SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is pushing to open hundreds of new shelter beds by June in an effort to move more people experiencing homelessness indoors before the FIFA World Cup comes to the city.

Seattle’s budget office estimates each shelter unit costs about $28,000, according to a city report. Wilson is asking the City Council, donors and philanthropic groups to help fund the first phase of her homelessness plan, which aims to create 500 new shelter spaces ahead of the international event.

“Our task now is to set up as much shelter as quickly as possible,” Senior Policy Adviser John Grant said during a City Council committee meeting Monday.

The proposal has support from some people who pass by a growing encampment near Seattle Center.

“I think that’s great. I think everyone needs a place to sleep,” said Michael Vincent of Seattle.

“Preferably tiny homes because they tend to be more cost-friendly,” added Thomas Andrikus, also of Seattle.

During a presentation to the council, the budget office said the city has identified $17.5 million that could support shelter expansion. The plan would require council approval to use $3.3 million in federal community development block grants and another $1.5 million from the Downtown Health and Human Services Fund.

Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck said she supports the effort and praised the urgency behind the plan, which includes vetting and selecting potential shelter sites through April.

“We have been in a state of emergency for 10 years now,” Rinck said. “I want to commend you all for moving with urgency on this and giving it the attention it truly needs so we can get our neighbors inside.”

Public Safety Committee Chair Robert Kettle said he also supports expanding options such as safe parking lots for recreational vehicles, similar to the former Interbay site. He said such spaces can help connect people to services while reducing the number of RVs parked in neighborhoods.

“If you have five RVs, at some point you’re going to have one that’s dealing drugs, then a stolen goods market,” Kettle said. “When Salmon Bay Village opened, the number of RVs on Nickerson really dropped.”

Kettle added that communities surrounding potential shelter sites should be included in planning discussions. City officials said they agree.

“The Human Services Department will be bringing together shelter providers to discuss best practices, not only for operating these shelters but also for addressing public safety concerns,” Grant said.

Sharon Lee, executive director of the Low Income Housing Institute, said community outreach has already played a role in opening new tiny home villages, including True Hope Village in Seattle’s Central District.

“Usually neighbors are very curious about who the target population will be,” Lee said. “People want to know that if there’s a village in their neighborhood, priority will go to people already living outside nearby.”

It is unclear when the City Council will next consider the legislation needed to move the shelter expansion forward.

SEATTLE — A temporary construction pause during the 2026 World Cup will be implemented by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT).

SDOT said the hiatus will run from June 8 at midnight until July 7 at midnight and will apply to “most work” on streets, sidewalks, and alleys.

“By reducing construction activity, we aim to keep traffic flowing and ensure our streets, sidewalks, and public spaces remain open and accessible while Seattle hosts the world,” SDOT said in a release. “Public space managed by the Seattle Public Library and Seattle Parks and Recreation is not included in the construction pause.”

SDOT said with hundreds of thousands of tourists visiting Seattle for the soccer matches, the pause will help reduce road congestion, clear sidewalks and streets for pedestrians and bicyclists, and allow neighborhoods to “look their best for the festivities.”

RELATED | Seattle agencies map out transit plan for downtown FIFA World Cup 2026 matches

The planned pause will conclude a week earlier than initially scheduled to help projects stay on schedule.

WSDOT separately announced in November a pause for the “Revive I-5” project that has shut down part of the Ship Canal Bridge on the major artery through Seattle.

RELATED | Long road ahead: 2 of 4 lanes of NB I-5 over Ship Canal Bridge now closed for most of year

All lanes of I-5 will be reopened from June 8 to July 10, before construction continues through the remainder of 2026.

Jon Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association, called for fewer taxes on businesses in the city, saying in a recent speech, “We don’t need more business taxes in Seattle. We need more businesses in Seattle paying taxes.”

He told “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio that while the idea seems straightforward, lawmakers haven’t responded that way.

“We’ve got plenty of space for more businesses to be in Seattle, paying taxes. What’s been unfortunate over these last couple of years is there’s a billion dollars of new employer taxes that our city government has imposed on folks doing business in our city,” Scholes said.

Consequently, taxes are pushing out employers, hurting job growth, and leading to a higher vacancy rate.

“[Taxes have] contributed to jobs leaving our city and job growth on the other side of the lake, and that’s contributing to a significant office vacancy rate, collapsing commercial office values in downtown Seattle, which is then shifting the property tax burden to residents and to small businesses through their leases,” Scholes explained. “So this is something we have to reckon with as a city.”

Scholes argued Seattle’s tax structure has put the city at a competitive disadvantage compared to neighboring cities like Bellevue.

“We’ve made ourselves an outlier when it comes to where you may want to locate jobs as an employer in this region, given the different tax structures,” Scholes said. “These are taxes you’re not paying in Bellevue and other parts of the region, and it’s having an effect on where those jobs are located. So I think the attitude of city government over the years is ‘We need a lot of business taxes to raise a bunch of money and make more investments, etc,’ but it’s driving businesses out. We need more businesses paying those taxes. That’s how we strengthen and grow the job space.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.