Seattle City Council Housing and Human Services Committee 2/12/25

The 12th meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee will now come to order.

I'm Kathy Moore, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Council President Nelson.

Council Member Rink.

Present.

Council Member Sacca.

Here.

Vice Chair Solomon.

Here.

Chair Moore.

Present.

There are four present.

All right, thank you.

I'll note that Councilmember Nelson is excused today.

And then I would also like to extend a warm welcome to our newest committee member and our vice chair, Councilmember Mark Solomon.

Welcome.

Thank you very much.

All right, so thank you everyone for being here today for the February 12th meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee.

On today's agenda, first we will have seven appointments.

The first is to the Housing Levy Oversight Committee, three are for the Human Rights Commission, and three are for the Pacific Hospital PDA.

Our final agenda item is a presentation from our Office of Civil Rights, from all the commissions, and they are here today to do an introduction to the work they do to make Seattle a better place and their policy priorities for the upcoming year.

So today, so there are no questions about today's agenda.

We'll move on to public comment.

We will now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comment should relate to items on today's agenda or be within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

We currently have one in-person speaker and one remote speaker.

Okay, so each speaker will have two minutes.

We will start with the in-person speakers first.

Clerk, can you please read the public comment instructions?

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

The public comment period is up to 20 minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they registered.

Speakers will hear a chime 10 seconds.

When 10 seconds are left of their time, speakers' mics will be muted if they do not and there are comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Okay, please call our first speaker.

Gary Lee.

i'm gary lee and i've been before the council a few times regarding the comp plan regarding this policy dt hsp5 and it's regarding um concentration of homeless or human services around the downtown and i'm requesting that you uh this committee direct um opcd and hsd to work on that zoning regulation that i've been talking about um i'm requesting that you ask um hsd to look into that as part of this process so that you can be in tune and with this process get them to work with opcd to come up with that zoning regulation and i think it's the time to do it right now because this is open process to implement the comprehensive plan and this is related to that so i'm asking you to look into that use your committee direct HSD to look into that and to work with OPCD so that you can request those modifications when it's coming up.

I guess it's March 15th or something like that.

So hopefully you'll do that, and I'm just pointing that out to you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And please, if you haven't, go ahead and leave your written comments in the box there.

And then we also did receive them up here.

Oh, yes.

I sent this email last night, but I corrected it this morning.

That little circled part says regional center.

I said it only said urban centers last night, but I corrected it this morning.

So each of you should have that.

Okay, yeah, we do.

All right, thank you very much.

Okay, clerk, our next speaker.

The first remote speaker is David Haynes.

David, please press start.

Hi, thank you, David Haynes.

It's obvious that the city council has absolutely no motivation to solve the homeless crisis.

Here we are in the dead of winter and there's absolutely no effort to build capacity of shelter.

Nothing on the agenda to solve the lack of proper shelter capacity.

Only another do-nothing, go-through-the-motions, virtue-signaling, race-baiting, button-pushing meeting, while it's another winter of suffering for the innocent, as if it's passive-aggressively okay with counsel, as long as people don't protest.

It's like the only thing that Democrats care about is building the capacity of a whole bunch of community stakeholders who line their pockets with government money and then reciprocate by donating to their political campaign that allocate their money that waters down the integrity of the oversight that trades election support for not scrutinizing the squandered money, creating subhuman shelters and housing and services for BIPOC, evil, repeat, offending criminals.

Yet the city council wants to virtue signal how much they care for gender-based commissions, sexual orientation commissions, and racist affirmative action infractions at the Civil Rights Commission who hate white citizens.

What's this got to do with the homelessness crisis?

Maybe if we had trustworthies at the civil rights commission, they would investigate all the racist woke city of Seattle employees conducting a race war against innocent white citizens who are houseless and forsaken.

This is another easy payday of going through the motion and no real leadership, no real effort to write laws to tear down and take over and rebuild the lands on Aurora where those God forsaken slum motels are that were used for trafficking.

and turn it into positive emergency housing.

Yet council caters too much to the privilege that treads on everyone else, acting like they got their homes.

Now no one else is allowed to build or move into the neighborhood unless you live on the side of the road next to the transit-oriented inner-city depot.

Shame on this whole city council for your lazy, do-nothing, continued societal implosion, public safety crisis, homeless crisis, housing crisis, which has been exacerbated by the same spending priorities created by the defund

Chair, that was our last speaker.

That concludes our speakers.

All right, thank you.

So there are no additional registered speakers, and we'll now proceed to our items of business.

Clerk, will you please?

Oh, I'll just have the record reflect that Council Member Saka has joined us in person.

Welcome.

Will the clerk please read the first agenda item?

Excuse me, we'll read agenda item one, thank you, into the record.

Agenda item one, appointment 3072, appointment of Jennifer Labreck to the Housing Levy Oversight Committee for a term to December 31st, 2030 for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

All right, thank you.

You all know Jen.

Jen is our central staffer who serves as a policy analyst to all nine Seattle City Council members on matters related to housing, homelessness, and human services.

Her appointment is for the seat on the Housing Levy Oversight Committee reserved for the Council representative.

Are there any comments or questions from committee members before we move for a vote?

Okay.

Seeing no further questions or comments, I now move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointment 3072. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointment 3072. Will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendation?

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Councilmember Saka?

Aye.

Vice Chair Solomon?

Aye.

Chair Moore?

Aye.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation to confirm the appointment will be sent to the February 18th Seattle City Council meeting.

Will the clerk please read agenda item two through four into the record.

Agenda Items 2 through 4, Appointments 3073 through 3075, Appointments of Miranda Kasambas, Philip Lewis, and Gautam Puda as members of the Seattle Human Rights Commission for terms to July 22, 2026 for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

All right, thank you.

So the Human Rights Commission serves in an advisory capacity to the Mayor, the City Council, the City Office for Civil Rights, and other city departments.

Miranda has experience with nonprofits, grassroots activism, and community involvement.

She's currently working towards her Master's of Public Administration.

She looks forward to engaging with local government and working with other members of the Seattle Human Rights Commission.

Philip works as a youth and community pastor at Union Presbyterian Church and is called to help create a city where everyone can thrive.

He's committed to being part of the solution in his work with the commission.

Gutham has lived all over the country and previously served as a human rights commissioner in Austin, Minnesota.

He looks forward to contributing to the Seattle Human Rights Commission.

Are there any questions or comments from committee members before we move for a vote?

Okay, seeing no further questions or comments, I now move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 3073 through 3075. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded.

To recommend confirmation of the appointments, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Vice Chair Solomon?

