Meet Silas
I am a researcher, educator, disability advocate, and past Chair of the Seattle Disability Commission running for City Council. As a democratic socialist, in office I will be the strong voice that our North Seattle neighborhoods need now to ensure affordability, equity, and opportunity for all.
My journey into advocacy and taking on big systems to effect real change began when I was 14 – I experienced a Traumatic Brain Injury that not only impacts me physically – I still use a cane or a wheelchair to get around – but I learned, first hand, how difficult navigating the complex system of public and social services, while surviving on a limited income, truly is. What helped me to be successful is the support I had working through these systems.
Today, I work as a researcher at UW Medical Center (and have been for 17 years), co-teach a course on health disparities, advancing equity-driven policy, awareness, and inclusion, and serve on a team that allocates funding to help our department become more inclusive.
For more than a decade, I’ve also volunteered to help people navigate those same public systems that determine whether they stay housed, access healthcare, or find work. I’ve seen people walk away from benefits they were legally entitled to because the process was too complex to navigate, lose months waiting for calls that never came, or struggle to complete complicated applications while managing chronic illness, underemployment, or living in their car. When people receive real case navigation – help filling out forms correctly, tracking deadlines, and finding their way through confusing systems – they get to where they want to be faster.
Through those experiences, my work chairing the Seattle Disability Commission, and connections in the community, I’ve helped others navigate the same systems I’ve relied on. I have supported people in finding and keeping housing, accessing health care and SNAP, and connecting with vocational and educational opportunities. I’ve worked alongside community members as they moved from being unhoused to graduating from college. These experiences shape my commitment to fixing city systems so they work for the people who need them most—because systems that are accessible, humane, and effective make our entire city stronger.
Why I’m running
I’m running for Seattle City Council because I believe in Seattle as a Welcoming City and I’m committed to advancing policies that build on that ideal. As a democratic socialist I want to ensure that your income, disability, immigration, LGBTQ+ status, race or ethnicity doesn’t prevent you from living and thriving in Seattle. If we can fix our systems so that they work for the people who need them the most we’ll all benefit.
As city counselor I’ll work to secure progressive revenue from wealthy corporations and use it to fund programs that will strengthen Seattle’s social safety net and make our communities more resilient. I’ll protect our neighbors by investing in appropriate unarmed response that will reduce the burden on police and should increase their response time when they’re needed urgently.
I’ll work to limit our city’s cooperation with ICE by narrowing when and how the city and SPD engage with the ICE, ending participation in corporate surveillance, automatic license plate readers, and the CCTV program, these Surveillance mechanisms put our neighbors at risk. I’ll push to divest city resources from companies that work with ICE. As a community we must push to remove SPD from the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Washington State Fusion Center.
I will always oppose sweeps as a policy. We must work to increase our supply of emergency, transitional, and permanent housing. There needs to be designated safe camping and parking areas with with waste disposal and sanitization facilities. I also commit to protecting Seattle’s social Housing from being captured by private corporate funding.
Solidarity is core to being human. As a city council member I’ll push to find ways that our city can stand with and protect organized and organizing tenants and workers. This is especially important now when their rights to collective bargaining are violated so systematically.
Seattle must take advantage of the unique opportunity we have to shape our future by creating lasting progressive change.
