Finance & Housing Committee Public Hearing 5/4/21

Good evening, everyone.

Thank you very much for joining the May 4th Finance and Housing Committee Public Hearing.

Today is an opportunity for us to hear directly from the public as we discuss the American Rescue Plan Act dollars.

I want to thank you all for joining.

I'm Teresa Mosqueda, Chair of the Finance and Housing Committee.

This meeting is in order.

I want to welcome Council President Gonzalez.

I want to welcome Council Member Strauss.

And I know that there will be other council members who are joining with us tonight, and we'll make sure to announce their presence as well as they join the meeting.

Madam Clerk, thank you to Freddy de Cuevas for staffing us this afternoon and also this morning.

We also have another meeting tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m.

So I want to say thank you.

Members of our IT and Clerk's office as well and also Seattle Channel who continues to bring this stream live to members of the viewing public.

Thanks as well for all of the committee colleagues for being with us here today.

I know we're asking a lot of your time for two meetings in one day, back to back with another meeting tomorrow.

I really appreciate your dedication to having this robust discussion about the American Rescue Plan Act package.

We again have had now three meetings on this topic.

We've joined in with other councils.

to hear how they are planning to deploy dollars, including from Austin and Minneapolis, and making sure that we hear from folks in Denver as well.

We're part of local progress and also listening to what other jurisdictions are doing.

There's been a lot of similarities to what we heard from our community panel.

We had about seven or eight people who joined us to talk about everything from child care to housing, homelessness assistance, small business support, the need for direct cash assistance, health services, all services that disproportionately impact folks who are in BIPOC communities who have been disproportionately impacted by the consequences of COVID.

and we should note have been dealing with inequities in our system that existed far before COVID.

And this is an opportunity for us with the federal dollars to start making some investments into building a more resilient local economy that is truly more equitable as well.

As a reminder, this is funding that's coming from Congress in two tranches.

The first tranche is $119 million, and this is the dollar amount that we have allocated for 2021. The second tranche of funding will be slightly less than this, and it will be in the 2022 fall budget process.

So as we look at the tremendous need to address the crises and compounding crises across our community, we know that this is about equitable recovery.

We are going to be looking forward to both making immediate investments and longer term investments to not return to a new, not return back to the way things were, but to create a new we have to make sure that we have a more equitable local economy so that we don't go back to the previous inequitable local economy that we had previously.

With that, I want to get a chance to hear directly from members of the public, and we'll welcome other council members who have also joined Council President Gonzalez and Council Member Strauss who are with us.

We're also joined by Vice Chair Herbold, Council Member Morales, and Council Excellent.

At this time, I'm going to go ahead and open up public comment.

I'm going to moderate the public comment in the following manner.

I'll call three speakers at a time in the order in which they are registered.

If you're not registered to speak, but you would like to, you can still sign up for public comment by going to our council's website at Seattle.gov backslash council.

The council public comment link is also listed on today's agenda.

Once I call your name, you will hear a chime that says you are now unmuted, but you yourself also have to push star six on your own phone.

That'll be your prompt to push star six on your end and make sure your own phone is also not on mute physically on your phone as well.

You will have two minutes to speak, and then you're going to hear 10 seconds towards the end of your allotted time.

We do ask that you wrap up your public comments so that you don't get your last sentence cut off.

And feel free to send us any additional comments to council at seattle.gov.

Once you've completed your public comment, please do disconnect.

And if you would like to continue listening in, which we hope you do, you can find us on Seattle Channel or the Listen In options on today's agenda.

With that, let's go to the first three speakers.

Thank you very much to Dee Powers, Peter Condit, and Jacob Scherer for joining us today.

Dee, you are up first.

Hi there.

My name is Dee Powers, and I am a current vehicle resident as well as a board member from the organization Be Seattle.

I am calling in today in support of using funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to fund safe lots with wraparound services attached.

I got priced out of my apartment here in Seattle in 2015 after being labeled with a 40% increase at my old apartment.

At that point, We purchased an RV, and I've been living in it for the past six years.

It's not that we are service-resistant, us vehicle residents.

It's more that my household hasn't been offered appropriate services that meet our needs.

And what we want and what we need are safe lots with wraparound services, similar to our city's beloved tiny house villages, only with vehicles instead of tiny houses.

with the support and the structure involved, we will be able to thrive and transition.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

The next speaker is Peter.

Good afternoon, Peter.

Good afternoon.

My name is Peter Condit.

I'm a resident of District 4. I'm an abolitionist and I urge the committee to ensure that not a single dollar is spent on supporting or expanding policing, the prosecutor's office, municipal court, or any space for detention.

The city should allocate ARPA funds to participatory budgeting.

Money there will go to five priority areas, housing and physical space, mental health care, youth and children, economic development, and non-cop crisis response.

I would also like to note that the city is already sitting on $28 million of PB funds and is inexplicably delaying getting that money out to community.

In February, when the Black Brilliance Research Project presented the roadmap for PB to City Council, Council Member Morales voiced her support for it and said she would get the spending and implementation plan finalized at her committee meeting on March 16th.

Now it's May.

I recognize that the mayor has played a role in delaying PB, and I'm frustrated with her for that.

But I'm also frustrated with Council Member Morales for not rescheduling last week's PB presentation and discussion after the Community Economic Development Committee meeting was interrupted by, of all things, the guilty conviction of a police officer for murder.

Investing in community-led PB must be a priority for building true community safety and working towards justice for George Floyd.

PD is a concrete way to democratize power, decision-making, and public dollars.

Finally, I'd like to say to council members here, Black Lives Still Matter, and we will continue holding you to the commitment you made last summer to defund SPD by 50% and invest in community.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Jacob, good evening.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Jacob Shear.

I'm an advocacy organizer for Real Change, and I'm calling in tonight to ask City Council to please protect and support our neighbors who are living in their vehicles and to direct federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act towards creating multiple RV safe lots for vehicle residents with wraparound services.

So we know that close to half of those experiencing homelessness in Seattle live in their vehicles, yet only around 1% of homeless funding goes towards services that support vehicle residents.

And with the reinstatement of the anti-poor 72-hour parking rule, vehicle residents again have to live in constant fear of having their homes swept, towed, and impounded.

While we need social and deeply affordable housing built at a scale that acknowledges the crisis we are facing, creating RV safe lots with wraparound services for the thousands of folks living in their vehicles is an important and immediate step we can take to support and protect those driven out of housing by skyrocketing rent, gentrification, and our city's refusal to acknowledge housing as a human right.

Safe lots give vehicle residents safety, security, and the chance to create community and get access to services.

A safe lot does not mean simply opening up a couple of inhospitable parking lots as it looked like under former Mayor Ed Murray.

It means intentionally creating places where people want to park and live and providing holistic services to all residents.

The city should work in consultation with vehicle residents to ensure that the safe lots it creates take into account the true needs of vehicle residents and that residents are given autonomy and respect.

There are many examples of thriving RV communities all over the country, and this is something we can quickly scale up to meet the magnitude of our housing crisis.

I'd encourage all council members to take a look at the Mobile Loaves and Fishes program in Austin, Texas, which provides RV park homes, tiny homes, on-site laundry, kitchens, restrooms, as well as community creating spaces for making art and gardening.

It's time we acknowledge the needs of our vehicle residents and create spaces that support and protect them and allow them to thrive and be happy.

Please take this actionable step to protect our unhoused neighbors and fund RV safe lots with wraparound services.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, and good timing.

I appreciate you calling in today.

The next three speakers are Shamir Tanna, Sarah Cody Roth, and Chris Woodward.

Good evening, Shamir.

Hi, thank you for the time.

My name is Shamir Tanna.

I'm a resident of District 7. I'm urging the committee to allocate 100% of the federal ARPA funds towards immediate and long-term community-led solutions to build a stronger, more equitable social infrastructure.

and critically that no money goes to supporting or expanding policing or detention or anything of that sort.

We know that COVID has had a disproportionate impact on groups who are already suffering social and racial injustices and economic inequities.

These groups include BIPOC, LGBTQ and disabled persons.

We need to stop incremental steps, discussing stats and start fully investing in these communities.

Our city and countless throughout the country are on their knees after this pandemic.

I urge the committee to make meaningful investments that promote long-term healing of our most vulnerable communities, such as housing assistance, assistance to BIPOC-led businesses, library expansion and universal basic income.

Thank you for the time.

Thank you very much.

The next person is Sarah.

Good evening, Sarah.

And Sarah, if you want to hit star six.

Oh, perfect.

Great.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Sorry about that.

Thank you so much for your time tonight.

My name is Sarah Cody Roth and I'm the executive director at West Side Baby, a diaper bank serving Seattle and South King County.

I am here tonight to urge you to include diapers in allocation of ARPA funds.

Before COVID, diaper need, which is defined as not being able to get an adequate supply of diapers, was a public health crisis impacting nearly one in four families with young children in King County and one in three BIPOC families.

After COVID, families already most impacted by diaper need also experienced the most job loss and the worst health outcomes.

TANF applications more than doubled in the two months after the pandemic began and went up 27% overall last year.

Unlike other basic needs like food and rent, there is no public assistance for low-income families to purchase diapers.

SNAP and WIC cannot be used to purchase this essential item.

As such, for families experiencing diaper need, diapers are the fourth highest household expense after rent, food, and utilities.

Westside Baby has responded to an unprecedented demand by increasing our annual distribution of diapers by over 50%.

We are the largest diaper bank in Washington.

Without public investment, we cannot address this public health crisis on a meaningful level.

But with COVID relief...

Thank you, Sarah.

Chris, you are next.

Good evening, Chris.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Chris Woodward.

I'm the business development director with the Alliance for Pioneer Square.

The Alliance for Pioneer Square is a 501c3 nonprofit that works to help preserve what makes Pioneer Square the most authentic and engaging and dynamic neighborhood in Seattle.

I'm providing public comment today in support of the continuation of the Just Care program through American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The Just Care program has proven to effectively and safely support people with very high barriers experiencing homelessness.

When Just Care was operating as designed last fall, it had a major impact in Pioneer Square.

During that time, the Just Care team, comprised of a culturally relevant set of individuals, addressed several encampments in the neighborhood without any need for enforcement or dispersal.

The majority of the folks who received services and temporary housing through the Just Care program were chronically homeless and or IPOC.

Since January of this year, the just care program has been limited while the county plans a formal procurement process for resuming an expanded just care model during the period July 2021 to June 2022. However, despite these limitations, the just care program continues to affect positive change, including most recently addressing and growing campments in the heart of Pioneer Square at Pioneer Park.

Well said, Chris.

Thank you very much.

I'm pleased to send in the rest of your comments.

Folks, we're going to try and make sure that people are getting two minutes.

I just want to make sure that we're not accidentally cutting folks off too early.

So Chris and Sarah, if you did have additional comments and we accidentally cut you off early, please do call back in and we'll note that you're calling back in.

We don't want to keep you short there.

