Candidates Speak at Homelessness Forum.

Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen may have dug himself into a deep hole when he promised to double the housing levy that Seattle voters will be asked to renew in 2009. But the pledge was one of the few highlights of a Sept. 20 candidates forum held by the Seattle-King County Coalition on Homelessness.

Rasmussen, the unopposed chair of the council’s Housing and Human Services Committee, also said he wants to pay private landlords to preserve affordable housing by allowing them to sell air rights above their buildings to developers — a “transfer of development rights,” or TDRs, currently allowed for commercial properties.

In a turnaround from an earlier position, Rasmussen also committed to maintaining the city’s number of shelter beds until permanent housing can be built or acquired as part of the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness — a policy that the other candidates endorsed.

Councilmember Sally Clark and Tim Burgess, the challenger for Councilmember David Della, echoed the call for an expanded TDR program. He and Position 3 candidate Venus Velazquez also endorsed state legislation — lobbied for this year in Olympia by Rasmussen — to limit or stop the conversion of apartments to condos.

Velazquez, who is vying with Bruce Harrell for the council seat to be vacated by Peter Steinbrueck, also said the city needs to make it easier for nonprofit housing developers to acquire property — in part by making property owners give nonprofits the first shot at buying parcels that go up for sale.

More telling, however, was what one candidate didn’t say — or didn’t know. When asked if the city should use general funds to help nonprofits buy property, a question pertaining to the mayor’s well-publicized proposal to “fast-track” $3.5 million in general funds for a Plymouth Housing project, Councilmember Jean Godden was caught unawares.

“I’m sorry. I don’t understand the question,” Godden said. “Did we approve that?”   top

by Cydney Gillis

Day Labor Site Targeted.

The public discussion about CASA Latina’s future home got a little more heated this week, as a Washington D.C. legal group made known its desire to halt development of the publicly funded job and community center in the Central District.

Judicial Watch, whose suit against the city of Herndon, Virginia resulted in the closure of a day labor center there, presented its view on the illegality of day labor sites at a Sept. 24 meeting originally scheduled to come up with a good-neighbor agreement governing the Latino organization’s operations. When they learned Judicial Watch would be there, CASA Latina representatives declined to attend.

Facilitator John Howell did come; he says the next meeting has not been arranged. “The issue has become so charged and challenging that I want to check in with all the participants,” he says. “I’m going to have conversations with them about whether they’re willing to continue.”

The city contracted Howell, of Cedar River Group, to help both sides arrive at an agreement by the end of October. “CASA Latina wanted to engage in a conversation with the residents,” he says. “It’s a process that the city has supported, and no one wants this to go on forever.”   top

by Adam Hyla

County a “Success” with Criminal Justice?

County councilmembers convened Mon., Sept. 24 at Seattle’s First A.M.E. Church in the Central District for a town hall meeting on the the effectiveness of criminal justice reform efforts that have been instituted in 2000 to save money.

King County spends 70 percent of its operating budget on public safety, leaving the rest for public transit, water treatment, health and human services, and parks . In order to stem the rising cost of courts, police, and incarceration, seven years ago the council decided that reforms would have to be made to reduce crime rates and recidivism. Among improvements mentioned were reforms instituted to help youth in the county who have been trapped in a cycle of juvenile detention. These include volunteer, job, and community education opportunities.

County staffer Cliff Curry noted positive improvements in terms of the number of incarcerated individuals countywide. The county has saved $25 million on criminal justice in the last seven years, he said.

But two panelists and many members of the community were visibly and audibly dissatisfied with the failure to address the continued racial disproportionality in the county’s two jails and one juvenile detention facility.

Mary Flowers, a prison reform advocate and one of the panelists, reminded all those present that the community had “fought long and hard” to have input into the initial cost-saving plans released in 2000 and 2002. Now, she said, remarked, “It’s true that money is being saved, but if you look at what’s happening in our communities…those numbers don’t mean a whole lot.”   top

by Tabitha Brown