Tag: Cathy Moore

City Council

Former Councilmember Moore Edited Legislation, Wrote Interview Questions for Her Potential Successors, After Leaving
Former Councilmember Cathy Moore

By Erica C. Barnett

Former City Councilmember Cathy Moore, who quit the council, effective July 7, after serving just a year and a half of her four-year term, continued to lobby her former colleagues, and even work on legislation, after she stepped down, emails PubliCola obtained through a records request reveal.

PubliCola and other outlets have reported on the infamous email Moore sent to Councilmember Mark Solomon, who took over Moore’s leadership of the council’s housing and human services committee after she left, pressuring him not to seat members of the city’s Renters Commission whose appointments Moore had refused to consider during her time as head of the committee.

In that email, she told Solomon that she thought he was on board with her plan to dismantle the renters’ commission and replace it with one dominated by landlords, blaming “[t]he current disastrous situation so many non-profit and small for-profit housing providers find themselves in” on “the advocacy of the commission for rental laws uninformed by the knowledge and experience of the housing providers implementing those laws.”

The additional, newly obtained records reveal that Moore continued to exert her influence with other council members, particularly Northeast Seattle rep Maritza Rivera, and weigh in on legislation after she left office. The documents show that Moore edited two controversial Rivera amendments to the comprehensive plan designed to place more restrictions on developers’ ability to remove trees. Moore also wrote =the questions Rivera asked candidates during the selection process for Moore’s replacement on the council.

The city’s post-employment rules prohibit former city employees from participating in matters they worked on as part of their prior employment for two years after leaving the city. Examples of prohibited behavior include advising or working on legislation.

However, Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission Director Wayne Barnett said he doesn’t think those prohibitions would apply in Moore’s situation “because she is assisting the City, not anyone else, such as a private company or lobbying firm.

“Former employees are routinely tapped for their expertise after they retire,” Barnett continued. “If we were to decide that this back and forth between CM Rivera and former CM Moore was a violation of the Ethics Code, or that former CM Moore cannot write her former colleagues about the fate of the renter’s commission, it would have dramatic repercussions for every former City employee, the latter especially. I would need to train that communicating with the City on issues where you have expertise after you leave is illegal.”

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Moore’s attempts to influence the council immediately after quitting the council are unusual, and fly in the face of her frequent statements that as the elected representative for District 5, she served as her constituents’ voice on the council. Debora Juarez now occupies Moore’s former seat, and generally voted in favor of amendments to the city’s comprehensive plan that supported more density, the opposite of how Moore generally voted. She also voted against one of the amendments by Maritza Rivera that Moore worked on after she left, amendment 93. Which raises the question: By working at cross purposes to her successor, is Moore undercutting her former constituents’ new voice on the council?

When she was still on the council, Moore was a vocal advocate against aspects of the comprehensive plan that would allow more density in residential neighborhoods, arguing that allowing small apartment buildings in Maple Leaf, for example, was tantamount to “sacrificing” the North Seattle neighborhood. She also sided with Rivera on tree protections, fighting for restrictions on tree removal that would result directly in less housing in Seattle’s traditional single-family neighborhoods.

Moore’s work on comp plan amendments affecting density and trees began shortly after she left office in July.

For example, on August 1, 2025, Rivera’s chief of staff Wendy Sykes sent Moore a copy of a tree-related amendment Rivera planned to introduce as part of legislation to implement the city’s comprehensive plan. Moore sent the amendment on to Sandy Shettler, an activist who has lobbied the council for protecting trees, typically at the expense of housing. That proposed change eventually surfaced as Amendment 93, one of two controversial Rivera amendments to limit the amount of housing that can be built when a tree is present on a lot.

Moore sent herself a copy of another set of tree-related amendments at 4:30 in the afternoon of her final day in office, forwarding two amendments proposed by arborist and tree activist Andrea Starbird to her personal address. Moore forwarded the amendments to Rivera on July 21, writing:

Hi Maritza,

Attached is the tree amendment proposal I was working from when I left. I spoke with [central staffer Ketil Freeman] and HB about potentially drafting three separate amendments from this proposal. This is in addition to a mandatory “treed area” for preservation/planting with flexible setbacks and height or [floor-area ration] incentives. I’m still looking for anything in writing regarding those ideas, but we did have a good conversation about those ideas and I think they were comfortable proceeding with drafting some language.

