Samaritan is doing good work and making it easy to get digital credit or other credit to people rather than directly handle cash. Where things really shine though I think is with surfacing the stories of the people you are giving to.

Samaritan City seems like an interesting concept, but as a Seattlite I have never heard of them, and they appear to be app only, which makes me question what they're actually doing.

The website talks a good game, right up until the point that you look at the claimed partner list. I tried to find a couple of the supposed partners linking themselves with Samaritan City in any way, but AFAIK there is no public announcement I can find from King County Metro and other partners mentioning this outfit.

To add to that, it appears money donated is easily locked away from those you supposedly donated to (with mandatory 30 day check-ins), and it can only be spent at select partners. The straightjacket on permitted places to spend donations is similar to EBT, but even more restrictive as you seemingly can't use this anywhere besides at mega-chain markets and restaurants.

I don't give Mutual Aid to exclusively support chains & mega-corps, this business practice of only allowing purchases at select partners is very scummy, and hurts the value of the supposed support donors are attempting to provide via Samaritan City.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/homeless-...