If public safety was the main course at Tuesday’s gubernatorial debate, then Washington’s homelessness and housing crisis was a small, but spicy appetizer.
Although neither candidate brought much meat to the discussion and spent more time finger-pointing at their opponent’s actions and past statements, Democratic candidate Bob Ferguson said he agrees with Republican candidate Dave Reichert on one thing: “The issue of homelessness is complex.”
To Reichert, the state’s growing number of people living in vehicles, shelters, tents and under bridges — which totaled 28,036 during last year’s Point-In-Time Count — is caused by a “drug and substance abuse crisis” and a “mental illness crisis.”
Ferguson agreed that those issues play a role, but added a third factor: housing affordability.
Experts say empirical data shows a lack of housing is the root cause of today’s homelessness crisis.
“We fundamentally need to create greater housing access if we want to deal with the problem of homelessness,” Gregg Colburn, assistant professor at the University of Washington, told The Seattle Times in July. “This does not mean that we don’t need to provide treatment.
“But I fundamentally believe that as a state, we can do multiple things at the same time.”
In a recent statewide poll surveying 900 Washingtonians, 25% said the cost of living was the most important issue to them, dwarfing border security, abortion and crime. While cost of living received the highest percentage, homelessness received 6%.
Ferguson said he would construct 200,000 units of new housing using “public-private partnerships.” Business executives tell him they are “ready to invest,” he said of what he has heard on the campaign trail.
He’s previously declined to endorse any new taxes or fees for increasing housing.
According to state estimates, Washington needs more than 1 million new homes in the next two decades and hundreds of thousands of them need to be affordable.
When asked about affordability, Reichert redirected to crime and homelessness — saying that when people live in doorways, it can cause businesses to close, which kills jobs, which in turn, “the economy starts to suffer.”
He didn’t say how he plans to move people out of doorways and into shelter or housing.
But during the debate his opponent, Ferguson, was quick to point out that Reichert has suggested shipping homeless people to McNeil Island, which is currently being used by the state to house sex offenders, or placing them to live at The Evergreen State College in the past.
“Those are not serious proposals to a serious situation,” Ferguson said Tuesday.
Reichert did not speak to either idea, but previously told The Times that his McNeil Island proposal “aims to offer a controlled environment where comprehensive services can be delivered, but it requires thorough vetting to ensure it is humane and effective.”
It’s similar to a plan Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has touted, saying that if elected, he would ban homeless camping, arrest violators and send people without homes to “tent cities.”
Most of Reichert’s discussion points on homelessness centered on the state’s fentanyl epidemic. He blamed his opponent for “legalizing drugs,” which isn’t true, but refers to the Washington Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Blake, which struck down the state’s main drug possession statute.
As Washington’s attorney general, Ferguson has previously urged lawmakers to eliminate criminal penalties for possessing noncommercial drugs.
Last year, Washington lawmakers passed a new law to create a gross misdemeanor penalty for drug possession.
