King County

González is one of Seattle’s three representatives on the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. She wants to push the city further than the current mayor was willing to go when it comes to building more permanent supportive housing.

González would focus on building short- and long-term housing because the city needs to triple permanent affordable housing to meet everyone’s needs. She pledges to quickly scale up Seattle’s shelter system from the mayor’s office, which would include options such as tiny villages and leveraging hotels and motels. She states that she would increase permanent, supportive housing and include additional funds for mental, behavioral, and substance use services.

González has played a lead role in existing police reform efforts by pivoting some law enforcement funding to community-led efforts. She believes that as mayor, she could do even more to reverse the legacy of harm of police violence in the city, especially for communities of color, the homeless, and in communities with lower-than-average incomes. In our interview, González noted that Seattle’s police guild has disproportionate power at the negotiating table when it comes to holding officers accountable. The mayor has much more leverage than the council in negotiating a better contract, and if she is elected she will push harder than Mayor Durkan to increase accountability for officers and the department.

Equitable economic recovery from COVID is a high priority for the councilmember. She vows to make sure that neighborhood small businesses, many of which are owned by people of color, receive equitable shares of recovery assistance. Other parts of her agenda seek to meet the needs of working families. For example, she wants to raise standards in the gig economy by ending sub-minimum wages and establish incentives for employee ownership in businesses. Improvements to childcare access, bike and pedestrian paths, and building on renter protections round out some of her other priorities for improving the lives of everyone in the community.

On issues of the climate, González wants to partner with Seattle for A Green New Deal to revitalize and expand the local green economy. She states that by actively retrofitting homes and modernizing industrial infrastructure, we can provide thousands of stable, high-quality jobs in the city.

González’s experience leaves her well-positioned to hit the ground running. Her advocacy and support for workers has earned her the trust of many labor unions and advocacy groups. She has a track record of working well with her colleagues to build consensus on the city’s most pressing issues. For her support for our partners and her forward-thinking platform, we recommend González for mayor of Seattle.

If elected, Echohawk would launch a 14-month emergency housing plan to build 4,000 units of temporary housing and create a citizen volunteer corps to provide mutual aid. She plans to activate Seattle’s Emergency Operations Center to track and report data, which can collaborate across city departments and report analytics. Echohawk points out that with an 80 percent vacancy rate in hotels, the city can bargain to use them along with tiny homes and modular housing to expand more dignified shelter options.

Echohawk brings unique experience working in the Community Police Commission, which was established in 2010 and aims to provide oversight and accountability on needed reforms to the Seattle Police Department. She states that she supports reinvestment of some police funding into services such as mental health responders. She wants to repair the legitimacy of the department by rebuilding the police union contract, opposing militarization, refocusing the police to tackling issues like violent crimes and emergencies, and creating a culture with zero tolerance for bad cops.

Other priorities for Echohawk include expanding access to transit passes for low-income residents, upping funding for bridges and road projects, and establishing an Office of Indigenous Affairs to further the city’s practices in ecology and other policies.

What sets Echohawk apart from her opponents is her hands-on experience working for and within the urban native community, as well as on the issues of homelessness and affordable housing. If elected, she would be the first Indigenous mayor of Seattle. If you’re looking for a candidate from outside City Hall who has community and organizational leadership experience, vote for Colleen Echohawk.

Farrell calls her housing plan “Sound Transit 3 for Housing” to reflect the scale of her proposal. This plan aims to meet the city’s need of 653,000 more units of housing, including 70,000 units of affordable housing, much of that within walking distance of transportation and amenities. She notes that the city’s history of racial discrimination in housing has created disparities in housing, wealth, and access to services for Black families in the city, and believes her plan addresses these gaps. Like González, Echohawk, and Houston, Farrell supports changing the city's building codes to increase density and affordable housing in neighborhoods with exclusively single-family homes.

Farrell wants to revamp our crisis response system so that armed officers aren’t responding to everything from mental health crises to transit fare enforcement. Her police reform plan focuses on changing laws so that minor offenses like jaywalking and small drug possession are no longer criminal. Furthermore, Farrell believes that the 2018 Seattle Police Officers Guild contract gave away too many of the mechanisms for accountability. As such, she would seek to renegotiate these and other standards for officer conduct. Like other candidates in the race, the former legislator acknowledges that over-policing has a disproportionate impact on low-income people and people of color, and wants to scale up violence prevention programs like Community Passageways.

