A week after Americans elected Donald Trump to the presidency—thrusting blue cities like Seattle into an uncertain future—the Seattle City Council was back to the budget-making grind. But in the face of the anti-poor, anti-cities administration that’s preparing to take power in DC, the local haggling over some of this city’s most familiar issues took on a new urgency—particularly when that haggling was connected to Seattle’s ongoing housing affordability crisis.
In the Trump era, cities like ours likely won’t be able to count on much federal help for the publicly funded programs that make Seattle and other metropolitan areas refuges for people who’ll be most harmed by the Trump presidency. To make due, we’ll need to aggressively address income inequality, homelessness, and rental costs on our own. Impressively, the Seattle City Council just took a small step toward doing that.
On November 16, when the council voted on a list of significant changes to Mayor Ed Murray’s 2017 proposed budget, one of those changes was the addition of $29 million in new funding for affordable housing. That city-improving change came thanks to Lisa Herbold, a freshman city council member who has emerged as a powerful independent voice.
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