Category: King County

City Council, homelessness, housing, King County, Trump

Federal Funding Changes Could Make Thousands of People in Seattle Homeless
DESC’s Hobson Place, a permanent supportive housing development that provides housing and health care for chronically homeless people. Image via Runberg Architects.

The city and county are working on plans to offset potential federal funding cuts under the Trump Administration.

By Erica C. Barnett

Major changes to the way the federal government funds programs that house people experiencing homelessness could put most of Seattle’s homelessness system at risk at risk, and thousands of people living in the Seattle area could become homeless as soon as next year as the Trump Administration shifts homelessness funding from permanent housing to short-term transitional housing with new strings attached.

“This is another cruel policy choice intentionally designed by the Trump Regime to harm our most vulnerable community members, and once again local governments are being asked to step up to meet the moment,” Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck said last week.

The potential cuts come from changes to an annual funding process known as a Notice of Funding Opportunity, or NOFO, which is administered in Seattle by the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, acting as the Continuum of Care (CoC) for the Seattle region. (A spokesperson for the KCRHA did not respond to multiple requests for an interview, including phone calls and text messages, last week).

Currently, housing and rental assistance programs in Seattle and King County receive around $67 million of federal funding through this process, almost all of which—around $60 million—goes toward permanent housing. Of that amount, around $36 million, or 60 percent, pays for permanent supportive housing for people with disabling behavioral health conditions, such as severe addiction or mental illness, who need intensive case management and other services in order to stay stably housed.

Under the new rules, just 30 percent of federal funding can pay for permanent housing of any kind, including rental assistance; the rest must go toward short-term approaches like temporary housing. Assuming current funding levels, the new rules would provide less than $20 million for permanent housing, potentially putting thousands of people who are currently housed back on the street, including 4,500 in the Seattle area alone.

“This crisis should horrify and unite us,” said Alison Eisinger, director of the Seattle-King County Coalition on Homelessness. “[T]he ideologues are firmly embedded and the attempts to defund housing are even worse than feared.

In addition to reducing funding for housing in general, the new regulations stipulate that permanent supportive housing—a kind of service-rich long-term housing designed specifically for people whose disabling behavioral health conditions have made it impossible for them to retain housing on their own—should only be for people with physical disabilities and those who are elderly.

Downtown Emergency Service Center director Daniel Malone said says this change represents a complete misunderstanding of why permanent supportive housing exists, not to mention the needs of people with physical disabilities. DESC, which receives about $20 million a year in federal funding for its permanent supportive housing and rental assistance programs, stands to lose a quarter of its supportive housing budget because of the federal changes.

“The vast majority of people with physical disabilities don’t need what you would call ‘support’—they need physical accommodations,” like wheelchair ramps and grab bars, Malone said. Permanent supportive housing provides similar accommodations for behavioral health conditions. On-site behavioral health services “are what allows someone to be successful in retaining their housing, and this administration is turning that on its head,” Malone said.

At a webinar on the changes last week, two HUD representatives, both previously affiliated with Seattle’s right-wing Discovery Institute, reportedly alarmed participants with their ignorance about the purpose of permanent housing. One, Robert Marbut, is the head of the Interagehcy Council on Homelessness. During the first Trump administration, he advocated for forcibly moving homeless people to “campuses” on the outskirts of cities on the threat of arrest. The other, Caitlyn McKenney, worked briefly as a research fellow at the Discovery Institute after graduating college in 2022; she’s now a HUD policy advisor on homelessness.

During the webinar, Marbut and McKenney told reportedly housing and service providers from around the country that they could easily follow the new rules by simply converting their permanent housing units into short-term transitional housing with mandatory treatment that would quickly cure whatever behavioral health problems people have, such as lifelong addiction or schizophrenia.

“Instead of understanding that mental illness and substance use disorder are often lifelong disease processes, HUD is instructing communities to move stably housed people by the tens of thousands into transitional housing (with a two year maximum stay) and require them to work and accept treatment, despite much evidence that this is a failed approach,” Eisinger said.

Imposing treatment and work requirements on people with long-term disabilities is also impractical, since most housing projects receive funding from many sources (such as state Low-Income Housing Tax Credits) that are earmarked for permanent housing.

