New Seattle charter amendment aims to address homelessness, prioritize public safety and clear camps

A new coalition of local nonprofit organizations and neighborhood groups called Compassion Seattle unveiled a charter amendment on Thursday aimed at addressing homelessness in Seattle.

The newly proposed charter amendment takes a multi-faceted approach to the issue, including expanding behavioral health services for mental health and substance use disorder, creating an additional 2,000 units of emergency or permanent housing and ensuring that all "city parks, playgrounds, sports fields, public spaces and sidewalks and streets remain open and clear of encampments."

"It is the City’s goal that no one should have to live outdoors in public spaces," the amendment reads. "The City shall coordinate and engage with the public, community-based organizations, non-profit service providers, philanthropic organizations, businesses, and collective bargaining representatives, to understand and address current and emerging human service needs."

Organizations that have signed onto the new charter include the SODO Business Improvement Area, Chief Seattle Club, Public Defender Association, United Way King County, Uplift Northwest, the Housing Development Consortium, Downtown Emergency Services Center, Plymouth Housing, FareStart, Evergreen Treatment Services, and the Downtown Seattle Association.

Many organizations that signed onto the amendment emphasized that the city needs to prioritize both public safety and social services in its response to homelessness.

"We need a committed, concerted effort that prioritizes mental health and drug addiction support," said Erin Goodman, executive director of SODO Business Improvement Area in a news release. "By shifting existing funds and resources to address critical human services, we can prioritize helping our city’s most vulnerable people with the most basic needs and ensure public health and safety for our community."

Others stressed that better partnerships between businesses and community providers were needed.

"Chronic unsheltered homelessness is too big of an issue for any one sector to go it alone," said Paul Lambros, CEO at Plymouth Housing. "This charter provides a road map for business, service providers, government, and philanthropy to address this crisis together."

Frustration towards the current city administration's hands-off approach to homelessness has been steadily growing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, neighborhood groups including the Downtown Seattle Association penned a letter to city officials asking them to address the "spiraling public health and public safety crisis" in the city's parks, including crime and encampments.

Mayor Jenny Durkan's response was to launch a "Clean Cities" initiative aimed at removing trash from parks. However, the initiative was not meant to increase encampment removals, just provide a "surge of cleaning efforts" to the city's public parks.

The city has repeatedly stated that it will not sweep camps during the novel coronavirus outbreak as it conflicts with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance and could increase the spread of the virus.

But with the suspension of the Navigation Team, the team responsible for sweeping illegal encampments and connecting people experiencing homelessness to resources, the city has also emphasized that it does not have the tools to address the encampments. It has relied more and more on nonprofit service providers such as REACH — a program of Evergreen Treatment Services — to connect people to housing.

Several high-profile sweeps have occurred since then, including an encampment removal at Capitol Hill's Cal Anderson Park in December. The city also planned a sweep at Denny Park last month following an increase in crime. Meanwhile, other encampments have continued to grow at Miller Park and Playfield, concerning parents of nearby schools.

In order for the amendment to get on the November ballot, the group will have collect signatures from 33,060 registered Seattle voters. The petition will be available for signatures starting this month and will be open until June.

Poll data from Compassion Seattle showed that approximately 71% of Seattle voters were in favor of the amendment.

Kevin Schofield of SCC Insight stated that the new amendment proposed by outside groups marks a "complete failure of the city’s eleven elected officials to put together anything even closely resembling a comprehensive plan to address homelessness."

"It is a loud and not at all subtle message to the Mayor, the City Council, and the City Attorney that they have bickered themselves into irrelevance: their endless infighting and incremental tweaks are no longer fooling anyone into believing that they are going to make a difference to homelessness in Seattle," Schofield wrote in his analysis.