For months, people in my circle encouraged me to reach out to Andrea as I searched for multiple perspectives on a topic that really matters to me, housing first. More and more people said to me, “you really need to meet Andrea Suarez, the founder of We Heart Seattle.” A few months later, I reached out. I talked to her about a story I was telling on my show and our friendship began to form. I remember thinking to myself before meeting her that she might be another “do-gooder” in Seattle not interested in helping people really get out of the mess, but I was wrong.
Andrea Suarez is a real leader. She loves people in the city of Seattle so much that she made service a daily part of her life. She could have easily put her head down and walked through the city untouched by what was happening and lived her life. But that is not who she is. She made a decision to help instead of complaining. When she started out, she was simply helping to clean up the mess. What she found is that the mess goes much deeper than the garbage on the streets; the mess is deeply rooted in the lives of those that most walk by on a daily basis. The mess is in the narratives being pushed in our communities. We are all complicit in the mess, yet she chose to be strong, pull up her pant legs, and wade in knees deep.
Most leaders in our community are never in the midst of the problem, they sit above the citizens and make decisions from a position of third party information. I don’t see that ever being the position Andrea is informed by, she has proven this over and over again. In the face of adversity, she shows up. The very people suffering on the streets are the ones she reached out to, the ones she works to help. She is not a hand out person, but a hand up. There is a method to her madness, she wants to see people elevate their station and thrive. She makes connections with the right people with the intention of having the biggest impact on the improved quality of life for everyone struggling.
I stopped voting democrat a few years back; it’s candidates like Andrea that make me feel like the democratic party is not a lost cause and that those struggling in the streets are not doomed to die without dignity. Thank you, Andrea Suarez for your bravery and running for a legislative seat. I am behind you 100%!
Vote for solutions and policy change, not personalities. Vote for Andrea Suarez.