Aye.

Chair Moore?

Aye.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation to confirm the appointments will be sent to the February 18th City Council meeting.

Will the clerk please read the title of agenda items five through seven into the record.

Agenda items five through seven, appointments 3076 through 3078, 3076 through 3078, reappointment of Robert D. Cook, Paul Feldman and Douglas Jackson to the Pacific Hospital PDA for terms to December 31st, 2027 for briefing discussion and possible vote.

All right, thank you.

So the Pacific Hospital PDA funds efforts to improve health equity in King County.

Robert has served on the Pacific Hospital PDA since 2014. Excuse me, his work has included acting as the strategic advisor, serving on the Real Estate Development Committee and the Finance Committee, where they oversaw the structuring of municipal bonds.

He's participated in the issuance of more than 870 bonds, totaling 18.4 million, excuse me, 18.4, $18.4 billion.

Paul has served on the Pacific Hospital PDA since 2015, also serving on the Finance Committee until 2022. Paul is very active as a community leader in HIV AIDS advocacy and policy.

And Dr. Jackson is a clinical professor in the Department of Oral Health Sciences and the Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the University of Washington School of Dentistry.

This will be his second term with the Pacific PDA.

Colleagues, are there any comments or questions before I move for a vote?

Okay, seeing no further questions or comments, I now move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 3076 to 3078. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

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

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Sacca.

Aye.

Vice Chair Solomon.

Aye.

Chair Moore.

Aye.

For in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation to confirm the appointments will be sent to the February 18th Seattle City Council meeting.

Will the clerk please read the title of agenda item eight into the record.

Office for Civil Rights Commission, introduction and update for briefing and discussion.

If you'd all like to come to the table.

Okay, so while everyone's getting seated, today we have with us Rena, Emily Rose, Crystal, Ashley Brett, and Jessica from the Human Rights Commission, the Women's Commission, the LGBTQ Commission, and the Disability Commission.

They are here today to provide an introduction to their respective committees, provide an update on their work thus far, and share some of their top policy priorities.

So before I turn it over, I just wanted to say how grateful I am that we have such committed volunteers to help make Seattle a much better place for everyone and make it a thriving and equitable city.

It is important to receive, I appreciate all the work that goes into thinking about and making recommendations to the Council, and it's always important to have a variety of opinions presented.

It makes good food for thought, so I appreciate that.

And also, as a former chair of the Human Rights Commission, I understand the passion and effort that you all put into your work, so thank you for that.

So again, if you'd like to introduce yourselves and then begin.

And for the record, Councilman Rivera has joined us.

Can you hear me?

Hi, my name is Ashley.

I use she and they pronouns.

I'm one of the LGBTQ commission co-chairs.

I live in district five and work as a nonprofit fundraiser.

Hello, my name is Brett Popowski.

No third person pronouns, please.

You can just use my name.

I am one of the co-chairs of the Seattle LGBTQ commission.

I've been serving for about four years on the commission and I live in district two in North Beacon Hill and I work in Pioneer Square.

Hi there.

My name is Philip Lewis, and I'm one of the co-chairs of the Human Rights Commission.

And I live in District 7, and this is my first year possibly serving.

So I'm glad to be here.

And thank you, Madam Chair, for the introduction and being a fellow chair as well for the Human Rights Commission.

Welcome.

We have some people online.

Go ahead, Crystal.

I can go.

Hi.

Do you hear me?

Okay.

Yep.

We can hear you.

Awesome.

Hi everyone.

My name is Crystal Guerrero.

I'm a co-chair on the women's commission.

I live in district four in Wallingford and I've been serving on the commission for about two and a half years now.

And I just want to echo what Phillip said.

Thank you commission council member Moore for all of your support with our work.

Welcome.

Hi, everybody.

So lovely to see you all today.

My name is Jessica and I co-chair the Seattle Disability Commission.

I'm really excited to be here and thankful for all of y'all's time.

Great.

Welcome.

All right.

Well, I guess I'll start.

Yeah, so as I shared before, my name is Philip Lewis, and I'm one of the co-chairs of the Human Rights Commission.

Our other co-chair, Avery, and other co-chair, Brianna Quander, was not able to be here today, and so I'm representing the three of us as co-chair.

The Human Rights Commission advocates for the protection, promotion, and fulfillment of human rights for all of Seattle residents by addressing systemic inequalities, amplifying community voices, and advising policymakers in that work.

The SHRC works to build a just and inclusive city for all Seattleites.

And I just want to note that we just came off of a retreat recently.

And it was exciting thinking about the possibilities of having close to a full team.

And our commission is really excited about the work that is coming in the next year.

And so we're excited also to collaborate with you all in that work as well.

So one of the things I want to share real quick is the commission makeup.

So we currently have 19 commissioners that are on of the commission, just as I named Avery Holtgren, Brianna Kwander, and myself are the co-chairs.

Our appeals lead is Nicholas Layden.

Our communications lead is James Munger.

Administration lead is Miranda Katsambas.

And then our financial lead was in process when we made this presentation, but we have filled that position as well, which is exciting to think about.

His name is the commissioner, Nick Layden, is going to be our finance lead.

And our secretary is Gwen McCullough.

Next slide.

And so I'm gonna walk us through four intersecting topics to kind of shape the work that we do on the Human Rights Commission.

And so the first is our internal operations.

So one of the topics that we're gonna be focusing on this year is having a full commission, which is 21 seats, with demographics representative of the committee.

the commitment with a goal of 80% from protected classes.

We're currently at 19 seats, and so we're looking to fill those other two seats to have a full commission in the coming year.

With that, one of the goals also was to fill all leadership roles and ensure duties and shared equality and responsibilities are held.

We have just filled all of our leadership roles, which is exciting.

So we're meeting that goal as of right now.

The second is appeals.

And so in the work that we do, we partner with the Office of Civil Rights.

And what we do, the HRC conducts hearings to assist in resolving reported discrimination in areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations.

To carry out this work successfully, the HRC intends to meet the following goals.

To fully staff all appeals hearings.

To maintain an appeals chair, which we have met that, and to maintain that.

and to participate in general hearings that happen at the Office of Civil Rights in the appeals process.

And then the final thing that I want to share in these topics is general advocacy and guidance.

Beyond core advocacy and recommendations provided through appeals and task forces, the HRC will advise the city of Seattle, elected officials, and other commissions on issues of human rights in Seattle.

This includes general advocacy of awareness around human rights issues, such as through the events of our Human Rights Day events and partnership and connections with residents directly to city officials.