And again, you'll hear a 10-second chime at the end of your allotted time.

So Sarah and Chris, do call back if you still had additional comments you'd like to make.

Victor, good evening.

We'll go Victor Liu, followed by Kaylee Condon, and then Brock Howell.

Good afternoon slash evening, Victor.

Hi.

Good evening, Council Member.

This is Victor Liu.

Thank you for making the time.

So I'm the Director of Practice Innovation from Asian Counselor and Referral Service, ACRS.

And I'm glad to talk about the ACRS Just Care program in partnership with our wonderful partner from PDA to Seattle Club as well as the Brain Treatment Services REACH program.

Since ACRS inception, we had assisted over unduplicated 71 clients to date since November 2020. And that is just an amazing number of clients that we can serve in such a short period of time.

The majority of the clients that we serve, we focus on the Chinatown International District, as well as Pioneer Square.

Almost all our clients are from the BIPOC community, of which over 60% are from the black community, and a significant number are also from the LGBTQ community.

As a licensed behavioral health provider that is doing this body of work through the deaf care program, we are the only licensed behavioral health provider in King County, as well as the state, that is doing this body of work.

Because of that, we serve the most high-acuity clients with chronic mental health and chronic substance use disorder.

100% of the clients that we serve today have substance use disorder issues, 90% with mental health issues.

Through the work that we do during the pandemic, public health has commended our efforts to prevent pandemic outbreaks.

We do COVID-19 testing for all of our clients within 24 hours.

If they need support, we provide that.

Just Care is a cost-effective program It costs about $49,000 per client per year, and that's a cost saving of $22,600 per client per year at a minimum.

I urge the city council to really leverage FEMA, APA, and the City of Seattle Safe and Trending Community Funding to support this body of work, and not put providers who are already demonstrating outcomes through a procurement process.

Why do that to put us through administrative burden?

Instead, you should focus it on enhancing resources on what is already working.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Victor, good to hear from you again.

Kaylee, good evening.

You are up next.

Hi, thanks.

My name is Kaylee Condit.

I'm an assistant professor at the University of Washington, and I'm a resident of District 4. I'm calling to urge the committee to allocate all of the Federal America Rescue Plan Act relief funds towards immediate and long-term community-led solutions to build a stronger more equitable social infrastructure, and importantly, not to use these funds to support or expand policing.

I believe strongly that the city needs to engage in public participatory budgeting to determine how ARPA funds should be spent.

COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on groups who have already suffered social and racial injustices and economic inequalities.

Thus, I really feel like we need to use these funds to help groups like BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and disabled persons.

I urge the committee to make meaningful investments and promote long-term healing for our most vulnerable communities through permanent quality accessible housing for all unhoused people in Seattle.

Investing in our K-12 schools and expanding public transportation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And the next person is Brock.

Good evening Brock.

Hey, Brock, I heard you for a quick second, but I think you have to hit star six one more time for me.

There we go.

Thank you.

It took me a while to get through the star sixes.

Again, my name is Brock Howell.

I am the chair of the Green Lake and Wallingford Safe Streets group.

and I live in Tangletown.

I was also a co-writer of the state healthy business streets guide and that was also produced by the county.

And I'm speaking in support of dedicating funding for the keep moving streets and the state healthy streets as part of this ARPA funding.

The Keep Moving Streets program has been critical for providing physically distant outdoor opportunities for people to walk, jog, and bike, both for recreation and transportation.

Specifically for Green Lake Park itself, we've had some challenges.

The parks department has restricted who can use the inner park of limiting, preventing biking there and clockwise running and jogging on the inner path, which forces people to the outer path.

And as a result, that puts people into a dangerous trail next to Aurora.

And so we are looking forward to continuing to have funding for the Keep Moving Streets program so that way we can continue to have physical distancing that's appropriate as we move through the pandemic and to be able to make sure people are safe within our parks and throughout our city.

So with that, thank you for your time this evening.

Thank you very much for calling in.

The next three speakers are Trevona Thompson-Wiley, Isaac Joy, and Brittany Manso.

Good evening, Trevona.

Hi, my name is Trayvonna.

I'm a resident of District 5. I'm calling to urge the committee to reallocate 100% of the ARPA relief funds towards immediate and long-term community-led solutions to make sure that we're building a stronger, more equitable social infrastructure and not one single penny, dollar is spent on supporting and expanding policing, the prosecutor's office, municipal court, or any space that cages folks.

The city should engage in public participatory budgeting to determine how these funds should be spent.

We know that COVID-19 has had a huge impact on BIPOC folks.

We need to make sure that we're advocating for those folks.

We need to make sure that we're ensuring that there are social and racial equities that are there for folks.

And these groups include, you know, BIPOC folks, LGBTQ folks, disabled folks and it's important that those funds should be made to prioritize their needs.

I urge the committee to make meaningful investments that promote long-term healing for our more vulnerable communities through housing assistance food assistance summer youth employment assistance for small BIPOC-owned businesses impacted by COVID-19 and resources for teachers and students to ensure safe enriching and supportive educational experiences.

The city is already sitting in 28 million NPD.

City Council and the mayor need to stop stalling and invest in the BIPOC community.

They need to make sure that they follow through with their commitment to the people of Seattle and show that they truly care for their investment.

I wanted to make sure that I last mentioned that Black Lives still matter even if it's not on your screen.

We need to make sure that we're you know advocating for folks and all that money should be spent to make sure that we're helping folks.

And I really feel that's my time.

Thank you.

Appreciate you calling in today.

Thanks so much.

Isaac, good evening and welcome.

Hi, my name is Isaac Joy and I'm a resident of Seattle.

I'm calling in today to call on city council to invest at least $100 million of American Relief Plan Act funding directly into the local black community.

For context, we've heard from callers speak on a number of things before this comment.

One, on the disparate impact of COVID on certain communities.

And then two, we've heard Black Lives Matter, and we've also heard kind of the protests and what the uprising.

So I would like to contextualize this, again, request on city council to directly invest $100 million into the black community.

These protests were motivated to tackle anti-Black racism.

Anti-Black racism is the governing ideology of the U.S.

It's a defining ideology by far, not regular racism, specifically anti-Black racism.

That's because in the U.S., our entire wealth was built on a transatlantic plantation slavery in the 19th century.

The enslaved counted for over 1.5 of GDP.

That was more valuable than all the foreign land of the U.S.

So anti-Black racism was cultivated to justify an industry that was that large.

And that's why to this day anti-Black racism is the biggest threat to American democracy and progressive values and why it needs to be foregrounded in any attack.

Here, when we talk about federal relief funding, we saw that $542 billion were given out as the primary way to provide relief for COVID.

Of that $542 billion, less than 2% went to Black businesses.

That's during a time when COVID was already exacerbating centuries of anti-Black racism and health effects, impact, and poverty.

It's on the City Council to invest that resources right now, do good by the Black community, and invest at least $100 million directly into the Black community.

Thank you.

Thanks, Isaac.

Brittany, good evening.

Thank you for joining us.

Hi there.

Thank you.

I'm sorry I dialed in a little bit late.

I was on the other line watching live.

Perfect timing.

I'm so glad.

I'm sorry about that.

Thank you.

So I want to echo what other folks have offered as far as requesting demanding asking for $100 million in direct investment to the Black community here in Seattle.

The last time I was present with Seattle City Council I was here in my professional capacity with the National Innovation Service talking about the redesign of the homeless service system and really focused on how we uproot the white white supremacy that's underpinning our public system.

and redesigning and led by the people with lived experience who know the solutions and know where the funding priorities are.

So that was the last time I'm here.

Now I've moved here.

Now I live here.

Now I'm here as a resident.

I came in the same room, quite frankly, that as Isaac mentioned before me, the disparities that have only been exacerbated and highlighted by the pandemic still exist.

And the way of addressing the needs of the Black community in Seattle and other communities of color in this city is not by designing programs and having, you know, the metrics that we always have to measure success against.

It is putting money in the hands of the people who know how to meet each other's needs.

The mutual aid networks that have been established in the last year in this city are phenomenal and deeply moving because people know what their communities, their neighbors, their friends, their families, people know what they need.

And honoring that and respecting that is the way forward from here.

It's the way that we rebuild from this crisis.

And I also want to share, I am still a national consultant and it is still the case, or it's currently the case that national partners are that national leaders and advocates are saying, put money in the hands of disproportionately impacted communities, historically marginalized communities.

That is the way to the solutions of the future we want to see, where those communities are nourished, they are thriving.

Okay, thank you so much.

Please do send in the rest of your comments.

The next three people are a Haiti roads, George scroll it and Carolyn Henry.

Good afternoon, Haiti.

Hello, this is how the roads I am.

here today to ask for more funding for tiny house villages.

Currently, I'm a resident of District 3, but I'm the site manager for Georgetown Tiny House Village in District 2. This shelter model allows people a safe place to regain their dignity and stability.

It also gives them a hope for the future.

Not only have I seen this happen again and again since I started working here, this is also my own personal experience having been homeless myself.

I would not be able to currently help people now without the support I found in the villages.

I would not have had the courage to become housed again without the village's support staff.

I just want everyone to have the same opportunity I was given.

That is where you come in.

Please support It Takes a Village proposal for nine new tiny house villages.

And also, please support utilizing the ARPA funds for permanent housing solutions, such as acquiring properties for low-income housing.

Thank you so much for your time.

Absolutely.

Thanks, Patty.

Yeah.

No, thank you.

Go ahead.

Did you have something else?

Okay, great.

I think we got it all.

Thanks so much.

And good evening, George.

Welcome.

George, if you can hit star six on your phone, then we'll get you officially unmuted here.

Hey, George, if you can hear me, star six to unmute.

And for folks, as a reminder, just hit star six to unmute.

Once you hear the line that says you've been unmuted, you actually have to hit it on your line as well.

It's sort of authorizing you to unmute yourself.

Okay, I'm going to come back to you, George.

And just remember star six when I come back to you.

The next person that we had signed up is Carolyn Henry.

Hi, Carolyn.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Caroline Henry.

I use they them pronouns and as a resident of Belltown in Seattle, I want to see my community thrive, which is impossible until we make big moves to fund, elevate and elect black members of our community.

Seattle's ARPA funding is one of those moments where you can choose to make a real difference in our city.

That's why I'm calling on you to invest at least 100 million from Seattle's ARPA funding directly into the local black community.

I'm deeply concerned that the black community has been excluded from federal pandemic relief funding.

The U.S. awarded over $520 billion in PPP aid to U.S. businesses and organizations, and less than 2% of that aid reached black-owned organizations.

City Council has the direct responsibility to address the wholesale failure of federal relief distribution and the anti-black policies and individual decisions that excluded black communities in Seattle almost entirely, leading to further devastation and compounded harm.

Now Seattle City Council will soon receive $239 million through the ARPA, mandated with investing this money for food assistance, non-congregate shelter, rental assistance, and acquisition of buildings for emergency or permanent housing.

