December 22, 2019

USA: The Seattle Homeless Agency Director Who Oversaw The Conference To Solve Homeless Crisis That Featured A Topless Transsexual Stripper Giving Lap Dances Has Resigned After Public Outrage.

Seattle Times
written by Scott Greenstone
Monday December 16, 2019

The director of King County’s coordinating agency for homelessness, All Home, has resigned after an annual homelessness conference last week during which a dancer gave lap dances and kissed attendees.

Acting director Kira Zylstra resigned over the weekend, a county spokesperson told The Seattle Times in an email Monday.

The spokesperson said that when officials at the county’s Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) found out about “a performance that was inappropriate for the conference,” they started an investigation into the event “and the leadership of All Home.”

“The investigation of the event and the leadership of All Home is currently underway,” spokesperson Sherry Hamilton wrote in the email.

DCHS chief of staff Denise Rothleutner has stepped in to run All Home in the meantime, according to Hamilton.

At the annual homelessness conference on Dec. 9, performer Beyoncรฉ Black St. James danced topless in a sheer bodysuit, gave lap dances and kissed attendees, according to two sources who were at the event. Attendees were government employees, nonprofit workers and members of the faith community, some of whom seemed uncomfortable with the performance, those sources said.

“I’m not personally offended by it, it just seemed so wrong and out of place for what we were there for,” said Rev. Bill Kirlin-Hackett, worrying that critics of Seattle’s approach to homelessness would see video of the event and use it to target local government and its efforts to end homelessness. “I just knew it was going to hit social media and when it hit social media, this is kind of like what every opponent of the collective work would wish for.”

Zylstra was placed on paid leave last week. She had served as acting director of All Home for almost two years, but her agency could soon become obsolete: Seattle, King County and suburban governments are standing up a “regional homelessness authority” that will have more power over budgets and policymaking than All Home has had. King County voted to approve the new authority last week. The Seattle City Council voted 5-1 Monday in favor of creating the new authority.


KIRO7 News Reports, Seattle local
written by Deborah Horne
Monday December 16, 2019

SEATTLE — The fallout continues over a performance by a provocative dancer at a homeless conference last week in South Seattle.

All Home is the agency that coordinates King County's homeless services. The dancer was hired by All Home's director, Kira Zylstra.

She ran the All Home agency on the second floor of a King County office building for less than a year.

After the video went viral, she was placed on paid leave. Now she's out.

This is all of this video that can be shown on television. The rest had to be blurred.

This is the strip show transgender performer Beyoncรฉ Black Saint James put on for homeless advocates attending All Home's annual conference at South Seattle College.

"I got a contact from an anonymous tipster who provided video from inside the conference," said Christopher Rufo, a researcher at Discovery Institute, a nonprofit think tank in downtown Seattle.

Rufo posted the video and his outrage online.

"And it's almost incredible to believe that this is funded by taxpayer dollars right here in King County," he said.

He says the anonymous tipster likely sent it to him out of "just a sense of frustration."

Zylstra, 40, had been acting director since last January of All Home, the agency that coordinates King County's homeless services.

After the video surfaced, she was placed on leave late last week. King County officials announced Monday she resigned.

Anger over the issue boiled over during a Seattle City Council meeting to discuss the creation of a first-ever Regional Homelessness Authority in King County.

“This is a perfect opportunity to break up All Home.com,” said David Haines, a homeless veteran. “Allowing employees to get their cheap thrills at the expense of innocent homeless faced with another cold winter.”

Even though Zylstra has resigned, her bosses at the King County Community and Human Services department say the investigation into her controversial decision continues.

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