The Struggle to Feed and House the Unemployed
As the economic depression deepens, a city mission at 604 Commercial Street reports on its efforts to sustain hundreds of displaced men.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Seattle City Mission, which is now located at 604 Commercial Street, is doing a great work among the poor and destitute. The financial condition of the whole country during the past summer has barred the doors of all kinds of labor so that men, no matter how honest or how willing they are to work for even board and lodgings, cannot find it. The class of men who have called on us for aid are, therefore, generally speaking, of a higher grade than ordinarily. Men of all ages, from 16 to 60, of all nations and many occupations, having found means to earn but a scanty living through the summer, find themselves starving. It is not our aim to provide so well for them that they will say 'it is too good a thing to leave,' but simply to give one good solid meal each day and a shelter for the night for a reasonable time. During the month 1,498 meals have been given out and 1,183 free lodgings at the Mission. We have been delayed in getting out this report on account of removal to more acceptable quarters, at 604 Commercial Street, where we will be glad to have any of our friends come and see our methods and work.
“The financial condition of the whole country during the past summer has barred the doors of all kinds of labor so that men, no matter how honest or how willing they are to work for even board and lodgings, cannot find it.”
This report from 1893 mirrors the ongoing crisis of homelessness and food insecurity in Seattle. The mission's struggle to secure stable funding and the tension between providing aid and encouraging mobility remains a recurring theme in the city's civic debates over 130 years later.
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