Hello neighbors,

New Affordable Housing on Capitol Hill

On Monday, I had the pleasure of joining Mayor Durkan to announce the rapid acquisition of 165 affordable housing units through a joint investment from the city and state of $50,123,500. The three buildings are all located in Capitol Hill with the Low Income Housing Institute and YouthCare providing staff support. The purpose of this acquisition is to quickly re-house adults and young adults that are experiencing homelessness or at extreme risk of homelessness THIS fall. The only solution to homelessness is permanent housing, and I hope to see more rapid acquisition events before the end of the year! 

Seattle Psychedelics Symposium

My office recently welcomed a panel of experts to talk about the growing movement in many states to decriminalize certain psychedelics. I have been surprised to learn of the abundant evidence that small amounts of certain psychedelics, when taken in a controlled manner under medical supervision, can have enormous positive effects for people struggling with mental health issues, including addiction.

Because of this, my office is bringing forward a resolution to declare the arrest and prosecution of individuals engaging in entheogen use to be among the City of Seattle’s lowest enforcement priorities. In practice, the Seattle Police Department neither detains people nor confiscates these materials from individuals for simple possession of entheogens, and I am asking them to codify that policy.

If this topic interests you, I encourage you to watch the psychedelics symposium my office hosted. The video is embedded below:

Budget Deliberations

This coming Monday Mayor Durkan is expected to release her final proposed budget for the 2022 fiscal year. The City Council will then spend the next several weeks working with constituents to make changes to that base document and craft what will ultimately be the City budget for the next year. During this time, the Council will not have committee meetings. But there some important opportunities for public engagement. Specifically, the Council will hold public hearings on:

• October 12 @ 5:30 p.m.
• November 10 @ 5:30 p.m. 
• November 18 @ 9:30 a.m.