Week in Review: Regional Homelessness Authority, pay transparency, and the Seattle office market

Bill Radke discusses the week’s news with Seattle Times' Claudia Rowe, Puget Sound Business Journal’s Alex Halverson, and Seattle Met’s Allison Williams.

Last year, the Regional Homelessness Authority began Partnership for Zero, an effort to end homelessness in downtown Seattle and the Chinatown-International District. As part of the program, the group hired roughly 30 people who had previous experience with homelessness to meet people on the street and help them through the process of finding housing. Last month, the Regional Homelessness Authority announced that it would be shutting down the program, referring to it as a “pilot’ program, while those they hired say they had no idea that the job was temporary. What will the county do for them now?

RELATED: Program pledging to get every unsheltered person off downtown Seattle’s streets comes to an end

King County and Seattle earmarked millions of dollars for programs designed to prevent youth gun violence and to divert low-level juvenile cases to community organizations rather than court. But the county does not conduct background checks for those working with these vulnerable young people. Instead, it leaves it up to each organization to handle that task, and to determine what crimes may disqualify someone from the job. Oversight might have prevented some of the nonprofits’ contractors from hiring people with inappropriate criminal backgrounds. What is a better alternative?

RELATED: King County gave millions to ‘No New Youth Jail’ activists to help kids — and then looked away

Seattle is about to dismantle a community garden created in Cal Anderson Park during the racial justice protests of 2020. Seattle Parks and Recreation says it needs the space for other uses. Last week, the department gave gardeners two weeks’ notice to vacate. The group that planted this garden is unhappy with this decision. Did the city tell Black Star Farmers that they’d have this space permanently?

RELATED: Cal Anderson BLM garden to be removed by city despite pushback

Another longtime protest in Washington has been against companies hiding how much they pay to whom. Washington passed a new law that took effect this year, requiring companies to include salary ranges in job postings. That's supposed to make pay more equitable across genders and races. Dozens of Washington state employers are facing proposed class action lawsuits accusing them of failing to disclose salary information on job postings. Why do some people think this law is not working?

Before the pandemic, Seattle couldn't add office space fast enough. Tech companies were leasing buildings, and prices were soaring. Then the pandemic hits, and people stay home to work. Companies started leaving their office buildings and downtown starts to get emptier, and prices drop. What's happening now?