About the 2019 Seattle City Council Housing and Homelessness Voters Guide

To help Seattle voters understand their choices in the upcoming City Council election, Tech 4 Housing has partnered with Resolution to End Homelessness, Seattle University’s Project on Family Homelessness, Housing Development Consortium and Solid Ground on a 2019 voter education project.

This online Voters Guide on Housing and Homelessness is based on responses to a candidate questionnaire sent to all 14 candidates. We’re pleased that 13 of 14 candidates are expected to participate in this Voters Guide.

Many thanks to the candidates who participated, and to the voters who consider housing and homelessness a primary issue in this campaign.

Note: Because we are 501(c)(3) organizations, we are providing this information for educational purposes only and are not making endorsements. We do not endorse nor oppose any candidate.

There are six questions. Candidate responses are published exactly as received and we have not edited them for typos or any other factors, with one exception: Only the responses that met the clearly noted word limit (150 words) are published in full. For those who exceeded the limits, we are only publishing the first 150 words of their response. You may consult the PDF versions of the candidates’ questionnaires to see full responses.

Our methodology for gathering candidate responses:

Our organizations developed potential questions and vetted them as a group.
We emailed the questionnaire Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019 simultaneously to all 14 candidates for Seattle City Council, with the deadline of one month later—Friday, Oct. 4, 2019 at 5 p.m.
To ensure maximum participation, we made numerous contacts via phone and email to confirm their participation and remind them of the deadline.
Nine of the candidates returned their questionnaire by the deadline: Phil Tavel (D1), Tammy Morales (D2), Mark Solomon (D2), Egan Orion (D3), Shaun Scott (D4), Ann Davison Sattler (D5), Dan Strauss (D6), Andrew Lewis (D7) and Jim Pugel (D7).
In addition, several candidates submitted their questionnaires after the deadline and their responses will be posted later.
Two candidates contacted us on Friday before the deadline to request extensions, and submitted their questionnaires after the deadline: Lisa Herbold (D1) at 11:16 p.m. Oct. 4; and Kshama Sawant (D3) on Oct. 5 at 4:55 p.m.
One more candidate submitted her questionnaire after the deadline: Heidi Wills (D6), 11:54 p.m. on Oct. 4.
One candidate contacted us after the deadline to request an extension: Debora Juarez (D5) asked for an extension on Oct. 7 and we are awaiting her response.
One candidate, Alex Pedersen (D5), declined to participate.

King County Elections will mail ballots to everyone mid-October. You can return your ballot by mail (no stamp required) or at a drop box, by Tuesday, Nov. 5.

Don’t know your district? Look it up here. | Are you registered to vote? Check and update your registration here.

See responses here: