You probably saw the big news last week: Microsoft has pledged $500 million to tackle the housing crisis in King County, after discussions that began in the wake of the big business tax repeal last spring.

How should we feel about this? On the one hand, this is a lot of money, and although much of it is in the form of loans, it should speed up the production of affordable housing and help a lot of people.

On the other hand, as our friends at the Economic Opportunity Institute have explained, relying on philanthrophy to solve social inequities is deeply problematic, undermining democracy and giving wealthy individuals and corporations far too much power over all of us.

Third, and perhaps most important as a lesson for us: As the news coverage makes clear, this happened because of the “head tax”— because of the work that TRU and Housing for All and many others did last year pushing for a tax on big business. Deep-pocketed corporate opponents successfully fought to kill the tax, but we successfully built up a public expectation that they do more to address the housing and homelessness crisis that their growth is driving.

So let’s take this as a victory, even as we recognize that corporate largesse is not the ultimate answer and it’s our job to figure out the next step forward!

Today the Seattle Mariners announced the “Home Base Partnership” to create a several million dollar revolving fund for eviction assistance and prevention, a move housing advocates say is a response to public pressure and a victory for community organizing.

The billion-dollar corporation’s newfound interest in the housing crisis emerges in the wake of a pitched battle with affordable housing advocates over the disposition of the county’s lodging tax revenue earlier this year.

In May, County Executive Dow Constantine proposed that $185 million in lodging tax funds be spent on maintenance and upkeep of Safeco Field, the Mariners’ stadium. The proposal sparked an outcry from King County residents and advocates who argued that this public money should instead be used to address the region’s deepening housing and homelessness crisis. Over 80 organizations signed a letter to County Councilmembers urging them to prioritize basic human needs over stadium improvements that amount to subsidizing a profitable private corporation.

In September, after several overflowing public hearings, the King County Council voted 5-4 to allocate $135 million to Safeco Field. In a partial victory for the housing movement, the compromise bill also directed $165 million more to affordable workforce housing and services for homeless youth than the Executive’s original proposal.

In the course of this multi-month public debate the reputation of the Seattle Mariners and its billionaire and millionaire owners took a beating.

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What happens when you can’t afford a transit fare and you need to get to a doctor appointment, a job interview, or a shelter? Maybe you pray that the bus driver will be kind and let you board. Or maybe you get caught by fare enforcement, slapped with a steep fine and kicked off the train far from your destination. Maybe you ask passers-by for change and bear their suspicious looks. Maybe you’re lucky enough to find a service provider to give you a free ticket or two. Or maybe you just end up walking for hours.

Thousands of King County residents face these tough choices every day. The stress and time wasted when you can’t reliably get from A to B make it extremely difficult to overcome the many other challenges that people with very low incomes face in our increasingly unaffordable region. As wonderful as the ORCA LIFT reduced fare program is, it doesn’t meet the needs of riders who can’t easily pay $1.50 per ride or $54 per month for a transit pass.

Here at the Transit Riders Union, we are celebrating because this week we took a major step towards making our public transit system affordable for all. The King County Council voted to take steps to implement low/no-cost transit fares for Metro’s lowest-income passengers, with the goal of having this new program in place by 2020! Our big job next year, 2019, will be to work with King County Metro and elected officials to create a robust and well-designed program.

This is a huge deal and a great way to end 2018. (Not that we’re done yet… stay tuned for some big news next week!) Want to celebrate with us? Come enjoy music, food and drink, and great company at TRU’s happy hour fundraiser on Thursday, Nov. 29 —RSVP here.

TRU has joined with transportation and climate allies to form a new coalition called Move All Seattle Sustainably (MASS). Last week we sent a letter to Mayor Durkan and the City Council, asking that they work with us and act boldly to transform Seattle’s transportation system. Check out the news coverage of our launch in the Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, and Curbed Seattle, and Capitol Hill Seattle Blog.

We’ve come together with a sense of urgency. We see the climate crisis and the recent IPCC report telling us that catastrophe awaits if we don’t act now to cut carbon emissions. We see the viaduct closure looming early next year, and we know that traffic, especially downtown but throughout the city, is about to get even worse as we enter the “Period of Maximum Constraint”. Seattle must act fast to prioritize the modes that move the most people in the least space, and with the lowest carbon impact. That means public transit, biking, and walking — making it easy, safe, and fast for people to get around the city without driving. Stay tuned for our next steps, because we’re going to need your help.

We did it!! After many months of public pressure, phone calls and petitions, emails and op-eds, rallies and direct actions, several UW labor unions emerged from contract negotiations last week with an agreement that includes 100% employer-paid transit passes starting July 1, 2019. This victory will increase transit ridership, lower carbon emissions, ease gridlock, and make life better for thousands of workers struggling with the high costs of living in our region.

We showed that when workers, transit riders, and the community stick together, we win. Thanks so much to everyone who took action to make this victory possible. And stay tuned for a little mop-up operation — we’ve got some work still to do to make sure this benefit is extended to every single UW employee.