I expect all City Council members to remedy this harm and make the necessary investments that your predecessors have systemically failed to make in the Black community.

I urge you to commit $100 million from Seattle's ARPA funding directly into the local Black community.

Thank you, and I release the rest of my time.

Thanks for calling in today.

I'm going to go back to George.

George, if you can hear me, just star six to unmute your line, and I should see a come off unmute on my end over here.

Okay, George, we're going to keep you on the screen, and when I see you come off mute, we'll come back to you if you can hear me.

Well, let's go on to the next three speakers, and we can keep George on the screen here just so I can watch for the mute button there.

The next three speakers are Camilla Walter, Paige Owens, and Steve Hooper.

Good evening, Camilla.

Hi, my name is Camilla Walter, and I'm the Development and Communications Director for Real Change.

Roughly half of people experiencing homelessness here sleep in their vehicles.

We need to prioritize creating options that serve these neighbors and meet their needs where they are.

This means wraparound services.

As a 72-hour parking ban has been reinstated, essentially a form of eviction for people whose vehicles are not able to restart after idle time during this pandemic, the city is failing to meet vehicle residents where they are.

We need to listen to vehicle residents, again, about half of those people experiencing homelessness, and hear how the city can show up for their needs.

I was so moved by Dee's testimony that their 40% rent increase led to them purchasing an RV And this is a reality for so many of our neighbors.

If we were able to offer on-site laundry, kitchens, restrooms, as well as community spaces for vehicle residents, we would really be able to support them in thriving and meeting their goals.

I urge City Council to support vehicle residents and direct federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act towards creating multiple RV safe lots for vehicle residents with those key wraparound services.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your time tonight.

The next person is Paige Owens.

Good evening, Paige.

Just star six to unmute.

Okay, Paige, I see you still muted on my end here.

Star six, perfect, hi there.

There we go.

Good evening.

My name is Paige Owens.

I am a Real Change advocate intern.

I am calling in today in support of directing money from ARPA to fund multiple RV safe lots for vehicle residents with wraparound services.

Like we've stated before, nearly half of Seattle's unhoused communities live in vehicles.

Funding safe lots for vehicle residents matters to me because people should have the choice to live in an RV or vehicle with rents and prices of homes as high as they are and continue to rise.

It is becoming a much more reasonable choice for people.

In all honesty, I have lived on the streets in pens and in shelters.

And if I became homeless again, I would stay in my car before going to emergency shelters for safety reasons.

Please take this important step to protect and support vehicle residents, direct ARPA funds to create RV safe lots with wraparound services, and create safety and security for our neighbors living in their vehicles.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

I appreciate you dialing in.

I see George.

Good evening, George.

Go ahead.

Hello.

My name is George Scarola, and I'm working with Lehigh to expand the tiny house village program I'm urging the council today to support using ARPA funds to build nine new tiny house villages this year.

In my experience, tiny house villages are the fastest, least expensive way to build system capacity and the most effective strategy we have right now to meet the dual crisis of homelessness and COVID.

Building and operating nine tiny house villages would cost about $9 million and would help more than 500 people leave the streets.

and access the services they need to move to stable housing.

For our neighbors who are living unsheltered and for all of us who are appalled by the crisis of homelessness there is no greater urgency.

We cannot lose this opportunity.

Please use ARPA funds to build nine more tiny house villages to help 500 people immediately and to prioritize buying and building permanent low-income affordable housing.

Thanks.

Thanks for dialing in tonight, George.

And the next person is Steve.

Good evening, Steve.

Hello, Chair Mosqueda.

Good to be with you this evening and council members as well.

For those who don't know, my name is Steve Hooper.

I'm the president of Ethan Stoll Restaurants here locally in Seattle and a proud member of the Seattle Restaurant Alliance.

I do appreciate the chance to speak with you all today.

And in both my professional and personal capacities, I agree very much with all of the homelessness and Black Lives Matter comments I've heard to this point.

As you know, the restaurant industry has been deeply affected by this crisis and is a continuing crisis in that regard.

The recent economic revenue forecast by the CBO, or the city budget office, stated that leisure and hospitality account for half of the jobs lost that we have not yet recovered.

at this point.

So restaurants really do need additional support to continue hiring back and staying financially afloat through the balance of the pandemic while we're still under restrictions.

Pierce County recently ran an interesting program, Restaurant Rally, they called it, and allowed restaurants to offer a 30% discount to diners and then receive a reimbursement from the city.

Nearly 300 restaurants participated in that program was seen to be wildly successful and a terrific marketing program to bring people into the restaurants and doing takeout dinners as well, wherever they felt safe.

Another idea would be offsetting some of the fees or parking revenue around outdoor dining and permanent street areas.

That's something that would probably go a long way to further getting us to a complete reopening in the restaurant industry.

And then lastly, you know, additional marketing support to bring people from outside Seattle back in to Seattle, both tourists and others to frequent the local businesses that support our community.

We thank you very much for your time.

I realize how hard it is to find the balancing act between all of the competing priorities, and so we appreciate your time with us in the public this evening.

Thank you.

Thank you, Steve.

We appreciate you dialing in today.

Folks, just want to give you a quick update that brings us to caller number 20. We do have about 60 more people to testify tonight.

So if you're looking for a time check, we do have about two more hours to go.

Appreciate all the council members who are here this evening and those who may be listening in on Seattle Channel as well.

The next three speakers are Mary Stone, Marty Hartman and Ari Hertz.

Good evening, Mary.

Hi council members.

We can hear you.

Great Mary Ellen Stone King County Sexual Assault Resource Center.

Thanks for taking my call.

I want to acknowledge the important comments about housing about black lives and I want to shift just a little bit to bring up the issue of gender based violence.

I'm calling on behalf of the undocumented and low income victims of sexual assault who are Latinx who need legal civil legal assistance uv said tv that family law help with parenting plan divorce proceedings protection order we know because these women and their children are undocumented and low-income that without legal representation have very few options uh...

and that legal representation is essential always but particularly now with the court backup backlogs that our communities are experiencing.

Our case acts program, Aparandos Porches, provides legal assistance, legal attorneys who are connected with the Latinx community and they're also trauma informed.

And they're the ones who are able to provide immigration services, again, visa assistance for victims of sexual assault, parenting and family law services for victims of sexual assault who are seeking both protection and separation from the person who assaulted them.

So I'm asking the council for a modest amount of $150,000 for 12 months to provide at least 140 families with this kind of legal assistance.

I appreciate the many demands you have, and I appreciate you taking my call.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

We appreciate you dialing in.

The next person is Marty.

Good evening, Marty, and welcome.

Marty, if you want to hit star six one more time, we'll try to get you unmuted.

And after Marty is Ari, if you want to tee up your star six as well, Ari.

Maybe we'll head over to you, Ari, and we'll try to get your public comment.

We can leave Marty on the screen here, and I'll look for the unmute sign there too.

Good evening, Ari.

Can you hear me?

Star six unmute.

Okay, Marty and Ari.

Star six to unmute, and I'm gonna read the next three speakers as you do that.

Bob Williamson, Alexander Place, and Chris McDaniel.

Ari, welcome.

Ari, hi.

Oh, well, thank you.

Sorry about that.

Good evening.

My name's Ari Hertz.

I'm a District 7 constituent.

And as a Seattle resident, I am calling on you to invest at least $100 million from the American Rescue Plan, funding directly into the local black community.

We know that from end to end, this pandemic has disproportionately harmed Black communities across virtually all metrics.

And I think a lot of us have gotten really good at hand-wringing and saying the right words about why this is the case, but changing these oppressive systems requires large-scale investments.

And as others have noted, over the past year, less than 2% of the hundreds of billions of dollars in PPP aid reached Black-owned organizations.

And so now the city council has both the opportunity and the responsibility to try and right that wrong.

And so I'm calling on this community and the council at large to step up and honor the commitments to racial justice you've made in the past.

This is an unmatched opportunity to build a more equitable Seattle and to begin to pay back the Black community the immense wealth that has been diverted away from it.

Thank you.

I yield my time.

Excellent.

Thanks for dialing in today.

Good evening, Marty.

Thanks for holding on for a second.

I can see you unmuted now.

Hi, thank you, council members for this opportunity.

My name is Marty Hartman.

I'm the executive director of Mary's Place, where we provide emergency shelter for families with children.

Before this pandemic, we were so close to our goal that no child sleeps outside in our community.

To keep our families and staff safe following COVID guidelines, we had to close four smaller congregate shelters, resulting in a loss of 300 beds for families experiencing homelessness in our community.

As the end of the eviction moratorium approaches and families who have been living on the edge see the rent come due, many will face eviction and possible homelessness.

Nearly 80% of the guests identify as BIPOC and have been disproportionately impacted by the health and economic impacts of this pandemic.

We know we need to act.

Today, I'm asking you to consider an allocation of $500,000 for shelter operations to add back loss capacity and to scale up successful diversion programs Our mobile outreach and diversion team used the flexible funding to help families address barriers and move quickly back into housing at an average cost of $1,900 per family.

It's much more cost effective than shelter and reduces the trauma of a shelter stay.

We'll follow up with this request more in detail in an email.

And thank you so much for your time.

Thank you very much, Marty.

We appreciate you dialing in and the follow-up information.

The next three speakers are Bob Alexander and Chris again.

So good evening, Bob.

You are up first.

And just star six to unmute.

There we are.

Hello, my name is Bob Williamson.

I'm a retired construction worker and I'm also a Vietnam vet.

I was a resident of the inter-village tiny house village.

And in my opinion, we need more places like this.

and helped me get my feet on the ground.

And after a while, I was able to move in and get my new apartment at the Clay Apartments.

I'm actually the first one to move into here, and this is great.

I mean, I'm ecstatic.

I want to thank Lehi and Sharon Lee for everything they've done for me.

And I would love to see everyone follow in my footsteps and move on to it.

Because I think county health services are a great idea.

They're a very good idea.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing your story and for dialing in tonight.

Appreciate it, Bob.

Alexander, you are up next.

Good evening.

Thank you.

My name is Alex.

As a Seattle resident, I am calling on you to invest $100 million from Seattle's ARPA funding directly into the local black community.

The black community has been excluded from federal pandemic relief funding.

Less than 2% of the $520 billion in PPP aid given to the U.S. businesses reach Black-owned organizations.

City Council has the direct responsibility to address the anti-Black policies and individual decisions that excluded Black communities in Seattle almost entirely from federal aid.

Seattle City Council will soon receive $239 million through the ARPA mandated with the investing this money for food assistance, non-congregate shelter, rental assistance, acquisition of buildings for emergency or permanent housing.

All city council members need to remedy this harm and make the necessary investments in the Black community that your predecessors have failed to make.

I urge you to commit $100 million from Seattle's ARPA funding directly into the local Black community.

Thank you.

I yield my time.

Appreciate you dialing in tonight.

Thank you.

And the next person is Chris.