Best

Cathy

On August 1, Moore sent an email to Rivera’s private email address with the subject line “Proposed tree ordinance amendments,” along with this note:

Dear Maritza,

As a former colleague who was deeply engaged in the work of improving the tree ordinance, thank you for extending me the professional courtesy of an opportunity to provide my feedback on your draft proposal. After conferring with subject matter experts and others concerned about tree canopy, I have attached my suggested edits to the proposal. Please let me know if you have any questions about the suggestions or if I can be of any assistance. Thank you!

Best,

Cathy

The records provided by the city’s legislative department didn’t include the amendment itself (we’ve requested it), but the email alone makes clear that Moore was directly editing city legislation after she left office. Moore also sent her proposed changes, titled “Amendment 4 – Tree Protections CMMR 7-31 edits.docx,” to Shettler.

Another document, a draft of a Rivera amendment, 102, that would have given the director of the city’s Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) the ability to force developers to come up with “alternate site plans” that preserve trees at any point in the development process, includes two comments and apparent amendments by Moore, identified as “CM” in the margins.

One, allowing the SDCI director to require a secondary tree protection review by an arborist before a development can move forward, made it into the final version of the comp plan legislation.

Neither Moore nor Rivera responded to PubliCola’s emailed questions.

Moore didn’t just continue weighing in on and editing legislation after she resigned from the council. She also sent six questions for Rivera to ask the applicants for appointment to her council seat, focusing on trees, sex workers on Aurora, neighborhood centers in the comprehensive plan, and crime. During a council question-and-answer session with the candidates on July 22, which started shortly after Moore sent her questions to Rivera, Rivera read five of Moore’s questions virtually verbatim, giving the departed council member a voice at the table when the council was choosing her successor.

Moore also emailed Mayor Bruce Harrell, police chief Shon Barnes, several council members, and other city officials shortly before midnight on the night after her final day in office, urging him to take a series of actions on the Aurora corridor.

“Dear Bruce,” the email begins. “Please immediately close the streets from 95th through 107th. Please immediately implement the SDOT reader board messages notifying drivers/buyers that they are in a SOAP area. Please implement the Prostitution Prevention and Awareness campaign designed by VICE, [the city attorney’s office], and [public safety] Director [Natalie] Walton-Anderson. Please add loitering for the purposes of prostitution to the nuisance ordinance.”

Had Moore chosen to stay in office, she could have worked on all those things through the legislative process rather than lobbying the mayor after she left.

City Council

Council Finally Seats Renters Commission, New Council Rules Allow Longer Public Comments

1. After an overload of drama last week, the Seattle City Council quietly approved all 14 nominees to the Seattle Renter’s Commission—an advisory body that has had just five members (all of whose terms are now expired) for the past 18 months. The appointments were part of the council’s consent agenda, and all seven council members who were present (Maritza Rivera was excused) voted to approve them, along with several other nominees to unrelated commissions.

As we reported last Wednesday, Councilmembers Sara Nelson and Rob Saka skipped out on the housing and human services committee meeting at the last minute, depriving the committee of a quorum and wasting the time of the nominees who showed up in person and online expecting to finally receive their long-delayed confirmations. Solomon and Alexis Mercedes Rinck held a “community discussion” of the appointments and other business on the committee agenda in lieu of the scheduled committee meeting.

Nelson told Solomon she wouldn’t attend the meeting on Tuesday, after receiving an email from former councilmember Moore urging her to not let the appointments move forward.

Saka, who was cc’d on a late-night email from Moore touting her proposed alternative to the renters’ commission, which would have added seven landlords to the mix, told Solomon he wouldn’t be attending the meeting just minutes before it started, citing unspecified personal matters for his unexcused absence.

During a council briefing meeting on Monday, Saka told his colleagues that “right before that meeting, on the bus to City Hall, I got some uncomfortable calls and and that really impacted my ability to to show up in a public meeting … and so in any event, I make no apologies for the decision.” Saka dismissed suggestions that he sat out the vote in order to deprive the committee of a quorum as a “grand conspiracy” with no factual basis.

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2. Also Tuesday, the council passed a new rule that will effectively prevent the council president and committee chairs from cutting public comment short just because they feel like it.

Currently, the person who’s chairing a meeting can decide, based entirely on their own feelings in the moment, to restrict comments to one minute instead of the standard two and to limit the amount of time allowed for public comments, depriving people of the opportunity to speak to their representatives.