One of the things that, just to kind of add to that point, one of the things that came out of our retreat is an excitement to connect with particularly neighborhood councils.

and to be able to listen to different neighborhood councils.

Since a number of our commissioners span across different districts, being able to listen to the needs that kind of come up around human rights, how we can be partnering in community with neighborhood councils, and creating events of both awareness and also advocacy, and working with you all to promote a more equitable city.

So next slide.

And so, based out of this work, we have task forces, and so from these task forces, the HRC focuses on criminal justice reform, housing in the unhoused, and human trafficking.

In Seattle, we believe that these issues drive substantial human rights violations and are top of mind for both a lot of people who work in Seattle and live in Seattle as well.

And so with that, as we break down the task force, I want to highlight the criminal justice reform's goals.

in the work that they do.

And so the Criminal Justice Reform Task Force supports organizations similarly aligned around reformation of the cash bail system, incarcerated labor practices, sentencing reform, and incarcerated educational opportunities.

We hope to work with organizations that are already doing this work and collaborate with them on community events and education events to help move forward some of these reforms that need to happen in our city and both on a state level.

Some of the organizations that we would hope to work with are organizations like Community Passageways and Civil Survival, organizations that are already doing this work in community and just partnering alongside them in that work.

Building relationships as I said earlier with community members and creating engagement and feedback opportunities The HRC really believes that the best solutions don't come from the top down But it comes from community raising them up in a grassroots way that creates sustainable change for all that are impacted specifically those on the margins and so with that these feedback opportunities and engagement opportunities, we hope to do this work more equitably and invite community into that work as well.

And then the final thing, one of the final goals that the Criminal Justice Reform Task Force has is to relate community priorities to you all, to existing legislative efforts that you have on the agenda and to collaborate at the local and state level and organize and support activities that are happening at the city and the state level.

Quick question, do I stop for questions or is that at the end?

Good question.

I think we'll go ahead and let people ask questions as we go because it's not too long of a presentation.

So that said, are there any questions at this stage?

I'm looking at Council Member Rink, I think she does have a question.

Sure, I was gonna hold them to the end.

Well, hi, welcome, and thank you for your service as a co-chair and a commissioner.

And you mentioned it's your first year in this commission?

It is, yes.

Welcome, and thank you.

I'm particularly excited about all of our presentations today, just given the state of the national discourse around our basic civil liberties and really looking to our commissions as leaders within community to help us kind of guide the way of how we navigate this time.

Just with what you were sharing about the work plan, I kind of have a natural curiosity around the criminal justice reform body of work and looking at also the intersection of immigration right now and what we're seeing with a agenda related to mass deportation.

And so thinking about opportunities for connecting with the Immigrant and Refugee Commission and just curious if that's something that you are potentially planning to do and what some of the discourses around maybe reform at like the Northwest Detention Center.

So I hope that's not quite a fully formed question, but I'm curious about that intersection because it feels particularly pertinent as it relates to human rights right now.

For sure, yeah.

I believe that's a partnership that we really want to cultivate, especially, like you said, in light of the national discourse and the realities that are impacting our community.

There hasn't been any immediate plans for that, but I know that that's something that's top of mind for our criminal justice task force.

And so I'll take that back to our task force to share about how we can get that conversation started.

Yeah.

Great.

Thank you.

Much appreciated.

Yeah.

Cool.

Awesome.

Well, I'll continue.

The second task force is the Housing and Unhoused Task Force.

And so our goal is to advocate for housing for youth.

One of our goals is to advocate for housing for youth in the extended foster care system, supporting the passage of Senate Bill 5082. And so for those of you who might not know what Senate Bill 5082 is, I'll read the bill, some of the bill context for you all.

The bill establishes a new housing assistance program specifically for youth enrolled in extended foster care in Washington State.

It aims to address the issue of homelessness among these young individuals as approximately 13% experience homelessness in the last fiscal year of 2024. The program will provide rental assistance and associated housing fees to eligible youth, allowing them to receive support while remaining dependent and still benefiting from federal programs when they turn 21 years old.

The eligibility criteria includes being a recipient of extended foster care services and experiencing homelessness or being at imminent risk of homelessness.

Additionally, the bill mandates the department to conduct a transition planning process for youth in extended foster care at least three months before they turn 21. So preventative care in that way.

And the process will assess their housing and financial stability, support applications for federally funded housing vouchers, and provide referrals to various assistance programs.

I just want to note, in 2024, 757 youth entered extended foster care, according to the Department of Children's, Youth, and Families.

And within that program, 13% of those are experiencing homelessness currently.

What this bill does is this bill will help address youth homelessness in Seattle, as well as across Washington State.

And so we are wanting to partner with both you all, city officials, and also state officials, state senators and house reps that are promoting this bill.

It is a bipartisan bill.

that is getting support on both sides of the aisle in the Washington State Legislature and is a bill that a number of our local senators in our Seattle area both support as well.

And so that is one of the goals that we have as the Housing and Unhoused Task Force.

The second goal is to establish relationships with partner housing organizations.

Organizations that are not limited to but include the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, Seattle Housing Authority, Seattle Social Housing Developer, King County Housing Authority, the City of Seattle Office of Housing, and Compass House Alliance.

And a lot of that was strategically based around the ways that they show up in community and the ways that they are part of larger conversations both on the county level and on the city level around housing and sustainable housing and equitable housing in that way.

And then the third and final goal is to raise awareness about housing issues with the community and host community events.

And to support awareness around housing issues within the community.

Next slide.

The final task force is the Human Rights Task Force, which will, one of the four goals is to focus on the FIFA World Cup that's coming in 2026, which is exciting, to enhance victim support services, to increase public available data on human trafficking that's happening both at a city level, county level, and state level, and to increase penalties for traffickers that are participating in this work of human trafficking.

and that is the goals for the Human Trafficking Task Force.

And so some of the ways that they hope, sorry.

Council Member Salka has a question.

Oh yeah, sorry.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you for this presentation here so far.

No worries.

You should see me up here sometimes.

But in any event, thank you for this presentation.

Really appreciate this body of work.

Looking forward to learning more as the presentation progresses.

But if you wouldn't mind going back to that very last slide you were just on.

Yes.

Oh, the one right before that.

There we go.

Talking more specifically about some of the work for former foster youth.

And so, colleagues, you know that I am a former foster kid.

I spent the first nine years of my life in and out of the system, mostly in, in the state of Minnesota, before my father.

a Nigerian immigrant was able to finally take custody of me and essentially rescue me from those circumstances.

And so I'm grateful for where I am today, personally and professionally, and always will never forget my backgrounds and origins.

