Compassion Seattle charter amendment says it has enough signatures to make November ballot

Organizers from the Compassion Seattle charter amendment say they have gathered enough signatures from Seattle voters to get the initiative on the November 2021 ballot.

The amendment was introduced in April with the goal of creating an additional 2,000 units of emergency or permanent housing and expanding behavioral health services for mental health and substance use disorder to address homelessness in the city.

The group got approval to start collecting signatures in late May, and canvassers from the group have been seen in Capitol Hill and Green Lake in recent weeks. The organizers said they received 64,155 signatures, nearly double the amount required to make it on the ballot.

"Collecting more than 60,000 signatures in less than a month during challenging circumstances sends a clear message," said Downtown Seattle Association President & CEO Jon Scholes in a news release on Thursday. "Seattle voters want a plan to get our homeless neighbors inside and on a path to stability."

The ballot initiative is not without opposition in the city from housing advocates. Last month, the ACLU of Washington came out against the charter amendment, writing that the ballot initiative focused on "stopgap measures aimed at reducing the visibility of poverty" instead of long-term solutions, like increasing affordable permanent housing. The nonprofit also opposed the amendment's codification of encampment sweeps in the city's charter.

"The ACLU of Washington shares the concern of many Seattle residents that the housing crisis is an emergency that affects all of us and that the City must do everything in its power to redress our neighbors’ suffering. To that end, we support solutions that address the root causes of homelessness and do not punish people for trying to meet their basic life-sustaining needs like shelter, sleep and food," wrote the non-profit organization.

Compassion Seattle responded to the ACLU's claims, saying the amendment "does not promote sweeps, nor do we believe sweeps to be an effective practice to help those living unsheltered."

"Charter Amendment 29 does not criminalize homelessness; it says nothing about law enforcement. It does require expansion of diversion programs so police, prosecutors, defense attorneys and the courts can decide on a case-by-case basis whether treatment and other individualized services are better than arrest and prosecution," wrote Compassion Seattle in a statement to the SeattlePI.

Another opposition group, called House Our Neighbors, has also formed, echoing the claims of the ACLU that the amendment does not address the root causes of homelessness.

Despite the efforts against the ballot initiative, it has still managed to raise massive amounts in funding. According to the latest campaign finance disclosure reports from the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission (SEEC), Compassion Seattle has raised $926,353 in funding, with the average contribution size equaling $3,140.

Many of the major donors represented real estate and business interests in the city. Two of the top donors, John Goodman and George Petrie, each donated $50,000 and work for the same real estate company, Goodman Real Estate. Vulcan Inc, Clise Properties, and the Downtown Seattle Association are also major contributors, according to filings.