Page 1

Image One:

Text: “Meet Edward Moore, Seattle’s first unhoused person. In 1854, he forced the city to face this question for the first time: Whose responsibility are unhoused people? From Josephine Ensign’s essential history, Skid Row”
ALT Text: A sepia-toned illustration of Edward Moore, a bearded man wearing a wide-brimmed hat and rugged clothing, arms crossed.

Image Two:

Text: “He lived in a tent on the shore of what is now Belltown: Seattle’s first homeless encampment.”
ALT Text: A peaceful shoreline with a pitched tent among trees, depicting where Edward Moore once lived.

Image Three:

Text: “After amputating part of his gangrenous foot with an axe, authorities shipped him back to Massachusetts, where he died by suicide.”
ALT Text: A historical scene shows a limping Edward Moore, wearing a hat and using a cane, being led toward a departing steamship.

Image Four:

Text: “The Territory of Washington, when presented with a bill for Moore’s care, said ‘[The case] should touch all the finer feelings of nature,’ but declined to pay because…’It would be setting a precedent that would, if carried out, bring a heavy burden of taxation on the people of the territory.'”
ALT Text: An official building with an American flag stands in the foreground, with a quote bubble explaining the government’s reluctance to take responsibility for Moore’s care.

Page 2

Header:

Text: “Flaunting ‘finer feelings’ while displacing the unhoused has been a tradition ever since.”

Image One:

Text: “1941, Seattle P-I: In an article about the ‘Shacktown’ below Beacon Hill, homeowners said they didn’t want to drive all the residents out of Shacktown without providing them with other homes, but they all wanted the ‘swarming colonies of squatters’ gone.”
ALT Text: A vintage-style house with a neutral expression, representing the past sentiment toward displacement of the unhoused.

Image Two:

Text: “2021, Seattle Times: A homeowner on encampments: ‘I don’t want to come off as unsympathetic… It’s the crime and the drug use that we’re concerned about.'”
ALT Text: A modernized home with a frowning face, illustrating how these concerns have persisted across generations.

Header:

Text: “Sweeps of encampments are another Seattle tradition.”

Image Three:

Text: “One of the biggest single sweeps took place in 1941 when the city burned its largest Hooverville to the ground and displaced all its residents.”
ALT Text: A historic scene of Seattle’s Hooverville being destroyed by fire, with panicked residents in the foreground.

Image Four:

Text: “But the scale of sweeps has probably never been greater than this year, as Mayor Harrell makes liberal use of the $30 million City Council allocated for the purpose to conduct almost daily sweeps.”
ALT Text: A bulldozer demolishing modern-day tents in an encampment, symbolizing the continued forced displacement of the unhoused.

Image Five:

Text: “Looking back at the endless initiatives, which often focus more on punishment than services, it’s hard not to see it all as an endless cycle of futility.”
ALT Text: A circular diagram shows policies from 1984 to 2022, looping back on themselves, illustrating how homelessness policies have remained punitive rather than supportive.

Image Six:

Text: “We’re stuck back at the original question: Whose responsibility are they? Until we see that ‘they’ are us, we’ll keep spinning forever.”
ALT Text: Two unhoused individuals, one holding a sign that says “Anything Helps”, look directly at the reader, forcing them to confront the issue of homelessness.