On top of all that, the Trump administration has repeatedly delayed the release of the NOFO, which was supposed to come out last summer. The delay leaves housing and service providers with just two months to meet an end-of-year deadline to submit new applications under completely different rules; it also means that money for both new and existing programs won’t start flowing until  later in the year, after funding for existing programs runs out.

“Homelessness is a current, large problem across the country, and they’re effectively doing something that will put federal homelessness dollars more or less on hold because they waited so long to come out with this,” Malone said.

Malone says HUD could fix the problem for this year by simply extending the existing contracts and letting providers spend the next six months coming up with new proposals before releasing another NOFO in the summer of 2026—something even Republican lawmakers, whose own districts stand to lose millions in federal funding under he new rules, have requested.

Local Solutions

It’s far from certain that the Seattle area will get the same amount of federal funding it has in the past, because the new rules penalize progressive policies adopted by most blue cities. Programs that operate on harm reduction principles, like those that allow people to use drugs on site, are no longer eligible for federal funding; those that include any kind of racial preference or explicitly acknowledge the existence of transgender people are also out. Organizations that check people’s immigration status get preferential treatment under the new rules.

Even if HUD agrees to delay its funding process until next year—a big “if,” given the Trump administration’s wrecking-ball approach to governance—the city, county, and state will need to come up with creative ways to address and offset the likely cuts. Last week, state and local leaders met to discuss options to fill the gap.

One (complex, but likely) option is to swap out funding for programs that currently rely on federal dollars, like permanent supportive housing, for programs that come closest to meeting the new criteria. The city, for example, might decide to pay for direct rental subsidies with local funds that previously paid for abstinence-based treatment, applying for federal dollars for the treatment program.

Lisa Daugaard, co-director of the nonprofit Purpose Dignity Action, whose CoLEAD program moved people living in state-owned rights-of-way into housing before the state defunded it earlier this year, said, “With care and a strategic approach, it’s likely that we can put together a strong application for comparable funding to what we currently receive, but it’s also clear that much of what we propose should be different from our region’s traditional Continuum of Care package.”

This option, which would have to take place on a tight timeline, would require nonprofits that have never applied for federal funding to get up to speed on the application process and apply for funds, knowing that if they don’t get picked, their current funders (the city, county, or both) might not be able to backfill the losses. For nonprofits, that scenario creates considerable risk, and it’s still unclear what incentives the city and county might offer to make it worth their while.

Since swapping is unlikely to close a potential gap on its own, the city and county are also working to create reserves, or contingency funds, in their 2026 budgets that could help keep programs going.

This week, King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda is introducing a budget amendment that asks incoming County Executive Girmay Zahilay to propose a supplemental budget by March that establishes a reserve to address any federal funding shortage. Although the amendment doesn’t require a specific dollar amount, it does note that the total gap is at least $36 million, and calls out three types of funding—new revenues, existing county budget reserves, and any funds left unspent at the end of 2025—as sources for the reserve.

“The Continuum of Care funding is the fabric of our safety net,” Mosqueda said. “It helps people not only stay housed, but get access to the critical services they need to stabilize people. If there are going to be impossible contingencies tied to federal dollars that make it hard to not only house people but meet their health needs, we need to step up to make sure that the Continuum of Care is truly a continuum.”

County Councilmember Jorge Barón, who is supporting Mosqueda’s amendment, said the county “should be advocating and doing whatever we can to have federal support in this area—we should not give up and assume all is lost—but at the same time, we need to be cognizant of the fact that there’s risks in this area and we should prepare to have contingency funds available if the worst outcomes do turn out to be true.”

Given limited funds, Barón said, the county opted not to add a lot of new spending in this year’s budget, and to use most of the proceeds from its new public safety sales tax, about $175 million, to address its own budget deficit and preserve funding for programs that would otherwise be cut—like the Salvation Army homeless shelter in SoDo, which started during COVID and relied on federal emergency funds.

That’s a sharp contrast to the city of Seattle, where, in an election-year swan song, Mayor Bruce Harrell piled tens of millions of dollars in new spending onto an already unsustainable budget that the council is currently in the process of padding further.