And this bill sounds important.

It sounds like it's oriented towards housing.

Housing is one of many challenges facing former foster youth.

The stats are dire and bleak.

for foster youth, as we know.

If you've been in the system for one day, your outcomes in life are horrible, statistically speaking.

There is literally a foster care to prison pipeline and a foster care to homelessness pipeline amongst others.

40 and 50% respectively, of kids who have been in the system, one day, end up down one or both of those paths.

And that's just housing.

And so this is an issue that is very important to me, colleagues.

You know I've already helped champion a number of issues for foster youth on Chair Moore's committee, on this very committee, and will continue to do so.

I acknowledge I have a blind spot because I was not aware of this bill, Senate Bill 5082. Do you happen to know the current status of this bill?

Question one and question two is do you happen to know, I understand the commission's official position, do you happen to know the city's official position on this bill?

And if the answer to both of those is less clear right now, that's fine too.

No, yeah.

We actually have been tracking the bill recently.

So as of right now, we believe that it is in the Appropriations Committee.

And so I think it's moving towards executive session, as I believe.

So it's pretty far down the pipeline within the session right now.

And so any support.

We've been keeping track of committee meetings.

Any support that you all could give to that particular bill is always appreciated.

And then to answer your second question, I do not know particularly what the city's position is on that bill.

Not your toil, that second thing.

So that's our struggle.

So thank you for that.

I've had the pleasure already during this short session of testifying on a few bills and organizing signature gathering campaigns, letter writing campaigns.

And I would like to learn more about this bill.

And so is this thing on?

OIR, OIR would love to make sure this specific bill is included in your next presentation during our next council briefing, request one.

And look, I'll personally be looking for opportunities and it's not just this bill, but OIR in my office very well knows that anything tied to you know, foster youth is an important priority of mine and our office of housing, OCR and any like city implementation and administration of this work, it's a priority of mine.

So like be on notice everyone in the near term OIR, please make sure that we're closely tracking and monitoring.

We'd love to make sure this is included.

And I'll be again, looking for opportunities to personally champion this.

and do my part.

So thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yeah, thank you for your support and for, yeah, just sharing your story in that way.

Because I believe, I think that really is, it's our stories that impact the policies that we implement in our world today.

And so thank you for sharing that, Councilmember Saka.

All right, we have another question.

Councilmember Salomon.

Yes, thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Weighing in on this issue of foster youth, for a number of years I served on the Board of Youth Care, and I know that A lot of kids who get into the foster system, they age out and wind up on the streets.

So this is also very important to me, just as it is to Councilmember Saka.

So I would appreciate getting some updates as to where this particular Senate bill is, what our position as a council is, what our position as a city is.

Because, you know, if we're going to end adult homelessness, we need to start with youth homelessness.

And if we strive to end youth homelessness, we need to look at the foster system and not penalize a kid who ages out and put them out on the street.

So I just wanted to make that comment.

I appreciate your work, and I would appreciate getting continued information and updates from you.

Thank you.

Yes, definitely.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Yeah, we would love to work with you all, Council, on even if it's a resolution to bring a position around that the city has

so that um it elevates that to the state level i think every every little thing helps and um yeah we look forward to working with you on that so thank you for your support yeah to that point um so every before every legislative session um this the council uh sets forth what its legislative priorities are going to be for that session and when we try to partner with the city, but it would be really helpful actually to hear actually from all of the commissions.

You could present to us your recommendations for legislation that you would like to see added to the city's legislative agenda.

So, and that's something Definitely.

We could even, yeah, make an opportunity for everybody to submit that to us so that we actually, you know, catch something like this, the Foster Care Youth Bill and lots of other bills too that we would, yeah, like to be able to encourage and give the full weight of the City Council's endorsement of that.

For sure.

Just going forward for next year to keep that in mind.

Okay.

Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you for indulging my questions.

I know I don't sit on your committee, but you know these are all issues.

You're an honorary member.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Issues I really care about.

I want to thank you all for being here and thank you all for the work that you do.

I will echo what Council Member Moore said in that we understand the legislature.

The legislative session moves very quickly.

And bills get added.

And so although in the beginning we have a legislative priorities list, as it gets going, we know there are other bills that wouldn't necessarily we would know about.

So not just at the beginning of the session, which I think would be helpful to have just a list from the commissions on the bills that you will be tracking.

Throughout the session, if other bills come up, I would encourage you to reach out to us, email us, and send us a copy of bills.

that you, or not copy of bills, but a list of bills that you all think you would like us to support because it is fast and furious.

I understand there's about, I might be getting this wrong, but I thought or heard there were at least 1600 bills being considered in Olympia at any given time this session.

in particular, and so it makes it, you know, we have to partner together to track all of these bills, so really appreciate you bringing it up.

And then another thing I wanted to say as I was sitting here and listening to my colleague, who I know has a personal experience with the foster care system, I do not, but I did help Covenant House, if anyone's familiar with it, it is a community-based organization that helps foster care and other at-risk and homeless youth, really.

It's not specific to foster kids, but a lot of kids have at one time been in foster care, and then they run away, and then they make their way to Covenant House, which really helps kids with housing and independent living and teaching all the skills that young people need to be successful.

And also have done work in the court system with family abuse and neglect cases.

I have some not direct but indirect experience and very much support things that we can do to really support foster care kids and other youth who are homeless in our city.

And I will say toward that end, I was typing here and I already sent our Office of Intergovernmental Affairs an email asking about SB 5082. So just to say sometimes when you see us typing up here, it's not that we're not paying attention.

Sometimes in real time, we're doing these things because all of this moves so quickly and we need to be able to get our questions answered as you all raise them.

So just know that's happening and we'll track it.

But thank you very much.

Thank you, Chair.

You're welcome.

Council Member Ring.

Thank you.

I wanted to take us to the slide on human trafficking and that body of work.

And with FIFA, the World Cup coming up, we're going to have a lot of folks coming into the city.

And unfortunately, we know with a number of these major sporting events, there's a correlation with also a spike in human trafficking activity.

So really encouraged to see that this is a part of your work plan for this year and would love to know.

how you all are being included in some of those discussions.

I know there's planning meetings all over the place.

I would just love to know how you all are being included and consulted on this matter and how we can be more supportive in getting you into spaces where these discussions are happening.

Yeah, no, thank you for your support, Council Member Rink.

I think one of the biggest ways that you all could help support us in this work around FIFA, is I believe there's a FIFA organizing committee on the city level that has ongoing conversations around the city planning for FIFA 2026. And so I think being able to get either an invitation or knowing when those meetings are happening will help us to be able to be in those rooms in the conversations that are happening so that we can kind of weigh in and be a dialogue partner in the planning and work that we do.

