Wow, this all sounds really bad! Maybe the Stranger could have spent last year warning everyone about the dangers of a Republican administration, instead of demanding the Democratic party's candidate for office make impossible promises against Israel, because Gaza was The Most Important Issue In The Entire History of EVER?

Also, it's good to see the Stranger recognize that many of Seattle's homeless need copious expensive support services, not 'merely' the secure and affordable housing so many of Seattle's productive residents struggle to obtain and retain. After all the many years the Stranger spent declaring these very same homeless persons "victims of capitalism," who simply "needed homes," this change in view comes as most welcome. (In a more perfect world, the Stranger would explicitly recognize the obvious failures of the policy it had long championed, but we simply cannot let the perfect become the enemy of the good, now can we?)

“ would force the country to disinvest from an evidence-based approach to homelessness dominant for over two decades,”

If Housing First has been the dominant policy for over two decades then it’s obviously a complete and total failure.

In the last two decades the homeless crisis has metastasized up and down the Pacific Coast.

Maybe trying a new approach is appropriate.

Here’s the evidence

https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/06/07/a-28-million-low-income-apartment-complex-descends-into-chaos-in-just-two-and-a-half-years/

https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2022/san-francisco-sros/

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-08-16/mayfair-hotel-was-beset-by-problems-when-it-was-homeless-housing

https://komonews.com/news/local/renton-firefighters-respond-to-fire-at-hotel-being-used-as-temporary-homeless-shelter

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/owner-of-civic-hotel-used-as-homeless-shelter-sues-seattle-king-county/

FWIW Wilson has now officially said this is her policy according to the urbanist

https://www.theurbanist.org/2025/11/26/katie-wilson-charts-new-course-on-public-safety-and-homelessness/

“Instead of homeless encampment sweeps, Wilson favors a model more like the JustCare program, developed in Seattle during the pandemic, which focused on rapidly placing unhoused individuals into empty hotel rooms while providing them with intensive case management. Washington state used a similar model in their Rights-of-Way Safety Initiative, which cleared encampments in public rights-of-way by moving them into housing.”

Without Federal Funds, how are Seattle's Progressive politicians going to attract drug addicts to come to the city?

Free meth pipes, aluminum foil squares, and syringes are helping (and, keeping people addicted)

Free housing for drug addicts is essential (It's hard to cook meth outside when it's raining)

Without large numbers of drug addicts flocking to Seattle. Our Progressive Politicians can't fund their friends and supporters "Non-Profits"

So, good on them to sue the Feds!