No matter what the city does, the homeless just will not simply go away.

This was evident when police shoved campers off city land near West Seattle - urged on by a mayor who says homeless should have permanent homes while doing little to make that happen.

Last week so-called Nickelsville was shoved out of its existence on city land on West Marginal Way but quickly found a temporary "home" in a Washington State Department of Transportation parking lot at 7115 W. Marginal Way.

Mayor Nickles, who prefers to be making his latest Project of the Week annnouncement and lobbying the world on behalf of his green causes, said the homeless should be in homes. He promised new beds for those shoved out of the West Marginal Way location, but the homeless newspaper Real Change said on line Monday that many were still in the makeshift camp.

"Operation Nightwatch was still unable to find shelters for all who asked despite the Mayor's statement that 60 - 80 new beds wold be opened that (Friday) night," Real Change said Monday.

The mayor has renounced his "bleeding heart" many times by ordering homeless camps all over the city to to raided and the residents scattered, occasionally arrested but always told simply, "Go away."

The continual presence of homeless has caused tent cities to be set up around the area, recently in Ballard. These tent cities, often on church grounds and under church sponsorship, have been left alone by the city.

Of late, homelessness has manifested itself with ever more people living in cars and campers. The influx of car dwellers even gained the interest in something called the Ballard Homes for All Coalition.

Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, who represents Queen Anne and Ballard, founder of the coalition, said the purpose of the car camps, which would be four to five vehicles large, is to create a safe and secure place for the homeless to park.

According to a press release from the coalition, there are approximately 50 car campers in Ballard and there has been a 45 percent increase in car campers citywide from 2007 to 2008.

The coalition is working with Sustainable Ballard and University of Washington architecture students to create portable hygiene centers that include showers and toilets for the car camps.

But that move hit some in Ballard the wrong way, with subtle protests that such car camps could cause dangers in neighborhoods.

In this case, Dickerson was trying to do a service and was not at all intent upon causing problems. In our opinion, she failed to adequately work with citizen's groups and agencies to prepare them for the idea. Her proposal has real merit, just needs to be better "sold" to Ballard residents.

To be fair, the mayor is not trying to be the evil heavy in the problem of homelessness, he simply needs to get better advice from his support staff. Over and over the city has come across as heavy-handed in its handling of such events.

Homelessness is not something most aspire to, it is a reality that can happen to many us, especially in difficult financial times like we are presently experiencing. Mortage failures are growing here, as was brought home jarringly by the failure of Washington Mutual.

The mayor needs to acknowlege what we are certain he understands, that homeless people will not just go away, to Kent or Monroe, but will just move to the next site where people can survive a few more days. The city, county and state have said over and over than we must defeat homelessness, and a few million dollars have been tossed here and there but the problem is like a bubble under the wallpaper, it just moves, never ends.

Mr. Mayor, we need to deal with the problem of real people being unable to afford real housing before we need to ban plastic bags or create a new bike trail. Those in need need you more urgently.

People vote for mayors and we are looking to you to lead us away from having to house those who cannot find houses for themselves. It is past time for action.

- Jack Mayne