Good evening, Chris.

Just star six to unmute.

Wonderful, hi Chris.

Hello, my name is Chris McDaniel and I'm currently a resident of Georgetown Tiny House Village, but not for much longer.

I'm finally getting housing now that they're loosening the restrictions from COVID.

I've been waiting for a year and I couldn't see waiting in any of the other shelters I was waiting for my disability to come through.

I got it the day before they called the quarantine and locked everything down.

Without the tiny house village, I don't know what I'd have done.

My disability involves my legs.

I can't walk around all day long.

We need to fund the new tiny house village program.

It gives people dignity and a place to stay until housing becomes available.

Most of the people there right now where I live, they're just waiting for something to become available.

They've got their problems fixed.

With homelessness, they just have to have someplace to go.

Thank you very much.

Really appreciate you dialing in tonight, Chris.

Thank you, and thank you for sharing your story.

On the next three speakers are going to be Susan Boyd, Lisa Nietzsche, and then Kay Wiking Garrett.

Good evening, Susan.

Just star six to unmute yourself, please.

Hey, Susan, if you can hear me, just star six one more time to unmute yourself.

I know it's one more complicated step that had been added by Zoom right after the pandemic started.

So I want to make sure to get you a chance to unmute yourself.

And for all the speakers, as a reminder, when you hear you have been unmuted, that's actually your prompt to hit star six on your end as well.

It's a two-step process, unfortunately.

So Susan, I'm going to keep you up on the screen and look for your line to come unmuted.

We're going to go ahead and add Lisa to the screen.

And Lisa, if you can hit star six to unmute, that would be great.

You are up next.

Go ahead, Lisa.

Hi, I'm Lisa Nitze with Nitze Sagan.

We have an office in Pioneer Square and an apartment building opening in Pioneer Square in July for 80 units of workforce housing.

on South Washington and Second.

And we, along with many others, have experienced tremendous suffering in Pioneer Square since COVID began for building owners, small businesses, residents, employers, employees.

The homeless situation in Pioneer Square has been catastrophic as shelters have closed and people in need have had nowhere to go but the streets.

And so I'm here to say that Just Care has been a real bright spot for all of us.

It has been at the center of a public-private partnership that involved all parties in working together to, you know, within an hour of being alerted, be addressing the needs of unsheltered people that are on the streets, cleaning up the garbage that has occurred on the streets, and making those who live or work there feel safe.

And as some of our small businesses have said, it's the only program that they have seen work in the city.

So my request is that the council fund and expand Just Cares funding to be able to serve the entire downtown, not just Pioneer Square and the CID, which were its pilot areas.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

And hey, Susan, I see you off of mute.

We'll come back to you right now.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Thank you so much, Chair Mosqueda and committee members.

Susan Boyd with Bellwether Housing.

Bellwether, along with a half dozen or so other nonprofit organizations, are the city's primary partners in providing permanent, affordable housing for the city's low-wage workforce, our low-income families, seniors.

More than 60% of the people we serve are people of color.

Many are immigrants and refugees, and our residents have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic.

Just within our portfolio, hundreds of households have lost jobs, been unable to pay rent.

Our seniors have fought isolation and depression.

Our residents who live with serious mental illness have been pushed to the brink by anxiety, and families with school-aged children have really just been at sea.

It's the small but mighty resident services staff at art organizations that have ensured that all residents have access to adequate rental assistance, seniors have the technology and services they need to stay connected, and families are connected with educational resources they need to ensure their kids continue to get the education they deserve.

These resident services coordinators are the key to maintaining housing stability and preventing homelessness among our residents.

But our resident services programs, which so far have survived with absolutely no funding from the city, are being stretched to the brink.

We are inadequately staffed to meet the needs of all our residents, let alone those who fill the hundreds of units we plan to bring online in the next 18 months.

You have set exactly the right priorities for the Recovery Act funds, and our resident services programs fulfill so many of them.

We will get you a more detailed description of our request to you.

and I think there are more people to talk about the power of resident services in our programs.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you very much, Susan.

I appreciate you being here tonight.

The next person is Kay Wiking Garrett and Mr. Garrett, I see you listed as not present.

If you do dial in, we'll make sure to come back to you.

The next three are Barry Blanton, Laura Lowe, and Andrew Constantino.

Good evening, Barry.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

Great.

Hi.

Hi my name is Barry Blanton.

I live in downtown Seattle and I serve as the co-chair of the Chinatown International District BIA.

I also serve on the board of Pioneer Square BIA and on the board of the Alliance for Pioneer Square.

I'm here tonight to voice my strong support of the work that Just Care has been doing and to advocate for continued funding of this program.

The recent positive impacts from the work Just Care has been doing have been impressive.

I hope you've had a chance to see the before and after pictures from beneath the I-5 overpass in Chinatown, and that represents just one example of the work they've done, and there have been many other great examples.

This program helps people that are suffering from homelessness, mental health issues, and addiction issues, and it helps all of us.

No one can argue that to look the other way while people are living without services, water, toilets, heat, adequate shelter, is in their best interest.

And Just Care is doing something about that right now.

For the communities negatively impacted by having people living on the streets or in our parks without services, without their most basic human needs met, Just Care is providing those individuals with a place to go and the services they need.

And the public spaces are being cleaned up and made available for all of the public to use again.

Just Care uses empathy and compassion.

to help people who need it who need it the most and in the neighborhoods that need it the most.

We should absolutely continue to support the efforts of Just Care because their efforts are resulting in the kind of change we need a whole lot more of in Seattle and especially in Chinatown International District and Pioneer Square.

I want to thank you for your attention and your continued support of this worthwhile program.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Appreciate you dialing in today.

Good evening, Laura.

You are up next.

Hi, I'm Laura Lowe from Share the City's Action Fund, and we ask that you devote Rescue Act dollars to safe lots for vehicle residents and $100 million to Black-led and Black-owned equitable development.

We echo Councilmember's statements that communities that have been hardest hit by the health and economic impacts of the pandemic should be prioritized for these funds.

Thanks to real change in King County equity now alerting people including me about this important meeting.

The safe lot program at U Heights and D4 took a ridiculous amount of process and doesn't even allow RVs despite the amazing leadership of U Heights throughout that whole time getting that permitted.

We need to find a path to start setting safe lots as quickly as possible without endless NIMBY delays.

We also need a participatory budget process that would feel a lot better than this meeting where it feels like safe street advocates, abolitionists, Black folks, and people without housing needs are all pitted against each other.

So please, let's work to stop and listen immediately to site safe lots and get $100 million for Black community-owned development.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate you dialing in.

The next person is Andrew.

Good evening, Andrew.

Hi.

I'm Andrew Constantino, Assistant Program Manager for Lehigh's Tiny Ounce Villages.

I have the privilege of working for the villages and seeing how they change people's lives every day.

Homeless individuals and families find safety, shelter, and services at the villages, as well as work towards finding permanent housing.

The villages have proven themselves to be resilient during the pandemic as a non-congregate shelter and are places of refuge for vulnerable people to weather many storms, rebuild, and emerge stronger.

We need more tiny house villages so that we can invite everyone inside and into lives of dignity, community, and opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your testimony tonight.

The next three speakers are Mara Dungo, Ama Rinita, Renia I'm sorry Torres.

Catherine Dawson.

Good afternoon Mara.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

Thank you.

Hello my name is Mara.

I'm a Seattle resident and I'm calling on you to invest at least $100 million dollars from the federal relief funding into the local Black community.

Reiterating many callers before me COVID-19 has laid bare glaring implications of hundreds of years of anti-Black racism.

that a global pandemic would widely and disproportionately harm the Black community is not surprising.

This country the city its laws its policies its practice and customs have critically under-resourced and divested from Black communities since its inception.

Seattle representatives former and now current council members in their current and past decisions are responsible for a city like Seattle.

One of the wealthiest cities in the world where Black wealth is near zero and on a trajectory to only worsen.

Against this backdrop Black communities were virtually excluded from the federal pandemic relief funding entirely.

The U.S. awarded over $520 billion in PPP aid to U.S. businesses and organizations and less than 2 percent of that aid reached Black-owned organizations.

Now with this $234 million there's an opportunity to redress this harm.

And again $520 billion is over half a trillion dollars.

of a wealth transfer that entirely excluded Black communities.

So here it would just be righting the wrongs and failures of the federal program.

And I know there's a lot of moral discussion about this but truly it was a wide absolute failure.

I've also heard a lot of discussion about services homelessness many many others.

And just want to note here that most of the service providers in Seattle are White-owned and Black community is entirely over-indexed.

So.

This would remedy many of the issues and capture the anti-black racism element.

So, I expect city council to now take this opportunity and its responsibility to remedy behind and make the necessary investments that your predecessors have systematically failed to make and commit to $100 million directly to the local black community.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you very much for your public testimony tonight.

The next person is Amarin Thea.

Good evening.

Thank you for correcting me as well, Ms. Torres.

Oh, yes.

Hi there.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Amarynthia Torres, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence.

We are recommending that the council allocate $2 million in funding from ARPA towards gender-based violence services in our community for the remainder of 2021. As a coalition, we work with over 40 community-based and culturally-specific orgs towards gender equity and an end to all forms of gender-based violence, such as sexual assault, sex trafficking, and domestic violence.

Community advocates provide support navigating the legal system, attending to mental health needs, helping survivors make a plan to stay as safe as possible from the ongoing impacts of abuse, and housing advocacy, among many other critical supports as survivors make their way towards self-determination and safety from abuse.

We know that funding for programs even before COVID was not adequate to meet the acute and complex needs of survivors.

And that need has certainly intensified over the past year, especially for BIPOC survivors, LGBTQ survivors, and survivors experiencing, you know, interlocking systemic barriers in their lives.

So this recommendation of $2 million in funds will ensure that we can maintain existing services while also allowing us to focus on building back better as we look to 2022 funding.

I really appreciate council members' time.

Thank you so much for allowing me to speak on behalf of survivors and behalf of the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Appreciate it.

And the next person is Catherine Dawson, followed by Catherine Campbell.

Hi, Catherine.

Catherine Dawson, you are up.

If you are unmuted on your end, looks like you are.

Just make sure that your phone is not actually on mute itself.

Hi.

Oh, there we go.

Hi there.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Catherine Dawson.

I'm a renter in district 3 and I'm calling in to urge that the council put all of the federal ARPA relief funds towards immediate and long term community led equitable social infrastructure.

And so none of that money should be spent to support policing in any form, including the police force themselves, reforms or civilian committees within the police force.

prosecutors, courts, or detention.

The city should engage in a public participatory budgeting process to determine how those funds should be spent with a focus on supporting people who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

This money shouldn't be used to make meaningful progressive investments in our community that ensure everyone's basic needs are met and work to combat the harms of racial capitalism.

We're currently in a housing crisis and the police are planning to violently sweep many of our neighbors, especially in District 3 currently, and that money could go towards creating permanent affordable social housing.

