(The Center Square) – Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson on Wednesday announced a plan to create 1,000 new shelter beds and emergency housing by the end of the year to deal with the city’s homelessness crisis.
The plan, which is subject to the approval of the city council, calls for more shelters for the unhoused, as well as allowing existing facilities to house more people.
It remains to be seen whether members of the city council will agree to the plan, but two of the nine council members, Rob Saka and Bob Kettle, voiced support for it on Wednesday,
City Council President Joy Hollingsworth did not respond to requests for comment.
Wilson, speaking at a factory used by volunteers to build tiny homes for the homeless, said she is directing the city director of Finance & Administrative Services to directly sign lease agreements with property owners to accelerate the process of opening new shelters.
“This will eliminate bureaucratic obstacles and allow the city to prepare sites, which can then be turned over to service providers,” she said.
Wilson’s aides, speaking on background, said the idea is to open the shelters in a matter of weeks, not months.
Wednesday’s event was held in the tiny home factory to emphasize that tiny home villages, which Wilson wants to expand in Seattle, are considered shelters. The 120-square-foot houses are very basic and do not have private kitchens or bathrooms.
Multiple residents share common bathrooms and kitchens.
A key part of the plan is to raise the number of homeless people allowed in shelters, like the tiny home villages, from the current city limit of 100 to 150. In addition, one shelter in each of the city’s nine council districts would be allowed for up to 250.
Critics have called the tiny home villages in Seattle “shantytowns” because of the basic nature of the structures, but proponents have argued that they are better than tents.
More than a dozen such villages operate in Seattle.
Wilson said Wednesday that the 100-person limit for the tiny home villages and other shelters is too small.
“This is an extremely low limit, which is out of step with national best practices and what cities like Los Angeles, Austin, Tampa, and Chico, California do,” she said. “And it just doesn’t make sense when we have so many people sleeping outside with nowhere to go.”
The King County Regional Homeless Authority has estimated that 16,868 people were experiencing homelessness in the county including Seattle in 2024. It is the last year for which data is available.
That’s a 26% increase from 2022.
KCRHA is in the process of conducting a new survey, which it said will be released in May.
Wilson, who narrowly beat the incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell in November, ran on a platform of reducing the homeless population, as well as building more affordable housing for Seattle residents.
During her campaign last year, she promised to build 4,000 new units of housing during her four-year term.
In her remarks on Wednesday, Wilson said that homelessness was the city’s biggest problem, a reality seen daily by those who work and live in the city in the form of increased homeless encampments.
Wilson also addressed the sensitive issue of increasing shelters and homeless beds during her speech, amid potential safety fears from city residents.
“I know some people may have concerns about new or expanded shelters opening near them, and I get it,” she said.
But Wilson said she understood that with the expanded shelter beds, Seattle residents would expect to see a reduction in homelessness in their neighborhoods.
“And they [residents] want to be able to trust that it will not create new problems of public safety, and just to be real, there can be problems when we don’t get things right,” Wilson said.
She said any expansion in shelter beds will be coupled with an analysis of what has worked hasn’t worked in the past, as well as support services for the unhoused.
Some shelter plans have been scrapped in the past after vocal community opposition.
Andrea Suarez, executive director of community organization We Heart Seattle, said she is concerned that new shelters could be placed in any neighborhood near daycares, schools and other inappropriate places.
She said a lot of thought had to be put into their placement.
“I mean why do we have zoning for strip clubs, transfer stations and where you put things,” she said.
Suarez said just offering supportive services, such as drug and mental health counseling, in the shelters isn’t always effective because there is no requirement to seek help.
Low barriers for admission for the shelters in the past has led to neighborhood crime, for example, from drug addicts, she said.
Wilson said Seattle can’t continue to avoid the homelessness problem, noting that city officials declared a state of emergency on homelessness in November 2015, and that the problem has only gotten worse.
“We can’t keep pushing people from place to place without bringing more people inside,” she said. “And we can’t keep forcing our buses, our parks, our libraries to function as social service providers.”
One group representing downtown businesses applauded Wilson’s plan. The Downtown Seattle Association called Wilson’s plan a “bold first step” in getting people off the streets.
“Adding supportive services is a critical component of this plan, increasing the likelihood that these residents will be on a clearer path to long-term stability,” DSA President and CEO Jon Scholes said in a statement. “There are far too many people sleeping unsheltered in our city; this plan will ensure more people get inside and connected to the help they desperately need.”
Wilson said the plan will be funded by $4.8 million in city funds.
She said $3.3 million would be appropriated from an underutilized revolving loan program that was difficult to deploy.
Wilson said an additional $1.5 million would be used from the Downtown Health & Human Service fund, a program from the 1990s, whose funds had not been used in a decade.
Wilson said the increase in shelter limits would be made on an “interim” basis, but she did not explain how long she envisioned that period would be.
She did not take reporters’ questions, quickly leaving after her nine-minute speech.
