Contact your councilmembers ASAP and demand they support the HOMES tax!
At the time of writing this, Seattle is experiencing heavy rain and wind gusts of up to 39 miles per hour. The windchill factor makes the November air feel like 39°F. In the midst of this, 4,000 Seattleites make the streets their homes, unsheltered in a storm most of us will only experience as a crummy commute or an interruption in cable service.
City Councilmembers Mike O’Brien and Kirsten Harris-Talley, following the lead of the Transit Riders Union-led Housing For All coalition, of which Seattle DSA is member, have proposed the Housing, Outreach, and Mass-Entry Shelter (HOMES) tax, where Seattle businesses with revenues in excess of $5 million per year would pay 4.8 cents per hour per employee, or, what amounts to the sum of $100 per year per employee. Seattle could raise over $20 million new dollars which would go a long way toward a meaningful emergency response from a city that has made headlines declaring an emergency without ever acting like there’s been one.
Not so fast, says a letter sent to Seattle City Council, signed by 91 local business owners. “We need a compassionate and effective approach to solving homelessness,” reads the letter, making one wonder for whom the compassion’s being petitioned.