Yesterday afternoon the King County Council took final votes on the Lodging Tax. In brief: We held our ground! Councilmembers added $165 million for affordable housing near transit and homeless youth services. This new funding will improve the lives of thousands of people. It’s a huge win, and everyone who pushed for it can be proud. Of course, there’s more to what happened. Let’s break it down:

Back in May, Executive Dow Constantine announced his proposal for the Lodging Tax, including $185 million for Safeco Field, and only the state-mandated minimum for housing. Billionaires like Mariners owner and CEO John Stanton are used to operating behind the scenes, cutting deals with politicians. He probably expected his money to sail on through.

We didn’t let that happen. We brought this deal out of the shadows. We packed public meetings, we wrote op-eds, we emailed and called council offices. Working with our allies on #TeamHousing and several courageous councilmembers, we made it clear to the media and the public that this was a choice between public interests and private interests.

So we weren’t able to stop this handout to a billionaire — yesterday five councilmembers, a majority, voted to allocate $135 million to Safeco Field — but hey, we managed to peel away $50 million. (The big loser in this fight was the tourism industry.) And our pressure enabled other wins: as part of the final deal, a number of labor unions won concessions from the Mariners that will make it easier to organize low-wage workers at the stadium, creating better jobs.

Want to help us get even better results next time? If you’re not already a member, join the Transit Riders Union, or make a donation. We do this work on a shoestring and your support goes a long way.

The King County Council has called a special meeting for 10am on Monday, July 30th, to discuss the use of revenue from the county’s Hotel-Motel tax. Executive Dow Constantine has proposed to spend $185 million on upgrades to Safeco Field — including $160 million in non-essential “bells and whistles”. [More info]

This money could be used instead to fund affordable housing. How can we justify using taxpayer money to build an “upper-concourse kids zone” at a stadium, when thousands of kids in our community don’t even have homes? Tens of thousands of working families in King County are severely cost-burdened, spending half or more of their income in housing-related costs.

The Mariners are a private and profitable business that already receives many public subsidies. Their majority-owner and CEO is a Republican billionaire named John Stanton who lives in Medina. He made his fortune in the wireless industry and is a major donor to conservative candidates and causes. We think John Stanton can pay his own bills. Here are three actions you can take. Please do as many of the three as you can:

1. Attend the special meeting: Monday, July 30, 10am on the 10th floor of King County Courthouse, 516 3rd Ave. Help us pack the chambers! Arrive at 9:30 to sign up to testify.
2. Call your district councilmember and Dow Constantine. Sample script and numbers below.
3. Email the councilmembers and Dow Constantine, urging them to hold an evening public hearing so people who work during the day can weigh in before the council makes a decision:

Email County Elected Officials

We are in a housing crisis, and our elected leaders must make difficult and responsible decisions about priorities. With the repeal of Seattle’s big business tax, prioritizing existing revenue streams to address the affordable housing crisis is more important than ever. With your help, we can redirect this funding to a higher use!

Thank you to everyone who emailed and called City Councilmembers over the past few days. On the afternoon of Monday, June 25th, after testimony from TRU members and from our friends at ATU 587 (the union of Metro bus drivers and mechanics), the council voted to strike the Mayor’s proposal to contract with a private transit provider.

With that ‘poison pill’ removed, the council then voted unanimously to free city transit dollars to make infrastructure improvements that will improve speed and reliability; and to fund student ORCA passes, expanding on the victory won by Rainier Beach High School students, with TRU’s support, in 2015. This will make Seattle the largest city in the country to provide free, year-round transit passes for all high-school students!

That same Monday we also testified at King County Council meeting, in favor of a motion written by Councilmember Rod Dembowski’s office in collaboration with TRU. This motion directs Metro to deliver cost estimates for new programs that would make public transit more affordable and accessible for youth, college students, very low-income and homeless folks, low-wage workers, and residents of low-income housing — all causes we have been championing for years. The motion passed unanimously, setting us up for progress during this fall’s budget process.

With that, TRU is taking a long-overdue break for the month of July. We will be back in action in August, ready to resume our work on decriminalizing fare enforcement, improving Access Paratransit service, winning free transit passes for UW workers, and more.  See you then!

The City of Seattle is considering a proposal to divert public funds intended to buy additional Metro service hours to private contractors.  This proposal is part of a larger package of changes to the Seattle Transportation Benefit District, which will be decided on Monday, June 25th.

Councilmembers Teresa Mosqueda and Mike O’Brien are planning to put forward an amendment to strike the privatization proposal. This amendment needs our support! We invite you to join us in urging the council to keep public transit public by sending an email now:

Email the Councilmembers

Why would the City even consider contracting with a private bus service provider? The stated reason is that additional peak service is needed to ease congestion during the upcoming “Period of Maximum Constraint”; and King County Metro claims they are unable to provide this service.  However, the experience of other cities shows that privatization is a slippery slope, and we believe the costs and risks of setting up a private system that parallels and supplants King County Metro far outweigh the potential benefits.  We believe the City Council should reject this proposal and instead work with SDOT and Metro to reassess the possibilities of adding publicly-operated service, and implement street improvements such as dedicated bus lanes and other strategies to reduce congestion.