Spencer Pratt says LA’s homeless will move to Seattle if elected. The mayor of that city answered
The Mayor of Seattle, Katie Wilson, dismissed the claim of Spencer Pratt, who was running for Mayor of Los Angeles, that if he is elected, the homeless people of LA will move to Seattle to take advantage of that city’s drug laws.
Pratt said this during an interview with ABC’s Josh Haskell, where he said that more than 40,000 homeless people in the city choose to live on the streets.
“These people, if I cut them off … they all go to Seattle where the mayor will welcome them,” Pratt told Haskell.
Pratt, a Republican, has made L.A.’s homelessness problem a key campaign topic, sometimes posting pictures of homeless people on his social media accounts. He has repeatedly expressed disdain for LA’s homeless population.
“They’re homeless, they’re drug addicts,” Pratt said in an ABC interview in late May. “They choose to be on the street because they want drugs, they don’t want laws, they don’t want to obey, they want to have animals to abuse. This idea that they are forced on the street right now is false.”
But in an interview with Fox 13 Seattle’s Hannah Kim on Wednesday, Wilson backtracked, saying the homelessness crisis facing major cities across the country is fueled by housing costs, not drug abuse.
“What makes people homeless is the cost of housing,” Wilson said when asked about Pratt’s comments. “There is a very clear correlation between housing costs and homelessness, and that doesn’t mean drugs aren’t a factor.
Wilson did not specifically mention Pratt in his response but briefly acknowledged the cheers of an audience member during a Seattle CityClub event when Pratt was mentioned.
“Was that fun?” Wilson asked. “I won’t answer him, but I will answer all of you.
Wilson’s comments come as votes are still being counted in the LA election and Pratt remains in second place, making him ineligible to run in the November general election against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass.
During the interview with Haskell, Pratt also said, without proof, that non-profit groups and non-governmental organizations are transporting homeless people in Los Angeles.
On his website, Pratt’s campaign says that if elected mayor, he would “dismantle” the city’s efforts to address homelessness and “replace with a treatment-led recovery model that addresses mental illness and addiction as the primary causes of chronic homelessness.”
He took a defiant tone in his speech with Haskell, saying the homeless live on the streets “because they’re addicts, and you can do fentanyl and super meth on the side of the road with no consequences.”
Researchers and organizations working on the front lines with urban homeless people may disagree.
Previous research, including the Pew Charitable Trust’s 2023 analysis, has found a direct link between higher housing costs and higher rates of homelessness.
“Housing costs explain far more of the variance in homelessness rates than factors such as substance use disorders, mental health, climate, social safety net strength, poverty, or economic conditions,” the Pew report said.
The mayor of Seattle acknowledged that drug use remains a problem in solving the problem of homelessness, pointing out that to make housing programs work, they often need to be paired with additional services for the homeless.
“Helping someone out of homelessness is not as easy as putting a roof over their head,” said Wilson. “That’s why, as we do our shelter acceleration, we’re incredibly intentional about matching shelter with services, with case management, with drug treatment, with behavioral health services, with all the support that someone might need to get on a better path.”
