As an editor, I often ask, “How do you know that?”

It’s a question that gets to the heart of journalism. It’s not just writing down words; it’s writing down words that we have verified to be true.

We don’t always get it right, but we keep our sights on that goal, and we correct the record when we’ve erred.

The question, though, is especially important when we talk about extremes. Whenever I see the words “largest,” “smallest,” “only,” “first” and “last.”

Whenever someone talks about an abundance of something or a complete absence. I have to ask, “How do you know that?”

I’ve been asking “How do you know that?” to myself a lot while reading the conversation about the Employee Hours Tax.

This is the recently abandoned tax on Seattle’s largest and wealthiest businesses to generate $47 million for housing and homeless services.

A chorus of opponents have echoed one argument: “There’s no plan.” The root of the argument is that the city wants this money but has no idea what to do with it.

And so I’ve been asking as I read in the news and social media the claim that there’s no plan, “How do you know that?”

The thousands of people sleeping in cars, tents and doorways every night are not actually evidence of a lack of a plan. They’re evidence of a lack of a sufficient plan.

The thousands of people sleeping in cars, tents and doorways every night are not actually evidence of a lack of a plan. They’re evidence of a lack of a sufficient plan.

In fact, in nearly seven years of reporting and editing at Real Change, I’ve seen many plans.

Seattle is actually flush with plans. It has more plans than money, and we’ve been reporting on these plans at Real Change for nearly 25 years.

As Real Change Founding Director Tim Harris put it, “We’ve got good plans, we’ve got bad plans, we’ve got plans to choose from.”

Consultant Barbara Poppe brought Seattle the “Pathways Home” plan, which calls for redirecting efforts and resources from emergency interventions such as shelters into housing initiatives such as Rapid Rehousing. Mayor Jenny Durkan has her “Bridge Plan,” which has $6.3 million to spend on 500 shelter beds in Seattle.

We have All Home, which coordinates and plans homelessness efforts across the county and its cities.

All Home has a strategic plan guiding regional efforts to make homelessness “rare, brief and one time.” It’s an entire team of planners.

Jenny Durkan is proposing One Table for yet more planning on how to end homelessness in the region. It sounds kind of like All Home.

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Despite the repeated criticism that “There’s no plan,” there’s lots of plans, but no one of them is sufficient to reverse the trend of increasing homelessness.

Many of these plans actually get people indoors, save lives and end homelessness for some people, but they can’t end the growing lines of tents along our streets and greenbelts because the plans are not sufficient to address the gaping canyon that has grown between what low-income and middle-income people earn in Seattle and what is required to survive in Seattle.

The plans are not sufficient to address the gaping canyon that has grown between what low-income and middle-income people earn in Seattle and what is required to survive in Seattle.

There’s no lack of plans. In fact, there may be too many, as Seattle and much of the country remain trapped by the myth that we will solve these problems by finding efficiencies in the system, through planning. We’re trapped by the myth that our problem is not growing homelessness, but a leaky bucket that simply needs some straw.

Meanwhile, we’ve got teams of bean counters who are tracking every dollar and every service.

Seattle’s Office of Housing 2017 Annual Investments tracks the dollars, the buildings and the number of units the city funds.

And then there’s the McKinsey Report, which explained why these plans and machinations aren’t sufficient. According to that report, the city needs $400 million a year to end homelessness.

We’ve got plans.

And in fact, we’ve got solutions too — if we can just find that $400 million. The solution — finding sufficient resources — is not that complicated.

But the political will to pursue sufficient solutions feels just beyond arm’s length.

Aaron Burkhalter is the editor of Real Change. Have a story idea? He can be can reached at aaronb (at) realchangenews (dot) org. Twitter @aaronburkhalter

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