Good afternoon.
First of all, I'd like to welcome everybody to the Filipino community of Seattle.
We are pleased to host the press conference of the Seattle Rescue Plan with the mayor, Mayor Jenny Durkan, and council member Teresa Mosqueda today.
Our organization exists to serve the well-being of the Filipino community of greater Seattle.
We serve our community through providing space for cultural gatherings, connecting families to critical resources to ensure their health and wellness, amplify the voices of Filipino community to our elected leaders, and provide out-of-school programming for youth that nurtures their learning and culture.
Over the last year, We have partnered with the city to ensure that the Filipino community has had access to health information, resources to family, and connection to vaccines.
We have been a pop-up clinic for vaccination four times already here.
As we look to the next 12 months and start to reopen our in-person program cultural events and to opening this incredible affordable housing that we're at right now, which is called the Filipino Community Village, we know that We, there are still a lot of things that we need to take care of.
We know that everybody has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and that, you know, there are still families that will be needing help.
There are still families that will be not being able to pay their bills, their rents or mortgages, and businesses that don't know if they can still open.
or if they will continue to open, as well as some children that, due to this online education, are not able to meet the expectation or are failing.
So these needs are real and we know that it is still a long road to rebuild our community.
We look forward to partnering with the City as they roll out these funds to support community recovery.
When we partner, we can move more successfully in getting the support to those who are most in need.
And when we partner, we know that we can serve our community while affirming their culture and language and reduce barriers to access.
I want to thank Mayor Durkin, Council President Gonzalez, and Council Member Teresa Mosqueda for their work in developing the Seattle Rescue Plan.
And on behalf of the Filipino community of Seattle, we are ready to support Seattle and the Filipino community's recovery efforts and looking forward to a better future.
Thank you.
I just wanted to say a few words.
Thank you very much for being here.
We are so excited to have the opening real soon of this village.
I think it's the end of the month is coming up.
So June, come back again.
And I wanted to also say thank you to Mayor Durkan, to Council Member Teresa Mosqueda, and the rest of the Seattle City Council member.
And I think Riley is here from Yeah, from Councilmember Gonzalez's office.
So thank you very much.
Thank you, Mayor.
We're really excited, so please come back for our opening.
Thank you.
Thank you both.
It is so great to be back here and it's so great to be here for this really joyous occasion.
I want to thank the Filipino community of Seattle for everything they've done, not just in these last 14 months, which have been so extraordinary difficult.
But for the vision they had for community, which you're seeing part of right now, that goes back over a decade.
And we know that the success of our city's recovery really depends on community.
And it is community that has stepped up time and time again to get us through this pandemic.
And that if we can learn to support community, we are so much better off.
You know, in October of 2019, just before the pandemic hit, I was here for the groundbreaking.
And I had been here about six months before that to announce the award of the money for this amazing project.
And I just have to give so much credit to the leaders of the Filipino community who have had this vision for so long.
Velma Valoria, who you heard from, who, when she was a state rep, fought for a vision like this, has always been based in community.
I won't tell you about how she taught me the Macarena in the building next door.
But we know that the progress we've seen is because building healthier communities starts with community.
Back in February, I delivered my state of the city from the room across the street.
And in it, I laid out a really ambitious plan for the city of Seattle in recovering from the pandemic.
And at that time, we had just started on vaccinations.
It's hard to remember how bleak things were.
Seattle Fire Department had only vaccinated a little over 4,000 people.
But we got to work.
And with partnerships in the community, our City of Seattle vaccination program was able to make sure that we focused on the BIPOC communities, those communities of color that were so hit by the pandemic, both the economic and the health impacts.
And we saw the vaccination distribution was not equitable.
And I was able to even come to one of the pop-up clinics here.
It was not for the lumpia, I promise.
Um, but we had really great news yesterday to be able to announce here we are today.
And yesterday we're able to announce that the city of Seattle, 12 and older, that we have vaccinated 76% of the people at least one dose.
I mean it's remarkable and over 60% fully vaccinated.
It only happens because of the community-based organizations who really rolled up their sleeves and did food banks and child care, who did all the things to get us through this pandemic.
But we know we still have much left to do.
Today I'm really pleased to be able to stand here to announce this with Councilmember Mosqueda and Councilmember Gonzalez, who hoped to be here but couldn't, but she is a full part of this too, to announce how we're going to have the Seattle Rescue Plan using $130 million of the federal funds.