In addition to Harrell priorities like graffiti removal and police surveillance, the proposed budget included $8 million in one-time funds for new shelter, plus $4 million for a new Pioneer Square encampment resolution program that would be run jointly by the Downtown Seattle Association and Purpose Dignity Action.

“The Pioneer Square effort, which could later move to other neighborhoods if continued, would bring back the same model used in the Right of Way encampment resolution program, and JustCARE before that,” in advance of the FIFA World Cup games next year, Daugaard said.

But many advocates, including Eisinger and Rinck, argue that now is not the time to invest in new homelessness programs. “We should not be spending public dollars do something new before we have secured the housing that exists,” Eisinger said. “This is a crisis. In a crisis, you have to make hard decisions. I do not in any way, shape, or form believe that we should be putting money into a whole slew of new things during an authoritarian takeover.”

Last week, Rinck passed a budget amendment that prohibits the city from spending $11.1 million of the $11.8 million allocated to the new shelter beds and the Pioneer Square encampment resolution program until at least next year, when HUD releases the details of its 2026 grants. An amendment from Councilmember Bob Kettle removed $700,000 of the total to fund a quarter of the proposed encampment pilot, for which the PDA has already master-leased an apartment building. Combined with the $9 million Harrell’s budget set aside to address federal funding cuts, the money will bring the city’s total contingency fund to $20.4 million.

Arguing for her proposal on Friday, Rinck said it was important to “pause on expansions for the next couple of months until we resolve and understand the outcome” of the changes to federal funding requirements.

Council members who support sweeps, surveillance, and graffiti vigilance expressed outrage about federal funding cuts—Maritza Rivera, referring to Trump, said, “I just can’t understand why anyone would not want to house people, feed people, care for children, care for families”—but couldn’t seem to find a spare dime in other parts of the budget to help offset those federal cuts.

In fact, the council took proactive steps to prohibit the incoming Katie Wilson administration from using city funds to pay for needs like shelter and housing in the future. Rob Saka, who delivered his own high-volume diatribe against the Trump Administration, proposed an amendment prohibiting the new administration from repurposing funds dedicated to Harrell’s newly expanded encampment sweeps team on any other purpose. After several councilmembers delivered paeans to the team and its longtime advocate, outgoing deputy mayor Tiffany Washington, they passed Saka’s spending restriction on a 6-2 vote, with Rinck voting no and Dan Strauss abstaining.

human services, King County

When Washington DC Looks Away, King County Must Make Sure Our Neighbors Can Eat

By Girmay Zahilay

In the coming days, thousands of families across King County could open their refrigerators and find more empty space than food. That is what happens when SNAP benefits are cut off through federal inaction. Washington, D.C., is gridlocked and has chosen not to protect the most basic human need. (On Friday, a federal judge ordered the Trump Administration to release SNAP funds, but it’s too early to know if that order will be followed.)

I know what it feels like to depend on SNAP. My family relied on food stamps when I was a child growing up in South Seattle. Our government has many responsibilities, but none is more basic than ensuring people can eat. When that foundation crumbles, everything else follows. Hunger forces families into impossible choices and too often pushes them toward homelessness. This reality drove me to begin my post-college career doing anti-hunger work through the Congressional Hunger Center.

King County can’t wait for permission to keep people fed. We must step up.

Here is what that action looks like.
First, we must create an emergency food assistance surge. King County has a network of more than 100 neighborhood food pantries and community meal programs that can immediately be infused with funds to buy and distribute groceries, baby formula, bulk staples, and culturally specific foods without delay. The county already partners with local growers and hunger relief organizations and can rapidly expand these grants during an emergency.

Second, I am working with King County Council Budget Chair Rod Dembowski to include additional food security funding in the county’s budget. This will supplement Governor Bob Ferguson’s recent support for food banks while federal SNAP funding remains at risk.

Third, we can launch a rapid grocery voucher program to deliver one-time emergency funds to families in need. We can help households stretch every dollar by issuing short-term grocery vouchers through trusted partners and by expanding fruit and vegetable incentives that add value when people use Basic Food benefits. State law already supports these programs, and King County can invest local dollars and public health capacity to scale them quickly.

