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After Losing Fight on 'Amazon Tax,' Seattle is Back to Square One on Homelessness

After a bruising, month-long fight in which Amazon and other businesses squelched a new corporate head tax to fund homeless services, Seattle is struggling to find a path forward to deal with a crisis that's exploded in recent years.

After a bruising, month-long fight in which Amazon and other businesses squelched a new corporate head tax to fund homeless services, Seattle is struggling to find a path forward to deal with a crisis that's exploded in recent years.

Other metropolitan areas with rapidly rising housing costs are also grappling with residents priced out of the market. But Seattle's tax situation puts it in an especially difficult position when it comes to raising funds to help its homeless residents.

It could also be a warning to the 20 cities currently vying to become home to Seattle's second headquarters. Amazon stopped construction on a 17-story office building during the debate over the tax. It would have cost big businesses $275 per employee per year and was approved by a unanimous vote of the Seattle City Council on May 14, then rescinded by seven of nine members of that same council on June 12. 

Zach Patton -- Executive Editor. Zach joined GOVERNING as a staff writer in 2004. He received the 2011 Jesse H. Neal Award for Outstanding Journalism
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