missing title

Good morning everybody, today is Wednesday Good morning, everybody.

Today is Wednesday, December 10th.

This is the meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee and it will come to order.

It is 934. I'm Deborah Juarez, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Saka?

Here.

Councilmember Rink?

Present.

Council President Nelson?

Present.

Vice Chair Lin?

Present.

Chair Juarez?

Here.

Chair, there are five members present.

Great, we'll move on to our agenda and approval of the agenda.

There's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing or seeing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Let's move on to the chair's report, our comments.

First of all, I want to welcome Council Member Eddie Lynn, who will be my trusty vice chair, which I like to say my plucky sidekick, because that's what I called myself with Council Member Solomon, so thank you for being here.

Today we have 29 appointments and the appointments will be grouped by commission and committee and there will be one speaker for each group.

We will now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comment should relate to the items on today's agenda which is 29 appointments and within the purview of the committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

Currently we have one in-person speaker signed up and there are zero remote speakers.

All right.

Where's our friend?

Come on up, sir.

I know you introduced yourself to me before we started, but I thought you were a presenter.

Go ahead.

Is this working?

Okay, cool.

Hi.

Yeah, my name is Scott Nelson.

I live in District 2, and I'm a member of the Seattle Disability Commission appointed a few months ago.

I just wanted to give my heartfelt gratitude for the confirmations happening today.

The Disability Commission is more than doubling the number of confirmed members in a single action here, adding more capacity, increasing morale, and keeping the commission sustainable.

20 commissioners are being confirmed or reconfirmed that are supported by the Office for Civil Rights on today's agenda, which is nearly 25% of the 84 commissioners across the Seattle Disability Commission, Seattle Human Rights Commission, Seattle LGBTQ Commission, and the Seattle Women's Commission.

This is an astounding capacity bump that will surely contribute to 2026 being a year of high activity for Seattle's boards and commissions.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to amplify the voices of our disabled neighbors, and I encourage you all to lean on us in the coming year as advisors and with our newfound capacity to help establish a Seattle that is accessible and inclusive to all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Scott.

Thank you for coming down here this morning, too.

I appreciate it.

Alright, if there's no additional speakers then public comment period is officially closed.

So let's move on to items of business.

Clerk, will you please read the first eight items into the record.

Agenda items 1-8, appointments 3395-3398, 3362-3364, and 3377. As members of the Seattle Disability Commission, appointments of Belvina E. Cortez, Naomi Snow, Sawyer Stearns, and Julia Thompson for terms to April 30, 2026, Zachary Dar and Linda W. Finkel for terms to October 31, 2026, and Mark G. Cote and Elliott McMurray for terms to April 30, 2027.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk.

So I understand that we have Janet Stafford here for the Office of Civil Rights.

Can you join us as our presenter today?

Thank you.

I understand Meredith couldn't make it, but I'm glad you're here.

So with that, can you introduce yourself for the record and you can begin your presentation?

Absolutely.

Hello and good morning.

My name is Janet Stafford.

I am a commission liaison through the Seattle Office for Civil Rights.

Today I am here to represent 20 of our candidates for consideration today.

All of these candidates come from our four commissions housed within the Seattle Office for Civil Rights.

That includes the Seattle LGBTQ Commission, the Disability Commission, the Women's Commission, and the Human Rights Commission.

OCR staff along with commissioners from each of these boards have reviewed each candidate, held interviews and feel strongly that each candidate will bring valuable experience, skills and passion to the work.

Our shared aim is to find the most qualified candidates that are locally active and have shown a deep commitment to improving the lives of Seattle's most marginalized communities.

and we believe we have found that in these candidates.

Our Commission's team would like to express our sincere appreciation to City Council, the Mayor's Office, in particular Chair Juarez and her team for ensuring scheduling of these appointments today.

We are thrilled to welcome each new Commissioner and look forward to continuing to support the Commission's work including their growing partnership with City Council.

Thanks again.

Thank you.

Do any of my colleagues have questions of Ms. Stafford?

I have a few, but I'm going to see if anyone else has questions.

Janet, it's okay if I call you Janet?

Yes.

Okay.

Since I know you, so it's kind of weird calling you Ms. Stafford.

You know what?

I didn't realize until we were talking before we started.

Can you list again all the ones that are under the Office of Civil Rights?

There were...

Absolutely.