So I would say that's probably like the number one thing that is just getting through the door in that way.

So yeah, thank you.

Yeah, as to the human trafficking, so I'm glad to see that that is one of your agenda items.

Obviously, it's an issue of serious concern and priority for me.

And it would be nice, we do need to focus on FIFA, but it's happening every day currently, right?

So to the extent that we can continue to tackle it currently, as well as for this major event.

I'm certainly happy to partner with the Human Rights Commission and the Women's Commission, LGBTQ Commission.

It crosses all of the commissions, really, this work.

So I'm just offering that interest and willingness to work with everyone on this and really trying to...

One of the problems that's happening is there are so many different groups working really siloed and we need to end the silos and we really need to bring everybody together to amplify the power of all the work that's being done because it's really being watered down, unfortunately.

And the other thing I think that's important to look at, and I know it's not necessarily popular, but we have to figure out how we reduce demand.

We need to start having some hard conversations about what it is about our society that tolerates the demand that creates the market for human trafficking.

So that is a human rights issue, I believe, and it would be nice to have have some of those conversations about how to do that.

Not necessarily in a punitive way, I mean that's certainly one tool and that's one tool that is important to use, but ultimately it needs to be a societal and attitudinal change.

And I think that the commissions are a great place to begin those kinds of discussion.

So just putting that out there.

No, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you all for your comments and questions and support in this work.

And then let's go, yeah, that's perfect.

So looking ahead, so our 2025 focus, kind of as I shared through the work of the task force is supporting bills and initiatives related to housing and the task force's priorities that I just shared through an equity and restorative justice lens particularly.

The second thing that we're focusing on is building and expanding community partnerships and overall visibility within the community, more listening sessions and events with partner organizations, neighborhood councils, and you all.

And to your point, Madam Chair, that's what we really want to do this year is create more of a coalition working together with the city and with neighborhood councils.

councils and local community members particularly impacted by these issues and these particular topics because just like you said, it's in coalitions that we get things done and substantially change our society for the better in that way.

And so the type of support we would like for the council is actually the support that you all are giving right now in this meeting.

And so I just want to thank you all ahead of time for your support and being dialogue partners.

and working together on possible resolutions, particularly but not limited to SB 5082. And we're wanting this to be a collaborative relationship and partnership in that way.

And so any ways that we can support you all in the work that you're doing, I think it goes both ways.

It's not just a one-sided thing.

The type of support we'd like is to approach legislation.

We'd like for you all to approach legislation with a race and social justice lens through the RSJ Division Works pillars.

And so this is through the Office of Civil Rights.

It was established as a really monumental lens to help us create policy on all levels of the governance that impact communities most impacted and that sit on the margins.

And so some of the kind of values of that is to center those most impacted, because those are where the solutions come most equitably from.

And the people who are most impacted know what they need.

Justice should be the first consideration, not the last.

Healing is a necessary pathway to justice.

Inclusion is intersectional.

And reflection as a means of re-evolution in our systems of governance on every level of the city.

And so those are some of the RSJ's values and pillars in the work that the RSJ does on the city level through the Office of Civil Rights.

And so we ask that you all would collaborate with us and also legislate through your capacity from this lens.

The second thing is to be accessible to commissioners.

And I'm already hearing that you all are excited to continue to dialogue around the work that we're doing.

And so that continued openness and accessibility is huge.

It's key.

It helps us to be able to create a stronger partnership in that way together.

and then how we would like to partner with council, just kind of as I mentioned, building initiatives that focus on our areas that we're focusing on right now, a working relationship, as I mentioned, and collaboration on the legislative agenda.

And so knowing ahead of time just what you all's legislative agenda is and how we can be a part of that dialogue and process as well is something we'd like to do together.

And that is, I believe, my presentation.

Any other questions or comments?

No, I don't think so.

Awesome.

Well, thank you for your time.

Yeah, thank you very much.

All right.

We are now on to the Women's Commission.

Hi there.

I'm Emily Rose Barr and I am one of the co-chairs of the Seattle Women's Commission.

Thank you for having us this morning.

My fellow co-chair, Crystal, is also here.

She's attending online.

So just a brief introduction of the Women's Commission.

The Seattle Women's Commission, our role is to advise the mayor, city council, and city departments on issues impacting women in Seattle.

and this year we've identified three primary focus areas, which are gender-based violence, reproductive health, and affordable housing access.

The commission aims to address these issues through policy recommendations, advocacy, and increasing public awareness.

And a brief introduction.

Like I said, my name is Emily.

I joined the Women's Commission a little over a year ago.

I was also new to Seattle.

I moved to Seattle about a year and a half ago.

And I was really eager to get involved at the local government levels when I learned about the commissions through browsing the list once I saw that the Women's Commission existed.

I knew it was the commission that I wanted to be a part of.

Outside of my commission work, I currently work in private practice as a mental health therapist, where I work exclusively with women in the Pacific Northwest.

So I serve women in Washington and Oregon, as well as on the East Coast in Maryland, obviously all virtually.

And I live in District 2, Columbia City.

I've been living there for a year now.

Really loved the neighborhood.

And some of my hobbies include hiking, baking, listening to audiobooks, and exploring all of Seattle.

And can Crystal introduce herself online?

I'll hand it over to Crystal to introduce herself.

Crystal, you're available.

We'd love to hear from you.

Thanks, Emily.

That was a great introduction.

I gave a quick introduction a little bit earlier, but I will quickly just share again that I have been with the Seattle Women's Commission for about two and a half years.

I've served as chair for a little bit over a year and a half.

I live in District 4. I see Councilmember Rivera's on, so hi.

Love being your constituent.

And I used to work at a nonprofit that supported getting women and girls in outdoor activities.

It was called SheJumps.

And I currently work at AT&T in digital marketing.

And I'm so excited to be here today.

And I appreciate Emily sharing all of the wonderful things that we're working on.

So Emily, I'll pass it back over to you.

Thank you.

So now we'll talk a little bit about our work plan for this year.

So our gender-based violence subcommittee, our mission is to advocate for equitable policies and programs that prevent violence against women, sexual assault, domestic violence, increase access to quality and responsive services, and promote healthy and safe spaces and relationships for people by developing relationships with journalists and community leaders who are consistently speaking about gender-based violence to further understanding of the issue and multi-level response, to organize an event to elevate local voices working to raise awareness about gender-based violence, and amplify policy and public awareness information related to gender-based violence on the Seattle Women's Commission social media pages and website.