This joint plan reflects our shared values as a city, and that's why we're able to stand here, the City Council, together with the Mayor, together with community, because we know we're not yet through this, but we can look to the future to see how we recover.
We will kick-start Seattle's recovery by prioritizing business, the revitalization of our neighborhoods, and increasing shelter and housing for people experiencing homelessness.
This month marks the 16th month that we've been in a pandemic.
I've been reading a lot about the 1918 pandemic to see how Seattle came out of that, draw comparisons, and what I didn't realize is that pandemic in Seattle only lasted a matter of months.
But here we're in the 16th month, and while we're finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, as I said yesterday, that's finally not a train, we know that we have to have a significant impact on our city in the future.
There's still so many people that have to pay their bills, students who have had to transfer to virtual learning, parents who had to, as essential workers, go to work, small businesses who shut down, people who lost theirs, and everyone has had to endure the impacts of isolation.
And we've really seen that in our senior citizens, some of those who are served right here at this community center, who stood up meal programs because they knew that people needed that.
We've listened to the science in this city.
We did the hard things.
And as a result, our city has some of the lowest disease, hospitalization, and death of any city in America.
That doesn't happen by accident.
It happens because people did what was right time and time again.
And this community took care of each other.
Our businesses are now starting to reopen.
Kids are back in school.
Sports and cultural events are happening.
But we know the recovery work is just beginning.
People, families, individuals, businesses, so many are still struggling.
We know with this money, and I really have to thank Councilor Muscade and Councilor Gonzalez and all their staff who work so hard to really listen to what people needed.
Our rescue plan has to be and will be grounded in equity.
Before the pandemic hit, we already saw huge disparities in our city.
But through the pandemic, the disparities were laid bare, and we saw how deeply they were embedded in generations of historic systemic racism.
We have to acknowledge that.
We cannot have a healthy city and an equitable city if we don't truly address that at its roots.
So the first phase of the Seattle Rescue Plan, over $128 million will be flexible funding from the federal government going towards economic recovery of our city, but focused deeply on equity.
There's a robust plan that's going to put Seattle not only on a path to economic recovery, but on the path to being a more just and equitable city.
The largest portion of the funds will go to homelessness and housing investments.
We know we need more.
Our region's homelessness crisis has been exacerbated by the pandemic and the social impacts of the pandemic.
Before the pandemic, we had such a crisis in affordable housing.
Where you're standing right now is part of that solution.
With community knowing, we have to have affordable housing that's community-based so that people can live in and around the city and have generations living together.
We also know we have to address income inequality through access to critical resources and make our tax system more fair.
We can't do that through this recovery plan, but we will do it in conjunction.
We will address homelessness and income inequality through the resources that we can have by making longer term investments in affordable housing.
Not just shelter, we will do more shelter, but also more affordable housing.
We want to really, really stress all of the investments that we're making we did in conjunction with King County.
Not just the city council and the mayor working together with every city department, but we've been working in concert with King County so we can be looking at how do these investments work together to make our region a stronger, better place coming out of this pandemic.
We'll also prioritize the recovery of our businesses and non-profits, our downtown and our neighborhoods.
Millions of dollars in funding will be made available to the economic recovery of small businesses as long as support towards neighborhood activation and revitalization.
Our communities and neighborhoods know best how they can recover and what they need.
So we're looking at a process to get the money into the hands of community businesses and people as quickly as we can to start a meaningful recovery.
We also know that we have seen everybody impacted through the pandemic.
And one of the cornerstone things we've had for equity has been our Seattle Promise program, that it gives two years free college to every Seattle public school graduate.
But those graduates and those Promise students were struggling with the same thing everyone else was, every other student, having to move to virtual learning, falling behind, isolation, loss of job.
So we're making sure that we keep our promise to those Promise scholars.
And so some of this funding will make sure that we give them the supports they need to continue in their education.
As Seattle's economy recovers every step of the way, we have to ask ourselves, are we really making true our pledge for equity and our supports of the BIPOC communities who have not just been left behind by generations of disinvestment, but who this pandemic hit the hardest.
We listen to community leaders.
That's how you form a package that works.
And from that, we're able to also look at what direct funding we can give to community, to individuals who are still struggling.
So a big part of this project that I know that Council Member Mosqueda will talk about is, how do we give that direct supports to people who still need it?
In closing, I really want to thank all of the City Council, but particularly Council Member Mosqueda, Council President Gonzalez, who couldn't be here today and has suffered such a personal tragedy, but she and her staff have worked tirelessly to make sure that we got this right.