Farrell has an extensive set of climate action plans that envision the city’s future on a greener economy and infrastructure. She wants to enact a Green Jobs Bill of Rights that brings higher-than-minimum wages, ensures city contracts with women, veteran, and minority-owned businesses, and applies portable benefits to gig work. She will also prioritize legalizing affirmative action as well as updating the city’s building codes to fall in line with international carbon reduction standards.

Farrell was an effective progressive legislator during her time in Olympia. She is the only candidate in the race who has served in the state legislature and states that her experience working at the state and local level will be invaluable for a city leader. She's a good choice if you're looking for someone with legislative experience and statewide leadership on paid family leave, mass transit, and climate change.

One of the core tenets of Houston’s housing policy is a “rising tide of housing” - providing shelter that’s urgently needed now and building towards the future. He is aiming for the construction of 2,500 tiny homes by 2022 to cover the city’s shelter gap. He wants to simplify and update the city's Mandatory Housing Affordability plan in order to bring more mixed-income housing into more expensive neighborhoods. Also, he supports both commercial and residential rent control so that people can stay in their homes and maintain small businesses even as the cost of living rises.

Houston is a member of King County Equity Now, a coalition that is pushing to defund and redirect law enforcement funding by 50 percent. He intends to hold himself accountable to this ask, stating that criminalizing poverty is expensive, traumatic for residents, and ultimately unhelpful for the city. To back up his position, he cites that the city has doubled the police budget in the last decade and crime has remained the same. Houston wants to see those funds go into public safety policies that the community has asked for, including an official mutual aid program, expansion of the public safety coordinator program, and a pilot for universal basic income, which would provide $1,000 a month for 2,500 people to meet their basic needs. His policies would represent the biggest shift in funding and operation from today’s police department compared to other candidates.

As a board member of Futurewise, which promotes concentrating urban growth around transit, jobs, and services, Houston has big plans for the city’s transportation sector. He wants to restore bus service, implement two plans for the movement of people as well as the movement of freight, and prioritize RapidRide bus lanes. He plans to pay for his plan strategy with a “just transition" income tax of 1 percent to make serious investments in the city’s future.

Houston’s campaign has the urgency, direction, and detail that many residents are looking for after a tumultuous year. For voters looking to upend the status quo and push for highly progressive policy formed in part by the community, Houston is a good choice.

Harrell intends to approach homelessness with a model of nonprofit partnership with the city. He would create a program where residents could make tax-deductible donations to support homelessness outreach and he would lead a campaign to increase philanthropic support for supportive housing. He would also push the majority of funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act towards permanent housing options through hotels and tiny homes. As of mid-June, he is the only definite supporter among the leading mayoral candidates of the Compassion Seattle Charter Amendment, which would mandate the building of more affordable housing and expand sweeps of homeless encampments. The measure also lines up with his views on leveraging private and philanthropic funding for housing and homelessness.

In his previous service on the city council, Harrell introduced “ban the box” legislation that prohibited employers from asking applicants about past legal history. In addition, Harrell led early efforts to require officers to wear body cameras and prohibit the police department’s use of drones in 2011.

Harrell is critical of the movement to defund police but does support increasing funding for non-law enforcement community wellness efforts. Especially compared to the other leading candidates in the race, he seems committed to taking on police reform personally, stating that he would lead the Seattle Police Department in a culture change. The former council member intends to personally hire officers looking to be “change agents” and will not be afraid to critique officers. Harrell says that he will use data from the Race and Data Initiative to address discrimination in housing, policing, and more. He also pledges to make every officer watch all 8 minutes and 46 seconds of George Floyd’s murder and sign a voluntary pledge against inhumane treatment. Similar to other candidates, he believes that funding for de-escalation, mental health services, and public education on when to call 911 should be provided. His policies might represent the least departure from the current operation of today’s police department among the leading candidates.

Similar to his plan on housing, Harrell intends to seek the support of foundations and the private sector to make health service programs more affordable. While he supports focusing development around light rail stations, he has not made any commitments on changing the zoning for affordable housing. Harrell was a yes vote for the Seattle Green New Deal in 2019 and intends to continue his “road diet” program that seeks to develop better bike and pedestrian paths and transit access.

Like González, Harrell has served on the Seattle City Council and has a record of his work and priorities in the city. If you're looking for a blunt candidate with experience and a track record in City Hall, Harrell is a good choice.