“According to Seattle.gov, in 2024, the city of Seattle spent $153.8 million on homelessness services through its Human Services Department.”

“The Washington State Standard reported in August that the total number of individuals counted as homeless is a 4.4% increase from 2024 and a 25% increase overall from 2022.”

“On her campaign website, Wilson said she wants to end “unsheltered homelessness.””

“Local outlet KOMO News reported April 8 that Wilson spoke with members of the Shelter Expansion Community Action Team about opening 1,000 new shelter units and emergency housing this year.”

“The Seattle City Council on Tuesday unanimously passed two ordinances related to Wilson’s campaign promise to increase the number of shelters in the city. The council approved $5 million in funding and expanded Wilson’s authority to scale up the number of “tiny homes” in existing city-run villages. The funding is tied to Wilson’s larger $17.5 million plan to create 500 new tiny homes by June. She hopes to double that number by the end of 2026.”

“In a new interview on “On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti,” Wilson was asked about the services Seattle provides to fix the homelessness problem. She acknowledged there was a problem with the way they were dispensed.”

“Seattle’s Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) is a low-barrier housing provider, meaning that they are made for individuals who are homeless who may not be accepted into traditional, high-barrier shelters.”

“In March, Suarez posted a video on X showing a resident of the Interbay Village Tiny Home Community in Seattle, which is part of LIHI, showing Suarez around the property, and an empty tiny home with a few chairs inside.”

“State Rep. Shaun Scott of Seattle, a member of the Seattle Democratic Socialists of America, said he believes state-provided services and “compassion” are the answer.”

“Scott... asked you to actually believe the Chamber of Commerce-funded study that indicated in 2018 that in order for the King County area to effectively address houselessness in our state and in our county, we would have to spend something like $400 million annually for about a decade.”

“On Wednesday, an encampment at the Rotary Viewpoint Park in West Seattle was swept — a move that critics and advocates say contradicts Wilson’s previously proposed strategies.”

“A spokesperson for public health in Seattle and King County told Fox News Digital in a statement that, “King County has invested in a wide variety of actions to address opioid overdoses, including increasing access to treatment, providing medications, distributing overdose reversal drugs, and establishing places to go for care – you can read more in this blog post. We’ve seen promising results — over the past two years, fatal overdoses in King County have decreased 32%.””

“The spokesperson added, “We’re not distributing flyers about how to reverse an overdose in a dog. If clients ask our staff for this information, we have a flyer from an outside organization that we offer. We don’t collect data on overdoses in dogs, but we don’t have any indication it’s an issue locally.””