And working together with all of the staff, the departments, and then grounding it on listening to community.
on what people know they need and really empowering community because that is where we'll come back best, strongest and it will be most enduring.
So together we've created this and I again want to turn it now over to Council Member Mosqueda who will make some remarks.
Good afternoon, everyone.
As the mayor just mentioned, Council President Gonzalez could not be here today due to personal loss that she and her family are dealing with.
So I'm here to deliver some remarks on her behalf.
I know that the city stands with me as well as we thank the council president for her tremendous work.
Her staff, Cody, who is here, has been working very diligently on this proposal.
And as she has been working hard, we send our thoughts and our prayers to her and her family for her tragic loss.
The Council President says, Relief is on the way with the American Rescue Plan Act.
Funds are here to help our city respond to the immense needs for city recovery.
Seattle City Hall has worked together to develop a proposal that is responsive and flexible to Seattle's immediate needs while planting seeds for our longer-term needs in community.
I want to thank Mayor Durkin and Budget Chair Mosqueda for their collaboration and partnership as we put together the Seattle Rescue Plan.
We have a rare opportunity here to direct investments from federal funds into much needed infrastructure, like permanent affordable housing, like child care facilities, making sure that those in our community have their livability needs met and residents and families can be healthy and safe.
And at the same time, Seattle's Rescue Plan will help address many of our immediate needs as a city to revitalize our commercial districts, to ensure that public spaces have resources to make them more welcoming, inclusive, and accessible for residents, workers, and businesses.
Seattle should be for everyone.
As we seek to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis, we need to do so in a way that also addresses our ongoing challenges like wealth and income inequality, housing instability, and the lack of opportunity.
As people and as a city, we have changed drastically in the last 15 months.
And as we start to look towards the work of recovering, I reflect on the ways we have looked out for one another during this pandemic and am eager to continue to work together and build a more equitable, just, and sustainable Seattle for all.
Those are the words of Council President Gonzalez.
I'd like to now make sure that we get a chance to hear from someone who has their fingerprints on this as well.
The mayor mentioned the hundreds of community roundtable discussions we had, the thousands of individuals who provided public testimony and wrote in and called, and hearing directly from those most impacted by the impacts of COVID is how we together crafted this proposal.
And no one knows better the impacts of COVID on families and kiddos better than our next speaker.
Our next speaker is Angie Hicks-Maxey.
the Executive Director of Tiny Tots Child Care and Early Learning Center, and a longtime child care advocate, who will be here to talk about the child care investments.
And then I'll come back for some closing comments.
Thank you.
Welcome, Angie.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilperson, and to our Mayor.
Good afternoon.
My name is Angelia Hicks-Maxey, better known as Angie, and I am the Chief Executive Officer of Tiny Toss Development Center, which is located in South Seattle, and it was founded by my dear mother, Helen Hicks.
I am here on behalf of the Seattle Child Care Business Coalition and our organization.
We fully support the decision by the Seattle City Council and the Mayor to provide the financial lifeline of early care and out-of-school time education workers.
This investment is huge.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced our city to make some hard choices.
Many employees were forced to work from home, and the city literally shut down.
The K-12 educators transitioned to offering remote learning, and Governor Inslee deemed child care as essential services.
and the providers met the challenge.
We remained open to be there for families of young children who needed our support and care the most.
Were we scared?
Yeah, we were scared.
We were fearful of this new virus as well, but yet we continue to remain in harm's way to ensure that the children we care for had a safe place to go while their parents continue to work.
Child care staff are literally heroes, and they deserve this recognition.
Thank you for making this initial investment to ensure that the providers can recruit and retain a diverse staff of child care educators.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, Angie.
Give it up for Angie.
So in closing, I want to again express my appreciation for the opportunity to be here.
And I think that this morning's weather is a sign to all of us that we're not out of the storm.
We're not out of the rain yet.
Our community continues to socially distance, our community continues to wear their masks and our community is still continuing to get their vaccines.
And I want to thank Mayor Durkin and the incredible leadership of her team, also in partnership with King County for the response to COVID over the last year plus.
We've had, I think, a city that our country can be proud of and look to as an example.
And so many people have been able to have their lives saved and have a healthier community in the last year because of your leadership.
I appreciate that.
And at the same time, we know that our city's response has had to change.
In the last week, you saw indication that we are now going directly into community, making sure that those who are hardest hit by COVID actually have community organizations who are leading these last efforts to make sure that those who've been disproportionately impacted by COVID have community trusted partners who are doing this last leg of outreach.
