Gonzlez, Harrell duke it out over their plans to address homelessness
Seattle mayoral candidate M. Lorena González went after opponent Bruce Harrell over his plan to address homelessness, saying it would legitimize sweeps of unauthorized encampments.
The hourlong virtual debate Wednesday sponsored by the Seattle Times and a regional coalition called We Are In, a regional was Seattle nice until the midway point when City Council President González issued a broadside, saying Harrell has evaded questions about sweeps and calling his plan "a verbatim facsimile of a corporate and Republican-funded plan commonly referred to as Compassion Seattle." She noted the top contributors to the Compassion Seattle campaign are real estate developers.
Harrell, a former council member, said he has a lot of faults "but mincing or dodging is not one of them." He took umbrage at the characterization that he is callous toward the plight of the unsheltered, and said it is inhumane to allow people to remain in the encampments, many of which are on sidewalks and in parks.
"I look at these people that are in these unfortunate situations as neighbors, as I do the people who are living around them that are asking for parks to be clean, so there's no dodging," he said.
Polling has indicated that among voters homelessness is the top issue and that Compassion Seattle was popular. Courts, however, ruled the Compassion Seattle charter amendment ballot initiative can't appear on the Nov. 2 ballot because it violated a state law limiting the scope of initiatives.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2021/09/30/gonzalez-harrell-homeless-plan-critique.html