Katie Wilson, the socialist mayor of Seattle, has finally responded to Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt’s claim he would move LA’s homeless to her city — even admitting the reality star turned candidate had a point.
A few weeks ago, Pratt made bold claims to a local reporter that the majority of the city’s homeless population would disperse if forced out, saying many of them aren’t even from Los Angeles. Pratt seemed to have a destination in mind.
“People have been bussed in by scam rehabs, scam NGOs, scam homeless nonprofits,” Pratt said. “These people, when I unplug them and say, ‘We’re not taking our taxpayer money anymore,’ they’re all going to Seattle where the mayor will welcome them.”
In the same interview, Pratt also made clear the brutal reality that many are voluntarily homeless.
“Well, they’re not homeless. They’re drug addicts,” he said.
Wilson’s office did not return a request for comment to The California Post, but in a Wednesday interview with FOX13 Seattle, she was asked about Pratt’s comments.
Wilson appeared amused when the reporter asked her about Pratt, and at one point, an audience member was heard making a “woo” sound when the reporter mentioned that Pratt may survive last Tuesday’s primary election.
“Yea, golly, was that a cheer?” she asked, to which she then makes a laugh.
“I’m not going to respond to him, but I will respond to you all,” Wilson said, referring to the audience.
“What is driving homelessness is housing costs. There is a very, very clear correlation between housing costs and homelessness.”
But the socialist acknowledged that Pratt had a point about drug addicts. Her city has been plagued with open-air drug use spreading across Seattle’s streets, an issue the reporter pressed on her later in the interview.
“That does not mean that drugs are not a factor. They absolutely are a factor,” she said.
“Drugs make everything worse. If you fall into homelessness, very often people become addicted to drugs once they’ve become homeless. There are a lot of reasons for that. Or if they have a light substance use disorder, that becomes a severe substance use disorder.”
She went on to explain the city’s efforts to pairing shelter with other services like drug treatment, behavioral help, and others to help get homeless off the streets.
Still, “the real driver is housing costs,” Wilson said.
The Seattle mayor left unaddressed Pratt’s claim she would “welcome” Los Angeles’ homeless population nor gave her thoughts on Pratt’s solution of shipping them to her city.
Pratt has claimed that 60% of LA’s homeless population is not actually from the area, referring to a report by the City Journal.
About 64 percent of the LA street homeless said they were from outside the City of Los Angeles, and 53 percent said they were from outside Los Angeles County, the report said. Nearly 40 percent were not from the state.
Pratt has laid out his strategy to to send homeless addicts to rehab centers on federal land. Pratt previously said in another interview with CNN that the plan is already “in the works” and that he’s met with 30 “literal billionaires” to discuss funding the facility.
Pratt, whom Republicans have coalesced around, is one of three major candidates vying to advance from the primary as votes are still being counted in California.