Seattle’s old SODA zones

The Seattle City Council’s public safety committee Tuesday will debate two proposals that would create new exclusion zones in Seattle targeting drug related crime and prostitution.

The proposals come as the council has stepped up efforts on legislation boosting a crack down on drug use and misdemeanor crimes while stripping back some of the previous council’s progressive efforts around app workers and the minimum wage.

On the table Tuesday will be two proposals championed by Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison to renew Seattle’s Stay out of Drug Areas (SODA) and Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution (SOAP) zones.

The first would create two new SODA zones in the city’s downtown and International District. The designation would allow a judge to bar drug offenders busted in the zones from reentering the areas for up to two years. A SODA order can also be imposed as a condition of release from jail.

Similar laws were repealed by the Seattle City Council four years ago. This time, committee chair Bob Kettle says the zone locations in Little Saigon and around 3rd Ave and Pike were selected because the areas won’t restrict access to needed treatment and services.

Violating a SODA order would become a new gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine, a council brief on the bill states.

Meanwhile, the committee will also consider a new zone on Aurora where the area’s council rep Cathy Moore says her legislation will address “commercial sexual exploitation and rampant and escalating gun violence associated with it.”

The legislation, Moore says, would create “a new loitering law targeting the buyers of commercial sex.”

Unlike Seattle’s old prostitution loitering law that was repealed in 2020, this legislation provides multiple grounds for arresting buyers whose actions are generating a highly lucrative sex trade; a trade so profitable that it is fueling regular gun battles over turf,” an update from Moore’s office reads. “As for sellers, the legislation makes clear that diversion, not prosecution, is the preferred approach for people engaging in prostitution.”

The law would create a new offense of promoting loitering for purposes of prostitution Moore says will target sex traffickers. The offense would be a gross misdemeanor.

The legislation would also re-establish the Aurora SOAP between North 85th Street and North 145th Street.

Anyone arrested or convicted of a prostitution related crime could be prohibited by a judge from being in the zone.

The Seattle City Council will begin its two-week summer recess next week from August 19th to the 30th. The public safety committee is expected to vote on the bills on September 10th, with a possible full council vote on September 17th.

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