This broad discretionary power has caused major problems in the recent past, as Council President Nelson has repeatedly shut down public comment and closed down the council chambers after would-be commenters have loudly protested being cut off. (Moore, who often took umbrage at critical public comments, once suggested that a group of people who had been locked out of council chambers planned to rush the dais and assault the council because they were pounding on the walls.)

The new public comment rule, proposed by frequent Nelson antagonist Dan Strauss (who will, if Nelson isn’t reelected this year, be the council’s most senior member and a contender for council president), increases the minimum time allotted for public comment from 20 minutes to an hour and stipulates that if there are fewer than 30 commenters, they will each get two minutes to speak. If the number of commenters is between 30 and 60, they’ll get a minute, and if there are more than 60, they’ll still get a minute unless the council president or committee chair sets a lower time.

City Council, Elections

Former Councilmember Juarez Applies as “Caretaker” for Vacant Council Seat, Along with 21 Other Applicants

By Erica C. Barnett

Former City Councilmember Debora Juarez has submitted her application and resume for the open District 5 City Council position that was just vacated by Cathy Moore, who quit after just a year and a half on the council. Juarez reportedly already has the support of a strong majority (perhaps as many as eight) council members for the appointment, making her selection effectively a fait accompli.

Juarez—the first Indigenous Seattle City Councilmember—served two terms on the council, including one as council president, and was replaced by Moore in 2024. During her second term, Juarez repeatedly expressed frustration at the tenor of council meetings (frequently dominated by then-councilmember Kshama Sawant’s supporters) and the 2020 protests (which included repeated demonstrations outside her home).

No one has protested outside council members’ homes in several years, but Sawant and her supporters recently started showing up again at council meetings, shouting and marching around council chambers to protest legislation like a proposal to lower conflict of interest standards for council members.

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The city clerk just published the entire list of applicants for the appointment on the council vacancy website, which has been in heavy use over the past year and a half with the departures of Teresa Mosqueda, Tammy Morales, and now Moore, at the end of the day today.

In her cover letter, Juarez wrote:

“The question I am sure many are asking is, ‘why return?’. It’s simple: I was called to serve. I understand the challenges our city currently faces—from housing affordability to public safety to protecting residents from the harms of the Trump Administration and federal funding cuts. I am ready to step in immediately and work alongside my fellow Councilmembers to ensure that our city remains a vibrant, welcoming, and innovative place for all residents. I would be honored to bring my “Elder Auntie” experience, wisdom gained with no regrets, and vision to this important role once again, this time as a caretaker of the seat until a new Councilmember can be elected.”

The list of candidates for the position, which were just posted on the City Clerk’s website Friday morning, include three people who ran for District 5 in 2023: Nilu Jenks, Shane MacComber, and Justin Simmons.

The council will narrow down the list of candidates to a set of “frontrunners” over the next week. They’ll discuss the appointment and hear from candidates at meetings on July 17 and July 22; a public forum, which will reportedly be held at North Seattle Community College (although the city’s website still says “TBD”), will be held on Monday, July 21.

Under the city charter, the council has 20 days after the day a council member leaves office to appoint someone to fill that position. Because Moore’s resignation took effect on July 8, the council will take a vote on July 28.

Because Moore announced her resignation after the filing deadline for this year’s local elections, voters won’t be able to choose her replacement until 2026, the next general election. As a result, District 5 will be represented by someone people in the district did not elect for about 16 months, until Moore’s permanent replacement takes office in November 2026.

City Council, homelessness, Women

The More We Love Launches Six-Month “High Accountability” Out-of-Town Shelter for Commercially Exploited Women
The More We Love founder Kristine Moreland at a panel hosted by former city councilmember Cathy Moore’s committee last month.

By Erica C. Barnett

The More We Love, a group that began as a private homeless encampment sweep contractor, just finalized its contract with the city to provide 10 shelter beds for the rest of the year, at a cost of around $600,000, to women seeking to leave the sex trade on Aurora Ave. N. The organization already operates a 20-bed shelter for sexually exploited women and their children in Renton, and plans to add 10 new “non-congregate” shelter spots, which appear to consist of rooms at a hotel that also serves the general public.

During a Seattle City council meeting last month, the group’s founder, Kristine Moreland, brought several of her clients to provide sometimes graphic testimony about their experiences as victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Stories like theirs appear to have swayed former (as of today) city councilmember Cathy Moore to direct up to $1 million in city funding to the group earlier this year, forestalling a competitive bidding process that was already underway.

