2019 Seattle City Council Housing and Homelessness Voters Guide

heidi wills

https://heidiwills.com

Download complete candidate response as submitted.

Question 1. Beyond making current programs more efficient, do you think we need to increase funding for housing for people experiencing homelessness? If so, where would you raise the revenue?

Yes, we need more funding to build more permanent supportive housing for people experiencing chronic long-term homelessness. I applaud the City and County’s new pilot programs, but the efforts need to be 10-fold bigger. We also need more temporary shelter with an array of services to meet the individual needs of people who find themselves intermittently homelessness. People who are newly homeless need skills training, education and outreach workers to get off the streets quickly. And more funds are needed to prevent homelessness. We must engage regional partners to fund housing and real solutions. I am encouraged by civic groups like the Third Door Coalition which has the means to donate substantial amounts of private funding. Hopefully, the state legislature will provide a regional funding mechanism. As a business owner myself, I’d be a collaborative leader able to bring the business community to the table to help address this crisis.

Question 2. What are your thoughts on the City's current implementation of encampment removals? In what ways would you improve the policies?

All people deserve to live in dignity, safety, warmth, and security. Many of the unsanctioned encampments are unsafe and unhygienic for the people living in those conditions and for those around them. Seattle is shouldering more than its share of the region’s crisis. We have approximately 30% of the County’s population but about 70% of the homeless population. Seattle has 80% of the County’s shelter beds. Our City is overwhelmed. City leaders must engage regional partners. The region needs more short-term solutions such as shelters and modular homes with an array of services to help people on a continuum of care. And we need more permanent supportive housing. It isn’t compassionate to continue to walk past people living in deplorable conditions in unsanctioned encampments, but until there are enough shelters and services to help people, the City needs to address basic hygienic needs of people experiencing homelessness.

Question 3. The City and State have introduced several new tenant protections in recent years. Do you think more work is needed to protect tenants and combat displacement? If so, what changes would you like to see?

Yes, we need to do more. The City and the state legislature have made strides which should be celebrated, yet there’s more the City can do to combat displacement and provide more affordable housing. We need more affordable housing of all shapes and sizes for people of all incomes. In District 6, older affordable single-family homes are being replaced with multiplexes that are cost-prohibitive to even middle wage earners, let alone low-wage earners. What housing looks like will need to change. We only have so much available land. One lot with one house can accommodate more than one family. There are new ideas immerging to break up existing single-family homes into separate living quarters for many families by building in more bedrooms suitable for up to two people each with joint living and eating spaces. We also need more apartments that have “dorm-like settings” with shared living and eating spaces.

Question 4. Homelessness and housing insecurity disproportionately affect people of color, LGBTQ communities, people with disabilities and other marginalized communities. What would you do to address these disparities?

An excellent example of what we need to do more of is Chief Seattle Club. They are working to ensure people from our Native community have housing and a pathway to recovery from intergenerational trauma. They are working to build a $42 capital project of 80 units of affordable housing with a health clinic and art gallery space for Native art to celebrate and empower their community members. Later this year, they will open temporary housing for up to 30 individuals, and they are developing a job training program. They provide case managers, outreach workers and financial assistance to ensure people have first/last month’s rent to secure housing to reduce and prevent homelessness. I attended their annual luncheon where they emphasized that their community leaders know best how to help their own community members. City leaders must be ready to be funding partners and provide resources as necessary.

Question 5. How would you adjust Seattle's land use and zoning laws? In particular, what changes, if any, would you want to see in neighborhoods currently zoned exclusively for single-family housing and in multi-family neighborhoods where we're making significant investments in transit?

I support improving our land use and zoning laws in innovative and bold ways to solve homelessness. We need to think about housing differently, particularly in single-family neighborhoods, to allow more people to live in single-family homes and prevent displacement. (Please see my response to question 3.) I support the ADU legislation which is a modest way to increase affordable housing. I support transit-oriented developments, making it easier for people to have improved access to public transportation. I support even greater height at our light rail stations. There are areas of our city, such as parts of Lake City and south Seattle, that would welcome more height and density. I’d like to change the building code to allow for cross-laminated timber (CLT) in high-rise affordable housing. Our current code limits buildings made of wood products to 85 feet or 6 stories. Taller CLT buildings would reduce construction time and costs.

Question 6. We know that it is cheaper to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place than it is to support them to exit homelessness. What is your vision for homelessness prevention initiatives and services in our community?

Preventing people from becoming homeless is often ignored but critically important. People on the verge of homelessness often need the same services that people who are newly homeless need. They may not be making enough to pay bills or rent and they need stabilization. The average amount needed to keep a family housed that’s on the verge of homelessness is $1,400 in King County. This is money well spent. I grew up housing insecure. I was raised by a single mom. We moved 13 times and I attended 10 schools before I graduated from high school. We didn’t fall into homelessness because we were able to move in with my grandparents multiple times and I moved in with friends other times. Children who change schools lag their peers academically by 6 months on average. Rent stabilization funds are critically important and so is providing financial management skills and job placement.