Fourth, we must protect people from falling into homelessness. When food runs short, rent and utilities are next. The county can channel emergency assistance through our Department of Community and Human Services to keep families housed and the lights on. That includes short-term rental support, utility assistance, and bridge funding for those one bill away from losing their home. The county already administers prevention funds through established providers and can scale up that network during a federal funding lapse.

Fifth, we can use our public health authority to coordinate a countywide response to this crisis. The Board of Health can set policy and align hospitals, clinics, school districts, and community groups to screen for food insecurity, make direct referrals, and ensure transportation gets food where it is needed most.

Finally, the county can cut red tape and go where the need is greatest. We should deploy mobile food distribution in partnership with King County Metro and community groups, bring pop-up benefits navigation into schools and clinics, and place culturally competent navigators in the communities most affected. The county can also expand outreach to help eligible families enroll in or stay connected to Basic Food and other emergency programs. Washington’s Basic Food program is our state’s SNAP. We will help every eligible neighbor access it, and we will fill the gaps when D.C. fails.

King County has broad authority to protect the health and welfare of its residents. Hunger does not pause while politicians argue. The federal government has declined to use contingency funds to bridge SNAP during the government shutdown. Courts are still weighing whether the administration can legally suspend benefits, but families cannot eat legal arguments. Our job is to protect people first and keep them whole until federal support resumes.

We will pay for these emergency measures by prioritizing the basics in the county budget: Food, housing stability, and crisis response. We will coordinate with state partners who are already moving funding to food banks, and we will track outcomes in the open so the public can see dollars turning into meals, stable households, and fewer shelter intakes.

We should also be honest about the limitations of local action. King County cannot replace the scale and reach of the federal safety net. SNAP is a national program, federally funded for a reason. Local governments cannot print money or permanently substitute for programs of that magnitude. If the federal government and the President continue to strip away these resources, the consequences will be severe and long-lasting. I am deeply grateful to members of Washington’s federal delegation who are fighting to protect SNAP and other essential safety-net programs. Their leadership and advocacy remind us that even in times of gridlock, there are voices in Congress still standing up for working families.

My commitment is to step up, triage urgent needs, and bridge people through this crisis, but not to pretend local government alone can make families whole. We will do everything in our power, and we will keep pressing Washington, D.C., to restore and strengthen the benefits that millions depend on.

This is what leadership looks like when the federal government refuses to act. We take responsibility for what we can control. We refuse to let children go hungry on our watch. And we do it in partnership with the community because trust and collaboration move faster than bureaucracy.

I have lived the difference that a bag of groceries and a stable home can make. If I have the honor of serving as King County Executive, my first directive will be simple: bring urgency, feed people, and keep people housed. Treat hunger and homelessness as emergencies that demand immediate action, not as talking points for the next news cycle. That is how we keep our community strong, healthy, and ready to build a future where no one is left behind.

Girmay Zahilay is a member of the Metropolitan King County Council.

Elections, housing, King County, Mayor Harrell, podcasts, Police

Seattle Nice: Harrell’s Election-Year Budget, King County’s RealPage Ban, and Mayor Pete’s Endorsement

 

By Erica C. Barnett

On this week’s episode of Seattle Nice, we discussed Mayor Bruce Harrell’s election-year budget proposal, a one-year plan for 2026 that increases spending by more than $50 million, including “one-time” programs that will almost certainly require ongoing funds. Harrell’s budget also adds $26 million to hire new police officers, on top of the Seattle Police Department’s existing budget; public safety, including police and fire, now makes up more than half the city’s discretionary budget.

The one-time spending in Harrell’s budget includes temporary funding for programs that are likely to lose federal funding under the Trump Administration, as well as assistance for immigrants being targeted by the federal government. These needs are likely to accelerate, rather than diminish, over the next several years.