The contract contains a number of provisions and deliverables that are unusual for a city human services contract.

For example, it says The More We Love’s program is “intentionally low barrier to enter and has high accountability to stay.” What this means, according to the contract, is that women with substance use disorders “are asked to commit to a pathway towards recovery to stay in the shelter unit” after what the contract calls a 72-hour “recharge” phase. The maximum stay is 30 days.

“TMWL’s pathway to recovery is connecting the survivor to the appropriate detox/treatment facility, supporting them in the programming that will best fit their needs, and supporting with after care such as TMWL’s recovery housing units,” the contract says. “If survivors are not able to commit to the program, TMWL will work with them to find next steps after exiting the emergency shelter.”

 

Requiring commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) survivors to commit to sobriety as a condition of shelter for themselves and their children is not considered a best practice by experts on gender-based violence. “This approach has already been asked and answered as not effective to the realities of substance use and healing from long term trauma,” Amarinthia Torres, the co-director of the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence, said.

The city’s contract with the only other organization it funds to provide shelter beds to women leaving sex work, Real Escape from the Sex Trade, describes REST’s program as low-barrier and does not include any “accountability” requirements for participants.

Peter Anderson, The More We Love’s chief operating officer, told PubliCola the term “high accountability” means that “we walk alongside women to support their goals, address behaviors that jeopardize their safety or the safety of others, and create environments conducive to recovery and transformation. No woman is ever ‘kicked out’ for relapse. We meet each individual where they are, while ensuring that program safety standards are upheld for all participants.”

The contract goals include 180 referrals to The More We Love’s shelter and 105 successful enrollments over six months, which works out to 30 referrals and 17 placements in The More We Love’s 10 new beds every month—a swift turnover rate, even with the 30-day maximum stay.

A third and final goal is for all 105 of those women to “report increased safety, agency, dignity, belonging.” It’s unclear whether or how the city plans to verify that The More We Love has achieved this vague program goal.

In the contract, The More We Love says the group’s “ability to merge the public and private sectors to meet the full scope of need makes its program unique. TMWL works closely with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and regional service partners, like Organization for Prostitution Survivors (OPS), to receive referrals to the emergency shelter, while leveraging a strong network of community volunteers and faith-based supporters to provide relational care beyond what most programs can offer.”

A representative from OPS said that contrary to what the contract implies, the group has no formal partnership with The More We Love, although they have occasionally referred women to their shelter on a one-off, strictly “informal” basis.

It’s unclear how The More We Love recruits its “community volunteers and faith-based supporters” or how these individuals are trained to provide “relational care.” The city requires all volunteers for contractors that work with CSE survivors to complete 20 hours of training prior to volunteering.

The six-month contract includes $23,000 in “automotive” expenses, on top of $5,782 for “client transportation.” Asked if The More We Love is using the $23,000 to buy a car, Anderson said, “The automotive budget line covers transportation-related expenses, which may include maintenance, mileage reimbursements, other transportation arrangements, or the acquisition of an additional program vehicle to safely transport women and their children to critical appointments and services.”

In comparison, REST’s contract for 2025 includes transportation costs of $786.

The More We Love’s six-month contract also includes $272,000 for salaries and benefits, along with $10,000 for “consultant services.” Client assistance—flexible funds that can be used to help women and their children with expenses, including rent assistance, clothing, job training, child care, and anything else that helps promote self-determination—amounts to $20,000 over the life of the contract. “24/7 onsite security” will cost another $34,000.

City Council, Renters

Council Taps Brakes on RealPage Ban, Delaying One Week to Address Building Owner Concerns

By Erica C. Barnett

The city council tapped the brakes on Cathy Moore’s fast-tracked legislation to ban companies from using algorithmic tools like RealPage to set rent prices, pushing a vote on the bill back one week over Moore’s strenuous objections. The bill, which is likely to pass, largely replicates a proposed state law that did not move forward this year.

RealPage and similar services analyze both public and proprietary rent data to recommend rents to property management companies. The state of Washington has sued RealPage over the practice, which critics say amounts to illegal collusion to keep rents high and hold units vacant, contributing to the housing crisis.

