Yesterday the new King County Regional Homeless Authority announced that it would not be conducting a “Point in Time” count of homeless individuals in the county in January. This has the potential to be a very good thing, if the RHA uses the pause to retool its counting process into something more accurate and that delivers more useful, relevant information for responding to the homelessness crisis.
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Appeals court denies motion to revive Compassion Seattle charter amendment
In a terse ruling today, the state Court of Appeals has denied Compassion Seattle’s motion for a stay on a lower court’s ruling removing the CA29 charter amendment from the November ballot.
Continue readingCompassion Seattle changes mind, appeals ruling after all
Last Friday, after King County Superior Court Judge Catherine Shaffer removed the “Compassion Seattle” charter amendment from the November ballot, the campaign announced that it would not appeal the ruling given the short amount of time until King County Elections needs to print ballots. But this morning in a surprising reversal, the campaign went ahead and filed a motion for an emergency stay of Judge Shaffer’s ruling in anticipation of a full appeal to follow.
Continue readingKing County judge strikes down Compassion Seattle initiative, removing it from November ballot
This afternoon, King County District Court Judge Catherine Shaffer issued a ruling from the bench declaring the proposed “Compassion Seattle” charter amendment, also known as CA29, to be outside the scope of the local initiative/charter amendment process and ordered it removed from the November ballot. UPDATE 8-31-21: Here is Judge Shaffer’s written ruling.
Continue readingState Supreme Court issues big ruling on impounding homeless person’s lived-in vehicle
This morning the Washington State Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in the case of City of Seattle vs. Long, in which the city impounded the truck that a homeless man was living in and that was parked illegally on public property, and then charged him $950 to cover the towing company’s fees (later reduced to $550 by a magistrate).
Continue readingCompassion Seattle charter amendment draws another legal challenge
After a failed attempt to challenge the ballot title of the Compassion Seattle proposed charter amendment, local advocacy groups have filed a new legal challenge asking a judge to keep it off the ballot entirely.
Continue readingLewis touts new report on JustCARE program… but maybe he shouldn’t. (UPDATED)
(Updated, with Professor Beckett’s response to the City Council, and a note about one of the incidents cited) Yesterday morning, Councilmember Andrew Lewis held a press conference in downtown Seattle, the heart of his district, to highlight the first visible progress made in reducing the number of homeless encampments in the area. Lewis gave all the credit to the JustCARE program. He also highlighted the release of a report by a research team from the UW Department of Sociology that lavishes praise upon JustCARE.
Continue readingCouncil set to consider amendments to ARPA spending plan
Tomorrow the City Council’s Finance and Housing Committee will consider a set of amendments to the “Seattle Rescue Plan” legislation that allocates $128 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act and HOPE Act funding.
Continue readingCompassion Seattle charter amendment gets tweak to ballot title, clearance to gather signatures
This morning King County Superior Court Judge Brian McDonald ruled on a challenge to the proposed ballot title of Compassion Seattle’s charter amendment, making only a minor edit. The campaign is now clear to begin gathering signatures.
Continue readingCompassion Seattle files new version of proposed charter amendment on homelessness
Yesterday afternoon the “Compassion Seattle” campaign filed an updated version of its proposed charter amendment ballot initiative, with two key changes to address critiques of the effort that have emerged since the initiative was first unveiled.
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