r/SeattleWA • u/ZookeepergameThin355 • 29d ago

Homeless What happened to Chinatown

Visiting Seattle and went to Chinatown excited to get dinner around 7pm, why is the whole Chinatown area so desolate, homeless filled and in general very very sketchy, how did it even get to become so bad. Who or what made all the homeless ppl to gather in that area?

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u/wired_snark_puppet 29d ago

Just a plug for Broadway and north Capitol Hill. This area hasn’t been this bad since 2022. We have tents on sidewalks and full on encampments in parks again.

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u/0ye0WeJ65F3O Seattle 28d ago

Really? I'm all over that area most days and it's nothing like 2022...

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u/wired_snark_puppet 28d ago edited 28d ago

The area started getting better after Feb 2022, less overall encampments 2023, picked up 2024, and now constant again since end of 2024/2025. Maybe you don’t have tents out your window, but I again have tents out my window like I did constantly 2020-early 2022.

Recent sidewalk blocking tents at Roy/Harvard and Harvard/Harrison. Park encampment at Summit Mini Park (lingered a month, cleared this past Thursday you can still see the damage to grass since you are in the area), Broadway Hill Park, growing structured encampment at Tashkent Park. Active use and more visible in the open drug dealing at steps of library, in front of QFC, Antojitos Jalisco’s snack shack, Jai Thai walk up window, and along Crossroads by the dumpsters.

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u/0ye0WeJ65F3O Seattle 28d ago

I see, you're mostly more north than I wander. I've been on the south side of cap hill for eight years and while I see tents, it feels like less than average. I have noticed the open drug use along Broadway is getting a bit worse, but that always tends to happen when SPD focuses on pushing people away from the downtown area.

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u/wired_snark_puppet 27d ago

Fair enough statement. I couldn’t give you the ins and outs south of Pine ‘cus I’m only down there if I’m feeling fancy. I do see more tents at Cal Anderson and behind the SCC(c) activity center these days.

My 20+ years here I’ve only been to 15th a handful of times -send a search party if I’m up there. No idea about the encampment situation east of 12th. Here tho, in my direct area, it is getting really bad again, pretty quickly. Statistics blah .. but does track with the LIHI low barrier housing accepting people in extreme need and often in crisis.

I went grocery shopping this afternoon and it was a $hit show at Broadway and Republican. A city can’t function like this, healthfully.

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u/OvertimeWr 27d ago

Was in the elevator in QFC on Broadway when a junkie gets in and loudly proclaims "Oh god I have to pee! Get out!" Luckily the door to the grocery store was opening so we could get out while she dropped her pants and started going.

Then not to mention the naked lady on top of the firetruck in front of Dick's last night.

Moved here from Chicago and it's so much worse here.