We have four commissions.

We have the Seattle Disability Commission, the Seattle LGBTQ Commission, the Seattle Women's Commission, and the Human Rights Commission.

And you oversee and staff those four commissions?

Correct.

There's a team of four of us that are supportive to those four commissions.

And as the liaison, you respond to Seattle City Council and electeds about what's going on at Office of Civil Rights with these particular commissions.

Absolutely.

Do you have more appointments coming up in the new year?

We are actually looking at interviewing this next month, January through February, because we have many community members who are actively waiting to fill in those vacancies in all four of those commissions.

That's what I thought.

I figured you had more teed up, so probably more to come, right?

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

So I don't have any questions I see from my colleagues.

Mr. Saka, are you okay?

Okay, well.

All right.

So I'm going to go ahead and move.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Did you?

Oh, I thought your hand was up.

I move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments one to eight listed on the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointments.

Are there any other further comments?

Not seeing or hearing any.

After that, will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendation to confirm the appointments?

I'm sorry.

I did a half raise of my hand.

I just wanted to say, may I?

Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you very much for stepping up and for your service and expertise.

I wanted to note that I had occasion to participate in a forum on disability rights over the past year, and I learned a tremendous amount.

And I just want to say that even if, you know, electeds who've been in office or been working with the city for a very long time think they understand everything, it's likely they do not.

And so this is a very important commission, so thank you.

Thank you.

I'm glad you said that, Council President, because I had it in my notes here.

I just realized I skipped over.

I should look at this in thanking Scott for being here.

As a person with a disability, I have MS, and I've always been open about that.

I really appreciate the work that, and I know when I was on Council before, we made some appointments to the Disability Commission.

and also we incorporated a lot of their positions and information when we were looking at sidewalks and what's ADA accessible and making sure we had sidewalks in front of grocery stores, pre-Ks, bus stops.

That was like, and of course the city got sued over that, but before that we were working on that.

But the point is, a lot of that information we would not have had at our hands to make decisions and we turned to the Disability Commission.

Not everyone can ride a bike.

Everyone needs even sidewalks.

And so I really want to thank you for the work.

And again, I keep looking at Scott because I'm glad he came down here for that.

So thank you.

Is there anything else before I move to a vote?

All right, looks like we're good here.

Okay, and did I get a second?

Yep, I did.

Okay, so go ahead, clerk, go ahead and call the roll.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Ring?

Yes.

Councilmember Nelson?

Aye.

Councilmember Lin?

Yes.

Chair Juarez?

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

Great.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the council confirm the appointments will be sent to the December 16th Seattle City Council meeting, which I believe is next Tuesday.

So thank you for that.

And let's move on to items nine to 13. And I understand this is the LGBTQ commission.

Go ahead, clerk.

Agenda items 9 through 13, appointments 3371 through 3372, 3399 and 3401 as members of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission for terms to October 31st, 2027. Appointments and reappointments of Cody L. Allen, Chris Curia, Dominique Del Castillo, Carl G. Harris, Scott Humphries.

Great, thank you, Janet.

You want to go ahead with that?

We pretty much said our general kind of introduction just to include all four of them.

Okay.

So with that, thank you Janet, are there any questions that we have of Janet regarding the four appointments to the LGBTQ commission?

I should add that we got your packets ahead of time.

So we all have them.

We have them up on our screens as well.

Great.

So thank you.

We don't have any questions and we can move on after that.

So I move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 9 to 13 listed on the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Council President.

It's moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointments.

Any further comments?

Not seeing or hearing any.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Lin?

Yes.

Chair Juarez?

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero post.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee will recommend that council confirm the appointments and they will be sent to the December 16th Seattle City Council meeting.

All right, let's move on to items 14 to 18. Mr. Clerk, can you please read those items into the record?

Agenda items 14 through 18, appointments 3365 through 3367 and 3402 through 3403 as members of the Seattle Women's Commission.

Appointments and reappointments of Sierra Miles for a term to July 1st, 2026 and Sonia Hitchcock, Elizabeth Perez, Jennifer Tran and Kate Faro for a term to July 1st, 2027.

Great, thank you.

Janet, the floor is yours.

Is there anything else you want to add to these four individuals for the Seattle Women's Commission?

No additional comments.

Okay.

Is there any from my colleagues?

Not seeing any.

Okay.

