Seattle mayor’s race goes into overdrive as Election Day nears

Seattle mayoral candidate Katie Wilson says polls show a neck-and-neck race between her and incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell. This weekend her campaign got some help from the East Coast.

Former New York City congressman and “Squad” member Jamaal Bowman endorsed Wilson, Harrell’s progressive challenger and founder of the nonprofit Transit Riders Union.

Bowman told the crowd at Washington Hall in Seattle’s Central District that he hopes to celebrate election victories by Zohran Mamdani back home in New York and Wilson in Seattle on Nov. 4.

"I’m excited to build a local, grassroots progressive movement in every city, county, zip code, jurisdiction, state in our country," Bowman said.

RELATED: Katie Wilson can barely afford to live in Seattle. That's why she wants to be mayor

Bowman said he came to campaign for Wilson through his friendship with Seattle teacher Jesse Hagopian, who also spoke at Sunday’s rally for Wilson along with Seattle Port Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa.

Wilson said if elected she’ll champion the rights of workers and renters, and make opening new emergency shelter and housing her top priority. Wilson said her biggest differences from Harrell include her willingness to tax corporations, her emphasis on economic realities like the cost of food, and her urgency to address homelessness.

"People are hungry for real action on affordability," she said, "and instead what they’re seeing out of City Hall is for lack of a better phrase, 'performative centrism.'"

Harrell has touted his endorsement by former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Harrell also said he’s made unprecedented investments in affordable housing during his first term.

On Friday, Harrell held a press conference alongside developers of affordable housing to push back against Wilson’s proposal to place unhoused people in vacant “workforce” housing units.

“Vulnerable people need housing designed for complex needs,” Harrell said. “Katie Wilson’s plan is bad housing policy. Scattering people in buildings across the city where the services to address addiction and mental health issues do not exist will be a disaster.”

Affordable housing developers said Wilson’s proposal resembles the King County Regional Homelessness Authority’s recent Partnership for Zero effort, which used vouchers to help people leave homeless encampments.

Ben Maritz develops and manages affordable housing at Great Expectations LLC. He said the Partnership for Zero promised client services that never happened.

“We did our best to be good citizens and took many people out of that program and put them into regular buildings with rent subsidies for one year,” Maritz said. “Pretty much all of those people had to end up leaving the property after the course of their subsidy ran out."

“None of them really were able to successfully transition," he continued, "and unfortunately I don’t know where a lot of them ended up, I’m fearful that many of them ended up back in homelessness.”

RELATED: Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, challenger Katie Wilson spar over homelessness policy

Greg Dunfield with GMD Development said tenants who lack necessary supports can drive out other residents.

“We had a challenging situation in two of our properties starting in 2022, and I can’t say how hard it has been to bring those properties back to safety and back to a place where people want to live," Dunfield said.

But Katie Wilson said at a recent KUOW forum that there are people in the shelter system without such complex needs, who just need "light touch" case management. She also supports adding 1,000 more tiny houses for people leaving homelessness.

Harrell said if he’s re-elected he will prioritize subsidies for the city’s most vulnerable renters earning 30-50% of the Area Median Income and for family-sized homes, which he called “one of the greatest needs.”