City Council approves PSH code changes

I want to thank each of you who commented at the City Council meeting tonight. Every commenter urged the Council to reconsider approving the Comprehensive Plan as proposed.

Unfortunately yet unsurprisingly, the Council unanimously voted to approve it. 

Council members Craig Reynolds and Julie Hsieh, and Mayor David Rosenbaum chose to make comments explaining their votes, starting at the 1:22:45 timestamp.

I found Craig Reynolds’s comments to be especially discouraging. After saying that the plan changes were required to comply with state law, Reynolds went further and voiced his support for building PSH on Mercer Island. He repeated the mischaracterization of low-barrier PSH as simply housing for the homeless and ignored the fact that PSH tolerates active drug use and antisocial behavior among residents, which many of us have brought to his attention repeatedly.

If you are worried about PSH, make sure the Council knows that you do not want Reynolds to be the one lobbying for our interests in Olympia.

Hsieh said that the changes, including the ones from HB 2266 were required to comply with state law. I think that is debatable, but the whole Council seemed united on that. She said she is eager to put this Comprehensive Plan behind her and move on to other issues, taking no position on PSH.

If you are worried about PSH, make sure to ask Council member Hsieh where she stands on it. And make sure she knows that you are not ready to move on from this issue.

Mayor Rosenbaum mentioned that residents will have a chance to weigh in on the next legislative priorities, and he urged us to talk to our State Representatives about our concerns, noting that they are both up for reelection. Let’s do that.