The conflict that arose at the council meeting on Monday stemmed largely from a debate over whether a clause requested by building owners to ensure they could still use software (including consumer software like ChatGPT) to compare and compile publicly available rent data should be included in the bill’s nonbinding “whereas” section, as Moore proposed, or in the legislation itself, where it would have the force of law.

Groups representing property owners, like the Washington Multifamily Housing Association, also complained that Moore didn’t reach out to them before proposing the legislation, which passed out of Moore’s housing committee after a mere 35 minutes of discussion last week, and argued that the bill could negatively impact hotels and people who operate Airbnbs.

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Moore, who will step down on July 7, argued that the legislation was already “thoroughly vetted” at the state level and didn’t need any more local process. “My position is that we should move forward, that we are not going to wind up with a better product, and that we are here today, fully informed of what this bill does because of the stakeholdering it received in Olympia … and that we do not have the time to continue to delay a tool that we have to begin to address the affordability crisis in our city,” Moore said.

Moore’s opposition to a one-week delay on her bill stood in marked contrast to her position on the city’s much-delayed comprehensive plan update, which Moore has consistently decried because she does not think neighborhoods have been consulted enough about plans to allow apartments within two blocks of about 30 frequent transit stops.

When Kettle pushed back on Moore’s statement that her bill had already been thoroughly vetted in Olympia, saying that state legislators often got it wrong (“I just have way too many examples on public safety where Olympia has failed us,” he said), Moore responded sharply. “I think it’s insulting to say that Olympia always gets it wrong. To me, that’s an indication of the continued arrogance of this jurisdiction, to think that only Seattle knows how to do it,” she said.

This statement, too, was a bit ironic: Moore tried to poison-pill a new state law requiring cities to allow between four and six housing units on all lots previously preserved exclusively for single-family houses by imposing affordability requirements that would make these small developments infeasible in Seattle; she also advocated for new setback and tree requirements that would similarly discourage development and undercut the intent of the state legislature.

The council voted 6-2-1 to delay the legislation a week, with Moore and Joy Hollingsworth voting no. Maritza Rivera, who owns a rental unit, abstained. (Mark Solomon was renting out half his duplex, but has said a family member is now living there, eliminating his financial conflict of interest.)

City Council, homelessness, Mayor Harrell

After Tumultuous Relocation, Tent City 4 Contemplates Its Next Move

Although Councilmember Cathy Moore and Mayor Bruce Harrell expressed surprise that Tent City 4 planned to stay in Lake City, emails show their offices were working to make the move happen as far back as February.

By Erica C. Barnett

Back in May, when the city told SHARE/WHEEL, the group that operates Tent City 4 in Lake City, that it would no longer be able to move to a long-planned new site where the Lake City Community Center was previously located, North Seattle City Councilmember Cathy Moore, who will leave the council on July 7,said she opposed the site because the neighborhood had not been asked to weigh in on having a self-managed encampment at that location, just a few blocks away from its previous site, the Lake City Mennonite Church.

The neighborhood, Moore told PubliCola in a statement, opposed the encampment. “The community directly impacted by the TC4 siting at the Mennonite church and now at the LCCC site is requesting that KCRHA find a different site outside of Lake City,” Moore said.

It’s unclear who, specifically, Moore meant by the “community”; by all accounts, the encampment was welcome at its previous location, and a representative of the Mennonite Church  told PubliCola they would be thrilled to have them back any time. Long before their anticipated move date in mid-May,SHARE Tent City 4 residents did door-to-door outreach and held a well-attended public where only one person raised any objection—a woman who erroneously believed the encampment would block access to the Lake City Farmer’s Market.

But by May, the city had made up its mind: Under no circumstances would the encampment be able to stay at its new site for a year, as previously planned. After a flurry of last-minute negotiations, the city agreed to allow the encampment to relocate to the new site for one to six months, until they can find what Mayor Bruce Harrell called a “more appropriate” location.

Since they moved, SHARE/WHEEL representative Michele Marchand said, the group has not received “a single complaint” about the encampment. “We’ve gotten all kinds of donations.” Tent City residents provide 24/7 security, and do litter pickups in the neighborhoods around their encampment sites.

On a recent weekday, the camp was quiet and largely unoccupied—a collection of closely spaced tents, including many set up directly on the grass, sizzling in the early-summer heat. By early June, the camp still didn’t have electricity or water hookups, and was using a noisy portable generator to supply the power that kept a fan going in the large open tent that served as the camp’s front office. Apart from the generator, which a Tent City representative said they shut off at night at the request of neighbors, the camp was silent.

