Welcome to Seattle.
Around 2013 as the economy caught fire, Seattle started experiencing rapid increases in homelessness. At the same time, the city was unable to scale up its response due to a lack of tax revenue. Seattle relies heavily on taxing its middle class through property and sales taxes, but has no corporate income tax.
The Seattle City Council asked businesses to contribute through what became known as “the head tax”. The plan was to use this additional revenue to address the homeless crisis, but things didn’t go according to plan.
We spent a week in Seattle and captured the story of the head tax and its aftermath. Below is our latest short film about a community searching for ways to come together on the issue of homelessness.
Special thanks to
Daniel Malone, Executive Director, Downtown Emergency Services Center
Teresa Mosqueda, Councilmember, Seattle City Council
Joey Stanton, Research Consultant, University of Washington
Sara Rankin, Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law
Paul Lambros, Executive Director, Plymouth Housing
Kelli Larsen, Chief Program Officer, Plymouth Housing
Chad Mackay, CEO, Fire & Vine Hospitality
Nicole Macri, Representative, Washington State House of Representatives
William Daniell, Part-time Faculty, University of Washington School of Public Health
Noah Fay, Director of Housing Programs, DESC
Third Door Coalition
Justin Emery
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