Our next subcommittee, Reproductive Health.

Our mission is to address reproductive health disparities affecting women in Seattle by engaging with the community and individuals to better understand the impact of limited, accessible, and affordable reproductive healthcare and its racial implications.

Lending the Commission's voice to provide institutional backing for key policy and community-based initiatives and amplifying the voices and work of community groups, healthcare providers, and other relevant stakeholders by sharing local reproductive healthcare-related information on the Seattle Women's Commission social media pages and website.

And our third and final subcommittee, Affordable Housing Access.

Our mission is to identify and address barriers to shelter and housing and to support safe, affordable, accessible housing options for women and families in Seattle by advocating for Seattle City Council to increase affordable housing by adding the necessary provisions of the 2025 budget proposal and supporting other legislation throughout the year.

Collaborating with local housing organizations, particularly those focused on women and families to explore opportunities for partnerships.

And again, through sharing affordable housing resources with the community through our social media channels.

Looking ahead, some goals more specifically for this year are, again, like Philip mentioned, working to initiate prevention efforts against domestic violence and trafficking for the 2026 World Cup.

As a member of the Reproductive Health Committee, we'd like to participate in the Seattle King County Clinic in April 2025. which brings together organizations, civic agencies, nonprofits, businesses, and volunteers to produce the largest community-driven free health clinic of its kind in the United States.

And affordable housing access, we'd like to attend the Housing Washington Conference, which is happening in September of this year in Bellevue.

And a little information about that, it's Washington's most significant resource for affordable housing guidance, innovation, and solutions.

And it's led by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission in partnerships with the Washington State Department of Commerce and Washington Low Income Housing Alliance.

And the primary purpose of the Housing Washington Conference is to enhance the skills, vision, and understanding of professionals working in affordable housing in Washington State and challenge them to work toward racial equity and social justice.

Additional opportunities for collaboration include partnering with City Council and the Seattle Office of Civil Rights Liaisons to develop proclamations for annual events such as Women's History Month, International Women's Day, which is in March, Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April, and Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October, and we're also considering hosting a domestic violence event in October.

And that's all.

Any questions?

Thank you again for having us here to represent the interests of our commission.

And we're really looking forward to collaborating with you all this year.

Thank you for that.

Okay.

Councilman Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

I just want to thank you both for being here.

Crystal, thank you for flagging that you're a constituent.

I always love meeting constituents.

I will say this work is very near and dear to my heart.

For many years, I sat on the Northwest Women's Law Center, which then became Legal Voice.

all these issues, the gender-based violence, reproductive health and housing access for women is something that we continue to struggle with and I very much appreciate all the work that the commission does and all our community-based organizations that work on behalf of women in this city.

So please, I am a partner please do reach out.

Let me know what I can do to help.

I'm not aware of any current bills that you're tracking in Olympia, which is quite frankly of concern to me, given that all the bills that I said there are before Olympia.

Anyway, so just moving forward, please know that I am a strong friend.

and do flag things that you think that I and this council can help support with because like I said, we very much care.

And I know that chair, you care very much about these issues too.

And I appreciate your leadership in this space as well.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Emily and Crystal.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm not sure.

Was it Saka or Rink that was next?

Council Member Saka?

I think Council Member Rink was next.

Oh, okay.

Go ahead.

I'm sorry.

Thank you.

Ms. Emily, Crystal, thank you for today's presentation.

A lot of the topic areas, again, that you're focused on on the commission are front of mind for me as well, again, navigating increasingly on certain times.

And I wanted to focus on reproductive health care access because I think it's really important to name that for our community just in December, we saw Virginia Mason Franciscan close their birth center.

and also cut reproductive health care access by, I believe it was fully eliminating the option for abortion access, as well as vasectomies.

So to that end, would love to better understand how the commission is engaging on these issues with regional partners.

It's just a really hard reality for me to understand that even in a state such as ours, in a community such as ours, which has taken steps to protect this kind of access because of a hospital merger, we've had folks within this city lose access to those healthcare services.

And so would love to know from a commission perspective how you all are engaging on that matter, if you all have recommendations for us on how we can be doing work here on the city council level to be trying to bolster and work on this.

Just wanted to name that and also just seek your counsel on what we can be doing.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's a great question.

Thank you.

I think one of our largest goals for this year is just to increase awareness of the things that are happening, like the closing of that center and the, what's the word I'm trying to think of?

those services no longer being available to women, the abortion services and other reproductive health services.

I think that with regards to the closing of Virginia Mason, there are a lot of folks who weren't aware of that, who aren't aware of the negative implications of the hospital mergers.

I think particularly with hospital mergers, they're often presented as a benefit to the larger community.

However, again, the negative implications of that are overshadowed, and I think Knowledge is power, so communicating to the larger community that these closures are happening, that these mergers are happening, and what that means for us.

As far as how we'd like to work with council, I think that's something that we are still brainstorming around.

And just happy to collaborate with you guys as these...

As these closures and initiatives are taking place, I think having your backing, having your support, and collaborating around what we can do to spread awareness and to tackle some of these issues head on is a priority.

How we do that is, again, still a work in progress.

but definitely something that we would like to continue focusing on this year.

So thank you for asking and for your commitment to supporting us in that way.

Certainly.

Crystal, do you have anything that you'd like to add?

Yeah, that was great, Emily.

I would just like to add that we have, I believe, six new commissioners joining our commission, and we have our retreat on March 1st, and our goal for March 1st is to come together and ideate on all of the legislation that is being passed through Olympia right now.

Councilmember Rivera, I think you mentioned it was 1,600 bills.

There is so much going on with the federal government right now that pertains to women's health and our rights, and there's so much work that needs to be done to fight what's going on with this current administration's And so we are going to come together.

We're going to put our brains together.

We're going to work on as much as we can.

And with your support, I'm sure we're going to be able to do a lot of great work together.

So more to come from the Women's Commission, definitely.

And so glad to have your support on what we want to do.

Thank you.

Councilmember Salka?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And I'm glad that Councilmember Rink went first.

I think her hand was raised before me, but even if it wasn't, I'm glad she went first because this is a presentation from the Seattle Women's Commission.

So it's appropriate that, you know, Councilmember Rivera and then Rink go first rather than the dude jump in.

Hey, I have some questions, comments, in any event.

So thank you all for your work, really appreciate this.

Crystal as well, thanks for calling out.

It's a technical term, BS, the administration's BS.

In any event, if you can go back to, but I really appreciate this work and I endeavor to be the best ally that I can be and support and uplift and amplify the work that you all do every day.

