On The Issues

Housing is a basic need and everyone in King County should have a place to live, but housing has become unaffordable. King County must do more to ensure that working and middle-income families, and our neighbors experiencing homelessness, are housed. The King County Regional Homelessness (KCRHA) needs a reset and change in structure to improve accountability and deliver results to rapidly house the unsheltered. As a member of the King County Women’s Advisory Board, I have advocated before the King County Council for increased investments in affordable and permanent supportive housing.

As a King County Councilmember, I will make tackling the homelessness and affordable housing crisis a top priority. As a King County Councilmember, I work to deliver on the following:

• Increase shelter capacity to rapidly house neighbors experiencing homelessness by expanding emergency shelter, tiny homes, permanent supportive housing, and affordable permanent housing. In partnership with the KCRHA and those with lived experience, scale up peer and social worker navigation models to help our unhoused neighbors connect to housing, increase 0-30% AMI housing, and expand JustCARE, Health Through Housing, and behavioral and physical health care.
• Reset and improve outcomes of the KCRHA through governance reforms to increase oversight and a renewed focus on effectively delivering the five-year plan. KCRHA should actively partner and incentivize investment from cities across King County, and work to urgently create shelter capacity and affordable housing to meet the goals of the five-year plan and the Regional Affordable Housing Task Force.
• Acquire, construct, preserve, and subsidize affordable and social housing for renters and homeowners so that everyone has a place to live and no household is cost burdened. Expand missing middle housing and transit-oriented development to allow for the creation of more affordable housing connected to services, amenities, schools, universities, and transit.
• Preserve affordable homes for renters and fight against displacement, and building on the King County Equitable Development Initiative.

King County is in a public safety crisis and I am committed to leading with solutions to ensure that everyone is safe and supported in their communities.  I am the candidate in this race committed to protecting King County’s public safety budget from possible cuts. I will safeguard and build stronger partnerships with law enforcement, prosecutors and courts, and invest in upstream public health and evidence-based solutions, substance disorder treatment, diversion, reentry, and gun violence prevention programs that increase safety, reduce crime and lower recidivism.

As a former member of the Attorney General’s Office’s opioid task force, I am dedicated to ending the opioid epidemic and fentanyl crisis that is costing too many vulnerable lives. King County should invest in our public safety and criminal legal systems to better address these crises, and the root causes of crime, while holding abusers and violent offenders accountable. King County must root out racial disparities and resource evidence-based interventions and diversions into behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment, housing, and community-based programs. Adult detention should include appropriate services and supports to break the cycle of recidivism and barriers for formally criminally involved individuals. As a King County Councilmember, I will work to:

• Improve public and community safety by reducing crime, and recidivism through investment in and continued expansion of behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment services, effective diversion programs such as the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program (LEAD), and strengthening law enforcement partnerships to hold abusers and violent offenders accountable.
• Invest in and expand first responder models, crisis response teams, and mental health providers by expanding programs such as the RADAR (Response Awareness, De-escalation, and Referral) program, effectively and equitably implementing the five new regional crisis care centers, and expand treatment beds.
• End the opioid epidemic and fentanyl crisis by strengthening effective law enforcement partnerships and scaling up evidence based public health approaches.  I am committed to using my expertise to strengthen law enforcement partnerships to hold dealers accountable and expand-evidence based treatment such as treatment hubs.
• Prevent gun violence by establishing a County Office of Violence Prevention, while partnering with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and state government to pass gun violence prevention policies and invest in community-based programs to interrupt the cycle of gun violence.  King County should also do more to provide support and resources to gun violence victims and their families.
• Continue progress toward the achievable goal of zero youth incarceration and disrupt the prison pipeline through continued and expanded investments in community-based early interventions, restorative justice, youth diversion, and gun violence prevention programs.
• Re-imagine King County Correctional Facilities and create a King County reentry pilot program to help criminally legally involved individuals access services to reduce recidivism and address racial disparities. King County Correctional Facilities must be adequately staffed and offer behavioral health, substance use disorder services, and restorative justice programs to vulnerable populations. King County should pilot a voluntary reentry program to reduce recidivism by ensuring that those who exit King County Correctional Facilities are connected with health, housing, skill development, and mentorship.
• Help to end Gender-Based Violence through youth led education, effective prevention strategies, mobile advocacy, and behavioral health & housing investments to meet the complex needs of survivors.

The pandemic laid bare the existing inequities in King County and the need for increased investment in the infrastructure of healthy communities: early learning and childcare, public and behavioral health, workforce development and small businesses, and arts, culture and science. As an advocate and member of the King County Women’s Advisory Board, I have fought for increased and equitable investments in child care, behavioral health, and services for survivors of gender-based violence.

As a King County Councilmember, I will work to:

• Urgently address the behavioral, public health and opioid crises by working with the community to effectively and equitably implement the King County behavioral health levy to build crisis care centers, increase treatment beds, substance use disorder treatment, and expand the workforce of behavioral health providers countywide.
• Increase access to union and family wage jobs for workers to meet the growing demands for a trained workforce across our County through investments in apprenticeships, training, small businesses, and infrastructure.
• Improve access to career and technical schools, apprenticeship programs, and pathways to family wage careers for all by prioritizing the pipeline of frontline workers in trades, child care, behavioral health and drug dependency, and Metro Transit.
• Build on Best Starts for Kids, child care, and youth investments, including before and after the bell development programs to address educational inequities, interrupt the school to prison pipeline, and ensure that all children in King County can reach their full potential.
• Continue my work as a member of the King County Women’s Advisory Board to expand investments in child care subsidies and the workforce of child care providers through retention and wage boosts.
• Partner to increase equitable service delivery and actively dismantle racism as a public health crisis to ensure that all communities–BIPOC communities, LGBTQIA communities, youth, the elderly, veterans, people with disabilities, and immigrant communities– can thrive.
• Ensure that the arts, culture, and science thrive and are accessible to all in King County through increased investment in artists, arts organizations, and organizations such as 4Culture that support the arts.