It's often the community organizations who built the trust and have the relationships and know best who needs services and how to reach them.
And that's exactly the same lesson learned that we applied in the Seattle recovery plan in front of you.
We are making sure that we're applying these lessons by allocating resources through this bill directly into communities who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID, making sure that those communities have resources they need in hand to address the crises in front of them.
We're doing this through flexible grants for our smallest businesses, direct cash assistance to hardworking families and individuals.
making sure that there's supportive care for community organizations who serve our youth and our seniors, and that there is rental assistance for families and small businesses and pathways out of homelessness.
We are responding to these immense immediate needs while also beginning to plant the seeds for a more equitable long-term recovery.
These longer term investments are in affordable housing, in acquisition and development so we can have more places like this.
There are grants for capacity building, especially recognizing many in our BIPOC communities haven't had investments so that they can lead, have their own directive, whether it's a non-profit organization or a small business of their own, making sure that they're receiving grants directly.
Investments into our youth through apprenticeship programs and investments in child care providers.
This bill aims to help create investments that will create healthier communities now, but also recognize that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to plant some seeds that can grow into a more equitable economy if we have intentional investments that follow this to make sure that we truly recover more equitably.
The ARPA investments that we are talking about today center direct services on those most impacted in our city, while ensuring we're doing these one-time investments to infuse directly into communities, to create pathways to economic stability, resilience, and educational opportunities for all.
We are putting an emphasis on partnership and working with organizations within those communities directly affected and making sure that they receive the funding first.
So let me give you a few examples.
We're talking about $8 million into childcare capacity building and direct assistance to childcare providers.
We're talking about $25 million in direct cash assistance to those communities who've been hardest hit by COVID, that's individuals and family members.
We're talking about $28.5 million for acquisition and development of permanent affordable housing.
while we build at least three new tiny home villages and make sure that more hotels are available to shelter those while we create this affordable housing.
We have great challenges in the city of Seattle and with those challenges we know that this funding offers us an opportunity to restart and rebuild in a more equitable way.
This bill alone will not address all of the impacts of COVID alone, but it will help propel us to a more equitable economy if we continue with the investments that we know are on the horizon with the fall budget and the summer trailer bills that are about to come.
Importantly, as the mayor noted, This bill includes an infusion of ideas directly from the community.
I mentioned countless hours of roundtables, the thousands of folks who called in, the hours of public testimony that was provided, and the opportunity to infuse into this draft Councilmember priorities, community priorities, and making sure that we had the Council President and her team at the table helping to craft this has been a tremendous opportunity.
Within this proposal that the Council President, myself, the Mayor, the community, and the Council are releasing, we have shown that instead of division, this bill was brought to you through coalition and collaboration.
Instead of individual priorities, this bill focuses on community voice and the common good.
Instead of politics, this bill focuses on policy.
These are the things we know we can agree on.
These are the things community has said that they need now.
And these are dollars tomorrow that will make a dramatic impact and help set us on the course for a more equitable economy.
So I'm excited to have the opportunity to introduce this bill with these esteemed speakers here today.
I want to again thank the tremendous team that led to the creation of this.
Our central staff team, Ali Panucci, is leading up the effort, along with the entire central staff team.
Sejal Parikh is my chief of staff, along with Cody Ryder from Council President Gonzalez's office, the council president herself, and the mayor's team, especially Julie Dingley and Director Ben Noble from the city budget's office.
So again, the storm still lingers.
The clouds are starting to part.
We are excited that people are finally getting vaccinated, but we also know that as we see excitement, as people start to gather in events like this, they have community meetups, neighborhood gatherings, people are staying socially distant and safe.
We have to plant these seeds now so that equitable economy is realized within the next few months and we can build on it in the next few months and years to come.
Thank you very much and I'll turn it back over to Mayor.
That's so great.
Thank you very much.
And thank you.
And I think I was at your place like right before COVID hit.
Two weeks.
Two weeks before.
Sitting with children.
Sitting with children, reading this close together.
And she gave me the, you know, Straight out of Tiny Tots t-shirt.
That's right.
You know, the one thing no one understands about child care, it's not just everything you describe, but there's studies that show that it is the number one thing that can affect whether women can go back to work.
And so many families who are single parent families, if the mom doesn't have child care, the family doesn't have food on the table.
And we know that it has been such a limiting factor.
Just a study released this last week showing that in the recovery, it's going to be one of the most critical components to provide.
