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PLATFORM
Building 1,000 New Units of Affordable Housing For Working Families
Seattle cannot solve its housing crisis without bold, district-level leadership. As a City Councilmember, Nilu Jenks will champion the creation of 1,000 new units of affordable housing in her district. If every district City Councilmember made the same commitment, Seattle would add 7,000 units of affordable housing citywide, a meaningful step toward meeting the scale of the crisis.
Expanding affordable housing would help stabilize rents, keep working families in their neighborhoods, and prevent more people from being pushed into homelessness. Nilu believes housing is a human necessity, not a luxury, and that the City must use every tool available, public land, zoning flexibility, and partnerships with nonprofit developers – to deliver housing that people can truly afford.
By building more homes for people at all income levels, especially middle-class and working families, Seattle can reduce displacement, strengthen communities, and move closer to ending homelessness.
Fixing the Food Desert
As a Lake City resident, Nilu has directly experienced the devastating impact of the closure of the Fred Meyer on Lake City Way. Entire neighborhoods were left without a reliable place to buy affordable, healthy food or pick up prescription medications, especially harming seniors, working families, and people without easy access to transportation.
Nilu is committed to fixing these growing food deserts by supporting local grocery stores, community-owned food co-ops, and expanding farmers markets, including extending hours to evenings and weekends, so working families can access them. Food access is a public health issue, and no Seattle resident should have to travel miles for fresh produce.
Implementing Ranked Choice Voting
Nilu Jenks brings unmatched expertise on voting reform as the Political and Partnerships Director of FairVote Washington. She will ensure Seattle successfully implements Ranked Choice Voting in 2027, strengthening democracy and giving voters more meaningful choices.
Ranked Choice Voting encourages positive campaigns, reduces vote-splitting, and ensures elected leaders have broad community support. Nilu will focus on voter education, community outreach, and a smooth implementation so all Seattle voters, especially those historically excluded from the political process, can participate with confidence.
The new District 5 councilmember must work every day to make government more accountable and responsive to neighbors’ needs and be accessible and listen to all residents. Nilu would have weekly drop-in office hours in District 5, so she can hear directly from her neighbors about local community needs.
Creating a Child-Friendly City
Raising a family in Seattle is getting harder. Housing costs continue to rise, child care is increasingly expensive and difficult to find, and too many neighborhoods lack safe, welcoming spaces for children.
Nilu believes Seattle must become a child-friendly city again. That means investing in affordable child care, improving walkability, increasing park safety, and designing public spaces with kids and families in mind - including teenagers! This includes expanding free child public transit to all students in Seattle, including college and university students. As a mother of two, Nilu understands these challenges firsthand and will be a strong advocate for families, ensuring Seattle is a city where children can thrive and parents are supported.
North Seattle remains the last area of the city without a complete sidewalk network, creating serious safety risks for pedestrians, children, seniors, and disabled residents. This is unacceptable.
Nilu will make sidewalk construction a top priority, especially in District 5. Safe sidewalks are essential for walkability, public safety, climate goals, and access to schools, transit, and local businesses. Every resident deserves safe streets, and Nilu will push to ensure North Seattle finally gets the infrastructure it has been denied for far too long.
Protecting Immigrants
The federal government is increasingly disregarding due process and constitutional protections, tearing at the fabric of our local economy and social trust. As a City Councilmember, Nilu will fight for robust sanctuary policies that ensure local resources are never used to support federal mass deportation efforts.
Nilu will strengthen legal defense funds, expand pathways to safety, and ensure that every person – regardless of documentation status – can go to medical appointments, attend school, and go to work without fear. Seattle’s strength lies in its solidarity, and Nilu will fight to ensure our city remains a place where belonging is a right, not a privilege.
Safe, Healthy Communities For All
Every neighbor in District 5 wants the same things: to walk home feeling safe, to know the right help will show up when they call 911, and to live in a city that cares for people in crisis. Nilu believes Seattle needs to be both serious and smart about safety — focused on what actually works.
That means investing upstream in housing, mental health, and youth so fewer crises happen in the first place. It means a fully funded CARE Department responding 24/7 to behavioral health calls, working in true partnership with SPD and Fire Response so every call gets the right responder.
As Councilmember, Nilu will fight for 24/7 co-responder domestic violence teams with culturally matched advocates for immigrant and refugee survivors. She will champion sustained funding for crime victims, support restorative justice approaches that pair accountability with compassion, and invest in trauma-informed services for survivors of trafficking and adults in sex work who want a way out — including housing, treatment, and job training.
Gun violence is a public health crisis, and Nilu will treat it like one. She will invest in community violence intervention programs that send trusted messengers to interrupt retaliation cycles, expand hospital-based intervention so survivors get connected to support before leaving the ER, and champion safe storage and school partnerships to keep guns out of young people's hands.
Nilu will stand with City Attorney Erika Evans to build a community court that connects people to treatment and housing, reducing repeat offenses through real accountability. She will also defend the independence of Seattle's police accountability bodies — the CPC, OPA, and OIG — so accountability has real teeth.
Safe, healthy communities are built, not promised. With Nilu Jenks on City Council, District 5 can lead the way.
Read more about Nilu's comprehensive Public Safety Plan.
Nilu's Platform
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