Seattle Mayoral Candidates Talk About Housing and Homelessness

A Voter Education Project in partnership with leading housing and homelessness advocacy organizations.

Seattle University’s Project on Family Homelessness partnered with Solid Ground, Housing Development Consortium, Seattle-King County Coalition on Homelessness and Washington Housing Alliance Action Fund to bring housing and homelessness to the forefront of fall 2017’s Seattle mayoral election.

Before the Aug. 1 Primary

We created an online Voters’ Guide on Housing and Homelessness,  with our partner organizations, to show how the candidates would address our region’s needs. The Voters’ Guide is the result of a Mayoral Candidate Questionnaire on Housing and Homelessness which we sent June 30 to all 21 candidates in the primary election; 12 candidates responded to the seven questions. More than 3,000 people viewed the Guide by the time of the primary.

Before the Nov. 7 General Election

The partners hosted a candidate forum, “Changing Seattle: Mayoral Candidates Debate Growth, Affordable Housing and Homelessness,” at Seattle University, Tuesday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m., featuring general election candidates Jenny Durkan and Cary Moon. Enrique Cerna of KCTS9 moderated the debate, with The Seattle Times’ Vernal Coleman, The Stranger’s Heidi Groover and Crosscut’s David Kroman posing questions. Crosscut and The Seattle Times were our media sponsors.

Seattle University’s Project on Family Homelessness and Solid Ground produced the debate in partnership with Housing Development Consortium, Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness and Washington Housing Alliance Action Fund. Crosscut and The Seattle Times were our media sponsors.

Check out the full video from the debate here on Crosscut. You can also consult a revised version of the Housing Voters’ Guide with responses from Durkan and Moon.

Seattle skyline sketch by Mandy Rusch (SU ’17). Illustration of Durkan and Moon by Madison Vucci, Digital Design senior and our project assistant.