Seattle homelessness initiative qualifies for ballot

SEATTLE (AP) – A campaign to amend the Seattle City Charter and force a different way of dealing with homelessness, known as Compassion Seattle, officially qualified for the November election.

The King County Electoral Department confirmed Wednesday morning that the measure – Charter Amendment 29 – had 34,714 valid signatures. It took 33,060 to qualify for a vote.

The Seattle Times reports that after verifying all signatures, the department sent a confirmation letter to the Seattle city clerk on Monday night.

Seattle City Council is due to vote on a resolution on Monday to include the statute change in the city’s November 2021 vote, according to Seattle City Secretary Monica Martinez Simmons.

Then the clerk’s office would notify the King County Electoral Bureau to approve the placement of the measure.

If this happens and voters adopt it, the amendment to Charter 29 would force the mayor to create 2,000 homes or places within a year, budget 12% of the city’s general fund for homelessness and human services, and if there is enough housing or housing Housing Gives to the People Outdoor living in Seattle keeps public spaces like parks and sidewalks free of warehouses. The change would be in the city law by the end of 2027.

“This is a significant milestone and we applaud King County Elections for their responsive and speedy work to confirm the high number of signatures the campaign has returned,” Compassion Seattle said in a statement.

At the beginning of July, the campaign trumpeted about the more than 66,000 signatures received – twice as many as needed to move forward. However, more than 30,000 signatures were rejected or “attacked” by electoral workers.

The vast majority of those challenges were that the person was not registered to vote in the city of Seattle, Watkins said. For a signature to be validated, the individual must be registered in that jurisdiction at the time the petition is considered.

Since Charter Amendment 29 was announced earlier this year, it has received mixed feedback. The candidates for next month’s mayoral election are almost evenly distributed. While some homeless nonprofit leaders and advocates have spoken out in favor of it, others have launched a campaign called House Our Neighbors to encourage Seattle voters to say “no.”