This is the concluding article of ChangeWA’s two-part review of 2024. Last week, we discussed successful citizen efforts to correct the mistakes made by politicians on crime and drug issues. This article examines why our region continues to lose the battle against homelessness despite billions spent annually on government programs. We also take a quick look at the 2025 political calendar.

Many from the far-Left will not admit that their Housing First homelessness policy is a colossal failure, resulted in a record number of people living (and dying) on our streets.  When homelessness was declared an emergency in November 2015, there were approximately 10,000 people suffering from homeless issues in King County. After literally spending billions and billions (no one knows how much) of taxpayer dollars, nearly a decade later the homeless figure has grown 63%, to over 16,000.

Despite this poor record, King County Executive Dow Constantine – the elected official most responsible for the region’s homeless strategy – continues to support policies that have brought so much misery to those who are suffering. In his recent, exclusive interview with ChangeWA, the four-term executive (who announced he will not run for re-election in 2025) used a discredited study to support his administration’s actions, which include spending nearly a half-billion dollars to purchase refurbish hotels to create 1300 – 1600 housing units – costing over $330,000 per unit!

While the county is spending a small fortune to build its large housing bureaucracy, a new documentary (co-produced by ChangeWA and filmmaker Ginny Burton) showed the unsafe and violent conditions of the county’s housing system. In “Behind Closed Doors,” Burton interviewed several residents and staff members of transitional housing projects and found that nearly all residents had untreated addiction and/or mental illness problems. Assaults, rapes, and robberies are common occurrences.

Many of our readers were very disturbed to read in our recent interview with Dow Constatine, that there is no record of how much money has been spent on the homeless issue. There is also no set of goals for the much-criticized King County Regional Homelessness Authority to achieve to justify spending even more public funds on the controversial agency. This lack of transparency can only result in poor decisions and many opportunities for massive corruption to take place.

ChangeWA also interviewed Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier as he described his county’s efforts to duplicate the success of an Austin, Texas project named “Community First.” The key to the project’s remarkable 85% success rate is that addiction and mental health issues are treated instead of being ignored as they are in King County.

In the first article of our 2024 review, we highlighted citizen efforts that were responsible for much needed changes to our criminal system. The same thing can occur in 2025 with the region’s homeless crisis.  

King County Councilmembers Claudia Balducci and Girmay Zahilay, and Assessor John Wilson, have already announced their candidacy to replace Constantine as King County Executive. All three have a history of supporting the Housing First philosophies. Any one of these candidates could significantly improve their support by demanding better results from the homeless bureaucracy, and like in Pierce County, begin to implement ideas which found success elsewhere.

Citizens must lead again on the homeless issue by making it the most discussed topic of the County Executive campaign. The public will need to demand more accountability of how our money is spent on homeless projects. The new executive must set clear goals for the government and its housing partners to meet to keep receiving taxpayer dollars. We must let it be known that we are fed up with wasting our money on Housing First measures that are not working and have only increased the suffering.

The City of Seattle will also have key races in 2025. Besides Mayor Bruce Harrell running for re-election, we expect City Attorney Ann Davison will face a challenger who opposes her efforts to reduce crime. Council President Sara Nelson, who has led many of the recent reforms, will be on the ballot, along with the other at-large councilmember, newly elected Alexis Mercedes Rinck, whose campaign rhetoric leaned towards the extremist. Also, whoever is appointed to the District 2 (Southeast Seattle) position to replace the retiring Morales will also have to run next November in a special election.  It will be interesting to see if there becomes a moderate v. radical slate of candidates as there were in 2023 when moderates took over control of the council.

These races could alter the balance of the city council and city government. Progress has been made since Seattle voters demonstrated in 2021 and 2023 their frustration with the many failed progressive policies. Next year, voters will be asked if they want to return to the mayhem of Councilmembers Sawant, Herbold, and Lewis, or do they approve of the recent measures to reduce homelessness, violent crime, and drug overdoses.

If citizens lead, the politicians will follow.