District 3 candidates differ on affordable housing issue

The five contenders for the District 3 City Council seat agreed on a few pressing issues at the May 12 District 3 candidates forum on Capitol Hill, but the best ways to preserve and create affordable housing was not one them.

Each of the five candidates — incumbent Kshama Sawant, a member of the Socialist Alternative party; Urban League president and CEO Pamela Banks; women’s rights activist Morgan Beach; former reporter and neighborhood activist Lee Carter; and Rod Hearne, the former Equal Rights Washington director — gave opinions on the housing issue, while also pitching their credentials and ideas for the post.

Questions came from the moderators — Erica C Barnett, a city hall reporter and founder of thecisforcrank.com, and Josh Feit, a news editor at Seattle Met magazine and founder of Publicola — and a few from the audience. The topics ranged from education to transportation and affordability.

‘Effective leadership’

The contenders offered a few subtle shots toward Sawant early — with Hearne saying it’s important for leaders to be able to build allies and trust while working toward common goals. Beach added that it’s important to “stop grandstanding and govern,” and Banks said they need “inclusive and effective leadership in City Hall” — but it was an otherwise amicable affair.

Sawant said rent control is the answer to the “skyrocketing rent crisis,” calling the government-mandated price control a “lifeline for working class in other cities.”

“We absolutely need to fight for rent control,” she said. “For those who say rent should not be controlled, I say it is being controlled, except it’s in the hands of the big developers.”

Hearne said he supports the Capitol Hill Housing model of building “vibrant and sustainable communities” and opposes rent control. He pointed to economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman’s well-known opposition to the idea.

“Paul Krugman is no conservative; he’s a liberal and he’s proven it doesn’t work,” Hearne said.

Banks said the city needs to take its own property and bond it out. She also opposed rent control.

“It does not generate units,” she said. “We need additional units. Rent control does not create movement.”

Carter received some laughs with his response that no strategies will work to preserve and create affordable housing. He said there couldn’t be a housing solution without empowering individual communities to decide on their own needs.

“There is no single solution for housing in the city,” he said.

Beach, meanwhile, proposed adding density in the area by building up — upzoning because of the area’s geographic limitations — and incentivizing family-sized units. She added that eviction and tenant relocation restrictions need to be protected.

Police chief receives support

Each of the candidates voiced at least some confidence for Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole and sees things moving forward in a more positive direction, although Carter stated that Seattle has “mercenary police” who don’t understand the people who live in the city.

Beach, Hearne and Banks said recruitment practices for officers needs to change.

“Let’s get people who live here to work on the police force,” Beach said.

Banks added the police force needs more consistency within its ranks. Hearne said officers need to restore the community’s trust.

Sawant, on the other hand, called for an elected board that can “provide oversight and hold police accountable.”

All five candidates agreed on a municipally owned broadband system, supporting a personal income tax, a carbon tax or cap in trade in the state and using the city’s bonding authority to build more affordable housing.

Each said he or she had voted in the last four elections.

Carter new to race

Carter, 72, was the most recent candidate to join the fray, announcing his candidacy earlier in May. He paid the $1,119 filing fee a day before the May 15 deadline.

The former City Hall and local government reporter, said at the forum that he was an “informational candidate,” seeking to draw attention to his priorities: issues facing the senior community and empowering neighborhood government and communities.

“This district is the heart and soul of this city, and the power of neighborhoods has proven to work,” he said.

Carter later clarified that he should have called himself an “inspirational candidate” and that he now intends to win.

The Central Area resident of more than 50 years said neither of his top agenda items is being touched by the other candidates.

Part of the reason for entering the race, he said, was because he couldn’t get a meeting with Banks, who, ironically, had given the same rational for entering the race after she’d been unable to set up a meeting with Sawant. 

Carter, who called himself a “Bull Moose Progressive Republican,” said he hadn’t been asking for donations up until this point, but he expects to keep expenditures down to about $5,000.

“I really didn’t plan on doing this,” he said. “I’m a little behind, but I’m not running that kind of campaign. I’m running an Internet campaign.”

At the forum, Carter said he’d be willing to vote for any of the other candidates.

“I can’t be more proud to be on this panel,” he said. “No matter who you like here…it’s somebody who is going to be concerned about you and the communities.”

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