Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has failed to deliver on homelessness, but challenger Katie Wilson has put real solutions forward.
Working in Pioneer Square as a nurse, I am overwhelmed with relief that Katie Wilson is in the race for Seattle Mayor. Katie has demonstrated time and again that she prioritizes people and the best interests of our community. We are at an inflection point and we have a chance to do some real good at reducing the pain the Harrell administration has caused and address the housing crisis which Harrell has mishandled.
The Harrell administration has tried to make our unhoused neighbors disappear by overseeing sweeps that maximize displacement and harm to human life. The Seattle Unified Cares Team, performed more than 2,200 sweeps annually in 2023, even during brutal inclement weather events, despite community outcry. Between 2023 and 2024, this program came at a price tag of approximately $52.5 million.
As a nurse, I can assure voters this is a waste of our taxpayer dollars. Instead of addressing the problem head-on with essential resources, sweeps actively make the comorbidities of homelessness much worse. I have seen sweeps rob people who are homeless of their personal belongings including wheelchairs and walkers. This in no way leads to any kind of recovery or long-term stability. All the Harrell team can seem to think of is prescribing the hammer to a patient population that has only known the hammer of brutality.
Katie Wilson is an experienced organizer who has helped win victories we all benefit from. She’s campaigned for minimum wage, progressive revenue, social housing and renter protections. She got the city to buy in to subsidized Orca transit cards. She is committed to building an additional 4,000 new shelter units as well as implementing full-time summer K-8 child care. Wilson wants to increase access to public bathrooms. As a health professional working with vulnerable populations on the long road to recovery, this is the kind of track record and willingness to improve quality of life that I can get behind.
Harrell has held elected office in Seattle City Hall for almost 20 years. In that time Seattle rent and regional homelessness has ballooned to the public health crisis it is now. The Harrell administration has used money intended for housing — the Jumpstart progressive payroll tax Wilson made happen — to fill gaps in the City budget. He chose to be the face of opposition to House Our Neighbors’ social housing campaign, going against the will of the voters.
Wilson is a candidate who can appreciate that the fear we experience when we see needles on the sidewalk is not OK, and also that the solution needs to be about getting people inside, not to routinely displace them. Camps in public parks are a symptom of poverty and systemic inequality and a housing crisis that our local leadership in the city council and the Harrell administration has refused to address.
In my line of work we have a statistic that most Americans are two paychecks away from being unhoused. Time and time again we find that housing people costs less than caring for them in emergency rooms and jails. A King County program showed that getting people into supportive housing prevented emergency room visits.
The Harrell administration had so many opportunities to rise to the occasion, but chose to displace people instead. Our unhoused neighbors are the result of inequality, they are not the causes of harm. The ultrarich people driving wealth inequality don’t ride the bus or hang out in our parks. But they do seem to fund Harrell’s reelection campaign.
Katie Wilson is asking for a well-earned shot to continue her long run of organizing to make all our lives more livable. In my line of work, we say human life is precious. I see that idea reflected in Wilson’s approach to government.
The Urbanist elections committee endorsed Katie Wilson. Remember to get your ballot into a dropbox by 8pm Tuesday, November 4.
Reed Olsen is an artist and cyclist living near Green Lake and practicing as a nurse in Pioneer Square. Find him @reedonwheels
