Local News

A coalition of downtown Seattle business leaders and social service providers asked the state Legislature today to provide funding for housing and health services for the poor to address problems of chronic disorder and public safety on downtown streets.

The coalition called on the Legislature to implement the Affordable Care Act with full Medicaid expansion, preserve funding for mental-health and substance-abuse treatment programs and invest $175 million over the next two years in the Housing Trust Fund to increase affordable housing.

“The lingering effects of the economic recession have compounded with recent cuts in funding for treatment services, resulting in severe challenges in our downtown core and in many other cities across our state. Without stable housing and medical care, we have seen too many people become a danger to themselves and a threat to public safety,” said a letter sent to the Legislature by Mayor Mike McGinn and members of a group working on a Center City initiative to address street crime and vagrancy.

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Real Change executive director Tim Harris says he won’t support Mayor Mike McGinn for re-election this year. He’s rooting for former Seattle City Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck, whom he expects to announce a campaign for mayor in the next couple of weeks.

Harris supported McGinn in 2009 and helped form a coalition of environmental and human-services support for the mayor. Harris was front-and-center for the first political victory of the mayor’s term, his veto of an aggressive-panhandling bill passed by the council. But Harris said in an interview that he doesn’t think the mayor can beat City Council member Tim Burgess, who announced this week he’s running.

McGinn called Harris personally to ask for his support, Harris said, but he couldn’t persuade Harris, at least, that he has what it takes to win. Harris’ lack of support re-enforces a perception that the McGinn is vulnerable. In 2009, he was an underdog and lacked support of the city’s elite, but he had the votes of Harris and others who had been disenfranchised at City Hall.

“I have a lot of conversations with a lot of people,” Harris said, “I’m just not running into a lot of hard-core McGinn loyalists out there. In the conversations that I have with folks, I’m just not hearing a ton of support. You know, I hear that he’s pissed off a lot of people.”

Steinbrueck said he appreciates Harris’ support, although he hasn’t yet decided whether he will run. He is seriously considering it, he said.