On May 29, 2024, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Sparrow Etter Carlson to discuss her work and perspectives on homelessness in Seattle. Sparrow now works for the King County Regional Homelessness Authority in sub-regional planning for Seattle. She is co-founder of the former Green Bean Coffee Shop, Aurora Commons, the SHE (Safe, Healthy, Empowered) Clinic at Aurora Commons, and the founder of Sacred Streets. She describes these as a way to "build a bridge across otherness." The SHE clinic is for female-identified people who sleep and work along Aurora Avenue and is run by the University of Washington Medicine/ Harborview Medical Center. The clinic has expanded and includes a full-time nurse at Aurora Commons.

Sparrow is committed to encouraging each other and facilitating "deep conversations across the political divide." She states, "I'm not a pessimistic human. Pessimism is a privilege. We have a real need, especially in this city, to focus on possibility--to be really honest about where we're at--there's a lot we can do with the resources we have--and I think pessimism truly gets in the way of us collaborating towards future possibility." She encourages us all to bear hope: "I think hope is a discipline."

She talked about being in meetings recently to interview and hire a new CEO for the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. This position has been difficult to fill for various reasons, including our Seattle-area propensity to complicate decision-making by having a multitude of process-heavy committees. Sparrow described her current sense of "exhaustion and tenacity," adding "the deep commitment we have here; we must encourage each other."