Cascadia today: OR slashes homeless programs + Seattle mayor kills pedestrian safety + horror from Jen Sookfong Lee

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Oregon slashes programs preventing homelessness

In yet another example of a state legislature in Cascadia failing to meet the fiscal crisis provoked by the Trump administration's severe austerity budget, OPB reports that nonprofits and service providers running programs designed to prevent homelessness are struggling after the Oregon legislature slashed funding for those programs. Though the budget increased money for shelters, it severely cut programs such as tenant advocacy and legal assistance for those facing evictions. In related news, according to the Seattle Times, renters in Seattle are facing higher costs thanks to fewer new apartment buildings being permitted and built. Mayor Bruce Harrell hasn't helped – delaying the city's comprehensive plan, which is overdue and extremely timid in regard preventing apartment bans across most of the city. The city council will vote this week on a final comp plan.

BC deficit at a record $11. 6 billion

CBC reports that British Columbia's provincial government faces an $11.6 billion deficit, which could climb to $12.6 billion next year. One culprit: BC's elimination of its carbon tax, which represents a $1.8 billion loss. Meanwhile, King County, which includes Seattle and its suburbs, found that billions of dollars in grant programs funded by the Best Starts for Kids levy were improperly audited and show evidence of overspending and potential fraud.

Seattle mayor kills pedestrian safety project

KUOW reports that Seattle mayor Bruce Harrell stopped a traffic-calming project on Lake Washington boulevard, a lakeside drive that is extensively used by cyclists, and subject to an increasing number of collisions. Harrell lives blocks away from the street and like many wealthy residents there, sees it as their personal expressway to downtown. Meanwhile, the Seattle Times reports that scooter accidents are on the rise in the city. Wear a helmet if you can!

Activist talks about life after being deported

KUOW interviews union organizer Alfredo Juarez Zeferino, who led farmworkers in Washington state from his home in the Skagit Valley, until he was targeted for his activism and sent to Mexico as part of Trump's mass deportation effort. Juarez talked about returning to Guerrero state, where he hasn't lived for 17 years.

“All the other folks that were in the detention center, they were telling me that everybody, every one of them, were being told that they were going to get deported, that they weren't going to get released [despite what legal claim they may have],” – Alfredo Juarez Zeferino

Literary horror from Jen Sookfong Lee

Vancouver-based author Jen Sookfong Lee talks with the Tyee about her latest novel, The Hunger We Pass Down, an exploration of generational trauma among Chinese Canadians – told through bloody, creepy, and ghost-haunted horror.

"We don’t just pass down the good things about ourselves to our children. We also pass down the things that are bad, that are gross." --Jen Sookfong Lee