come and go as they please and where pets, partners and possessions are welcome…”
- Houston’s solution to the homeless crisis: Housing — and lots of it, By Daniel Beekman, June 13, 2016, Seattle Times: “Anthony Humphrey slept on the pavement outside a downtown Houston drop-in center. Except when a Gulf Coast rainstorm slammed the city — then he took cover under a storefront awning or below Interstate 45. He had no driver’s license, no Social Security card, almost no hope. That was in 2014. This month, Humphrey will celebrate a year in his apartment…”
Tag: Washington
Minimum Wage
- $12 vs. $15 minimum-wage debate continues between economists, experts, politicians, By Olivera Perkins, January 7, 2016, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Go to any minimum wage rally in the past few years, and there is one number dominating the event: $15. It’s scrawled on the bouncing placards held by rally goers. Emblazoned on their banners. Laced through their chants. But many economists and other think tank experts, even those supporting a substantial hike to the federal minimum wage, are questioning if $15 is too high. For many of them, $12 is more realistic or probable, especially if it is phased-in by 2020…”
- Some businesses say Nebraska’s $9 minimum wage will be a burden, but others just shrug, By Janice Podsada, January 6, 2016, Omaha World-Herald: “The sometimes rough-and-tumble job of refereeing ’25 to 75 large dogs at serious play’ now pays $9 an hour at an Omaha doggie day care facility, but that’s just to start. If new employees work out, ‘they’ll see their pay raised to $10 an hour after a few weeks,’ said Renee Johnson, owner of ComeSitStay, a dog day care and overnight boarding facility at 180th and Harrison Streets. On Jan. 1, Nebraska’s minimum wage leapt to $9 an hour for nontipped workers from $8 in 2015, a 12.5 percent increase…”
- Push begins to increase Oregon minimum wage, By Ed Russo, January 8, 2016, Register-Guard: “With the Legislature preparing to convene, activists say they are launching a signature-gathering drive to increase Oregon’s minimum wage within two years to $13.50 an hour. The Portland-based Raise the Wage Coalition said Thursday that it will ‘hit the streets in communities across the state’ to collect the 89,000 signatures required to put Initiative Petition 58 on the November ballot. If approved by voters, the measure would raise the statewide minimum hourly wage to $13.50 by 2018…”
- Oregon, Washington slide as leaders in minimum wage, By Jeff Mapes, January 7, 2016, Oregon Public Broadcasting: “After a decade of mandating the highest minimum wages in the country, Washington and Oregon are now dropping back in the pack. Six other states jumped past Washington and Oregon – which had been ranked No. 1 and No. 2 since 2005 – at the start of the new year, thanks largely to efforts in several legislatures around the country to raise the wage floor for workers…”
Court Fines and the Poor – Washington
Poor offenders must be asked if they can afford to pay fines, state Supreme Court says, By Mike Carter, March 12, 2015, Seattle Times: “The state Supreme Court, citing the burden imposed on poor defendants by uncollectable court fees and fines, has reiterated that judges must ask about a defendant’s ability to pay so-called ‘legal financial obligations’ (LFO), and not impose them if they can’t be paid. The justices found the state’s LFO system ‘carries problematic consequences’ for poor offenders, can impede their ability to re-enter society and can contribute to recidivism. The high court sent two cases back to Pierce County for resentencing based on findings that sentencing judges, at the prosecutor’s request, imposed costs, fees and fines of more than $3,300 in one instance and $2,200 in another without first determining whether either man could pay…”