Inslee seeks another $100 million to help clear Washington's freeway encampments

WASHINGTON STATE — Gov. Jay Inslee wants to spend another $100 million to clean up freeway encampments on state rights of way.

“I believe in Santa Claus, but he's not going to solve this problem,” said Inslee at an afternoon press conference announcing his proposed supplemental budget.

Yet, he’s also seemingly aware of the sharp criticism of the state response after it has already spent $143 million on the issue in the past year.

“Sometimes when you talk about budgets, the numbers seem to be more important at times to the actual reality of what we're doing in people's lives,” said Inslee. “We’re not building pyramids here, but we are building lives.”

RELATED: Gov. Inslee claims 'substantial progress' on homelessness at tour of Seattle encampment cleanup

With that said, the governor made his case that the state has cleared 30 dangerous encampments with existing funds and housed more than 1000 people. Yet, the Department of Commerce website, which has been tracking the spending and results, shows only 149 people have successfully exited homelessness as a result of the program. That’s almost $1 million per person.

Inslee bristled at the suggestion. “For one, it's changing lives. I don't know if you care about these people, but we do. These are somebody's brother, or sister, they’ve got a problem, we help them solve it. It's worth saving lives.”

The program has also been heavily criticized in places like King County, where most recently, 14 fires were set on state right of way in 2023 before the state did something. Prior to that, there were months of issues at Myers Way and along I-5 in North Seattle.

Inslee visited both sites after local residents complained about criminal activity and trash. But he said the numbers also include spending on housing, and mitigation of freeways that includes putting large rocks where tents once stood.

“I'll tell you, we won't (do it) if we don't get the money, okay, we're not going to be able to do it. If we don't have the money. We don't have indentured servants to order people to go and pick up trash on the freeway for free,” said Inslee. “That place in Dearborn, if we'd had twice as much money last session in the legislature than we got, we might have been able to do the Dearborn earlier because we have enough staff to do it.”

RELATED: Washington governor's initiative aimed at removing encampments from state land needs more money

House and Senate Republicans released statements after the presentation that did not criticize additional spending on cleanup. However, they were quick to question Inslee’s spending proposal and use of the cap-and-trade program and what it has done to gas prices.

“The good news is that the governor isn’t proposing any new taxes,” wrote State Senator Lynda Wilson of Vancouver, the ranking Republican on the Senate Ways and Means Committee. “The bad news is that the taxes he has already passed continue to fuel rapid growth in state spending. Washington’s new income tax on capital gains and the "hidden gas tax" of the Climate Commitment Act have enabled the governor to more than double state spending during the decade he has been in office.”

House Republican Budget Lead Chris Corry of Yakima also wrote, “Budgets are about funding policies that improve the lives of Washington families, not spending every dollar on more bureaucracy just because you can. House Republicans support students, not subsidies that favor the wealthy. We support tax reform that reduces burdens on working families. And we will continue to focus our time and energy on solving issues that matter most to the people of our state."

RELATED: Inslee's initiative aimed at removing encampments from state land needs more money

The 60-day legislative session begins on Jan. 8.