Seattle mayor says sobriety won’t be required at new homeless shelter
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Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said residents entering a new homeless shelter community in the city’s Interbay neighborhood will not be required to be sober, a policy she defended as part of the city’s effort to move people indoors and connect them with services.
“We’re not demanding that people be, you know, abstinent when they enter this village, but there are going to be, you know, there’s kind of repeated efforts to kind of help people along into treatment and so that treatment will always be available and encouraged,” Wilson said.
Wilson made the remarks Sunday when asked about the Bayside Enhanced Shelter Community, a new shelter project that has drawn attention from residents concerned about homelessness, public safety and addiction in the area.
A split image of a Seattle homeless encampment and Mayor Katie Wilson. (Nik Lanum/Getty Images )
“So again, the model here is low barrier, high-support,” Wilson said. “So we are not requiring treatment for people entering this and this is really an evidence-based model that we’ve seen be successful. And so, basically, you’re bringing people in knowing that the process of recovery is really complicated and difficult.”
The new Bayside Enhanced Shelter Community has 50 single-adult pallet home units that will serve as 24/7 transitional housing that is expected to increase to 75 units by the end of the month, KOMO News reported.
Users of the facility will have access to “behavioral health support for addiction and recovery,” but neither using those resources nor being sober is required to use the housing facility.
Seattle city street with homeless encampment on March 16, 2026. (Nik Lanum)
KIRO 7 News reported that each 70-square-foot unit cost $16,000 to build, and Wilson has acknowledged that the city is running behind in its goal to have 500 shelter beds by mid-June and 1,000 by the end of the year.
“So when people say it is a failure not to have created 500 units by now, what I want to say is, as long as there are thousands of people sleeping unsheltered on our streets, yes, we are failing,” Wilson said.
In August, the Washington State Standard reported that on Jan. 30, the state documented 22,173 people who were homeless in Washington, with “33% were experiencing unsheltered homelessness and 67% were experiencing sheltered homelessness.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Wilson for comment.
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Residents walk through a homeless encampment with tents and belongings in Seattle, Washington, on March 11, 2022. (John Moore/Getty Images)
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