I also support the earlier calls throughout tonight for vehicle safe lots, tiny house villages, and direct investment in the black community.

I urge the council to allocate this funding for people, not police, and I'm deeply appreciative of my council member, Shama Sawant's continued work for community-led and progressive legislation.

Thank you for your time.

Have a great night.

Thank you so much.

The next person is Catherine Campbell.

Hey, Catherine.

Hi.

Hi.

You can call me Katie.

Katie Campbell.

Hi Katie.

I'm a.

Hi.

I'm a Central District resident and Community Action Committee volunteer with my neighborhood Tiny House Village.

This one focuses on helping Black and Indigenous people who've been displaced from their home transition into permanent housing.

And I see in my neighborhood the impact both of the housing crisis on our people and the success of Lehigh's tiny house programs helping folks into permanent housing.

I'm here to urge the city council in regard to the American Rescue Plan Act to prioritize both non-congregate emergency shelters in order to reduce the health risk to our citizens during this pandemic, such as folks gathering en masse, at Garfield when the winter is poor, you know, weather's poor.

Permanent low-income housing, such as our success with the Clay Apartments investment, and investing in the It Takes a Village program, as tiny houses have seen the highest rates of exit to long-term housing compared to the other forms of shelter.

With the housing market currently at a generational low, right now is the time to invest in properties with long-term housing solutions and proven transitional solutions, such as it takes a village proposal, which would build nine new tiny health villages this year that would successfully serve as a stepping stone to more than 500 people moving into permanent housing.

The majority of the cost of these programs, I'd like to point out, are simply just a one-time startup cost, which are actually really just a perfect fit for these single federal grants.

and I really appreciate all of the time and consideration of the council, and I will relinquish the remainder of my time.

Okay, wonderful.

Thanks for your time this evening.

The next three speakers are Christopher Pearson, Erica Hope, and Ella McRae.

Christopher, it looks like you are listed as not present, so we'll come back to you if you do dial in.

And Erica, that means you are up next.

Good evening.

Just star six to unmute.

Hello.

Good afternoon council members and Seattle Public.

My name is Erica and I am a District 2 resident.

I am calling on you today to invest at least a hundred million dollars from Seattle's release plan funding directly into the local Black community.

Like many others on this call I am deeply concerned that the Black community has been excluded from the federal pandemic relief funding.

The U.S. awarded a half a billion or half a trillion five hundred and twenty billion in PPP aid to U.S.

U.S. business and organizations Less than 2 percent of that aid reached Black-owned organizations, which is ridiculous.

City Council has a direct responsibility to address this wholesale failure of federal relief distribution and the anti-Black policies and individual decisions that excluded Black communities in Seattle almost entirely, which leads to further devastation and compounded harm.

Seattle City Council will soon receive $239 million through the ARPA.

This is a huge opportunity for Seattle Council and Seattle to rectify the inequities within the city.

I want to hold you all to this commitment by asking that you directly listen to those who are affected by our broken system many of which have bravely shared their stories today.

Stories that I imagine are some of the lower parts in their lives and our struggles that they have to go through.

So I ask that you please invest at least 100 million of the ARPA directly to Black community within Seattle immediately.

Thank you so much for your time and for listening to us all.

I yield the rest of my time.

Thank you very much for dialing in tonight.

And that means Ella.

Ella McRae you are up next.

Good evening.

Thank you.

Greetings members of Seattle City Council.

Thank you for your time.

My name is Ella McRae and I am a community builder for Seattle Housing Authority in High Point.

I'm here in support of one of our community partner organizations Westside Babies to advocate and express to you all the continued need of diaper support during this moment in time.

One of my first steps of community engagement after I joined SHA in June of 2020 was doing wellness checks.

Going door to door knocking and asking community members directly what was their immediate need or want instead of making assumptions.

Time and time again their top requests for diapers and baby wipes.

The community that I serve in High Point alone has 600 households many with multiple children under the age of 4. Westside Baby has been a great help in fulfilling this community need.

Donating literally a 15-foot long U-Haul full of diapers monthly to FHA.

Even with this large donation there is still not enough diapers to meet community needs.

In the community I serve alone, there are 150 babies.

When I'm out in community, residents are always asking me, when will the next diaper distribution be?

And if I have any leftover from the previous month.

And as many of you know, due to the pandemic, there are many more babies being born than conceived.

So this need for diapers will only be increasing.

I'm sure many of you on city council have changed a diaper or two in your life.

Now imagine you not being able to change your little loved one's diaper when you feel it's best but waiting and basing it off of how many diapers you have left for this month.

Please keep this thought in mind while you're planning the absence of the AARP federal funds.

I thank you for your time and continued support of our community.

And as to quote a resident today she said we need diapers right now more than we need food.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing that.

We're going to go back to Christopher.

Christopher, thanks for dialing in.

I see you present now.

If you can hit star six to unmute, you are up next.

Good evening, Council Member Mesquita, Council Members.

My name is Chris Persons, a longtime resident of Rainier Beach, the Director of Community Roots Housing, formerly Capitol Hill.

housing.

We provide affordable housing to over 2,000 individuals and families throughout Seattle.

And I really want to echo what my colleague Susan Boyd said earlier.

Our residents are facing significant challenges right now through the pandemic, economic challenges, just the challenges that we're all facing dealing with.

being in home, not having steady work.

It's just the anxiety.

It's kind of the constant harm to our mental health.

And they need additional support during these challenging times.

As Susan said, the way we provide support is through our resident services program.

And we don't get enough funding.

We don't get any funding from the city for resident services.

We currently, have one resident services professional for 400 of our residents.

Best practices would tell us that it should be a one to 100 resident ratio.

So we're really seeking funds through the ARPA dollars to support our resident services and to support the folks that live in our building.

Thank you all for your support and ongoing work.

Thank you very much, Christopher, for dialing in tonight.

The next three speakers are Tom Lang, Michael Winkler-Chin, and Teresa Homan.

Good evening, Tom.

Star six on you.

Hi there, thank you.

My name is Tom and I live in Greenwood, District 5. I also represent Greenwood Finney Greenways, a neighborhood-led group of Safe Street advocates.

I would like to see these federal dollars used to create a safe walking and bike path along the west side of Green Lake.

At the start of the pandemic SDOT responded quickly by implementing the stay healthy program.

Seattleites overwhelmingly support these safe socially distanced places to walk and they use them extensively.

Yet many of us don't live close to a stay healthy street and we have to travel to a public park such as Green Lake in order to stay active and healthy and get some fresh air.

The bike lane along the west side of Green Lake has been closed since the start of the pandemic, however, which means people biking and jogging on the west side have to use an unsafe dirt path that is just inches from fast-moving traffic on Aurora Avenue.

In fact, a jogger was gravely injured, nearly killed by a car a couple of years ago along this dirt path.

SDOT actually has plans drawn and ready to move the Jersey barrier in the middle of Aurora to the side next to Green Lake, creating an outer path along the west side of Green Lake.

This would take an unused portion of the roadway and put it to use as a biking and walking path and would create a complete loop around the lake.

The only thing SDOT is missing is the funding.

I believe these federal dollars should be used to complete this project and make a permanent safe public space that people can that people can rely on during the pandemic.

Thank you.

Thank you for dialing in.

The next person is Micah.

Good evening Micah.

Hello.

Can you hear me?

I can.

How are you?

Thanks for that.

And I am great.

Thank you.

Hi, this is Michael Winkler Chin with the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority.

I'm calling on behalf of a request to fund non to fund resident services for non PSH buildings within the city of Seattle's housing portfolio.

So We provide permanent, affordable, culturally appropriate housing for our low-income families and seniors in the Chinatown International District.

And our neighborhood has been hit hard by the pandemic this past year, and that includes our residents, of course.

70% of our residents earn less than 30% of area median income.

40% of our residents are seniors, 15% are children, and 25% live in multigenerational households.

90% of our residents are people of color, and a large majority of them are non-English speaking.

As I said, it's been a tough year.

Our residents are afraid.

Our seniors are isolated.

Our families with school-aged children have been challenged by access to equipment and resources.

And our residents overall have lost jobs, face financial insecurity, and need mental health support.

Resident Services has helped translate all the information this past year that's come out about everything, because most of the time it only comes out in English.

They've helped families access groceries and meal programs, rental assistance programs, laptops and Wi-Fis for students, vaccines and other health care programs and helped report hate crimes.

But we as an organization are stretched and we need resident services to maintain our housing stability for our residents as they move towards recovery.

Please consider allocating ARPA funds to support resident services for the city's non-PSH affordable housing.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Michael.

The next three speakers are Teresa Homan, Jesse Schenck, and Emijah Smith.

Good evening, Teresa.

And just star six to unmute yourself.

There we go.

Hi, my name is Teresa Homan, and I am Lehigh's tiny house village program manager.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak tonight.

Like you my heart breaks when I see the tents springing up all over Seattle under bridges along residential streets in our parks.

It feels like there are unhoused people everywhere.

I'm here to urge you to prioritize emergency and permanent housing solutions for low income people.

We simply need more low income housing and permanent supportive housing.

I'm also here to ask you to support Lehigh's It Takes a Village proposal to build nine tiny health villages to help address homelessness and to slow down the spread of the coronavirus.

As you know, our villages are a form of non-congregate shelter that allows for social distancing for program participants, and it keeps everyone safe.

They're cost effective, we can get them built quickly, and we can safely shelter people as they wait for permanent housing.

Our tiny houses are humane and honor the autonomy and dignity of each villager.

And they have the highest rates of exit to permanent housing compared to other shelter programs.

We shelter singles, couples, and families with children.

Today at Lehigh, we are training our teams to do this work with love and respect.

Please help us build more tiny house villages so that we can provide peace of mind for even more people who are currently unhoused.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your time.

And Jesse, good evening.

You are up next.

Hello.

My name is Jessie and as a Seattle resident I'm calling on you to invest at least $100 million from Seattle's ARPA funding directly into the local Black community.

I'm deeply concerned that the Black community has been excluded from federal pandemic relief funding.

The U.S. has awarded over $520 billion in PPP aid to U.S. businesses and organizations and less than 2 percent of that aid has reached Black-owned organizations.

City Council has the direct responsibility to address the wholesale failure of federal relief distribution and the anti-Black policies and individual decisions that excluded Black communities in Seattle almost entirely, leading to further devastation and compounded harm.

Now, Seattle City Council will receive $239 million through the ARPA, mandated with investing this money for food assistance, non-congregate shelter, rental assistance, acquisition of buildings for emergency or permanent housing.

I expect all of you to remedy this harm and make the necessary investments that your predecessors have systemically failed to make in the Black community.

Mine too.

And I urge you to give it $100 million from Seattle's ARPA funding directly into the local Black community.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And Amaysia you are up next.

Good evening.

Hello.

Thank you.

I'm Imaiza Smith here.

Appreciate the opportunity to speak.