I move the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 14 to 18 listed on the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointments.

Are there any further comments?

Not seeing or hearing any?

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Council member Saka?

Aye.

Council member Ring?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Lin?

Yes.

Chair Juarez?

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that council confirm the appointments will be sent to the December 16th City Council meeting.

Let's move on to items 19 and 20 and I believe this is the Seattle Human Rights Commission.

Mr. Clerk, go ahead.

Agenda items 19 and 20, appointments 3404 and 3376 as members of the Seattle Human Rights Commission for a term to July 22nd, 2026. Appointments of Avery Holtgreen and Brandon Monson.

Great.

Janet, is there anything you want to add to these two?

I think I will just add that a shout out to the Human Rights Commission for their annual Human Rights Day event that just happened this last weekend at the Seattle Center.

Community College focused on the current happenings of immigration issues.

They were able to invite public but also have the other three commissions present and be supportive advocates of this important issue.

Are these mayoral appointments or they came from the Commission or the City Council?

I don't have my sheet in front of me.

If you don't know the answer, that's okay.

I don't know.

Okay.

I was wondering.

All right.

Is there any questions from my colleagues?

No.

Go ahead.

No?

No.

Oh, you were smiling at me, so I thought you had a question.

Is there anyone else?

Nope, not seeing any.

Okay.

So we have no more questions.

You've done your presentation.

So I move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 19 and 20 on agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointments.

Are there any further comments?

Not seeing or hearing any.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Lin?

Yes.

Chair Juarez?

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee again will recommend this to the full council on December 16th.

Let's move on to items 21 and 22 and I understand this is the community roots housing public development.

Go ahead, Madam Mr. Clerk.

Thank you, Janet.

Agenda items 21 through 22, appointments 3373 and 3374, as members of the Community Roots Housing Public Development Authority Governing Council, appointments of Roger W. Long for a term to March 31st, 2026, and Erin Pritchard for a term to March 31st, 2027.

Thank you.

Will our presenter, we have Caroline, do we have Caroline Rocha here?

Do we have a presenter for the Community Roots Housing Public Development?

Okay, we do not.

Well, not much I can do about that, so I guess I will just, any questions?

Comment?

I just would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for Chris Persons, who stepped down from leadership of Community Roots Housing this past year, but he did a fantastic job, so just wanted to get that in with the opportunity presented.

Thank you, because we work closely with Community Roots, so actually this is good.

We got these two appointments in here till 2026 and 2027. All right.

Seen and hearing no further comments from my colleagues.

I move the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 21 and 22 on the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend these two appointments.

Are there any further comments?

Not seeing or hearing any.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Saka.

Councilmember Ring Yes Council President Nelson Aye Councilmember Lin Yes Chair Juarez Aye Chair there are five votes in favor and zero opposed Thank you the motion carries and the committee will recommend this to the full council on December 16th Moving on we have items 23 and 27 this is the Housing Levy Oversight Committee Mr. Clerk please read that into the record

Agenda items 23 through 27. Appointments 3390 through 3394 as members of the Housing Levy Oversight Committee for terms to December 31st, 2028. Appointments and reappointments of Phoebin Thakadu, Sunary Marshall, Leah Martin, Yuvika Tolani, and Dan Wise.

Hello, have a seat.

This is our guest, Nathan Antonio, who's going to present today.

Is it Yuvika Tolani?

Yuvika.

Okay.

Did we mess up those names?

If you want to read them right, correct them.

Yeah, I'll go through each one.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Go ahead and present for us.

Go ahead, Nathan.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good morning, Chair Juarez and members of the Housing and Human Services Committee.

I'm Nathan Antonio.

I'm an analyst in the Office of Housing, and I staff the Housing Levy Oversight Committee.

We're very pleased to bring for your consideration these five new and returning candidates to join the oversight committee and are grateful for the opportunity to present.

The Housing Levy Oversight Committee is tasked with monitoring the progress of the Seattle Housing Levy and overseeing our annual reporting.

The Oversight Committee also advises on housing levy policy and is a critical sounding board for issues affecting levy implementation and other matters related to city investments in permanently affordable housing.

The breadth and diversity of experience that Oversight Committee members represent is indispensable to the office, and we could not do our work without their advice and input.

We have five individuals.

We are asking you to consider and recommend to join or, as the case may be, continue on with the Oversight Committee starting in 2026 to fill full three-year terms.

