Early Monday morning I looked at my first choice in public housing.  Wrote off my second choice because it was three miles from the nearest bus stop and it was a run down house that catered to hippies, on the top of a very steep hill.  The third choice was also three miles from the nearest bus stop and far into the boondocks, not near anything.

Thanks to my friend, Emma, she researched my three choices before I arrived, saving me long bus trips on my second and third choices, and affirming that it was worth my time to look at my first choice.

Met with the housing authority next door, and they were very nice, where they informed me that I was not on the wait list of my first choice.  Chances are my application was still in the mail when they closed the waitlist.  They told me that in the last year they had only one opening for a one bedroom.

Looked at the apartment complex, which was very clean, and the only other positive was that there was a good clinic next door.  The downside was that the neighborhood was filthy.  The bus shelter across the building had a resident homeless person sleeping there, and it was filthy and stunk.  The supermarket across the street was filthy and smelled of rotting meat.  The only other good thing was there was a Seattle Light Rail Station a block away, but I was accosted by an aggressive panhandler (the only time this happened during my one week visit to Seattle).

What is the upshot of all of this?  The Seattle Housing Authority is overwhelmed by the large number of homeless and really does not have the resources for anyone that lives outside of Seattle, which I fully understand.

In defense of the homeless, there was a homeless man who lived by my hotel (there is literally a homeless person living on every block in Seattle) and he was clean shaven and clean.  Suspect he was an educated and good man who went to Seattle looking for a job and he ran out of resources, landing him in the streets.

Seattle is a great place to live if you can afford the high rents and high mortgages.  Housing is expensive.

Please don't count on public housing, especially if you don't drive.

For the rest of my week, I explored Seattle, and I hope to learn all I can, in order to bring back knowledge to my own hometown, for which I am grateful.