Seattle’s newest experiment with citizen-led budgeting took a step forward on Aug. 16 when Mayor Bruce Harrell sent legislation to the City Council that will provide $27.25 million for six projects chosen by community members.
The process, called participatory budgeting, allows community members to submit and vote on projects to fund. The city’s current effort grew out of the 2020 protests for racial justice as a response by the mayor and Council to protesters’ demands to shift funding away from policing and toward community priorities on health and safety.
Seattle’s Office of Civil Rights managed the years-long process, including hiring a third-party organization to manage the initiative, hosting meetings, accepting proposals and finally voting on winning projects. Last fall, more than 4,200 people voted on 18 finalist projects to select the winning six. The city will spend:
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$7.2 million on a community center for Native youth and Duwamish cultural education;
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$7.2 million on a “community-operated restrooms program.” Community organizations selected by Seattle Parks will provide attendant oversight of at least five public bathroom sites, including two to three existing public bathrooms and two to three new mobile bathroom trailers;
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$7 million to create and operate five publicly owned urban farms. Additional funds will be used to pay for training for small-scale agriculture producers;
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$2 million to further expand CARE, Seattle’s new dual-dispatch police alternative that sends mental health professionals to respond to public behavioral health crises;
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$2 million to expand “housing navigation services” to help people experiencing homelessness find and move into housing;
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And $1.85 million for improvements to emergency shelters for youth experiencing homelessness.
“Participatory budgeting moves us closer to building systems that increase agency for underrepresented communities in Seattle,” said Office of Civil Rights director Derrick Wheeler-Smith in a press release. “These projects are an opportunity for the city to be accountable to promises made in 2020 to create new ways to get civically engaged and invest in urgent needs of our most prevented and persecuted communities.”
Seattle first tried participatory budgeting in 2015, with $700,000 for youth priorities voted on by Seattle residents and students ages 11-25. The effort expanded slightly in 2017 when the city set aside $2 million for parks and street projects that residents voted on.