So first, Dan Wise has served in various leadership roles at Catholic Community Services for over two decades and is currently their agency director overseeing CCS's huge portfolio of work in permanent housing, homelessness services, and much more.

Dan has served on this and previous iterations of the Oversight Committee and brings notable committee-specific experience and continuity.

Dan's depth and breadth of knowledge and experience is invaluable, and we look forward to their continued service.

Phoebe Fekadu, in the agenda as Feben Fekadu, is the Director of Housing at Evergreen Treatment Services' REACH program and has close to 10 years' experience working in homeless outreach and housing services.

Phoebe was born and raised in Seattle and brings a personal commitment to serving the community through her work at the intersection of policy and implementation.

Phoebe has served an initial two-year sort of partial term on the committee and we hope very much to keep her and her perspective on board.

Sunari Marshall is the Director of Housing and Community Development, the Division of Housing and Community Development at the King County Department of Community and Human Services.

Sunari has over 15 years' experience working in federal and local government.

Further, she represents the Department of King County Government with which the Office of Housing collaborates the most.

Sunari has served also an initial two-year, somewhat partial term, and we earnestly wish to retain her on the Oversight Committee.

Leah Martin is the co-founder of Allied Eight.

a local architecture firm that works in both development and advocacy spaces.

Leah would be a new appointee to the oversight committee who would bring over 30 years of experience as well as a unique and valuable perspective, especially regarding affordable home ownership policy development and service models.

and then finally we have Yuvika Tolani who comes to us from the Pacific Northwest Office of Enterprise Community Partners and would also be serving her first term on the Oversight Committee.

Yuvika would bring a very important perspective to the committee coming from an organization that provides varied services to the affordable housing sector which includes funding, aggregation and financing.

She also brings direct experience working with community-based organizations to build their capacity to develop, own and successfully operate publicly funded affordable housing.

So again, thank you very much for the opportunity to present, fitting these in at this somewhat late date in the year, and we hope these folks meet with your approval.

Thank you.

Are there any questions for my colleagues?

Yeah, go ahead, Council President.

This is not pertaining to any of the individual appointments.

I have a question about the Oversight Committee itself.

It looks like there are 13 positions, if I'm counting correctly, and it's hard to tell, it just says, sometimes in commissions the actual members have to belong to a certain category, but this is just member and mayor and council representative.

My question is, how many people on the commission stand to receive funds for projects?

While I couldn't name exactly how many, we are aware that that is a stipulation of the ordinance and we've ensured that we are not surpassing the limit set forth by the ordinance.

So that's the ordinance that basically sends the ballot measure to the...

Which ordinance are you talking about?

Yeah, I apologize.

I don't recall precisely whether that limit is spelled out in the housing levy ordinance itself or the resolution that establishes the oversight committee, but it is in one of the two.

Okay.

Chair, forgive me for this digression.

I don't know the number myself either.

I do remember that after council passed the housing levy renewal a couple years ago, we tripled the size, and there was an editorial in the Times that basically noted that several of the members of the oversight commission stood to receive funds, and I want to and I don't know when the makeup if it changes every time the levy is renewed but I would just want to get my perspective on the record that the potential conflict of interest of having people oversee where the money goes being the same people that could get the money should be minimized in the future.

I would suggest that if that is not set in stone and if it is possible to renew or change the actual membership categories at the next renewal, I would just suggest that that would be a good idea because it's not just an appearance of fairness, but there is a possibility of a very real conflict of interest.

So I just wanted to note that for the record.

Do they...

How many people are we renewing today?

Are they renewed in blocks?

I'm sorry.

Five.

Five.

Okay.

Thank you.

So that's about a little bit less than half.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

I will just add that none of these five are in a position whereby they would benefit themselves or an immediate family member from the levy activities.

I appreciate that, and it would not influence my vote on these five.

Thank you for noting that.

Thank you for saying that.

I happen to know Dan Wise from a long time ago, and we have, I know, I know, I know.

Sorry, I forgot about that one.

But you know what?

Yeah.

Great person, and because of their experience, I would say excellent addition.

I am simply noting a structural issue that goes beyond just the individual levels of expertise that each person has.

Thanks.

Hey, Mr. Antonio or Nathan, can I ask you a question?

Of course.

Because I don't have it pulled up on my screen.

