Make Housing Affordable

AFFORDALE AND ABUNDANT HOUSING

Open 4,000 new units of emergency housing and shelter in four years, reversing shelter loss under Harrell and bringing people inside.

Deploy a range of strategies including Tiny House Villages, partnerships with faith communities, municipal rent vouchers, and rapid acquisition of buildings that will provide deep behavioral health support for people who are currently cycling through the criminal justice system.
Treat debilitating drug use as the public health crisis it plainly is.

Drug addiction, and especially the explosion of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, has severely worsened conditions on the streets. The City’s response must be commensurate. Solving this crisis will require both deeper investments and better coordination between City departments, agencies, service providers, and jurisdictions: Deepen investments in opioid treatment programs, innovations in methamphetamine treatment, mobile treatment services, substance use disorder counseling, recovery housing, and evidence-based low-barrier shelter with intensive case management. Invest in 24/7 on-site care teams for enhanced shelter and supportive housing. Too often, residents must travel off-site and across town for substance use disorder and behavioral health treatment, greatly increasing the likelihood of relapse, health and safety problems, and evictions. Having health professionals with prescribing ability on-site can greatly alleviate these problems. Streamline contracting and leasing authority for behavioral health and shelter programs that support opioid treatment objectives. This will empower the City to rapidly respond to the fentanyl crisis by standing up new shelter sites, behavioral health beds, and service contracts for substance use disorder specialists.
Rapidly resolve the most unsafe and persistent encampments.

Incumbent mayor Bruce Harrell claims that his “Unified Care Team” connects homeless people with shelter and services, but in fact it chases them around the city — at great expense to all of us. We can do better. During the COVID emergency, after months of local government inaction, the JustCARE partnership came together to effectively resolve the large encampments that formed in Pioneer Square, the Chinatown-International District and the downtown core by providing shelter that actually worked for those living on the streets. This successful and widely supported model was forced to wind down when COVID relief funding ended, and Harrell’s administration has not prioritized re-establishing it. Indeed, Harrell stood by while the state’s version of JustCARE, which resolved encampments on state property all around Seattle, ran out of money this spring. I will restore and scale up that model.
Close the revolving doors back into homelessness.

Alarm bells should be ringing in City Hall right now. Next year, federal funding will run out for 1,300 emergency housing vouchers that have been keeping formerly-homeless Seattle and King County residents housed since 2021. Many of these people have disabilities and other challenges that require ongoing support. If we let this successful program die, the vast majority will return to homelessness. To keep these Seattle residents in their homes, the City should develop a local deep housing subsidy that can pick up where the emergency housing vouchers cut off. We must also stabilize the affordable housing sector, which is facing unprecedented strains. Far too many people in low-income and supportive housing are being evicted due to rental debt or behavioral health issues, and they are landing back on the street. Housing nonprofits are in a financial free fall, and some have started selling off buildings to make up the loss, which constitutes a permanent loss to the City’s affordable housing stock. I will create a housing stabilization fund to ensure that the sector remains financially viable while we address the underlying causes of evictions. I will work with affordable housing providers and other stakeholders to create an Eviction Prevention Initiative to close this revolving door back into homelessness, without stranding housing providers without solutions.

GET RESULTS ON HOMELESSNESS

MAKE HOUSING AFFORDABLE

TRUMP-PROOF SEATTLE

Open 4,000 new units of emergency housing and shelter in four years, reversing shelter loss under Harrell and bringing people inside.

Deploy a range of strategies including Tiny House Villages, partnerships with faith communities, municipal rent vouchers, and rapid acquisition of buildings that will provide deep behavioral health support for people who are currently cycling through the criminal justice system.
Treat debilitating drug use as the public health crisis it plainly is.