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Justin Fain, who’s currently living in a large tent covered by a silvery tarp, said uncertainty around the encampment’s future was making it harder than expected to get electricity and water to the site. SHARE/WHEEL representatives told PubliCola the city had just informed the group that they needed to be out within three months. Later, Harrell’s office said they would once again have six months to leave.

Overall, Fain said, the group is getting along well with the neighborhood. “Everybody’s been very welcoming,” Fain said, including staff at the Lake City library branch, who recently ordered pizza for encampment residents.

Moore, who spoke to the Seattle Times about her opposition to the encampment, said her problem wasn’t with “Tent City per se, but the profound lack of investment in Lake City and the (feeling) that Lake City is being asked to shoulder a responsibility that other parts of the city are not being asked to do.”

“To say Lake City doesn’t need shelter is ridiculous,” Fain said, noting that the city does regular encampment sweeps at Albert Davis Park, just outside the Tent City 4, and along 33rd Ave. NE. “There’s tons of homeless around here.” On the streets around Tent City and in the park, several tents were visible on the day I visited. And it isn’t just single people in those tents; it’s also families.

The Mennonite Church is still hosting a small family shelter in a vacant dental building near Tent City 4’s previous location, but it’s perennially full. In the week before I visited, Fain said, six families had arrived at Tent City 4, with a total of 24 children; they’ll stay at the encampment until space opens up at the family shelter.

***

Moore’s comments last month, and the swift action by Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office to put the kibosh on a one-year lease between the King County Homelessness Authority and the city, suggested she just heard about plans to move Tent City to a new site shortly before it was supposed to move in May.

Harrell, similarly, suggested that the planned community center location was news to him. In a statement announcing that the city would allow the encampment at the site for up to six months, Harrell said, “Improving coordination among the City, KCRHA, and Share/Wheel will allow for strengthened community engagement and more effective process timelines that lead to better outcomes and remove uncertainty from similar situations going forward.”

Emails obtained through a records request, however, show that Moore, Harrell, and the city’s Human Services Department, which answers to the mayor, were aware that SHARE/WHEEL was planning to move to the community center site as far back as February. Not only that—HSD suggested the location. On February 26, a KCRHA staffer told SHARE/WHEEL that the city’s department had identified the Lake City Community Center site as a possible location for the encampment, and suggested that the organization start talking to Moore’s office about that site as soon as possible.

“The site is the old Lake City Community Center, which was demolished last summer and is currently awaiting redevelopment into a new community center and housing,” the HSD staffer wrote. “HSD has confirmed with leadership of both the Parks Department (who owns the property) and the Office of Housing (who is financing the redevelopment) that the site will be available for this interim use through May of 2026. We have the approval of the Mayor’s Office to proceed.”

In a March 6 email, one KCRHA staffer told another, “Tent City 4 has met with CM Moore already.” On March 14, SHARE/WHEEL met with a group that included Moore’s aide Harry Pollet, and reported to KCRHA that “CM Moore’s Office is starting to consult with District stakeholders about Tent City4’s request for the Lake City Community Center site,” as well as a short-term family shelter at the Mennonite Church, and was working with Seattle Public Utilities to figure out what it would cost to provide utilities at the site for a year.

Emails show that the city continued communicating with SHARE/WHEEL and the KCRHA in April, discussing the need to expedite permits and get a one-year lease signed “ASAP.” During this period, the group held its public meeting and did door-to-door outreach to the surrounding community.

But then, in May, something changed, and city officials, including Moore and Harrell, started saying the site, and the Lake City neighborhood as a whole, was not an appropriate site for the sanctioned encampment.

PubliCola sent Moore a list of questions about what happened between February and May, when she appeared to go from working with SHARE/WHEEL and KCRHA to secure the Lake City Community Center site to opposing any encampment in Lake City.

In a statement, Moore responded, “I think the entire siting process was poorly managed and resulted in needless angst for everyone involved.” Moore added that she heard in May that the site was “unavailable due to lack of utility hookup and need for a quick turnaround for the forthcoming affordable housing project.” According to the Seattle Times, developer Mercy Housing won’t break ground on the project until 2027.

Fain said Tent City residents were gratified that, before and after the move, four Seattle City Council members have visited Tent City 4 and talked to its residents directly. Cathy Moore, who represents the neighborhood, was not among them.