I would urge I it's really sad to have to ask but really urge and can't even overstate the sense of urgency at a minimum of a hundred million dollars from the federal funding that is coming down to the City of Seattle.

The City of Seattle has perpetually your predecessors in generations past has constantly neglected through anti-Black and racist policies that have hurt the Black community.

It is the policies of the city of Seattle, both the council and the mayor's office, that has had the current Black community in the despair it is in right now.

I am heartbroken at the many service providers who are asking for more funding when it's disproportionately not serving the black community.

When we think of houselessness and people who are unsheltered, it is disproportionate black and indigenous people, black men, black women.

But yet we cannot continue to keep giving service providers who are not black-led, black-owned to continue to uneffectively serve our community.

I am here to say an urge with all the passion that I have in my body from my ancestors speaking from years of neglect and abuse and dehumanization to say this money is owed.

This money is owed, and at a minimum, $100 million.

I would say more, but at a minimum, I'll say $100 million.

Give it directly to the Black community, directly to Black-led organizations, directly to allow us to serve our own community.

Because these institutions have constantly been harming us.

And every time we come and play the game and speak to y'all in the language that you asked us to speak to you, you find a reason to continue not to do it.

BIPOC this, this and that.

No, give it directly to the people.

The money has not been coming.

We are extremely harmed.

It is deserved.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The next three speakers are Teme Wukoma, Trayana Holiday, and Tom Norwalk.

Good evening, Teme.

Thank you.

My name is Teme Wukoma.

I am a first-generation African-Chinese student.

president, I'm here to echo the call for the city council to transfer $100 million of this funding to the black community.

I would read you all the steps and I would tell you all the ways that we've been left out of all the funding that we've heard about today.

I think I will follow in the steps of Umayyadah, my community member, and let you know that We are the ones that you guys lean on when you need to progress forward, when you need to get into the ground, you come to us.

But when we come to you, it is not as urgent as it seems to be urgent.

And so when we are on these calls and we need time in the middle of a work day to be here to say the things that we need to say that are already known, what I urge you to do is truly, truly, truly make a new decision.

Do something different.

Don't go the way that you are at the time.

Don't utilize the people that you've already utilized.

If you know there are people who are underrepresented, I challenge you, I challenge you to do the right thing and transfer this onto millions of black communities.

Because we're living, breathing human beings.

We work with you.

We go through the same grocery stores as you.

We vote just like you.

We care about each other just like you.

So this is something that needs to be done immediately.

There should be no meditation on it.

It's already premeditated.

We need this money.

We know what to do with it.

know the folks who are being impacted and we can utilize it right away.

So thank you so much for listening to everyone.

Thank you very much.

And the next person is Trayana.

Good evening.

Good evening everybody.

As so many people have urged on this call I'm going to echo so many of these sentiments.

The Black community is old.

Period.

Point blank.

As Emijah just spoke so passionately and coming from a place where the ancestors are embodying us at this moment to say right now Seattle City Council has an opportunity to do what is right and right the wrongs right the harms of our past.

We have to be able to find ways to educate our people, to utilize resources that are led by us.

We know what to do best.

Many people on this call have been saying the same thing.

At least $100 million of that money should be coming directly into Black communities so that people can have the resources needed to elevate the material conditions of Black people amongst all of the sectors where we see ourselves in the bottom rung after we gave everything to this country, everything to create the wealth that so many are eating off of, creating the fats of the land that so many families that have nothing to do with our Black hearts have been able to utilize our Black bodies to build their economic wealth.

And it's unfortunate that we even have to flood this call and say to all of you, we encourage you to lead.

We encourage you to do what's right.

We have been continuously needing to beg for the things that we are owed.

And this is time.

Everybody on this call understands the Black community has been at the bottom rung.

And it is now an opportunity for Seattle City Council to say, we are going to change this narrative.

Teresa Mosqueda, I heard you say it at the beginning, that we can no longer deal with the same old narratives we've had.

It is time to invest this money, particularly in Black communities, at least $100 million.

We need to change these disparity gaps, and this is a way to do it.

You guys have an opportunity to lead.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in.

The next person is Tom Norwalk.

Tom, it looks like you are listed as not present.

If you do dial in, we'll be happy to come back to you.

The next three after that are Mariah DeLeo, Lisa Nitti, I believe we already heard from you, but we'll make sure to double check that.

And then we have Clara Cantor.

So Mariah, you are up next.

Good evening, Mariah.

Just waiting for you to pop on my screen here and remember, folks, that you do need to hit star six to unmute yourself.

I'm not seeing.

Oh, there you are, Mariah.

Hi there.

If you'd like to go ahead and speak, you are welcome to.

Thanks so much.

Can you hear me OK?

I can.

Yes.

computer not my phone.

My name is Mariah DeLeo and I'm the Good Food Economy Program Manager for Seattle Good Business Network.

In partnership with the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority we are advocating for the use of ARPA funds to support the restaurant community kitchens.

We've both been supporting and for the additional partners already in operation we'd like to expand our programming too.

We thank the council for including in Resolution 31999 the priority to fund innovative new programs that partner with restaurants, local farms, and food entrepreneurs to provide meals.

Last year, we created Good Food Kitchens, which supports restaurants that provide meals to community members facing food insecurity, while also supporting local farms and suppliers.

We currently work with That Brown Girl Cooks and Now Communion, Solare, Musong, Feed the People, and Project Feast, who have been providing meals to the Southeast Senior Center, Mary's Place, and Seattle Urban League, just to name a few.

These projects represent a community-led model that has the unique ability to support multiple relief efforts at once, helping to foster a just recovery within our region that supports businesses and community members hardest hit by the pandemic, and who are often the most vulnerable and marginalized.

It addresses the provision of nutritious and culturally appropriate food assistance, essential financial support for restaurants to keep their doors open, retaining and rehiring restaurant staff who are majority women and people of color, thus reducing the need for additional financial assistance, and invest in a more resilient local food economy through strengthening local supply chain relationships.

Our community partners avidly support this funding and have signed on to a letter we'll be submitting to you that outlines the details of this program.

Thank you again for your time and consideration to include a provision for restaurant community kitchens in your food assistance allocation federal funding to support COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts under discussion today.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate you dialing in.

Lisa, I believe you already had a chance to speak, so I think it was a duplicate.

We will move on to Clara.

Clara, it looks like you are listed as not present.

If you do dial in along with Tom Norwalk, we will make sure to come back to you.

The next three speakers after that are Cindy Nguyen, Michael Mellini, and Good evening, Cindy.

I see you on the line here.

Just star six on mute.

Cindy, it looks like you're still muted on my end.

Do you want to try and hit star six one more time?

Okay, let's keep Cindy up on the screen, and we're gonna move to add Michael to the screen as well.

Michael, if you wanna hit star six, we will go to you next.

Good evening.

Thank you.

I'm just echoing a lot of people who have spoken already that the council should invest at least 100 million of the American Relief Plan AFT funding directly into the black community, as well as supporting the calls for affordable and tiny housing.

Thank you.

I yield back.

Okay, great.

Thanks, Michael, for your testimony.

We've made note of that.

I'm going to go back to Cindy.

Cindy, just want to double check if you can hear me.

Just star six to unmute.

Okay, we're going to keep you on the screen here, Cindy, and when I see you come off mute, we will go back to you.

So we'll keep you up there.

Again, star six to unmute for Cindy Nguyen.

The next three speakers are Lajeya Washington, Jeff Drewel, and Laura Goodfellow.

Good evening, Lajeya.

Hello, my name is Lajeya.

I'm a Seattle resident, and I am pressing and urging all to invest at least $100 million from the ARPA funding directly into the local black community, yes, and black-led organizations specifically.

As has been said before, a lot of different institutions have been also asking for these funds, but these same institutions have not been equitably serving the populations most harmed in this country.

And especially during this pandemic, I'm really shocked and disappointed that the council understands that the Black population has been disproportionately affected during this pandemic, but has made no specific commitment to invest in Black-led organizations.

And who better to address our problems than us?

As we've seen so far, we have been getting skipped over and skipped over and skipped over when it comes to these investments.

into our community that are supposed to be helping us and we just, this aid has not been reaching us.

And so the city council has a direct responsibility to address this failure, the failure of the federal relief distribution, the failure of these other institutions, its own past failure and its own anti-black policies and individual decisions that have excluded black communities in Seattle, almost entirely.

So when the council receives this $239 million, it is important that the first thing that they do is invest at least $100 million into the Black community.

So I'm not just asking, I'm urging and I'm pressing the city council to do the right thing now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And the next person is Jeff.

Good evening, Jeff.

Just star six to unmute yourself, Jeff.

Perfect, thanks.

Hi, my name is Jeff Cabral.

I'm calling to speak on behalf of the, in support of extending a bike lane or creating a bike lane up the west side of Green Lake along Aurora Avenue.

This is an area that has always been a problem as long as I've lived here in Wallingford, even before the pandemic.

But particularly now, there is no sidewalk on that chunk of Aurora.

It's almost impossible to cross to the other side at any reasonable place.

And then even so, you have to cross back and go along Linden Avenue.

It's a dangerous area.

It's inconvenient for bikers.

There's not even any signs to help you navigate to the arguably safer path that's like two blocks away.

This is a ready-to-go.

SBOT has plans.

I think this will help reduce the highway-like feel of that chunk of Aurora.

One of the reasons it's so dangerous is because the 40-mile-an-hour speed limit is entirely aspirational.

and I don't really blame too many people for that, because it looks like it should be a highway.

So narrowing the street, putting a safe way for people to get both north and south, because even before the pandemic, you were only allowed to go south on the path if you were on a bike.

You couldn't actually go north on that because there was an arrow.

This would be a big improvement to bike navigation and safety, particularly during the pandemic, but also afterwards.

Thanks very much.

Thank you very much.

The next person is Jeff.

And I'm sorry, the next person is Laura.

And I do want to remind Cindy, Cindy, if you can hear me, we will come to you as soon as I see you come off of mute.

Just hit star six to take yourself off of mute.

So Laura, you are up next.

And just star six to unmute yourself as well.

Laura, it looks like you are not present.

Apologies for that.

If you dial back in, we will make sure to unmute.

Cindy, I see you off mute.

Don't go anywhere.

Just a second.

Laura, if you dial back in, we'll make sure to get to you.

Cindy, thanks for your patience.

Please go ahead.

And Cindy, if you are on mute on your own phone, just double check that it is off of mute as well.

Hello?

Okay, we can hear you, yes.

Hi, my name is Cindy, and I'm a resident of District 2. I urge the committee to allocate 100% of the federal ARPA funding funds toward immediate and long-term community-led solutions to build a stronger, more equitable social infrastructure, and to ensure that not a single cent is spent on supporting or expanding policing, the precinct, the child security office, municipal court, or any space for the country.

Excellent.

Thank you.

So you still have time.

Okay.

I appreciate you waiting and thanks for your testimony today.