So that $8 million actually translates and is synergistic because it will play out over so many families and give those families and those children security they didn't have.
real champion that has always been Council Member Mosqueda, so I want to thank her for that.
It's amazing what having kids will do.
Any questions we have?
I think we're handing out a fact sheet that will have all the exact breakdowns, so I won't have exact numbers for everything, but happy to take some Q&A to anyone up here.
And I would really urge If questions to the community, you'll see as you leave, there's a, in the middle of the alley, there's a big circle that's going to be a community sun that is painted there and connect this community with the others.
So this is just such an amazing place to be able to do this because it's such a symbol of hope as we start to reopen.
Matt.
Oh, sorry.
So we still have to work that out, obviously, in terms of how that works and what portions.
But we know from what we've done already that people need rental assistance.
And there's basically two biggest buckets, and that's rental assistance and food security.
And so we will continue the programs we've had that have shown this work.
It is amazing the difference it has made to so many families.
For example, our grocery voucher program, which we phased out, It was the lifeline for so many people.
So we are really going to really focus on those people we know from the data we have that still need that level of assistance.
Yeah, absolutely.
Just to add to that really quickly, about 11 days ago, we were really pleased to finally receive the ARPA guidance from the federal government.
Two Mondays ago, that guidance clearly stated that cash assistance to those who've been disproportionately impacted by the consequences of COVID are an allowable use for ARPA.
So we've written it into the bill to make sure that those who've had a disproportionate impact of COVID impacts on their life, their economic stability, as the mayor was just mentioning, can have direct cash assistance.
Folks have asked, well, how does that work at the city?
Well, guess what?
We have proven that it can work with the immigrant and refugee assistance dollars that Council President Gonzalez led on last year when we did our first COVID relief proposal.
And earlier this year, through the three of us again, Council President Gonzalez, the mayor, and myself, we released a hospitality assistance package, and that was direct assistance to workers in restaurants and in hotels, for example, that work in the hospitality industry.
So we have examples within the last year of how we can allocate direct cash assistance.
And as the mayor said, the details of the allocation process and the amount to be determined, but very proud, $25 million is there.
We know from the national data, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, this is one of the best economic stimulants for small businesses as well.
When people have cash in pocket, they spend it in their local economy.
The question for you is just how confident are you that the council and your fellow colleagues will pass this as is?
Well, I think that the legislative process is always that.
We want to make sure that we work collaboratively with the executive to bring forward a proposal that I believe reflects many of the council members' priorities, many priorities that we've heard directly from community members.
There will be a legislative process.
The bill gets introduced officially on the calendar tomorrow.
We will see it published on the calendar on Monday or Tuesday.
And then we'll have a hearing on Friday.
We'll also have two hearings coming up on the 15th and the 16th.
I assume, like any piece of legislation, Community members are going to see it.
They're going to call, and they're going to talk about various priorities.
But we- Small democracy.
But I also want to recognize, as we've talked to community partners, the need is so much bigger than the $116 million in ARPA.
It's so much bigger than the $12 million we're adding through the home dollars.
$130 million is not enough to address the crises that we see in our street and create that more equitable economy.
So as a reminder to everyone, this is going to be a building plot, a block.
a building block, a launching pad into future conversations for the July trailer bills and the fall budget because we know we must do more.
I'm proud of the package we put together and I know that there will be ongoing conversations about how we may move some things around, but the core concepts here today, I know council members will see their priorities reflected.
I've been listening very hard to them.
Yeah, and I'll just, I'll follow up with that, Matt.
As you know, I meet regularly with all council members.
So obviously through this process, I've also been asking, what are the priorities you have based on your district?
And so, you know, we've been collaborating greatly with Council Member Mesquita and the president.
I also listen to other council members, the community.
I've been out doing neighborhood walks.
Can finally do that again.
So I've been getting the direct input, which is always very effervescent.
And it's been great.
I can't give you an exact date but I can tell you because of the experience of the last 14 months we found programs that work to get money to people quickly.
We stood up a lot of those programs overnight, and we relied on people like King County, you know, Seattle King County United Way.
We have other community-based organizations.
So we have resilient structures in place, and it's not going to be just the government doling it out.
It's really going to be how do we get to those programs we know that work.
Oh, it'll be this year.
Before I leave.
And that's part of the urgency of why we wanted to stick to getting it done in June.
That's part of the urgency of why we wanted to stick to getting it done in June, so that this process could be wrapped up by July, so that we could move on to the implementation.
Just on that same distribution, direct distribution, any idea what the qualifications would be?
