by Carolyn Bick

---

At least 70 activists showed up in person and online at the Seattle City Council’s Public Safety Committee special meeting on August 13 to discuss proposed drug and sex work exclusion zones.

Public comments were both for and against, particularly when it came to the Stay Out of Area of ​​​​Prostitution (SOAP) ordinance, which would create a no-go zone for sex work. Although few commenters addressed the proposal for a no-go zone for drugs, known as the Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA), those comments were also mixed.

The SOAP zone would be located in North Seattle, encompassing Aurora Avenue North and bordering North 140th Street and North 85th Street.

The SODA zones would be located in downtown Seattle and the Chinatown-International District (CID).

Pro-SOAP commenters focused on how the city’s erection of barriers to seal off places like North 140th Street seemed to have stopped gun violence and sex trafficking. Others spoke of being too afraid to sleep or eat for fear a bullet might pierce their walls. They seemed to believe the law would target pimps and “johns” – a slang term for sex workers’ clients.

Opponents of SOAP said that the SOAP ordinance in its current form does not target sex traffickers or johns. Instead, they said, the law allows police to harass anyone they suspect of selling sex because it targets sex workers or people being trafficked.

In its written form, the SOAP is a regulation “relating to prostitution; defining loitering as a prostitution offense and encouraging loitering for the purpose of prostitution; establishing guidelines for arrests for prostitution and loitering as a prostitution offense.”

The regulation also has the potential, commentators say, to deny victims of human trafficking and sex workers access to necessary services, housing and jobs. Extensive research by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) supports this assumption and underscores the importance of policing in this context.

A public commenter named Star, who identified himself as a sex worker, recovering addict, and former victim of human trafficking, pointed out that the SOAP law bans people from the area where services for victims of human trafficking are located.

“Having a criminal record reduces your chances of getting a job outside the sex industry,” said another public commentator, Mazz, who also identified as a sex worker.

Several commentators, including Jazmyn Clark, program director for Smart Justice Policy at the ACLU-WA, pointed out that the SOAP law appears to be unconstitutional and violates due process.

In 2020, the city repealed anti-loitering laws that many commentators said would be reinstated in the form of SOAP. In the press release about the repealed laws, the council called them “problematic” for people of color, the LGBTQ+ community and women.

Opponents of SOAP and SODA also said that neither proposal would stop or solve the problem of gun violence, as there are many factors that contribute to gun violence. Moreover, implementing the proposals would shift the problem to places like Capitol Hill, where comprehensive support services are still lacking.

In a circular to voters the day before the meeting, 7th District Councilman Robert Kettle invited Seattle residents to attend the meeting and support SODA, the proposed anti-drug ordinance. He emphasized his office’s role in creating it, calling it a three-way “collaboration between the executive branch, the city attorney’s office and my office.”

“The ongoing drug crisis is something that most or all of you have experienced or are affected by, so I invite all of you to join the Public Safety Committee tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. and share your experiences in your neighborhood and what you need from the city to improve the situation,” Kettle wrote.

Extensive research has shown that drug use and addiction cross socioeconomic and racial lines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that among many so-called “white collar” workers – people who may hold high-ranking jobs in downtown Seattle, one of the communities included in District 7 – the use of substances such as heroin has increased by 60% since 2002.

Regardless of socioeconomic status, research from the NIH shows that fear and shame due to everything from public language to the criminalization of drug users prevent people from seeking treatment. Further research from Sage Journals shows that the “experience of stigma as a result of criminalization” also prevents people from seeking treatment.

Following public comment, City Council Staff Writer Ann Gorman briefly outlined the SODA zones, which would cover downtown Seattle and the Chinatown-International District (CID).

However, under the law, only a judge can issue a SODA order against someone, effectively excluding them from a SODA zone. Despite this, police would still have the overriding discretion to arrest anyone suspected of breaking the law in such zones.

NIH research has shown that being arrested can be traumatizing. Because of the intersection of drug use and homelessness, as well as the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing cities to crack down on homeless people sleeping outdoors or in encampments, the SODA proposal appears to give police more discretion in targeting homeless people.

Municipalities in Washington state have already passed SODA ordinances. These include Auburn, Arlington, Everett, Monroe and Pierce County.

The Municipal Research and Services Center suggests that cities considering adopting such ordinances take a look at the City of Seattle’s Racial Equity Toolkit, since “a common argument is that SODA ordinances disproportionately affect populations that have historically been treated less favorably by the criminal justice system.”

Council members also briefly discussed the proposed SOAP regulation.

Cathy Moore, a 5th District council member and member of the Public Safety Committee, showed graphic video of several shootings on Aurora Avenue, interspersed with clips of people talking about the impact of the shootings on their lives and businesses. During the shootings, Moore slowed the video down.

The language of the SOAP Act discusses the possibility of making the solicitation of sex for money illegal and lists in detail what such an act could be, including someone “repeatedly approaching a motor vehicle, leaning into the vehicle, and starting a conversation with the driver.”

The bill makes loitering in prostitution a misdemeanor and states that “no person under the age of 18 years shall be arrested, charged, or convicted for loitering in prostitution.”

The proposed ordinance also targets anyone who “engages in conduct with the intent to entice another person to loiter for the purpose of prostitution,” such as transporting people “to or near a known prostitution area.” And in those same areas, it would also be illegal for someone to “repeatedly or continuously observe or monitor one or more persons loitering for the purpose of prostitution.”

It is unclear who makes this decision. The proposed regulation describes this violation as a serious misdemeanor.

As Ashley Nerbovig from The Stranger As reported, prior to the meeting, Moore addressed concerns about the language of the SOAP ordinance that were raised in an independent legislative analysis by the city’s central staff. Staff specifically raised concerns that the law would disproportionately affect shoppers who are people of color, citing reporting by PubliCola.

Several committee members and city officials, including Thomas Mahaffey, deputy chief of the Seattle Police Department (SPD), briefly discussed Shoreline’s SOAP laws.

Mahaffey said that conversations with King County officials indicate that there is not as much gun violence in the Shoreline part of Aurora as there is in the Seattle part of Aurora. He did not provide statistics.

When County Councilman Rob Saka asked Mahaffey if these laws had a measurable impact on the city of Seattle, Mahaffey said he could only speak anecdotally. He said Shoreline’s law pushed human trafficking further south into the city of Seattle, where police are unable to enforce such a law.

Both the SODA and SOAP regulations remain under review in committee.

---

📸 Featured image: Street sign at Aurora Avenue North and North 92nd Street, Seattle, Washington, in 2016. The proposed SOAP zone would include Aurora Avenue North and border North 140th Street and North 85th Street. (Photo via Seattle City Council/Flickr under a Creative Commons, CC0 1.0 Universal license.)

---