In the news
Woodward, who has been making the news recently for his perpetuation of hateful rhetoric that ultimately ends in more harm done to the unhoused, left We Heart Seattle’s board of directors this week.
No acknowledgement from We Heart Seattle
We Heart Seattle has not made an official statement about the circumstances surrounding his departure, but reference to him and his position have been removed from their website.
He also left his day job
Also of note is Woodward’s recent departure from his position as director of Bybee Lakes, which is curious given his years of involvement and instrumental role in the conversion of the former jail into a transitional housing facility. While this facility purports to only accept homeless residents of Oregon state, We Heart Seattle has pushed hard over the past year to ship unhoused individuals off to live there away from their support networks and families, which a few of them acquiesced to.
Bybee Lakes controversy
There is much controversy around the model that Bybee Lakes operates upon, namely being its charging of a monthly rent that all residents must pay to live there, and the two neighboring factories most of them end up working at in order to pay it. The facility is located an hour outside of the city of Portland with very little in terms of basic amenities like grocery stores located nearby, and is not easily accessible via public transportation. One can draw many conclusions from the circumstances as they are known, and it is our hope that ongoing investigative reporting soon uncovers the truth one way or the other.