Sandeep and I actually agreed that the city should be doing more to address future budget deficits (Harrell’s budget, not counting the one-time funds, assumes a deficit that will grow from $140 million in 2027 to $374 million in 2029). Where we departed ways was on the question of whether the city should be “”goring some oxes” in the budget by telling some human services organizations they’re “not going to get money because we’re not seeing results. … I think there would be a human cry coming from the progressive side saying, this is austerity budget[ing]. ”

While it’s definitely true that slashing the city’s budget for human services would anger progressives, I argued that the call for cuts seems to always focus on programs designed to help people directly with needs like food, housing, and other basic needs, rather than departments like SPD, whose funding only goes up every year. (Police are always a sacred cow, never a gored ox). This year, public safety departments will consume more than half the city’s discretionary budget, with SPD accounting for half that amount, at $486 million.

Perhaps the city could reduce some of this year’s expansion plans for SPD, I suggested, by taking a peek into the extremely opaque police budget and finding some money there; personally, I’d stop the CCTV surveillance program, which Harrell added to the budget as a new ongoing obligation last year, and look for other places where money is sitting unused or being spent ineffectively.

We also talked about the King County Council’s recent vote to ban the use of rent-pricing software like RealPage. David noted that bans on rent-fixing software are similar to “trust-busting,” in which the federal government cracked down on mergers, price-fixing, and other anti-competitive practices. Landlords use algorithmic pricing tools to charge the highest rent possible, a rate that can vary day by day—much like Ticketmaster, Expedia, and Uber use “dynamic” pricing to determine the price of tickets, flights, hotels, and rides.

Finally, we all issued our verdict on former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg’s endorsement of Harrell. Our assessment: A big “whatever.”

Development, Elections, King County, LGBTQ+, Mayor Harrell, Police

This Week on PubliCola: August 23, 2025
A site map from the permit for the “Revive In ‘25″ event at Gas Works Park on August 30.

Big bonuses for top cops, election fallout, anti-LGBTQ group relocates provocative event, and more.

Monday, August 18

Harrell Fared Worst In Southeast Seattle District He Once Represented on City Council

A geographic breakdown of primary election results shows that Mayor Bruce Harrell lost badly in the primary on his own home turf—Southeast Seattle’s 37th District, where he won just 36 percent of the vote to challenger Katie Wilson’s 56 percent. Harrell also failed to win a majority in any Seattle district.

City Plans Major Overhaul of Affordable Housing Tax-Break Program

The city is getting ready to overhaul a program that provides tax breaks to developers who agree to keep 25 percent of their apartments affordable for 12 years, known as the Multifamily Tax Exemption program (MFTE). It’s the city’s main program for providing housing affordable to moderate-income people, but in recent years, developers have become less likely to participate in the voluntary program.

Tuesday, August 19

SPD Chiefs Received $50,000 Bonuses Meant to Address Police Hiring Shortage

Two of the top-level staff hired by new Police Chief Shon Barnes, Deputy Chief Andre Sayles and Assistant Chief Nicole Powell, received lateral hiring bonuses that were created to hire more trained police officers, not as incentives for command staff. SPD told us the two top executives were “eligible” for the bonuses.

Christian Nationalist Rally, Planned for Cal Anderson Park, Will Move to Gas Works Park

The anti-LGBTQ organizers of the August 30 “Revive in ’25” event planned for Cal Anderson Park, in the heart of Seattle’s historic LGBTQ neighborhood, agreed to move the event to Gas Works Park after negotiations with city officials, including the mayor and City Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth. The voluntary relocation came after the city determined that they didn’t have legal authority to deny the permit or force the group to move.

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Wednesday, August 20

New Police Chief Shon Barnes Accepted $50,000 Hiring Bonus Created for Rank and File Officers

After reporting on the hiring bonuses SPD provided to a new deputy chief and assistant chief, PubliCola confirmed that Police Chief Shon Barnes also received the $50,000 bonus created to increase the number of deployable police officers. SPD said Barnes’ bonus was allowed under the legislation that created and the bonus.

Friday, August 22

County Executive Candidate Balducci Proposes Dedicated Funding for Retail Theft Prosecutions

Claudia Balducci, a King County Council member who’s running for county executive, announced plans to introduce a measure that would dedicate a portion of a recently approved countywide 0.1-cent sales tax increase to create a permanent retail crimes task force. Balducci, who came in second in the primary behind her council colleague Girmay Zahilay, said prosecuting retail theft would help prevent store closures like that of a Fred Meyer in Kent.