If you can go back to the slide that says looking ahead, please.

Yeah, so I note that on that very first bullet, it talks about gender-based violence in the context of World Cup.

And so World Cup, is a very important strategic priority of mine, my vision, and a lot of people on this council and in the mayor's office as well.

My vision for a World Cup is to have a safe, secure, fun and inclusive World Cup and one that where the benefits are shared and the burdens are minimized.

Not none, because you can't, when a million net new visitors are crunched into the city within, there's gonna be non-trivial impacts on traffic and other things.

But my hope is that those burdens would be minimized and then the prosperity and benefits would be shared broadly.

That's my vision at least.

Those are kind of some of my priorities at a high level for World Cup.

I had no idea, learning so much through all these presentations.

But for this presentation, I wouldn't even have thought to understand that there is a legitimate, risk associated with World Cup pertaining to domestic violence and trafficking.

Can you talk a little bit more about that risk, the scope of that risk, one, and then two, what do you think the city can do, or what more do you think the city can do to help mitigate that risk?

And then just other government partners, it's not all on the city, it's a shared responsibility, but other government partners and then all other players in the policy nonprofit space.

What are some of the solutions to help mitigate and prevent, as you talked about, prevention efforts?

Yeah, absolutely.

Great question.

So as you know, the World Cup is an international event.

Millions of people will be coming into our city from all over the world.

Historically, and the data shows most people that are being trafficked, most women that are being trafficked are coming from at-risk communities, usually lower income.

Something that I noticed, and I was discussing with Emily about a week ago, was that in the international terminal at SeaTac, we only have human trafficking messaging in English.

And if we're only having human trafficking messaging in English, how are victims of human trafficking supposed to understand how they could get help if they can't read English?

And so what we really want to look into is what are the three or four main languages of the people that are being trafficked coming from, and how do we have these systems in place in areas where people are being most trafficked.

So think of airports, maybe the Port of Seattle, and other locations where women and children can get the help that they need.

So that's just one idea.

The scope is so huge, and there's so many things that can be done.

But that's just something that we could potentially partner on to have these systems in place that are in the languages that victims are speaking and Yeah, so that's one idea and happy to discuss more, but yeah, would love to collaborate with the Human Rights Commission and other commissions working on this as well.

Awesome, thank you so much.

Really appreciate you sharing your insights and expertise.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Solomon.

Yes, thank you very much.

Regarding the World Cup, let's not forget that we have the Club Cup coming this year.

So Seattle already has an issue with trafficking in certain sectors.

And with these worldwide events coming to us, it's probably just going to be exacerbated.

So I definitely want to work with you in whatever capacity I can to address these issues.

Regarding reproductive health, I share Council members Rink's concern about what's happening on the federal level and what that's gonna do to our community and our sisters being able to control their own bodies.

So very committed to providing a wall against what the feds may wanna try to do to us locally.

In addition, I'm looking forward to hearing the next presentation regarding the LGBTQ commission because, again, regarding our trans neighbors, our trans family members, our trans staff, who are under threat.

This is very personal for me.

So looking forward to hearing the upcoming presentation regarding that commission.

So thank you.

Great, thank you.

So it sounds like it would be helpful to also have the Women's Commission, maybe even LGBTQ, and all of the commissions invited, actually, to the FIFA Organizing Committee.

So we can work on that.

Maybe Council Member Saka, we can work on that.

Just to point out the loss of reproductive care at Virginia Mason, you know there's been a bill in the Senate in Olympia for many years to try to make sure that when there's hospital mergers, particularly because the hospitals are being bought out by religious hospitals, Catholic hospitals, Swedish is actually a Catholic hospital.

It's actually owned by Providence, but they kept the name Swedish so people wouldn't be aware of that.

And that bill, which was to require that the hospitals continue to provide reproductive care, continues to not get traction.

And unfortunately, by other Democrats, it's not getting traction.

So we need to call on our fellow Democrats to stand up to the hospital industry and make sure, particularly in this time, that we get this bill passed.

So to the extent that we can help with that, very, very happy to do so.

And really, if we need to have another committee meeting where we bring you all together to talk about kind of a coordinated effort on all sort of these intersectional issues, happy to do that as well.

And just like the simple idea of making sure that we have messages in the language of the people who are being trafficked, that's something we can do.

We can quickly get legislation, I think, well, I shouldn't say quickly, everything takes longer than I anticipate.

We can be moving that in time.

So even just these small changes can have a profound effect.

So please, please reach out to us with these suggestions.

We really do want to make a difference in this regard.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Thank you again for your work and presentation.

We'll move on to the LGBTQ Commission.

All right, thank you so much.

City Council, city staff, members of the public, both here in person, as well as those who are attending online.

Thank you for having us here today.

We're really excited to share more about the work that we've been doing on the LGBTQ commission.

and give more insight into our 2024 work plan.

We've really been focused on really building community and really representing the voice of our community in this last couple of years.

And so you'll see that a lot of our presentation falls into that theme and you'll see pictures throughout this presentation as well from our increased social media presence this year, as well as just the community events that we've been trying to go to and be more present at as well.

Next slide, thank you.

On this slide, you'll see a full list of our confirmed and awaiting confirmation commissioners, as well as a photo from a couple weeks ago at our annual strategic planning retreat, where we really celebrated a year of growth and just really started to prepare for what's to come for our community at large during this federal administration.

Yeah, next slide.

On the screen right now, you'll see a snippet from our post-election statement.

As you're likely aware, and as we've talked about a couple of times today already, the current federal administration has clearly identified itself as hostile to the LGBTQ community, already issuing multiple executive orders that are directly targeting trans, gender non-conforming folks.

In Seattle, we're seeing already the removal of LGBTQ coordinators at the VA hospital, the abandonment of gender-affirming care at Seattle Children's Hospital.

The federal level, there's a racing of LGBTQ programs, employee groups, and even pronouns in email signatures.

There is increasing fears locally from LGBTQ nonprofits participating in federal programs, especially those that are working to reduce HIV and homelessness levels within our community.

I list these examples as just kind of scratching the surface of where we are right now and where we know that we're going to be.

in the next four years further.

As we share our work today, please know that we will likely spend a lot of the year also working to ensure that our LGBTQ community in Seattle is safe from the federal administration and reacting to various attacks that we anticipate we will continue to experience.

We also know that we can't do this alone.

It's really important that we all work together, us, commissions, city council, community members, community groups, to help keep Seattle as a welcoming city for LGBTQ people, children, businesses, and really make sure that everyone has a chance to live a happy and healthy life here.

