SEATTLE — About a dozen Seattle tech executives and workers spent Monday night reaching out to the homeless.
They know better than most the relationship between the tech and homeless communities is complicated.
“The Seattle tech community has a really large responsibility to help with a lot of social issues,” said Rebekah Bastian, who is Vice President of Product at Zillow. “Especially in the housing space because a lot of the housing affordability crisis that we’re seeing in Seattle is caused by tech company growth.”
New Tech Northwest organizes these search and rescue missions with the Union Gospel Mission once a month but hopes to expand the outreach.
Monday night on Capitol Hill the group passed out things like food, water, and socks.
Brett Greene, the founder of New Tech Northwest, said the goal is for the workers to learn the true depth of what’s happening on the street, so they can use their business skills and company resources to change things.
“We are trying to be an example to other people in the tech community as well as the greater community to do what we can where we can so if we don’t want to turn into the negative aspects of San Francisco,” said Greene. “The best way to do that is to put our feet forward wherever we can.”
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