Chamber CEO Leaves, Mayor’s Office Contradicts SPD Explanation for Police Chief’s Bonus, Progressives Prevail in Burien, and More

Friday’s Afternoon Fizz included stories about the departure of Seattle Chamber of Commerce CEO Rachel Smith; conflicting explanations for Chief Barnes’ $50,000 bonus; progressive victories in Burien, a city that recently passed a complete ban on sleeping in public aimed at barring homeless people from the city; and details from the permit for the relocated “Revive in ‘25” event at Gas Works Park.

Crime, Elections, King County

County Executive Candidate Balducci Proposes Dedicated Funding for Retail Theft Prosecutions

By Erica C. Barnett

Claudia Balducci, a King County Council member who’s running for county executive, announced on Thursday that she’s planning to introduce a measure that would dedicate a portion of a recently approved countywide 0.1-cent sales tax increase to create a permanent retail crimes task force. The funding, around $600,000 a year, would pay for two new detectives in the King County Sheriff’s Office and one new prosecuting attorney—a position that was cut when a grant ran out.

Balducci announced her proposal outside the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, flanked by former King County sheriff (and interim Seattle police chief) Sue Rahr and Kent mayor Dana Ralph, who said organized shoplifting rings were partly responsible for Kroger’s decision to shut down the Fred Meyer in Kent’s East Hill neighborhood.

The store’s closure, Ralph said, “means that our neighbors can no longer walk to get groceries, diapers, prescriptions and other essential supplies. It means that our neighbors will struggle with food insecurity. Our neighbors who are being impact impacted here on the East Hill are not that affluent. They’re working-class people doing everything they can to get by, and this is a major blow to their quality of life.”

Ralph and Balducci both said there are multiple reasons corporations like Kroger choose to close stores, but that shoplifting was a major factor.

Balducci said her proposal was necessary “in order to avoid more closures like we are seeing here today. We shouldn’t go grocery shopping, and our grocery workers shouldn’t go to work, and worry about robbery and theft. We shouldn’t worry about sending our kids to the market and experiencing violence. And no one should be anxious about how they are going to be able to buy food and the necessities of life.”

 

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Shoplifting is generally a misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor prosecuted at the city level. “Organized retail theft,” a felony, refers not just to sophisticated crime rings that employ shoplifters to boost in-demand items from stores for mass resale, but individuals who steal items worth $750 or more from a store.

Balducci and Rahr said it was incorrect to think of shoplifting as “petty” theft. “I invite people to talk to the owner of a small business who gets robbed day in and day out and loses inventory and can’t afford to replace it and is hard working people,” Balducci said. “Often our small business owners are immigrants, people of color, and they are we hear frequently that it’s very hard for them to stay in business because there’s no help for them.”

Seattle is also preparing to pass its own 1-cent public safety sales tax, under state legislation passed last year as part of Governor Bob Ferguson’s commitment to boost police hiring across the state. The law allows jurisdictions to interpret “public safety” broadly; in Seattle, for example, Council President Sara Nelson has proposed dedicating a quarter of revenues from the sales tax increase to addiction services and treatment.

Balducci said she would be “open to spending some of this funding for that purpose,” but suggested the county’s Mental Illness and Drug Dependency (MIDD) levy, which is up for renewal by the county council this year, might be a more appropriate funding source for programs that address root causes. The sales tax “was actually also intended to fund public safety, and I want to make sure that we are using it for that purpose in ways that will make a difference, like on retail theft, where we are losing grocery stores, we are losing small shops, and people are losing their jobs, and we can do better.

King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, Balducci’s opponent in the county executive race, called Balducci’s announcement “budgeting through press conferences” and questioned whether Kroger is truly closing stores primarily because of shoplifting, something the grocery workers’ union, UFCW 3000, has also disputed. (UFCW has endorsed Zahilay.)

