A psychiatric provider and outreach worker argues that Washington’s approach to homelessness enables exploitation rather than recovery. A missing child from Arizona was recently found in an Olympia homeless encampment after investigators suspected she was being sex trafficked.

Enabling Exploitation

This tragedy should force us to confront an uncomfortable reality. When disorder becomes normalized, exploitation often follows. Environments marked by instability, weak oversight, and concentrated vulnerability create ideal conditions for predators.

Conversations about homelessness cannot be limited to housing alone. We also need to talk honestly about addiction, severe mental illness, trauma, impaired decision-making, and the systems that too often leave vulnerable people exposed.

The people most at risk in these environments are often the least equipped to protect themselves. Many struggle with severe addiction, psychosis, brain injury, or trauma, impairing judgment and the ability to recognize danger.

Does a person truly have meaningful freedom when severe illness or addiction has profoundly impaired their capacity to choose? Autonomy without capacity is not freedom; in some cases, it becomes abandonment disguised as respect.

This is one of the central problems in how we discuss homelessness. We often frame encampments as communities of people making independent personal choices, but for many chronically unsheltered individuals, the reality is far more complicated.

Restoring Accountability

Predators understand this, even if we do not. Harm reduction can save lives, but it was never meant to become harm acceptance. We also need to reckon with the long-term consequences of deinstitutionalization.

Restoring accountability for those who profit from human suffering, including traffickers, drug dealers, and predators, is crucial. This does not mean abandoning compassion; we should continue meeting immediate needs because food, clothing, and medical care matter.

However, we must stop confusing temporary survival with meaningful recovery. In healthcare, we do not judge success by effort alone; we judge success by outcomes.

Original reporting: Clark County Today (Vancouver WA) — read the source article.