Climate change is an existential crisis that affects all our communities, but disproportionately affects Black, Indigenous, and communities of color (BIPOC), immigrant, low-income communities, elders and seniors. King County must be a regional leader in urgently tackling climate change, advancing climate justice, and protecting our environment. I am running to be an environmental leader on the King County Council because we need more urgent action to address the climate crisis and protect our environment for future generations.

As an environmental attorney and activist for climate action and justice, I have advocated for statewide and local measures to reduce carbon emissions and move towards a just transition from fossil fuels. The County has taken significant steps by adopting and moving towards implementation of the King County 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan with a focus on climate equity and community, but the Council must more actively engage frontline communities, workers, tribes, and community-based organizations, and develop policies to advance climate action to meet the goals of the (SCAP) and help to create sustainable and resilient communities.

As a County Councilmember, I will deliver on the following priorities:

• Advance climate action and justice by increasing public transit options, electrifying buses and vehicles, expanding climate equity capital improvements, investing in energy efficient buildings to reduce emissions from the built environment, and accelerating the development of sustainable aviation fuels. I will also help to build a coalition to pass a climate bond ordinance to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector and the built environment.
• Establish equitable pathways to green apprenticeships and jobs to advance sustainability and ensure an equitable and just transition to a clean energy economy for all workers.
• Protect clean water and prevent pollution from our wastewater and stormwater to enhance health, protect tribal treaty rights, and further salmon and orca recovery. Work to upgrade and expand King County’s wastewater treatment systems to prevent future spills, and eliminate untreated discharges to protect clean water and the ecosystem.
• Invest in King County’s solid waste infrastructure, create new recycling markets, and increase the purchase of recycling content to achieve zero waste of resources by 2030.
• Steward and preserve natural resources, green space, healthy forests, habitat, farming, and our local food economy.  I will also implement and expand initiatives such as the King County’s Land Conservation Initiative and partner with the King Conservation District and local communities to enhance sustainable forestry, urban gardens, and shoreline habitat.

I am a proud longtime transit rider and advocate. I started riding on Metro buses as a teenager from Queen Anne to my high school in the Central District. Today, I ride on Metro buses with my son from Ballard to his daycare and my job in downtown Seattle. To me—like so many King County residents—the bus has always meant mobility and freedom—to get to school, to work, to local businesses, and to the great destinations our County has to offer. While serving as President of the UW Graduate and Professional Student Senate at UW Law, I was concerned that the UW’s U-Pass was threatened because of declining revenue. That’s why I worked with fellow student leaders to advocate for a universal U-pass to save the program. Most recently, I helped to mobilize community members and Democrats to urge their policymakers to support local and state public transit investments.

Presenting the GPSS/ASUW proposal universal U-Pass proposal to the Board of Regents.

The King County Council has a critical responsibility to deliver accessible public transit to all in our region. Unfortunately, Metro Transit service has declined since the pandemic and ridership has been cut in half and have not yet been restored. As a result, transit riders are saddled with delays, canceled routes, and reduced service.  The lack of reliable transit service disproportionately impacts communities of color, people with disabilities, youth, the housing insecure, and those with fixed incomes. We must elevate community voices and particularly those disproportionately impacted by the lack of access to transit options to further mobility access and justice. As your County Councilmember, I will work with our communities to boost transit service and create a public transit system that delivers fast, frequent, convenient, and reliable transit to all in the region. Together we can deliver on the following priorities: 

• Build a coalition to pass a countywide dedicated transit revenue package to fund a King County Transportation Benefit District to restore and increase service, fully implement an updated Metro Connects, hire and retain operators, and transition to zero emission buses.  This measure should deliver faster, more frequent, reliable, safe, and accessible bus service that connects every community member, protects pedestrian and bike safety, and offers incentives and supports to build the workforce of bus operators.  Work with partners in the labor community to direct funding to hire and retain operators, mechanics, and the other staff who make Metro possible.

• Deliver light rail to Ballard, equitable transit-oriented development, and electric car infrastructure. As our region is growing rapidly, work to ensure that light rail to Ballard is delivered on time, connects to pedestrian centers, bus routes, and fully utilizes opportunities to unlock transit-oriented development in a way that creates additional housing and connects our communities. Implement and expand requirements for charging stations for electric vehicles for new development in unincorporated and across King County.  
• Provide free transit for those who are cost burdened and require and incentivize more employers to fully subsidize annual transit passes. King County should build and expand the subsidized annual pass program to include a free transit pass program for riders with disabilities, seniors, veterans, and our neighbors that cannot afford to ride. 
• Restorative enforcement policies. King County has taken big steps to move away from punitive and towards restorative fare enforcement, but we must continue to work with Sound Transit and other agencies to move towards just and equitable fare enforcement.