The Seattle City Council passed legislation on September 17 designating most of the Chinatown International District (CID) as one of six Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA) exclusion zones. Under the new law, a Seattle Municipal judge can issue orders banning people charged with or convicted of a drug-related crime from entering the zones. These crimes include assault, harassment, theft, criminal trespass, property destruction, or unlawful use or possession of weapons “occurring in a designated SODA zone in which the court finds a nexus between the offense and illegal drug activity.”
A person under a SODA order caught in one of these areas could be charged with a gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison and/or a $5,000 dollar fine.
On September 23, Mayor Bruce Harrell signed the ordinance into law, along with a similar measure, Stay out of Areas of Prostitution (SOAP), targeting sex work in Aurora.
The two laws will take effect October 23.
The SODA legislation was proposed by City Attorney Ann Davison, who cited public safety concerns, drug activity, and a record 763 overdose deaths last year, while Councilmember Cathy Moore championed the SOAP ordinance.
Both were passed by the City Council in a 8-1 vote, with Councilmember Tammy Morales voting no. Morales represents District 2 on the council, which includes the CID and Southeast Seattle.
Council members and public commenters supporting the ordinances acknowledged that they would not be enough to single handedly solve the problems of drug addiction and coercive exploitation of sex workers, but argued that they were a necessary step in disrupting drug markets and human trafficking.
Voting against the laws, Morales argued that this approach has been tried and proven ineffective, and cited a study from the American Journal of Public Health finding that trying to disrupt drug markets in this way causes more violence and overdose deaths. Morales argued the ordinances will punish vulnerable drug users by excluding them from services in SODA zones. She noted that the legislation will do nothing to address gun violence, since this is already a felony, outside the purview of any Municipal Court judge that would issue a SODA order.
Morales noted that the city used to have drug and prostitution loitering laws that the City Council repealed in 2020 during the George Floyd protests, under the recommendations of the Seattle Reentry Work Group. She acknowledged that people live in dire circumstances on the street, but argued the city should address the drug crises by focusing on strategies such as improving recovery support, long-term case management, intensive engagement and housing placement, job training and activation of public spaces, and more.
People under a SODA order would still be able to ride public transport through these areas, attend court hearings, and other exceptions. Although Davison said the zones were designed not to bar people from accessing social services, PubliCola noted that service providers exist within the SODA zone, including the Seattle Indian Health Board and the ACRS food bank in the CID.
According to the text of the legislation: “The geographic boundaries of SODA zones shall be narrowly tailored to encompass 4 areas of significant illegal drug activity.”
Originally, the CID SODA zone was smaller, focused on Little Saigon, but in the final legislation, “due to high levels of significant drug activity” in the neighborhood, it encompasses almost the entirety of the neighborhood, from 7th Avenue to Rainier and from S Main Street to S Dearborn Street.
The downtown Seattle SODA zone stretches from University Street up to Steward Street, and from 1st Avenue to 6th Avenue, and the other SODA zones are in Belltown, Capitol Hill, Pioneer Square, and the University District.
“I think it’s going to get somebody killed,” said Rachtha Danh, Chinatown-International District Organizer with Puget Sound Sage, noting that the ordinances are a revival of drug and prostitution loitering laws that the City Council repealed. “It was a basically racist ordinance to start with, and I think putting more discretionary powers into the police, a police force that has had a lot of issues in the way they deal with minority and BIPOC groups – it’s not a good thing.”
A majority of over 100 people who signed up for public comment spoke out vehemently against one or both of the ordinances.
“This will create a ripple effect in the region, aggravating the climate of anti-homelessness and the racist War on Drugs and further criminalizing sex workers,” said JM Wong, an organizer with the Massage Parlor Outreach Project. The SOAP legislation was also opposed by anti-domestic violence and trafficking organization API Chaya, and by United Territories of Pacific Islanders Alliance Washington (UTOPIA Washington), which serves queer and trans Pacific Islanders, including sex workers.
While several nonprofit organizations serving the CID did not provide statements about the SODA legislation at press time, Asian Counseling and Referral Service provided a statement opposing it.
“As an organization that supports individuals who are in recovery, we know that legislation like this can deeply harm our community members struggling with mental health, addiction, and access to housing,” according to a statement from ACRS provided to the International Examiner. “We continue to believe that public safety requires additional support for mental health services, treatment, and housing – not ousting our neighbors from their homes and creating further distance among our community members. As a community organization, we believe that we have a responsibility to genuinely be in relationship – sharing space, resources, and care – with all our community members including those who might be struggling with substance use.”