The next three people are Naomi C., Dominique Davis, and Jim Wallenstaff.

Excuse me.

Naomi, it looks like you are not present, so if you dial in, we will come back to you.

Dominique, it also looks like you are not present, so we will come back to you if you dial in.

And that means, Jim, you are up next.

Good evening.

Thanks for waiting.

Hello.

Hello, Councilpersons and Chair.

Thank you for your patience with this long meeting.

I'd like to thank all the other people who've spoken.

It's been very moving and informing.

I am with the group that is supporting the path along Green Lake.

I have the experience of riding that street in that lane with the traffic.

At least once a year, I forget how truly terrifying it is.

And it is as if you are leaving the beautiful Green Lake area and entering into a freeway.

This is a design, freeway builder's design.

It's wholly inappropriate for the area.

And there are fully, from one side to the other, six lanes of pavement available and only two feet of dirt rutted and full of puddles for humans, pedestrians, and bicyclists.

So I've had the experience.

I would I heard about this proposal, it was just absolutely clear that this was the correct thing to do.

It's not a giant project and will greatly improve the lives of people all around that part of the city and anyone to visit.

So thank you very much for considering it and thank you to all the other testifiers tonight.

Thank you very much.

The next three speakers that we have are Tracy Harrell, BJ Last, and Michael Wilmarth.

And Michael, it looks like you are listed as not present, so you still have time to dial in.

Tracy, you are up now.

If you can hit star 6 to unmute yourself, we will get to you now.

Just star 6 on your end.

OK, Tracy, I'm going to keep you.

Oh, there you are.

Please go ahead.

Were you saying Vanita?

I can hear you.

Hello.

Hi.

Tracy, you are up if you'd like to provide public testimony.

We will restart your time here.

My name's not Teresa.

Is it Tracy?

No, I'm Vanita.

Oh, I apologize, we have you listed as Tracy.

Anita, okay, Anita, why don't you go ahead and...

Yeah, this is Anita.

Oh, please go ahead and state your name for the record and we'll make sure to record it on our end.

Yeah, I'm Anita Reed, I'm with the Lived Experience Coalition, and I'd really like to urge this Piano Finance and Housing Committee to send money to community-based organizations who know how to serve Black, Brown, Indigenous, Latinx, Pacific Islander, Hawaiian people, disabilities, and veterans who have been overrepresented and grossly neglected and impacted during COVID.

The Lived Experience Coalition would also like the allocation of funds to include those members with lived experience and who that work with those most marginalized in the system on a regional approach.

And we highly encourage the City of Seattle to use a racially equitable lens and equity based decision making that involves people most impacted and is utilized in allocation of these funds in order to minimize harm and maximize benefit for racially marginalized and the historically disenfranchised communities within our region.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, and Zanita, I apologize for the name confusion.

We appreciate you dialing in, and I see you listed on my end, so we have you now marked as presented.

Appreciate your time tonight.

Tracy, going back to Tracy Harrell, looks like you're listed as not present.

Again, if you would like to dial in, you are welcome to speak.

The next three after Tracy are BJ Last, Michael Wilmoth, and Naima Clark.

BJ, thanks for waiting, I see you present.

Hello, my name is BJ Last.

I'm a Ballard resident and a small business owner.

And I urge the committee to make sure that absolutely none of the federal ARPA relief funds are spent on supporting or expanding the police, the prosecutor's office, municipal court, or any space for detention.

All of the funds should go to immediate and long-term community-led solutions to build a stronger and more equitable social infrastructure.

And the city should engage in public participatory budgeting to determine how to allocate the ARPA funds.

COVID disproportionately impacted groups that were already suffering social and racial injustices and economic inequality.

In these groups, namely Black, Indigenous, persons of color, LGBTQA, and disabled persons should absolutely be prioritized in the distribution of ARPA funds.

And I urge the committee to make meaningful investments promoting long-term health for our most vulnerable communities through Housing for All.

permanent, quality, accessible housing for all of the unsheltered in our community so we can stop having suites where people aren't offered shelter like what we had at Gilman, just off Park Playground just on Friday, and housing assistance, rent, and mortgage cancellation or deferment for the house to ensure that they're able to stay housed.

Thank you, and I yield my time.

Thank you very much, BJ, and thanks for your patience tonight.

The next person listed is Michael Wilmarth that says you are not present.

We will to you as soon as we see you pop into the screen here.

Please do dial in on the instructions that were sent after folks signed in.

There's a handful of folks that are listed as not present, so I'm going to continue to read folks' names as in the order that they appear, and we will happily come back to you all.

The next people after Michael are Neema Clark and David Hines.

Good evening, Neema.

Thanks for your patience tonight.

Just hit star six to unmute.

Perfect.

Hi.

Hello, and thank you so much for providing a space for community to share.

I would like to echo a lot of the sentiments of my fellow Seattle community members.

I am a local Seattle resident from South Seattle, and I advocate for at least $100 million to go back to Black local communities.

There has been a substantial lack of care, a lack of support, and a lack of just humanity for my black community.

I've seen, since my education, not having culturally appropriate curriculum, not being able to see educators that reflect my appearance, not being able to have food available that was healthy and affordable.

There's been a substantial amount of disadvantage you know, given to the black community.

And I see throughout history where it's been written down and there's a precedent that has been set.

And it's almost as if the black community has not been, you know, lifted up.

I think a lot of these movements who couple us with BIPOC or we create opportunities for POC, they again are negating the fact that black community was enslaved.

Black community built this country.

So when it comes to Black community being afforded any kind of resource, I would like to see where our city council is willing to make that change in history so that my children can no longer be in a city or a system that somehow forgets them or somehow doesn't have appropriately, I guess, appropriate program that you can see yourself reflected.

I've been in community for a long time, and not until I was an adult did I even have, you know, the wherewithal to be able to connect to systems like this.

I would love to be able to see where this city council will advocate at least $100 million to Black community, being that we have built this country.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your time.

And David Hines, you are next.

Thank you, City Council.

This is about the American Recovery Act.

We need to solve the homeless crisis.

It's disrespectful to think this is reparations for black people in a Native American town, still homeless and treaded on by racist bullies, thinking it's about pocketing $100 million because they hate the homeless and the innocent citizens, proving certain people in the community are untrustworthy.

The homeless have suffered exponentially, disproportionate and compounded while being predatorized by black and brown and white drug-pushing pimps, conducting uncivil war on community with evil adults exempted from jail, donating to BIPOC community activists demanding $100 million.

We need the American Recovery Act money to solve the homeless housing crisis.

with 21st century, first world quality housing, commercial buildings and school build outs for job creation in all 50 states and territories for real equity in the whole commonwealth to alleviate the oppression.

We can't use most of the money for, excuse me, we can use some of the money for materials and have the governor direct the Army Corps of Engineers to partner with real union qualified carpenters to begin the 21st century first world quality redevelopment of dilapidated inflated flawed buildings and rentals and shelter motels, while restaurants, about to get millions of dollars of free money, better offer the homeless in shelters and motels a delivery of their food.

Because some of these nonprofits are ripping off the veterans, the other homeless, and the government, forcing us to accept one location of unhealthy food in certain areas and deliveries.

We need to alleviate the oppression from banks owning wealthy and some private entities skimming homeless.

getting rich and expensive progress and the need to alleviate that oppression.

Anyway, let's see, we just need like a multitude of build-outs and an alleviation of the oppression of all the spit-spray disgrace of flawed design buildings shaking down the small businesses.

Take a zero off the property values, please.

They're all run down, dilapidated.

Okay, thank you very much.

We are going to I'm gonna I'm gonna read the names of the basically there's about 15 more people who have signed up to provide public testimony About half are present and half are not present So I'm going to read the names of those who are not present first so that if you are listening You know that now is your time to dial in?

So that we don't miss the chance to hear from you the last folks that are listed here as not present are night soul I'm sorry Those folks are listed as not present and you are absolutely ready to speak when we get to you.

But we see you listed as not present currently, so please do dial in.

I'm going to read the rest of the names here so that folks know who is up next.

And if you don't hear your name, that means that we've already called your name and perhaps you were listed as not present.

You are still welcome to speak if you dial back in.

So the last folks that we have listed who are present, who are listed to speak in the following order include Josh Castle, Ramon Hernandez, Kelsey Bressman, Joe Thompson, John Patterson, Dylan Clutch, Flora Wright, Aiden Carroll, and Manny Cowling.

Josh, thank you so much for having yourself off of mute already and ready to speak.

You are up next.

Thanks for your patience tonight.

Thank you.

Good evening, Chair Mosqueda, Vice Chair Herbold, and members of the Finance and Housing Committee.

I wanted to echo the calls from all the community all-stars who have testified tonight to request the council use ARPA federal funding to prioritize permanent affordable housing, tiny house villages, safe car and RV lots, and deep investment in the Black community and Black community-led organizations.

We need to address this dual crises of homelessness and the pandemic with the urgency they deserve.

As you know, the housing market is at a historic low, and I believe our city can and should take advantage of this opportunity to rapidly acquire new properties at lower prices.

Lehigh did this with the Clay Apartments that is now permanently housing formerly homeless veterans and others.

We need a diversity of affordable housing options, including permanent supportive housing, permanent low-income housing, rental housing, housing for families, youth, and young adults, veterans, and very low-income adults.

We are concerned about so much funding dedicated to rapid rehousing.

This will certainly help some that may be able to pay market rate rent to private landlords before time runs out, but does not create long-term affordability or help homeless or low-income people and families truly in need of deeply affordable housing.

These federal dollars should instead go toward expanding permanent affordable housing along with tiny house villages and safe RV and car lots where on-site case managers can work with residents to help them obtain permanent or long-term housing, employment, healthcare, treatment, recovery from trauma, and more.

Please support the It Takes a Village proposal, led by Councilmember Lewis, and dedicate ARPA funding for an additional $9 million in 2021 to develop and operate nine new villages.

This will get over 500 people off the street into the safe, high-quality, non-congregate shelter that allows privacy, dignity, and protection from exposure to COVID, and onto a path to permanent housing.

Tiny house villages indeed serve as a stepping stone from homelessness to housing, as they have the highest rate of exits to long-term housing of all forms of shelter.

We urgently need more of these.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you for your time and for your patience tonight.

Appreciate it, Josh.

Again, Najee, you are listed as not present.

Please do dial in.

Ramon Hernandez, listed as not present.

Happy to come back to you.

I see Kelsey.

Kelsey, you are up next.

If you would like to hit star six to unmute yourself, you are welcome to speak.

I'm Kelsey Braceland.

I'm Tlingit and I live in the Green Lake area.

I'd like to first and foremost advocate for a justice-based approach to this budgeting process.

The Black Brilliance Project has undertaken quite a lot of work for participatory budgeting.

We should use that.

There's a lot of need for safe living locations for the unhoused such as safe lots for people living in vehicles and tiny house villages.

These are top priorities.

Lower priority I was originally alerted to this meeting through a pedestrian advocacy organization.

