In this powerful episode of Sundays With Seegers, Clallam County Commissioner candidate Jake Seegers sits down for an unfiltered conversation that cuts through campaign noise and gets to the heart of what’s happening on the streets of Port Angeles.
Seegers reflects on the primary, the humbling support of ordinary residents who want “common sense” solutions, and the personal toll of balancing family life with a year-long campaign. He calmly debunks circulating rumors—party stories, staged needle photos, and more—while detailing real cleanups along Tumwater Creek and Clallam Bay. Listeners hear firsthand how harm-reduction programs distribute tens of thousands of syringes (and paraphernalia) with little accountability, leaving used and unused needles for volunteers and children to find.
The second half of the episode features “SB,” a longtime downtown Port Angeles resident with lived experience of addiction, trauma, and recovery. With clear-eyed honesty, she describes what she sees daily: open fentanyl and meth use in parking lots and parks, hand-to-hand deals at Safeway, signs of sex trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable women, territorial dealers, and registered sex offenders cycling through transient camps. She recounts encounters that left even her formerly addicted adult son stunned by how blatant the activity has become.
SB explains why Clallam County has become a destination: mild weather, abundant hiding places, minimal border monitoring, and an overly tolerant culture that treats intimidating behavior, shoplifting, and public intoxication as normal. She challenges the narrative that most unhoused people are simply “elderly women who missed a mortgage payment,” and questions whether subsidized housing and cascading referrals are truly helping people heal—or simply sustaining a system that measures inputs and grant numbers rather than outcomes.
In a moving close, SB shares her Clallam County dream—freedom for herself, her family, and those still trapped on the streets.
In a follow-up email, she expands on that vision:
I shared with you that my Clallam county dream is freedom for myself and my loved ones. I want that same level of freedom for others including those I see suffering on the streets daily.
The current practice of “meeting folks where they are at” with everything they need to continue narcotic abuse and little to no concrete plan to guide them out of “where they are at” is the opposite of freedom. The persons suffering on the streets and behind closed doors in their addiction and life of crime are prisoners and slaves of a different kind, held hostage by a homeless/addiction industrial complex that spends more money and effort expanding it’s business model than it does actually helping people heal. Some of those addicted also frequently victimize others, thus reducing the freedom of others to live safely in our community.
Freedom for all Clallam citizens will require a level of accountabilty and fiscal responsibilty from government and private agencies that is currently rare and elusive. I believe those who I see struggling and suffering in public are capable of thriving and deserve opportunities to build a life worth living, not to just be kept barely alive and dependent “where they are at.”
I encourage all those with lived experience to continue speaking up, and to continue asking for more accountabilty and true leadership from public and non profit officials. I am extremely grateful to all those who continue to speak up and share their voices and personal experiences.
This episode is raw, local, and urgently relevant. Whether you live in Port Angeles, Sequim, or anywhere in Clallam County, Sundays With Seegers gives voice to the people on the ground who are tired of being told the problems aren’t real. Press play and hear why so many residents believe the status quo is failing—and why real change starts with honest conversation.
