About Councilmember Andrew J. Lewis
Council district: 7
In office since: 2020
Current term: January 2020 - December 2024
Councilmember Andrew J. Lewis was elected in 2019 to serve the people of District 7, including the neighborhoods of Magnolia, Interbay, Uptown, Queen Anne, West Lake, Belltown, South Lake Union, Downtown, and Pioneer Square. After beginning his Council service in January of 2020, Councilmember Lewis has focused his efforts on homelessness, public safety, parks and open space, and climate justice.
As chair of the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments from 2020 to 2021 Councilmember Lewis sponsored and passed key reforms celebrated across the political spectrum to respond with urgency to the homelessness crisis. Working closely with the Third Door Coalition, a partnership between small businesses and service providers, he passed legislation streamlining the process to build permanent supportive housing, estimated to save $47,753 per-unit. In the spring of 2021 Councilmember Lewis brought together a coalition of the Downtown Seattle Association, the Public Defender Association, and We Deliver Care to pass legislation to form the outreach collaboration JustCARE, an effort that has resolved some of the toughest encampments in Seattle and moved hundreds of people with high-acuity needs into housing. JustCARE has shown such strong results that its philosophy of encampment resolution is one of the guiding principles of the new King County Regional Homelessness Authority.
In 2022, Councilmember Lewis was selected by his colleagues to serve as president of the Seattle Metropolitan Park District and craft a six year investment plan. Working closely with colleagues, President Lewis put together a package to demand our parks be clean, green, and accessible to all. Widely praised by open space advocates, business and labor leaders, and climate organizers the plan increases the frequency of park cleaning, major maintenance on park facilities, expanded hours for park bathrooms, and a dramatic expansion of our park ranger program from two to twenty-eight rangers. The plan also calls for decarbonizing half of our community centers by 2028, an ambitious goal putting us on course to meet our promise of complete decarbonization by 2035.
Councilmember Lewis is ready to build coalitions in the spirit of the collaboration that has defined his leadership on the City Council. Public safety, homelessness and housing insecurity, and the exigent threat of climate change demand action now to meet the moment. Throughout his term, Councilmember Lewis has maintained regular office hours and frequent public appearances in the community. He encourages constituents to reach out anytime to see if he can be of assistance.
Prior to his service on the Seattle City Council, Councilmember Lewis served the people of Seattle in court as an assistant city attorney. He lives in West Queen Anne with his wife Laura, an assistant attorney general, and his daughter Vivian Grace. They are the proud roommates of two rescue cats, Scoop and Maggie.