Drug addiction, and especially the explosion of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, has severely worsened conditions on the streets. The City’s response must be commensurate. Solving this crisis will require both deeper investments and better coordination between City departments, agencies, service providers, and jurisdictions: Deepen investments in opioid treatment programs, innovations in methamphetamine treatment, mobile treatment services, substance use disorder counseling, recovery housing, and evidence-based low-barrier shelter with intensive case management. Invest in 24/7 on-site care teams for enhanced shelter and supportive housing. Too often, residents must travel off-site and across town for substance use disorder and behavioral health treatment, greatly increasing the likelihood of relapse, health and safety problems, and evictions. Having health professionals with prescribing ability on-site can greatly alleviate these problems. Streamline contracting and leasing authority for behavioral health and shelter programs that support opioid treatment objectives. This will empower the City to rapidly respond to the fentanyl crisis by standing up new shelter sites, behavioral health beds, and service contracts for substance use disorder specialists.
Rapidly resolve the most unsafe and persistent encampments.

Incumbent mayor Bruce Harrell claims that his “Unified Care Team” connects homeless people with shelter and services, but in fact it chases them around the city — at great expense to all of us. We can do better. During the COVID emergency, after months of local government inaction, the JustCARE partnership came together to effectively resolve the large encampments that formed in Pioneer Square, the Chinatown-International District and the downtown core by providing shelter that actually worked for those living on the streets. This successful and widely supported model was forced to wind down when COVID relief funding ended, and Harrell’s administration has not prioritized re-establishing it. Indeed, Harrell stood by while the state’s version of JustCARE, which resolved encampments on state property all around Seattle, ran out of money this spring. I will restore and scale up that model.
Close the revolving doors back into homelessness.

Alarm bells should be ringing in City Hall right now. Next year, federal funding will run out for 1,300 emergency housing vouchers that have been keeping formerly-homeless Seattle and King County residents housed since 2021. Many of these people have disabilities and other challenges that require ongoing support. If we let this successful program die, the vast majority will return to homelessness. To keep these Seattle residents in their homes, the City should develop a local deep housing subsidy that can pick up where the emergency housing vouchers cut off. We must also stabilize the affordable housing sector, which is facing unprecedented strains. Far too many people in low-income and supportive housing are being evicted due to rental debt or behavioral health issues, and they are landing back on the street. Housing nonprofits are in a financial free fall, and some have started selling off buildings to make up the loss, which constitutes a permanent loss to the City’s affordable housing stock. I will create a housing stabilization fund to ensure that the sector remains financially viable while we address the underlying causes of evictions. I will work with affordable housing providers and other stakeholders to create an Eviction Prevention Initiative to close this revolving door back into homelessness, without stranding housing providers without solutions.

The cost to rent or buy a home in Seattle is far too high. Too many families are paying well over a third of their income in housing costs, or leaving the city altogether. That leaves people with long, polluting commutes, and drives down enrollment at our schools. High rents also mean rising homelessness. We can’t continue to accept inaction from our elected leaders.

I have a proven record of winning major victories on affordable housing and renters’ rights. In 2018, when the county proposed using public funds to upgrade the billionaire-owned Mariners’ stadium, I fought to shift millions of dollars to housing instead.

In 2020, I led on designing and passing JumpStart Seattle, our city’s landmark tax on wealthy corporations, with the revenue dedicated above all to housing — until last year, when our current mayor Bruce Harrell diverted the bulk of those funds to plug a budget hole, because he didn’t want to anger his rich friends by raising new progressive revenue.

And starting in 2021, I coordinated the Stay Housed Stay Healthy coalition, winning stronger protections for renters in Seattle and seven other jurisdictions across King County, from longer notice of rent increases to caps on move-in fees and late fees.

When I moved to Seattle in my early 20s, my husband and I were able to find an affordable home to rent while we built a life here, even though we didn’t have high-paying jobs lined up or savings in the bank. Today, it would be nearly impossible for another young couple to follow in our footsteps. Let’s make sure that our parents, our neighbors, and our children can afford to continue calling Seattle home.