Seattle's Participatory Budgeting Process
The City of Seattle launched its first participatory budgeting process in 2015 focusing on youth support and investments. In 2020, the city began a new participatory budget process to determine how to invest in programs and services that improve the safety and wellbeing of community members—particularly Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color. The Seattle Office for Civil Rights has facilitated the process since 2021 and contracted the Participatory Budgeting Project to manage community engagement, proposal development, and voting.
In August 2024, Mayor Harrell transmitted legislation to the Seattle City Council to authorize $27.25 million to implement six winning participatory budgeting projects focused on increasing access to housing, improving public safety and mental health supports, advancing food equity, and improving public infrastructure to meet basic needs. Specifically, projects will enhance housing navigation services for people experiencing homelessness; expand the Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) Team with additional mental and behavioral health specialists as first responders; provide more public restrooms; and expand access to education programs, healthy food, and places for community members to connect and share culture.
Proposed Projects
- Community-Operated Restrooms ($7.2 M): Seattle Parks and Recreation will partner with community to enhance cleanliness and safety at five public restrooms over a five-year program. Community organizations will be selected through a competitive process to provide attendant oversight of a minimum of 5 restroom sites. This includes operators attending to 2-3 existing, permanent restrooms, and 2-3 mobile restroom trailers. Restroom trailers will initially be placed in areas of identified need, informed by community engagement, with the ability to move to the areas of greatest demand.
- Mental Health Crisis Response ($2 M): Funding will expand the Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) Team to increase qualified mental and behavioral health specialists as first responders.
- Urban Farming and Food Equity ($7 M): The Department of Neighborhoods in partnership with the Office of Sustainability and Environment will support the activation of up to five publicly owned greenspaces to lease for urban agriculture. Additionally, a portion of the funds will leverage existing local training models to support small-scale farming and food producers.
- Native-Focused Youth and Community Center ($7.2 M): The Office of Planning and Community Development will support the creation of a community-owned and operated center focused on Duwamish cultural education and recreation for youth.
- Enhanced Housing Navigation Services ($2 M): The Human Services Department, in partnership with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, is expanding mobile-based housing navigation assistance. By improving access through Regional Access Points and the Coordinated Entry System, this investment aims to make it easier for individuals to find and secure housing, providing immediate and effective support for those experiencing homelessness.
- Youth and Young Adult Emergency Shelter Capital Fund ($1.85 M): In collaboration with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, the Human Services Department is funding vital enhancements, modifications, and repairs to youth shelters. These improvements will create more welcoming and supportive environments, ensuring young people have safe spaces during emergencies.
Read the full press release here.
View a fact sheet on the proposed participatory budgeting projects here.
Next Steps
City Council’s Select Budget Committee may vote on the future of Seattle’s $27.25M participatory budgeting (PB) projects as part of the general budget process. However, this won’t be confirmed until it’s added to City Council’s agenda, which is posted no later than two days prior to the meeting.
What to Expect After Council’s Vote:
Councilmembers have three options as they review the PB legislation:
- Approve full funding of all components of the PB legislation. If this option is selected, the projects will move forward as designed, and six city departments will receive funding to implement the projects through competitive grants or as part of existing city services.
- Decline to fund the PB legislation in its entirety. If this option is selected, no projects move forward and the funding that was set aside for PB goes back into the general fund to be used for other purposes.
- Write amendments to the PB legislation to adjust the funding allocated to each project. If Council chooses to amend the legislation, amended projects must be scaled down to align with their amended funding. The remainder of the funds that are saved through these amendments will then be directed to other city projects.
Next Steps in City Council's Budget Process:
November 12: Final public hearing on the City’s budget begins at 5pm
November 13-15: Council votes on budget amendments
November 19: Budget Committee takes final votes
November 21: Final vote of the full council on the budget
For more information, visit:
- Demystifying the Council Budget Process, which includes an overview of the budget calendar and ways to participate
- City Council’s website, which hosts all City Council agendas
Our Commitment to Transparency
Our vision at the Seattle Office for Civil Rights is a city of thriving and powerful communities that foster shared healing and belonging. We understand that healing cannot happen without full transparency and honesty to the communities we serve.
Our mission is to uphold civil rights and end structural racism in city government through accountable community relationships and anti-racist organizing, policy development, and civil rights enforcement. We understand that we cannot be true to our mission without upholding a participatory budgeting program that repairs the harm experienced by Black community and staff.
We commit to openness, authenticity, integrity, collaboration, and thoughtful planning throughout the process of supporting the participatory budgeting program. Further, we acknowledge the valid criticisms that exist on the transparency that the City has displayed throughout this process and how that has caused significant harm, especially to Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities. The Office for Civil Rights’ commitment is to offer access to information; that members of the communities most impacted by racism, oppression, and colonization hold the right to see how this process works, how and by whom decisions are made, and how decisions will affect them.
In September 2020, Seattle City Council designated $3 million for research by the Black Brilliance Research Project on how to address public safety for communities disproportionately affected by police violence and systemic racism. The report, released in 2021, recommended implementing a participatory budgeting process to create an inclusive process that interrupts harm and follows Black leadership by co-creating investment strategies with community members within the following five focus areas:
- Housing and physical spaces including diverse housing options and Black-led residential and commercial spaces
- Mental health, including with culturally responsive health services led by people with lived experience who receive equitable pay for their services
- Youth and children, including child care and out-of-school time support for youth most impacted by systemic violence and trauma
- Economic development that creates pathways to business ownership and generational wealth
- Crisis and wellness strategies, including community-led alternatives to the current 911 and crisis response system
FAQs
What is Participatory Budgeting (PB)?
Participatory budgeting is a democratic process, where communities and members of the public decide how to spend allocated public funding. PB allows those generally left out and marginalized from budgetary conversations to have a voice in the process.
Graphic from Participatory Budgeting Project.
Where else has participatory budgeting been done?
Seattle is not the first city to utilize a participatory budgeting process. Other cities across the United States have implemented participatory budgeting to make investment decisions in education, community development, housing, and other areas. Learn more about participatory budgeting taking place in other jurisdictions using the links below:
King County, WA
Participatory Budgeting Project
New York City, NY
Cambridge, MA
Boston, MA
Where does the PB funding come from?
Seattle City Council designated $30 million from the City’s general fund in 2020 for this PB process. This included a $2.75 million allocation to identify a third-party administrator to develop community-informed proposals and run the voting process.
Timeline
2015
The City of Seattle launches its first participatory budgeting process in the Department of Neighborhoods (DON).
2020
Nationwide protests demand police accountability and greater investments in Black communities and those most impacted by police violence. The City of Seattle allocates $3 million in Black-led research to explore community-led solutions to community safety and wellbeing, which recommends PB as a potential solution.
2021
Seattle City Council designates $30 million to expand the PB process, which included $2.75 million to identify a third-party administrator to develop community-informed proposals and run the voting process. This PB process is moved from the Department of Neighborhoods to the Office for Civil Rights. SOCR releases a Request for Proposal to identify the third-party administrator.
2022
The Participatory Budgeting Project is selected as the third-party administrator. Teams are assembled to advise on work, facilitate community engagement, and support feasibility of the projects that would be developed.
2023
Community members co-design proposals for the PB ballot, and a voting process is conducted, which yields six winning projects.
2024
SOCR convenes city departments and community members develop how the winning priorities can be implemented to accomplish what community members had put forward. Legislation required to authorize funding for the proposed projects is prepared and transmitted to Seattle City Council on August 14, 2024.