Are these all mayoral appointments?

City Council?

No.

Let me check here.

So Phoebe and Sunari are council appointments, and Dan, Leah, and Yuvica are mayoral appointments.

That's what I thought.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you for that.

Are there any other questions?

All right, not seeing or hearing any.

I'm looking at my vice chair.

He's shaking his head no.

Okay, I don't want to put you on the spot, Council Member Lynn.

All right.

Excuse me.

With that, I move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 23 to 27 listed on the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It is moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointments.

Any other further comments?

not seeing or hearing any, will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Saka?

Aye.

Councilmember Rink?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Councilmember Lin?

Yes.

Chair Juarez?

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

I don't know what's going on with my voice, but I'm starting to lose it.

The motion carries and the committee will recommend that council confirm the appointments and this will be sent to the December 16th Seattle City Council meeting.

And thank you, Mr. Antonio.

Thank you.

All right, we will now move on to our next item of business.

Will the clerk please read items 28 and 29?

And this is the Pacific Hospital Preservation Development Authority.

Go ahead, clerk.

Agenda items 28 and 29, appointments 3370 and 3375 as members of Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority governing council for terms to December 31st, 2028. Appointments and reappointments of Martin Pierre-Louis and Deanne Petrowski.

Thank you.

So Martine Pierre-Louis and Diane Petrowski, we reached out to the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority folks and this is, they were unable to attend but they did send us a comment that they asked me to read into the record in which I will do that right now.

The Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority is a PDA with a dual mission of addressing health equity in Seattle and King County and preserving the historic Pacific Tower on Beacon Hill.

Martine Pierre-Louis has served on the Governing Council for three years and is being reappointed to a second term.

She brings crucial insight to the PHPDA's health equity mission from her work at Harborview Medical Center and with community organizations focused on health access.

Diane Petrowski has served as a strategic advisor to the PHPDA's Finance Committee for three years now.

and is being appointed to her first term on the Governing Council.

Diane combines a passion for the PHPDA's equity mission with expertise in finance and accounting, particularly in affordable housing for many working years at Plymouth Housing.

Both Martin and Diane bring knowledge and skills to the PHPDA that allowed staff and governing council to better accomplish the PHPDA's two purposes.

And the team looks forward to continuing to work with them.

We would like to thank Seattle City Council for their consideration of these appointments.

All right.

Any comments from my colleagues?

Is there a problem, Mr. Clerk?

Oh, is he here?

Oh, I didn't know that.

Can you say it and then we'll introduce her?

Yeah, Christina Bernard was able to join remotely if anyone has any questions.

Christina, I apologize.

I don't see you on my screen.

Christina, is there anything you want to add?

There you are.

Yep, here I am.

Nothing to add, but I'm here if you have any questions.

I'm the acting executive director of the PHPDA.

Are you who we spoke to yesterday for a statement or some information?

Yeah.

Okay, great.

Yes, I sent you that statement, yes.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Thank you for taking the time to get this to us.

I appreciate it.

Are there any questions that we have Christine Bernard on the line here?

I am not seeing or hearing any.

So you're off the hook, Christina.

So we will move then.

I move that the committee recommend confirmations of appointments 28 and 29 on the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointments.

Any further comments?

Not seeing or hearing any?

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Lin?

Yes.

Chair Juarez?

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries, and these appointments will be brought forth with a recommendation to the Seattle City Council on December 16th.

Before we adjourn, we have reached the end of today's agenda, correct?

Formal agenda, okay.

Good job, Paul.

This is Paul's first time being our clerk here.

Well done.

Yes.

Smooth.

Yay, Paul.

He's owned his policy, Paul, in our office.

So, I know I've just embarrassed him, but...

So, before we leave, I have a few comments to make.

First of all, after welcoming...

I also have my hand up.

I'm sorry?

I also have my hand up if you wanted to say the last word.

Okay, let me...

Okay, go for it.

I'll hand it back to you.

First of all, I want to thank Council Member Lynn, who's going to be our Vice Chair.

It's good to have him here.

Thank you for joining.

And also, I want to recognize and honor Council President Nelson for her many years on Seattle City Council and as a former LA on the floor years ago.

I'm not going to say the years.

Actually, I don't know the years, but I know it was a while back.

2013 with a two-year break in there.

