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Kincaid Will Request Federal Investigation into Seattle's Shelter Siting Practices

Press Release · Kincaid for Congress · Washington's 1st District · 2026

Kincaid for Congress


HUD, the DOJ Civil Rights Division, and the EPA would be asked to investigate potential Fair Housing, Equal Protection, and Environmental Justice violations in the Chinatown International District.


The evidence is clear, the pattern is documented, and the community has been saying it for years. Seattle and King County have been systematically concentrating homeless shelters, drug treatment facilities, and social service organizations in the Chinatown International District and surrounding Asian American neighborhoods . While wealthier, whiter neighborhoods face no such burden. By 2022, there were 15 homeless shelters within one mile of the CID. Residents were not even informed about a 270 bed shelter expansion until after it had already passed through the King County Council.

This is not a conspiracy theory. It is a well documented pattern of institutional racism  confirmed by researchers, described in writing by community leaders, and visible in the data. Community activist Tanya Woo called it plainly. Seattle has treated the CID as “the city's human dumping ground.”

If elected to Congress, Kincaid will formally request  in writing and publicly  that three federal agencies investigate Seattle's shelter siting practices.

HUD — Department of Housing and Urban Development A formal request to investigate potential Fair Housing Act violations in how shelter sites are selected using federal dollars. Federal funding comes with civil rights obligations. Those obligations must be enforced.
DOJ Civil Rights Division A formal request to investigate potential Equal Protection violations arising from the systematic placement of undesirable facilities in low income, minority communities while comparable burdens are not imposed on wealthier, predominantly white neighborhoods.
EPA — Environmental Protection Agency A formal request to investigate environmental justice concerns. The concentration of shelter facilities, open air drug markets, and associated health and safety hazards in a single minority community constitutes exactly the kind of disproportionate environmental burden the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice was created to address.

The Asian American community in Seattle's CID has been raising these concerns for years with little meaningful response from city and county officials. Dozens of immigrant owned small businesses have closed. Elderly residents navigate open air drug markets daily. The neighborhood has borne more than its share for decades since Interstate 5 bisected the community, since the Kingdome was placed there, and now through the ongoing shelter concentration crisis.

The Chinatown International District is not in Washington's 1st Congressional District. I will not be their representative. But that does not prevent me from helping them. It is obvious that no one else will. And I believe this is something the Asian American community within WA-01 would want me to do. Because what is happening in the CID is the same pattern of institutional racism that has been imposed on Asian American neighborhoods across this region and nationally for generations. Silence is not an option. Not when the evidence is this clear, and not when the people asking for help have been ignored for this long.

— Kincaid

Related: Kincaid's Statement to Chinatown, Japantown & Little Saigon · A Smarter Strategy to End Homelessness

Paid for by Kincaid for Congress · kincaidforcongress.com · Washington's 1st Congressional District · 2026

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