Seattle officials cite progress in homelessness but fear fentanyl crisis may reverse trend

SEATTLE (KOMO) — Seattle’s deputy mayor said Wednesday that progress has been made on homelessness, but the fentanyl crisis poses a risk to the trend.

In a briefing before Seattle City Council, Deputy Mayor Tiffany Washington suggested internal metrics from the Unified Care Team that the "tent count" in Seattle has dropped 24% since January of 2023, and referrals to the shelter have increased 20% during that same period.

Yet, she cautioned one metric is not positive. Washington said medical response calls at encampment sites are up 7%, citing fentanyl as the cause.

“We do think that that number is going to either maintain or slightly increase,” warned Washington.

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When quizzed about outreach teams, Washington also suggested some were fearful to work in problem areas at night.

“I think that the core issue is safety,” she told the council committee. “I think that a lot of the outreach workers themselves don’t feel safe.”

The presentation came just a day before Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, Police Chief Adrian Diaz, Fire Chief Harold Scoggins, and CARE Director Amy Smith were scheduled to discuss public safety issues at a public forum at the Seattle Central Library.

The rare public meeting comes as the issue continues to be a top priority of voters and City Council members.

“I've come to look at our inability to resolve encampments as complicity in increasing addiction,” said City Council President Sara Nelson. “We have a moral responsibility to resolve encampments.”

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In an interview after the presentation, Nelson said she was encouraged by the UCT and “I know they’re doing the best they can. I think my area of focus is on what are we paying for when we’re paying our outreach providers. Because that is a big piece of the puzzle that we have not had control over."

When asked if she received the answer in the meeting, Nelson said, “The answer I got was, I want more specifics. Because we need to know what is the end goal.”

KOMO News attempted to ask Washington to clarify some of her comments in the meeting, but she was rushed away by advisors. In a later written response, a spokesperson wrote, “UCT has built a strong foundation for continued improvements over time, and this is good news for the city.”

At one point in a questions and answer session, Washington said in the meeting, “I don’t know if we need more shelter.” Washington leads the homelessness response for the city.

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Her spokesperson wrote late Wednesday afternoon:

“Emergency shelter is meant to provide a temporary solution between living unsheltered and moving into a permanent housing option. As mentioned during the committee presentation, the shelter system has, over a number of years, been revamped to almost exclusively support 24/7 enhanced shelter options with wraparound onsite services – moving away from the basic shelter model that are: first come, first served; overnight only; and often times mats on the floor. These improvements help individuals more successfully stabilize as they transition to permanent housing options.

By working with shelter providers and housing navigators to improve the rate at which people move through the emergency system into permanency, we can better utilize the shelter resources currently online. The City will continue to work with KCRHA in supporting service providers on these types of system improvements.

In response to the COVID pandemic, and with the support federal relief dollars, the City was able to quickly expand the number of shelter spaces from pre-pandemic levels and now funds over 3,000 shelter spaces. The City will continue to work with KCRHA and other partners to maintain current shelter capacity and utilize opportunities to invest in new units as funding and resources allow.”

The public forum begins at the library on Thursday at 6 p.m.