It's very vague in here, but can you be any more specific on who would get the direct assistance?
You know, part of that is looking at the design of the program.
And as Council Member Mosqueda noted, we had to wait for the ARPA guidance to see how we could use it.
You know, it's very difficult to use state monies for those purposes.
So this federal money is now unfiltered.
So we really are going to be looking at, we know from the data, who has been most impacted and remains impacted.
And that's where we're really going to focus the money.
All right.
It's a great day.
It's another day of hope and sunshine.
See?
Madam Mayor, may I ask another subject here?
As you know, it's a big news story today out of the Washington Attorney General's office with the charging of those Tacoma officers.
Is this a new day for police accountability in Washington state?
I think it's a continuation of a new day.
And again, I think we have to look at what happened in the state legislature this year.
And it again was community voice that drove the change.
It was people moving into the streets, raising their voices, ensuring more accountability.
And I think the Attorney General's action is a direct reflection of each part of government now has to be more accountable.
And I think too many of us saw the videos and have said there has to be more accountability.
So I really have a lot of respect for the Attorney General for stepping in to what's a difficult thing.
But I think what we saw in Minnesota and what we're seeing here is holding police officers accountable when they use excessive force and they shouldn't is a critical part of building rebuilding community trust.
Without it, we can't do it.
I have to ask about Assistant Chief Kirk Jack and the demotion by Chief Diaz yesterday.
Do you agree with that?
And should he be held responsible for all those days of incision during those early days of the program?
I want to talk to Chief Diaz because I don't have all the information he based it upon.
And I also want to talk to Andrew Meyerberg at length to make sure that OPA feels that we have had a robust accountability process, and then examine whether the accountability ordinance gave this ability to a chief of police as the manager of the department to make the final decisions, but we may need to have some conversations about if there needs to be more guideposts there or more transparency or a different process.
I'm not prejudging that, but I do think that there's a lot of questions in community, and my experience is questions often lead to distrust if they don't get answers.
And so we people have to know what to expect.
I applaud for holding people accountable.
I think that's critical up the chain.
But I want to be able to talk to the chief what his reasoning is.
So we've had a long, robust conversation with the school district.
They're a billion-dollar organization with funds and resources.
The person who wrote the process for the city's approach now works for the school district as the lawyer.
They have someone who works for FEMA.
We're working with them so that they can stand up their own process.
And I hope that they are able to take that approach.
I mean, I think that if they follow what we've been able to do in many places using city properties and city resources, that you can have a very compassionate-based outreach, and you can also move an encampment that has a particular public health or safety risk.
And so the school district needs to step up, and we are there to help and assist them, but they cannot shirk their obligations and duties for school property.
It's imposed not just by law, but what parents and families expect.
I know they care passionately.
They're working to do it.
And so we're working with them to see if we can help them stand up a process similar to ours.
Okay, and this is the last one.
Yeah, we drafted the payroll tax.
This is the jumpstart progressive payroll tax with large and small businesses, with community partners and laborers at the table to make sure that in our state that has the most regressive tax system in the country, that we were stepping up, especially in this moment of crisis for those largest companies who've done well and sometimes done better during COVID, that they pay a small assessment towards helping to make sure folks have housing, equitable development and investments in Green New Deal and a resilient economy.
It is on only the largest businesses and only on the largest salaries.
What we have crafted along with the attorneys at the city has on solid legal ground.
I know that they want to see the type of investments, they being the challengers, the chamber, want to see the very type of investments that Jumpstart is going to be addressing.
That's housing, that's equitable development and investments in our economy.
I hope we can put this lawsuit behind us so that we can get to work in deploying those dollars that will be in hand at the end of this year as we craft a budget to make sure that there's over $135 million a year going into housing, and that we're investing in equitable economy and recovery.
We all have the same goals.
Let's put this lawsuit behind us.
Hopefully, Friday will help with that, and we'll make sure that we can build those dollars into our budget going forward.
Yes.
Thank you.
You want to address basically any of that?
Would you, any of you like to say anything since we're in your home to close?
To close?
Yes.
First of all, I wanted to say that I agree with their plan for action to make sure that our communities are taken care of.
And we really wanted to also say that the issue of housing is really important for a lot of our community members.
The issue of rental assistance, the food assistance that we have been getting and bringing out to the community.
We really, really need it for our community-based organizations, for the BIPOC communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19.
So I really appreciate the budget that they have put forward, and we're there to support the mayor and the city council members.
Thank you.
And we're here for you.
Yes.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, everybody.
Thank you.