You are a council president for two years and as I said shared yesterday It's been an honor working with you and next to you with all these issues and it hasn't always been easy But you don't come to this job thinking it's gonna be easy.

So I want to thank you.

I really do With that I'm gonna hand it off to you council president

Well, I thank you very much for that acknowledgement.

Thank you very much for coming back.

Oh, most of all.

I thought, you know, when you started saying what I am, she's council president, she was in LA, and I thought you were gonna say, and she's a royal pain in the...

No, I may have been thinking that, but I wasn't gonna say it.

You know, I mean, it is, I do, for people, you know, in case folks are wondering, it is not fun for me to bring up difficult and awkward issues.

I do it because I think it's my job, basically.

And, you know, that bit about the conflict of interest on the commission is just one example of just wanting to make sure that we're setting our city up for success.

and so I do want to note that one more thing, sorry about this.

In August there was an article in the Times that was titled something, well I have it here, it was from August 31st, why thousands of Seattle's affordable housing apartments became vacant.

And it has some scary numbers, et cetera, and it's looking at a very, very complicated problem.

and there is no one simple explanation.

One of the things that this, well, it notes that there are 2,783 vacant units or 10.9% in the end of August.

And there are many reasons for this.

I'm not even gonna go into it.

Over a surplus of privately developed units that are as competitive or more competitive cost-wise to tenants in terms of affordability.

Anyway, I'm saying this because there is a NOFA out, and I believe it's for $170 million.

Are you talking about from HUD?

No, it's the housing NOFA, right?

I do want to recognize the Office of Housing Director, my coach, in the audience.

I wanted to say You've had a really hard job the past couple of years as well.

I don't know if you started when I did or if it was two years ago.

Time seems to blend in.

Anyway, you've done an amazing job trying to deal with an extremely complicated issue.

And that's just putting it nicely and very vanilla-y.

But thank you very much for all that you've tried to do.

You've been up against some strong headwinds internally and externally.

So anyway, what I'm trying to say is that there's $170 million out there right now that our providers will be putting in applications for, and it's my understanding that this year, I don't know if it's the same every year, The awards will go for three different things, new production, preservation, or restructuring.

So new production, building more units, preservation, preserving, fixing already existing buildings, and then restructuring is restructuring of debt to accommodate the new financial terms and a lot of these volatilities and some perceived exposure or risk, I assume, from the lender's perspective of these projects right now or the plans for them.

My whole point is that I really hope that I do really value the preservation part because these are buildings that are already built.

They've already had a climate impact in their construction.

And if they are empty now, they should be filled with people still living in parks and suffering or waiting in a transitional housing unit to get a or permanent supportive housing or just stay one place for longer than a short amount of time.

Long enough time to really get one's life back together again.

And you can't do that if you don't have a unit or an apartment or a place to live that is comfortable and safe.

And we do have a supply of buildings that need to be that could use a lot of help and I just hope that however this money is allocated really does keep that in mind because we don't want to just build more with a surplus that will have the same problems staying filled when we already have buildings that really do need a tenant.

I will be very brief and I don't want to put you on the spot, Director, because even though you're here, I have the continuum of care and the HUD thing on my brain and going back to housing first and rapid rehousing and this administration's cruelty in codifying the order that came out in January and then in July and then the NOFA and then now they halted the TRO, the temporary restraining order.

So we'll see what happens with this administration and the funding.

that's been front and center for us right now.

And I actually read the opinion that A.G.

Brown filed the 55 page with 19 states and two governors.

So as a lawyer, that's kind of my light reading for the weekend.

And I don't say that because I'm a smarty pants.

I like to know stuff.

So when you brought that up, that's what I was thinking of the Continuum Care, and I read the TRO, so I was thinking, okay, the headwinds in front of us for the new year, Director, and I know you know this, and I love working with you, is it's going to be hard.

And until we find out what happens with this temporary restraining order and challenging this administration's targeting the transgender community, migrants, immigrants, and, of course, they're targeting Housing First, and rapid rehousing and it's just interesting.

Well, it's not interesting.

It's sickening and cruel and I just don't understand how we as a society still think that housing is a human right and that's not a slogan.

That's an actual thing in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

So is clean water.

And so I'm not just pandering here.

It's a truth.

It's a truism.

