Issues | Change Washington

WA officials file lawsuit to tragically keep failing homeless policies in place

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Attorney General Nick Brown announced that Washington State joined a federal lawsuit against the Trump Administration to allow state and local governments to continue controversial “Housing First” homelessness policies. These ineffective measures, which disregard the role of mental illness and addiction in rising homelessness, have resulted in an 80% more people...

Times’ movie date with the Governor raises concerns over who is keeping the powerful accountable

On November 15, The Seattle Times published a front-page photo of one of its top political reporters (David Gutman) laughing with Washington Governor Bob Ferguson while sitting in a local movie theater. The justification for the picture and related interview is that in the new movie “One Battle After Another,” Leonardo DiCaprio plays a character...

Seattle Times fails to meet its own standards for its coverage of the homelessness crisis

November 2, 2025, was the 10-year anniversary of Seattle/King County declaring homelessness an emergency. A decade later, government actions have caused homelessness to increase 68% and thousands have died (mostly from drug overdose). The Seattle Times, despite having an editor (Molly “MJ” Harbarger) and two reporters (Greg Kim and Anna Patrick) to cover the issue,...

The Price of Silence

When is the last time you visited downtown Seattle? Or Portland? Or San Francisco? Are these places the towns you once vacationed to and felt safe site seeing? Nearly thirteen years ago, I prayed for death as I wandered the streets of Tacoma in the middle of the night—no place to go, no belongings, everything...

Commonsense Solutions to our never-ending “Homelessness Emergency”

Last week, ChangeWA reviewed the negative outcomes of Seattle and King County’s Emergency Declaration issued 10 years ago this month. This week we look at two commonsense ways to quickly lower homelessness, cut dependence on costly government programs, and save taxpayer money. Progress has been made – just a few years ago these policies weren’t...

‘Housing First’ in Washington: A Decade of Failure and Tragedy

ChangeWA marks the 10-year anniversary of the City of Seattle and King County declaring homelessness an emergency with the first of a two-part series. This week we will examine the devastating results of the region’s homelessness strategy. Next week in part two, we will provide commonsense solutions that have reversed the negative trends in other...

From Addiction to Accountability: A Path Forward for Washington

The leniency in Washington’s judicial system was recently displayed by the repeat offender (36 arrests and 20 convictions) who killed a 20-year-old woman as he attempted to flee police in Pierce County. Despite serving numerous short sentences in his life, the suspect clearly has never been “rehabilitated.” It appears he views his many brief lockups...

Spokane citizens seek to bring commonsense solutions to homelessness crisis

Spokane provides the latest example of how citizens are forced to correct politicians’ failed policies because stubborn elected officials refuse to admit that their extremist, “Housing First” policies have made problems worse. Housing First is the policy strategy that provides free taxpayer-funded housing for homeless individuals regardless of their addiction, mental health, or criminal status....

Why Is Dow Constantine Being Rewarded After a Decade of Failure in King County?

Among the regular stream of meaningless partisan statements issued by Governor Bob Ferguson’s communications team was one of last week which has received almost no attention from the local press. It is significant because it reveals the lack of accountability by our political leaders, and it helps explain why the Seattle/King County region and our...

Bellevue Cracks Down on Repeat Offenders, Prioritizes Public Safety and Treatment

On September 23, the Bellevue City Council passed a preliminary public safety measure that will benefit small businesses, protect retail employees, save taxpayers money, and ensure activists judges won’t immediately release repeat criminals. Final passage of the bill is expected to take place on October 7. By a 6 to 1 vote, the council passed...

Voters See Through Failed Housing First Policies — Demand Real Solutions

Results from a new statewide survey reveal that an overwhelming percentage of Washington residents are demanding a change in how our state and local governments approach homelessness. After more than a decade of rising homeless rates while adhering to expensive Housing First policies, the public strongly supports changing the focus to one based on addiction/mental...

Lack of action from state leaders means more fraud and waste will occur

Recent statements and releases from our state’s s highest elected officials suggest that their attention is primarily directed towards partisan disputes with the Trump Administration, rather than safeguarding taxpayer dollars. This emphasis on political battles appears to come at the expense of implementing effective oversight measures to prevent waste and fraud in public spending. As...

Billions Wasted, Zero Consequences: No One Fired, Demoted, or Punished

Major stories about government fraud and waste make headlines for only a day or two before vanishing. Because the media quickly drops these stories, the people responsible avoid accountability and keep profiting from the wasteful and fraudulent system. Politicians make promises to fix the problem, but rarely is anything meaningful done as the waste and...

Local governments lead the way to solve the homelessness crisis

Local communities, frustrated by the failed progressive homeless policies of their urban neighbors, are taking proactive steps to safeguard their public places, while encouraging those suffering in encampments to accept much-needed mental health and addiction treatment. The City of Camas became the latest Washington State community to enact a camping ban when its city council...