“Retail theft is a serious problem in Washington, and I support putting real resources toward solving it,” Zahilay said, adding, “It would be irresponsible to pre-commit a fixed slice of the new sales-tax revenue to any single use before a transparent and deliberative process has occurred with our Sheriff, Prosecuting Attorney, workers, retailers, and community members. If those partners tell us dedicated detectives and a prosecutor are the highest-impact use of limited criminal justice funds, I am open to it.”

 

Addiction, Elections, homelessness, King County

UPDATED: Initiative Would Criminalize Sleeping Outdoors in King County
From the website of the King County Quality of Life Coalition

By Erica C. Barnett

Editor’s note: This post has been updated with comments from initiative backer Saul Spady and reposted.

Saul Spady—Dick’s Burgers scion, anti-tax election activist (twice over), and KIRO radio fill-in host—has filed an initiative that would criminalize “unauthorized camping and storage of personal property” in unincorporated King County. The proposal, which Spady has dubbed “the Compassionate Public Safety Act,” would make sleeping outdoors or “storing” property in public a misdemeanor; similar to the total sleeping ban in Burien, the initiative would give police power to arrest people who fall asleep in public.

The ballot language, approved by the King County Prosecutor’s Office, says the measure “would not be enforced when overnight shelter is unavailable,” then lists exceptions to that rule that would allow police to make arrests if they determine the person sleeping “poses a substantial danger to any person, an immediate threat and/or risk of harm to public health or safety, or a disruption to vital government services.”

“I think camping bans are part of promoting better policy, which is a commitment to saying, in our community, we would much rather you go to shelter or rehab or housing,” Spady told PubliCola on Wednesday. “This is supposed to put the fire underneath [elected officials] to open those shelter beds and partner with [groups like] LEAD or The More We Love or Mary’s Place to create a more direct solution.”

The carveouts in the proposed ballot measure are similar to the exemptions included in Seattle’s official policy on encampments, which guarantees unsheltered people 72 hours’ notice before a sweep unless they or their belongings constitute an “immediate hazard or obstruction.”

For years, the city has interpreted that exemption very broadly to allow sweeps of tents in public spaces, including parks, sidewalks, and planting strips—basically, anywhere housed people might complain about the presence of homeless people.

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In a press release announcing the initiative and the creation of a new group called the Quality of Life Coalition earlier this month, initiative supporter and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic said, “As an avowed independent and music fan, I know the world is coming to Seattle looking for the soul of our music scene and quite often they find graffiti, addiction and in-action [sic]. … [This is the first step toward making King County safe, livable, and worthy of our incredible cultural legacy I’m proud to be a part of.”

The Quality of Life Coalition also plans to propose an initiative that would force anyone who “commits three crimes linked to addiction, such as OD’ing, theft, or public drug use” (note: overdosing is not a crime) into mandatory six-month rehab, and one that would impose mandatory five-year jail sentences for any drug dealer who “is not an addict.”

Although Spady said service providers have told him there are more than enough available shelter beds for everyone experiencing homelessness in unincorporated King County, he added that the coalition’s long-term plans include “adding 2,500 short-term beds across the region.”

Spady acknowledged that it’s hard to discern which people selling drugs are addicts, versus “somebody who’s sober doing something that kills people,” but noted that a mandatory five-year minimum sentence for dealing drugs is less than the 10-year minimum proposed by the Trump administration.

Asked about the probably astronomical cost of funding mandatory long-term residential treatment for every person who overdoses or commits addiction-related misdemeanors three time, Spady argued that addiction, crime, and the cost to send firefighters to reverse overdoses create “costs to society that are spiraling. If you want the [reason] why I’m doing this, my fear is that Seattle is a lot closer to Detroit in the 80s and 90s than we think, and our  magic economic spaceship that never runs out of money could break.”

The ideas Spady is proposing—three-strikes laws for overdoses, punishing public drug use through what amounts to involuntary commitment—may seem out of step with King County values. But they aren’t much different from the policy City Attorney Ann Davison endorsed toward drug users last year, saying that anyone who overdoses three times should be arrested and thrown in jail.

Spady’s group is collecting signatures now. They’ll need around 6,800 valid signatures to get the measure on a future ballot.