It's conventional wisdom and it doesn't change with time.

and I again want to look to the director here, Winkler Chin, because you've been up in the front row of all of this and leading it and I know it's been difficult and now with more scarcity of funds, not scarcity of mine thought, we think abundantly We are dealing with an administration that is an expert in cruelty and discrimination and racism and I wish people would just use those words when they describe this administration instead of saying that this administration misinterpreted or misspoke or perhaps didn't understand Since 16, I've been saying he lied.

Can we just use that word until you tell me otherwise?

So with that, I'm done with my rant.

I will stop.

Go ahead.

Just to build on what you said, that's another reason why.

Because of what's happening at the federal level, we have no certainty what's happening in the future.

Yeah, and uncertainty is, you know, it puts us in a frame of mind and a real defensive posture where we're just like, okay, we've got to kind of wait.

It's not like we don't believe you when you're out here screaming at us that we want to do the right thing.

But being a critical thinker and looking at the big picture and knowing that this is federal money that goes to the state, to the county, and to the city, we're trying to do the right thing.

Nobody wants people to live outside and under a bridge or camp in a park.

The fact that they've changed the requirements that you are going to be rewarded as a city if you have a ban on camping is just, it's unconscionable.

I mean when I was reading that it was just insane, but that's where we're at.

Whether we like it or not, that's the world we live in right now.

So as you know who I am, I'm a pretty straight talker, I'm a doer.

I'm not this.

I want to get work done.

And that's why I like working with you, Director.

As well as you guys.

Right.

I didn't mean to interrupt.

I do have an apology to make.

I know that I hammered the Office of Housing hard about not getting money out faster than they could, the tremendous cash reserves that you are sitting on.

I understand very well the issue that because Seattle is first in, that means the projects stay on the books until the rest of the financing comes to our partners.

I understand that, and that means that there's a big number sitting there.

and I don't know what can be improved in the process but I just want to say I know you're working very, very hard and I am acknowledging my stridency on this point.

I would love to see it be put to use faster, whatever, but we're dealing with financing.

We were dealing with macroeconomics here and the terms that the banks are lending at and with, et cetera.

So also I just, it's an acknowledgement, a thank you.

And it would be great if we could build housing faster when we can or fix housing faster, whatever.

Spend money faster for the benefit of the people more rapidly, but that's the way it is.

Thank you.

Now I am really done.

Now you're really done, okay.

Thank you, Council President.

Is there anything else for the good of you?

Go ahead, Council Member Lynn.

Thank you, Chair Juarez.

Vice Chair.

Thank you.

I just want to say thank you, one, for speaking to our values and the challenges we face right now.

And so I just want to thank you for highlighting our values that housing is a human right.

that we support permanent supportive housing.

And President Nelson, just want to thank you for highlighting the importance of preservation.

It's always more exciting to do the ribbon cuttings and new production is important.

Preservation is always harder to fight for those dollars and it is critically important to make sure that we're preserving the buildings that we have to make sure that that people have safe housing that, you know, as maintenance issues come up, that people have quality, affordable housing to live in.

And finally, just want to say thank you to Director Michael Winkler-Chen here for being here and, you know, had the pleasure to work with you for many years.

Super excited to work with you in this new capacity and just want to thank you for your steady hand.

It is a very difficult time.

the hardest time we've seen in the affordable housing ecosystem, and your steady hand has been critical, so I just want to thank you for that.

Thank you.

I like it when people thank people.

We don't get enough of that, you know what I'm saying?

I just, working with you guys and Seattle Housing Authority on the six stacks that we're doing at Northgate Commons, you know, bringing back affordable, low-income two, three bedrooms, transit-oriented development housing, having some of it market rate, you know, that was seven years, six years in the making when we bought those eight acres and letting us stay in the room.

And again, you know, I think people got this idea that because we went to a district system that some people have this idea that we only care about our district.

And my saying has always been, you know, I represent the whole city, even with people that disagree with me, because it's for the good of the city, but I honor the needs of my district.

Is it housing?

Is it a sidewalk?

Is it a library?

Is it a community center?

and that's the lens in which I have leadership.

And again, I know we keep saying how, I didn't know you were going to be here today, but I'm glad you're here because I enjoy working with you.

So with that, is there anything else from any of my colleagues?

All right, I'm not seeing or hearing anything else.

Is there any other further business policy, Paul?

Nope, we're good, all right.

Hearing no further business, we are adjourned and it is 10-17.

Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you, Jim.