Seattle’s incoming mayor, Katie Wilson, is poised to take office amid what one commentator calls a humanitarian emergency in King County’s homelessness crisis. A recent federal count found nearly 17,000 people experiencing homelessness in the county, and opinion writers and policy advocates are urging a shift toward treatment-focused responses, particularly for those struggling with serious mental illness and addiction.
Seattle’s homelessness crisis has been described by policy advocate Michele Steeb as a humanitarian emergency that will test the leadership of the city’s incoming mayor, Katie Wilson.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2024 Point-in-Time count, cited by Steeb in an opinion piece for The Daily Wire, 16,868 people in King County are experiencing homelessness — 7,058 in shelters and 9,810 living unsheltered. She notes that this snapshot does not include thousands of K-12 students and their families who may be couch-surfing or staying temporarily in motels.
Steeb writes that at the current reported growth rate of roughly 23% in the homeless population, the crisis could affect about 22,500 people in King County by the time Wilson assumes office. She argues that the situation has outpaced existing responses, with encampments proliferating across Seattle and fentanyl-related deaths remaining at historically high levels, affecting residents, businesses and public workers.
In her commentary, Steeb contends that, despite billions of dollars in public spending on subsidized housing, construction pipelines remain clogged, timelines for new projects stretch into years, and operating costs continue to rise. She maintains that for a large share of people living unsheltered — whom she describes as 78% struggling with serious mental illness or addiction — homelessness is driven less by a simple lack of housing and more by untreated behavioral health conditions. She further notes that a condition known as anosognosia, which can impair a person’s awareness of their own illness, may lead some individuals to decline offers of help.
Steeb, founder of the Free Up Foundation and a visiting fellow with the Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness Initiative, calls for what she terms an "operational reset" in Seattle’s approach. Drawing on a report from the Discovery Institute, she urges Wilson to prioritize transitional recovery housing models that are staffed with clinicians, case managers and vocational supports, where engagement in services is a requirement of stay, rather than focusing primarily on permanent supportive housing that can take years to build.
She also recommends that the city deepen partnerships with nonprofits she describes as high-performing, including We Heart Seattle and Union Gospel Mission Rescue Missions, which she credits with helping people work through trauma, detoxification, relapse and rebuilding their lives.
Another element of Steeb’s proposed reset is the deployment of multidisciplinary "CARE+" outreach units that combine mental health professionals, emergency responders and trained law enforcement officers. She argues these teams should intervene proactively to stabilize crises and, when people pose clear risks to themselves or others, facilitate psychiatric or addiction evaluations under Washington’s Involuntary Treatment Act, while emphasizing that such powers should be exercised consistently and humanely.
Steeb further points to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, which she notes affirmed that cities such as Seattle may enforce bans on public camping under certain conditions. She contends that any enforcement of public health and safety laws should be paired with access to restorative, treatment-oriented programs for people who are homeless.
Finally, Steeb calls for stronger accountability across the homelessness response system. She proposes that the city establish quarterly public dashboards tracking outcomes and spending at the individual, nonprofit and government levels. In her view, tying funding and policy decisions more closely to measurable results would help avoid what she characterizes as a "revolving door" of homelessness.
"Katie, you have the chance to lead Seattle into a future where compassion is not a slogan, but a force that restores people and the city they call home," Steeb writes in the closing lines of her opinion essay, arguing that the new administration has an opportunity to reset the city’s strategy.
