Sound Transit found $23 million in couch cushions the same week it approved $420 million more in spending. One of those numbers is supposed to make you feel better. This is Seattle Politics and Urbanism Daily. Today — rail money moving, a homeless count that cuts against some of the week's gloom, and two city offices under the microscope. From Ryan Packer at Westside Seattle:
The board passed Resolution R2026-14, which authorizes approximately $423.3 million in budget amendments specifically for the West Seattle and Ballard Link extensions. This move follows the recent adoption of an updated regional system plan and aims to move both projects through critical design and planning phases.
The Sound Transit board approved Resolution R2026-14 Thursday — roughly $423 million in budget amendments. Most of it, about $407 million, goes to West Seattle Link to push it into final design. The biggest single line is $286.5 million for a phase-two engineering contract with Jacobs. So before a shovel touches dirt, that's the bill just to design it. And look — this lands the same week the agency refunds debt and saves $23 million. So Sound Transit can move four hundred million into final design and still find savings on the books. When it wants to move money, it can. Which makes me ask — this is a 25-year ST3 program. West Seattle's been promised for how long? Final design is not a train. I want a date somebody's actually held to. That's the tension, though, Devin — the resolution says they're trying to keep momentum while they're still wrestling with long-term affordability. They're spending and worrying about the bill in the same breath. Thirty million of it is construction service agreements with the City of Seattle. So the regional agency is cutting checks to a city that can't fund its own planning documents. Tell me that's not backwards. Randy Diamond, writing in The Center Square:
King County’s homeless population grew by 9% over the last two years, according to the latest Point-In-Time count data released by the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. The KCRHA snapshot estimates the total number of people experiencing homelessness in the region, anchored by Seattle, is now 18,365, up from 16,868 in 2024.
The Point-In-Time count is out — King County's at 18,365 people experiencing homelessness, up from 16,868 in 2024. That's 9% over two years. And the line KCRHA wants you to read is the comparison: 9% now versus 26% from 2022 to 2024. So the curve may be bending. The number's still going up. A slower increase still means more people, Sarah — about fifteen hundred more human beings outside than two years ago. We're supposed to call that progress? And right after we talk about $420 million moving into West Seattle design — the system can clearly move half a billion dollars. So where's the affordable-units increase to match that 9%? Fair hit. One thing William Towey did tell the board: people are coming in and exiting into housing; the inflow just keeps outpacing the exits. If that's true, the throughput's working. The faucet's the problem. And let's keep the source honest — this is The Center Square, which leans right, so “permissive drug use making it worse” is them talking, not the data. The 9% is the 9%. The framing is editorial. PubliCola, with Erica C. Barnett:
The latest biennial count of the region’s homeless population, which has been based since 2022 on interviews and statistical sampling rather than a physical count, found that homelessness overall increased 9 percent—a data point the King County Regional Homelessness Authority characterized as good news because it represents a slowed pace of increase—but that unsheltered homelessness increased 21 percent, largely because of the closure of some family shelters.
Erica Barnett's weekly roundup has a lot in it this week. The headline-grabber: Office for Civil Rights director Derrick Wheeler-Smith — an investigation found he subjected a subordinate to, quote, unwelcome conduct of a sexually explicit nature, and allegedly took staff to a strip club on a city-sponsored civil rights history trip in Alabama. A civil rights trip. To civil rights sites. And the city's civil rights director ends up at a strip club. You can't make that up. And it's in the same roundup as the SPD hiring debate. So, two city offices with accountability problems in one Barnett column — maybe that's management culture, maybe it's just a rough seven days. And then there's the homeless count we hit earlier — The Center Square called it “growth slowing.” Barnett's framing is sharper: unsheltered homelessness is up 21 percent since 2024, mostly because family shelters closed. Slowing is not the word for that. Right — overall up 9 percent, which the Regional Homelessness Authority is selling as good news. The unsheltered number is the one that actually tells you who's outside tonight. And buried in there: King County budget “shenanigans,” her word, including Dembowski poking at harm reduction contracts. So one government can't fund shelters, and another's threatening the programs that keep people alive. This one comes via Metro Magazine. So, we just walked through Sound Transit moving $420 million into West Seattle and Ballard. Metro Magazine has the other side of the ledger: they refunded debt and saved about $23 million doing it. Two capital wins in one week. This agency can refinance bonds and shift half a billion into final design — and meanwhile, nobody downtown can post a fourplex permit count. And $23 million next to $420 million looks like a rounding error. But it's real money, and it says something about how Sound Transit runs its books versus a city that can't fund its own SR 99 reroute. Right. The money's there. The competence is there. So when the homeless count we just covered says growth is only slowing — not stopping — I want to know why that regional math never seems to reach the street. Emma Kate Fittes, writing in EdWeek Market Brief:
Seattle Public Schools in Washington is seeking information from providers on high-level mathematics curriculum and materials. The district will be in the market for new print and digital materials, and is currently in the process of developing new specifications for precalculus, calculus, statistics, and International Baccalaureate math courses, according to the request for information.
Seattle Public Schools put out a request for information on high-level math curriculum — precalculus, calculus, statistics, IB math — for a district of 50,000 students. Vendors have until July 16. An RFI. So this is the district asking vendors what's out there — not buying anything yet. We're at the “tell us about your barcoding system” stage. Right — one of the actual questions is whether their barcoding is compatible with Follett. So we're a few steps from a calculus textbook landing in a kid's hands. And here's what gets me — same week, Sound Transit moves $420 million into final design and refinances debt for $23 million in savings. One public agency is shifting half a billion dollars. SPS is still circulating a questionnaire about precalc materials. Two public bodies, wildly different gears. I'll give the district this: a curriculum adoption for 50,000 students is exactly the kind of thing you don't want to rush. Procurement that looks slow can also be procurement that's careful. Careful's fine. I just want the deadline after this one — when does a kid actually get the new stats book? Because the goal is a stats book on a kid's desk, not a procurement milestone. If Seattle Politics and Urbanism Daily helps you start the day informed, consider subscribing and leaving a quick review wherever you’re listening. It really helps other people find the show.
What we’re watching next: Seattle Public Schools’ high-level math curriculum RFI closes July 16, and Sound Transit’s West Seattle Link work moves into final design and construction prep, including cross-Duwamish bridge design work.
Links to the stories we covered today are in the show notes, so if one caught your attention, you can dig in there. That’s Seattle Politics and Urbanism Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.