January 15th, Mayor Katie Wilson announced her first two executive orders targeting homelessness and public transportation. Setting her campaign promises into action, Wilson’s orders present her plan to address affordability and homelessness in Seattle with urgency and determination.

But can she actually do it? While Wilson’s plan is still in its early stages, and at just two weeks into her administration, it may be too soon to tell. However, I believe her efforts could change the Seattle housing landscape for the better: both literally and figuratively. Wilson’s order announced the launch of an interdepartmental team (IDT) that will revise permitting regulations, identify financial incentives and review housing policies—all in search of ways to remove barriers that slow affordable and emergency housing development.

Per the executive order, the Seattle Mayor’s Office aims to “expedite the development of new emergency shelters, transitional encampments, transitional housing, permanent supportive housing and affordable housing projects that support low-income households, to the maximum extent allowable.” By maximizing the use of city-owned land and unused buildings, and by integrating behavioral health into housing and shelter programs, Seattle’s newest mayor has already made strides in expanding what her predecessors thought possible. Wilson’s approach recognizes the need to pursue aggressive and innovative solutions to Seattle’s infamous public health crisis.

The ambition and urgency of Wilson’s IDT plan is great news for Seattle, a city notorious for its cumbersome permitting process. These inefficiencies create barriers that stall both affordable and market-rate housing. Seattle Office of Innovation & Performance reports that “While other jurisdictions issue middle-housing permits in 30–50 days and large multifamily permits in about 90 days, Seattle’s medians have grown to 170 days and 672 days, respectively. This overly complex system is a key driver of why our city often fails to live up to promises of building affordable housing and ending unsheltered homelessness—developers have no incentive to undertake the permitting process of affordable housing development. 

Critics of Seattle’s permitting process are hopeful that improving permitting efficiency would facilitate the scale of affordable housing development the city so desperately needs. Wilson has pledged to add 4,000 units of emergency housing and shelter by repurposing Seattle’s $970 million housing levy to fund efforts to bring unsheltered homeless people off the streets and into existing affordable housing, tiny homes, hotels and publicly owned buildings. The Seattle Times reports, “At the end of 2024, nearly 2,800 units of publicly funded housing in Seattle were vacant.” That same year, the number of homeless people in Seattle hit a record high of 16,868 people unable to afford housing. 

All because publicly funded affordable housing has become too expensive for most low-income wage earners, often affordable only to those earning 50% to 60% of the area’s median income. Along with the 4,000 emergency shelter units, Wilson plans to expand rent subsidies to support housing stability for low-income housed residents, create a nonprofit stabilization fund and to reinstate and upscale the JustCARE partnership—a framework in place 2021–2023 until COVID relief funding ran dry, saw success using street outreach teams to match unsheltered encampment residents with mental health resources and low barrier housing programs.

Wilson understands that by itself, getting people into shelters isn’t a comprehensive solution to unsheltered homelessness, but merely a Band-Aid over the greater issue of affordability in Seattle. After all, her stance on improving affordability played a major part in her campaign victory this past August. 

Former Mayor Bruce Harrell’s 2021 campaign promised 2,000 new shelter units in his first year, but by 2025, only about 1,200 had been accomplished. Worse, under Harrell’s leadership, homelessness growth rates surpassed pandemic levels, reaching 26%. In 2024, an average of 16,648 people were living unhoused. That is why voters, exhausted by Harrell’s failure, resonated with Wilson’s pledge to end unsheltered homelessness by catalyzing the political will to deliver results within four years.

Overall, Wilson’s executive order is an inspiring first step that combines short-term emergency sheltering with long-term affordable housing on public land. However, policy changes she makes must integrate rental subsidies for low-income renters and enforce anti-displacement measures near transit centers to ensure marginalized groups experience the benefits of public investment and development that have historically bypassed them.

Taking these decisive steps early in her administration demonstrates that combining short-term emergency shelter, long-term affordable housing through expedited permitting and investment in addiction treatment as a public health intervention can mobilize solutions to one of Seattle’s most pervasive problems. Following this trajectory, Wilson’s leadership could reshape housing and homelessness in Seattle in just four years. This decree marks a new era of housing accessibility and affordability in Seattle.

Zoned Out takes a look at local news, policies and politics that shape our daily lives. This column explores how Seattle addresses its biggest challenges around affordability, housing and homelessness, transportation and community development. Jo Moreau is a fourth-year public affairs major.