I do want to say thank you for creating the Stay Healthy Street.

That project has given me hope that we might create real pedestrian and otherwise human powered infrastructure by repurposing existing infrastructure.

Please keep and expand this low cost infrastructure to help us be safe and reduce the use of private vehicles for transportation which contribute to climate change and lower pedestrian safety standards.

Finally this should go without saying but please abolish the police.

Don't build new detention centers.

Use that money to care for communities rather than employing police for buying them gear, which, as I've personally experienced, they use to oppress the people who live here.

Thanks to all who've spoken and listened tonight.

And thanks to you as well, Kelsey, for your patience tonight.

I appreciate your testimony.

The next two speakers after that were Moumar, Hermensteini, and Eleanor Hagans.

It still has you listed as not present.

We will go ahead and move to Joe Thompson and John Patterson.

Good evening, Joe.

Thank you for your patience tonight.

You have the floor.

Hi, good evening.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda and committee members.

My name is Joe Thompson and I am the president of Mercy Housing Northwest.

Like my peers in affordable housing who have spoken earlier tonight, I'm asking you to Please consider a $2.5 million allocation of the Recovery Act funds to support resident services for the city's non-PSH affordable housing.

The residents at our properties have been hit extremely hard in the last year by the pandemic.

Being low income and predominantly from BIPOC communities has made them bear the brunt of the very worst impacts the pandemic has created.

Job and income loss and food insecurity to name but two.

It has exacerbated physical and mental health challenges already faced by so many.

The children at our properties have been challenged to navigate virtual learning environments in this stressful and chaotic environment.

Mercy Housing Northwest has a longstanding commitment to providing onsite resident services at all our properties and to all our residents.

We have done this with no funding from the city.

Our resident services staff have performed heroically, ensuring the delivery of essential services to residents, making sure benefits were received, rental assistance obtained, and food needs were addressed.

They ensured that residents maintained connection to each other, to critical services, and their communities.

We worked with our young learners to make sure that they had broadband Wi-Fi and proper devices to keep them learning and engaged in school.

Service utilization by our residents increased from 65% in a typical year to nearly 85% in the last year.

This not only clearly indicates the extreme need of our residents, but also our need for additional resources to assist them at this time.

You've set exactly the right priorities for the Recovery Act funds, and our resident services programs fulfill so many of them.

I urge you for your support and thank you for your time.

And thank you again for your time tonight.

Thanks for your patience.

Appreciate your testimony.

John, John Patterson, you are up next, followed by Dylan Koch, Flora Wright, and Aiden Carroll.

And that is all who we have listed as present.

Good evening, John.

Thanks for your willingness to wait on the line here.

I look forward to hearing from you.

And thank you for your time this evening as well.

My name is John Patterson.

I live in Moline for District 4. I'm calling to support and bring this funding to fund the Keep Moving Street program and extend it along Aurora to protect Green Lake Park.

This park is a big reason why I love what I do.

For health reasons, I'm stuck biking and walking on flatter sections of road, obviously in Seattle, but it's a limited set of things.

But Green Lake has been a staple of my life for that reason.

Before COVID, I helped organize a running club around this lake.

And I know that that outside booth gets pretty treacherous.

And during the winter, it's the only option for people who are not comfortable running in the dark along the lake.

But also during the summer, the lower shell is too packed during normal time to accommodate cyclists and faster runners, especially with the COVID restrictions, as many other colors have noted.

Now the situation is much more dire for cyclists and joggers.

To add to the mix, construction along East Green Lakeway North has routinely disrupted the eastern connection to the lake.

Opening up the west would help maintain bikeability and walkability in the time of COVID and construction.

Additionally, this is just an important corridor for the neighborhood as it connects To businesses along linden the north of the lake, but also the east the e-bus stop at north 65th and come this fall The ravenna lake station um so I've seen a lot of post calls myself.

I've seen people get hit Um anytime you mix high speed traffic with pedestrians Not a good recipe and like I said Myself and many other residents depend on this path Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much for your time tonight.

It seems like Julia Buck is next and still listed as not present.

So we'll move on to Dylan Clutch.

Good evening, Dylan.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

Great.

Hi there.

Hi, um, I actually, um, my name is actually Kimber.

Um, just use my legal name.

Wasn't sure if that was necessary, but for the record, we are happy to go by whatever name you prefer.

Yes.

Can you tell me your name one more time just for the record?

Kimber.

K-I-M-B-E-R.

Perfect.

Nice to meet you, Kimber, and we'll restart your time here.

Okay.

Um, Kimber Klock, Seattle resident.

like a lot of folks here, calling for at least $100 million from Seattle's American Relief Plan Act to go towards, directly to the black community.

Just rehash a bunch of the same talking points over and over.

But yes, the black community and black businesses have been completely overlooked by any sort of federal rescue funding during this pandemic, while also being one of the hardest hit uh, demographics, um, which just, uh, I mean, for obvious reasons, unfortunately.

Um, so I, I really think it's, it's super obvious that like government and the people running it don't know what the communities need and they're not listening to the black community.

And, and the easiest solution is to let those communities self-determinate and, and by giving them the resources to meet their own needs and give them autonomy.

I think it's really, really crucial and critical and a moral responsibility of all of the council members and every member of government in this whole country built on white supremacy to undertake.

I yield this for my time.

Thank you.

Thank you and thanks for dialing in tonight.

Appreciate your patience.

The next two speakers are Flora Wright and Aiden Carroll.

Good evening, Flora.

Thanks for your patience.

And it's your turn if you want to hit star six to unmute yourself.

Wonderful.

Good evening.

My name is Flora Wright, and I'm a resident of District 3. I'm calling to say that the committee must allocate 100% of the federal ARPA relief funds towards immediate and long-term community-led solutions to ensure that not a single cent is spent on supporting or expanding policing, criminalization, the prosecutor's office, municipal court, or any space for detention.

This includes police recruitment, training, income support, classes, equipment, or surveillance technology, as well as any so-called civilian department within an SPD.

Participatory budgeting, which should be black-led and community-led, not housed within a city department, must determine how ARPA funds should be spent.

The pandemic recession has had a disproportionate impact on groups who are already suffering social, racial, and economic injustices, including BIPOC, houseless, LGBTQIA+, and disabled people.

I also want to remind the speaker a few people back who said some bizarre things, but 25% of the houseless individuals counted in 2020 in Seattle-King County area were black.

They should be prioritized when ARPA funds are distributed.

Additionally, I express deep concern over the wholesale exclusion of the black community from federal pandemic relief funding in this country.

There's a pressing need for City Council to invest at least $100 million directly into the local black community and to specifically invest in and support the black community using part of Seattle's ARPA funding.

I urge the committee to make meaningful investments that promote long-term healing for our most vulnerable communities.

through permanent quality accessible housing for all unhoused people, assistance for small, black, indigenous, and people of color-owned businesses impacted by COVID-19, healthcare vaccination, and immediate medical release for incarcerated people, and all of their investments identified by the community through participatory budgeting.

Again, none of these funds should go to policing, incarceration, or criminalization.

I yield my time.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thanks, Laura.

And the next person is Najee Lad Ali, followed by Aidan Carroll.

Good evening, Najee.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

Wonderful.

Good evening.

Hey, can you guys hear me?

Yes, we can.

Thanks.

Hey, so my name is Najee Lad Ali.

I am a teacher.

in the community of South Seattle, Rainier Valley Leadership Academy.

Born and raised in South Seattle, and our community has changed drastically.

We have been affected by gentrification.

We have been affected by systematic oppression for years and years.

And within the black community, we don't really have anything for ourselves within the state let alone the city.

And so with this $100,000, I know that a lot of good programs will come about.

I know people will get help and there are a lot of great minds within the community, within the black community, especially with us having land taken away from us for years and generations and not being able to have generational wealth or the means and supports and systems have the knowledge with this $100,000 allocated to the black community, it would be put in the right places, especially now with the injustices that are blatantly going on in front of us that we see today.

And within the schools, especially the school system, which prison pipeline system has been prevalent throughout education for years and years.

And a lot of money can go towards the school systems to decolonize curriculums so we can learn about ourselves.

We can see ourselves more within the school system.

And so the $1,000 for the, the $1,000 definitely should be directed in and put towards black communities for sure.

And that is my time.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate your patience tonight.

And the last person that we have listed as present is Aiden Carroll.

Good evening, Aiden.

Thank you for your patience.

You are the last speaker tonight, so please take it away.

Thank you.

All $239 million of these funds should go to social infrastructure, and that does not include policing, prosecuting, courts, detention, prisons, jails, or technologies, parole, probation, any of those systems.

I want to support at least $100 million to go to the black community.

Ideally, all of this participatory budgeting, but also the safe lock for RVs, speaking of which, I was sincerely discussing rhetoric yesterday on next door in Green Lake against RVs who appear to lack ways to deal with sewage.

And that is something that the city can easily be helping these folks with and in general hygiene.

at stations and restrooms and trash collection and encampments that are needed, the same services that everyone else receives.

Nearby that Green Lake area, in fact, I also want to support the Aurora barrier proposed by the Greenways group.

But in general, there is plenty of need, plenty of We need to plan to help with things involving housing, preparing for the wildfires that we know are coming, transportation, libraries, broadband, supporting businesses and youth employment and mental health and universal basic income.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you very much for your testimony and for touching on many of the points as well that we heard from tonight.

It's a great summary to end on.

Appreciate everyone's time tonight.

That does get us to the end of nearly 80 people who had signed up for public testimony.

Thanks for your participation in this evening's public hearing.

I want to remind folks that we do have a meeting tomorrow that will continue a discussion in our finance and housing committee at two o'clock p.m.

We will discuss the annual action plan, and we will have a discussion as well on the carry forward ordinance, both listed as briefing discussion and possible vote.

I want to thank council members for being with us throughout the evening.

I especially want to thank Council President Gonzalez, Council Member Strauss, Council Member Morales, who were with us at the very beginning, here with us at the very end.

Thank you.

As well as our clerk's office.

Thank you, Amelia and Elizabeth.

Thanks to our IT folks who are with us still.

Eric and Ian and Seattle Channel.

Sun, thank you for joining us this evening.

We know that it's been a long day.

Thank you for joining us at the beginning of the day at our committee meeting at 930 and mostly to the folks who dialed in today.

A lot of this information will go directly into the spreadsheet that we have been tabulating based on the last three meetings and our ongoing discussions from including last year as we talked about the impact of COVID.

So all of this is very timely and very much appreciated and we know that your time with your family and community.

You took time away from them today to join us, so we appreciate that.

With that, if there's nothing else for the good of the order?

Okay, seeing nothing.

Have a wonderful evening.

Hi and goodbye.

Thank you all very much for joining us tonight and we will see you tomorrow at the Finance and Housing Committee meeting at 2 p.m.

Have a good evening everyone.

Thanks for your time and your patience this evening during our public hearing.

Appreciate you all.