The decade-long failure of Seattle progressives to solve its homelessness “emergency” continues to impact suburban King County communities which are currently being forced to accept both temporary and permanent “low-barrier” housing projects. (“Low-barrier” means a person doesn’t need to be clean/sober to receive public housing.)

First Wave

The first wave of Seattle moving homeless individuals into the suburbs occurred during the COVID pandemic, when King County Executive Dow Constantine spent approximately $400,000,000 to purchase 11 hotels around the county to obtain 1,600 rooms (or $250,000 per housing unit) for his Health through Housing project. This included locations in Auburn, Federal Way, Kirkland, Redmond, and Renton.

Nearly all these hotels were purchased without community input, and many received strong public protests primarily due to proximity to preschools and expected financial drain on city services.  

The Health through Housing project has been hampered with many expensive delays as some locations need major renovations, and shockingly, the county continues to pay $330,000 monthly rent for the former Renton Red Lion that is inhabitable due to fire damage.

In other instances, crime increased suddenly in the blocks around the purchased hotel immediately after low-barrier “guests” were admitted.

Second Wave

The region is currently experiencing the second wave of moving Seattle’s homeless individuals into suburban communities. This effort is being led by Plymouth Housing, a long-term receiver of government housing fundss (some due to its connection with former Washington State Speaker of the House Frank Chopp).

After a Plymouth Housing plan was rejected by the City of Kenmore last January (due to Plymouth’s officials unilaterally altering who would be served by the facility), the housing organization immediately struck a deal with Redmond Mayor Angela Birney to obtain a $7 million parcel of land in the center of the city’s retail district and $3 million more in city services.

Many Redmond residents were shocked by the mayor’s secret deal, especially since the location (16725 Cleveland Street) is just three blocks from Redmond Elementary and a block away from Anderson Park.

Safe Eastside is a volunteer group battling the mayor’s and city council’s fast track of the project. The group asserts that while Kenmore took more than two years to study Plymouth’s plan and held three public forums before rejecting the idea, Redmond’s elected leaders took just 22 days with meetings in “executive session” (i.e. “behind closed doors”) before approving Plymouth’s plan.

Redmond citizens are troubled by its elected officials’ lack of transparency and that active drug addicts will be moved into the proposed 100-bed facility. Yet it is the fear of registered sex offenders being housed so close to an elementary school and popular park that has many residents upset.

Safe Eastside is asking Redmond residents to contact their city councilmembers to express their concerns over drug addicts and sex offenders being moved into their community.  If the project is allowed to proceed, then Safe Eastside says it is vital for the city council to keep its authority over the facility and its residents.

Surprisingly Democrat King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci (who is also a board member of the floundering and ineffective King County Regional Homelessness Authority), who represents most of Redmond, has actually sided with Seattle progressives over the concerns that the city is exporting its problem to the suburbs. In fact, the councilmember wants to increase the number of social services available on the Eastside to attract even more homeless individuals to cross over Lake Washington.

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As we have seen on several occasions recently, local citizens are growing increasingly frustrated with progressive politicians with their disastrous (and expensive) “housing first” policies which are ineffective in providing the help homeless individuals need. People are rejecting these failed policies and demanding that politicians seek commonsense solutions that will bring positive results and keeps their communities safe.

We will continue to monitor developments as Safe Eastside and other concerned citizens fight to keep their community safe and free from problems created and enabled by failed progressive policies.