Seattle has positioned itself as a great place for queer people to come to you.

And we really want to work together to make sure that it remains that place and that we continue to improve.

Next slide.

So right now, this is how we are organizing our work.

We have three standing committees, our social media and community outreach committee, which has been really doing a lot of work recently to bolster our presence online, bolster our presence with community groups, and just really make sure that we are getting information from people who are on the ground doing the work.

and provide ourself as a resource.

Some of you in the last year met with members of our commission as well as nonprofit groups.

And this came from the work of this committee.

Our next committee is a commission operations really helping keeping everything running.

And then lastly, our racial justice intersectionality committee helps keep us honest to our commitment to lead with an intersectional and trans focused lens.

Next slide, please.

We're also really working to create community advisory committees.

As I mentioned, we're really trying to make sure that we are uplifting the work of groups who are on the ground, who are working with those who are most affected by recent policies, systemic oppression, marginalization that impacts folks within our community.

One of our most successful ventures this year has been creating the Community Health Advisory Committee made up of these organizations that you see on your screen who are all working to address homelessness and health equity within the LGBTQ community.

We really intentionally chose these groups to have a wide breadth of who we were representing within the work that we were doing as well.

So we've got Entre Armanos doing work with LGBTQ, Latin communities, Pocan doing work with a lot of black LGBTQ communities, Utopia Washington doing a lot of work with Pacific Islander Asian American communities.

and then our two overarching organizations that support a lot of great work in the city, the Seattle's LGBTQ Center, as well as Queer Power Alliance.

This year, we're also hoping to create a small business advisory committee, recognizing that small business owners, especially from the LGBTQ community, face different challenges when trying to be successful.

Next slide.

I'll hand it over to Brett.

Thank you.

I have the privilege of taking you through our three work plan pillars for our two-year work plan.

The first is socioeconomic empowerment.

The second is commission sustainability.

And the third is health equity.

Next slide, please.

Thank you.

So in the following slides, you're going to see an explanation of our focus in the rainbow boxes.

And underneath, you'll see some examples of what we're working on in each pillar.

And the green highlights are items that we have accomplished so far.

The red highlights are items we've worked on.

We didn't quite get the results we wanted.

And in bold are the items that we would really like to work closely with city council on.

So to us, socioeconomic empowerment means supporting career development and job creation in our community, as well as increasing funds for queer businesses, people, and organizations.

So as Ashley mentioned, we're working on creating a small business advisory committee.

We'd also like to work with GSBA.

Where the City Council can really help us out is we would like to work with you to increase the Transgender Economic Empowerment Project funding or TEAP funding that's under the Office of Economic Development right now.

In the past, it's been used to help trans people apply for and obtain inclusive jobs, and it's also been used to create an inclusive career development program.

So especially in light of the current political climate, it's really important to support trans people in the workplace.

So we'd love to work with you and increase that funding by 50%.

Next slide, please.

Thank you.

Okay.

Our second pillar is commission sustainability.

For us, that means increasing, diversifying, and retaining our membership, as well as establishing some clear practices and procedures.

And we've done a great job this year of growing our social media following and growing our membership.

We're working on our commission manual now.

And where we would love to work with city council is on two topics.

First, on making sure that commissioners get appointed in a timely manner.

When commissioners get appointed quickly, it means that they are more likely to stay engaged with the commission.

And we would also like to work with city council on establishing honorariums and or stipends for commissioners.

This is volunteer work.

We put in a lot of hours.

It's a labor of love, but it also means that this work is not financially accessible to everyone in the city, particularly people whose voices most need to be heard.

So if we have the possibility for stipends or honorariums, that means that we can diversify our commission in a way that's really meaningful to us.

It's very important.

Next slide, please.

Our third pillar is health equity.

And for us, that means supporting people, organizations that address our community's specific health needs, especially at the intersections of homelessness and poverty.

This is why we focused on launching our Community Health Advisory Committee, which has been wonderful to work with, as Ashley mentioned.

We're also working on creating resources, lists of resources for our community.

And where we would like to work with City Council is increasing the number of safe shelter beds that are available to the queer community, especially the QTBIPOC community.

It's hard enough to find an available shelter bed in the city, but it's much scarier if you don't know if that shelter will accept you simply based on who you are.

So we'd like to work with you all and of course KCRHA to make sure that we're prioritizing safety, inclusivity when we're thinking about shelter beds.

Next slide, please.

So as we're wrapping up, I just wanna highlight some of our accomplishments from 2024. We brought our nonprofit partners to meet a number of different city council members.

We're really looking forward to meeting with all of you or in some cases meet you again.

Yeah, so please go ahead and schedule those meetings with us.

We'd love to talk.

We also partnered with Parks and Recreation with their community fund.

We have been working on integrating ourselves with the community even more than we did last year.

So tabling, pride flag raising, which of course you all are invited to.

I think it was a great time last year.

Next slide, please.

So we'd finally just like to say thank you for your time and emphasize that we take our role as an advisory commission very seriously.

We're very excited to meet all of you.

Please come ask us about topics related to our community.

Please come to our meetings.

They're the third Thursday of every month in the evening.

Now more than ever, it's really important for us to work together and keep Seattle welcoming city.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Any questions?

Yes, Councilmember Rivera.

Chair, I just want to thank the commission.

You all came to meet.

The commission came to meet with me last year, and I very much appreciate the proactive reaching out to meet to share about priorities and talk about partnerships.

So I welcome that from all the commissions and very much appreciate that you did that.

um, uh, last July.

So, um, you know, uh, open to continuing conversations and, and really appreciate the partnership.

So just wanted to say that.

Thank you, chair.

Thank you.

Cause my rank is that a new hand.

Sorry, I forgot to put down my old hand, but quickly adjusted.

Thank you all so much for your service to this commission and your leadership, especially during these times.

I particularly appreciate how much you're just clearly naming also to the public what is going on.

And we need to talk about the blatant attacks and erasure that is happening for our trans community in particular.

and how I think it's important to name that as Seattle continues to be a welcoming city and stands by these values, we will likely have new neighbors coming into our community.

We have over the years, folks who are seeking political refuge because we're a city that recognizes and sees queer and trans individuals.

And so thank you for your leadership in this space and naming what's been going on and certainly want to calling my colleagues to continue to name as well, um, what has been going on and what our queer and trans community has been facing.

Um, and to that end, hearing a call to make sure we get appointments to commissions done, done on time.

I think this is a challenge that I've been hearing across the board.

And so want to make sure we get those done in a timely manner.

I know we're waiting on folks in the renters commission as well to be appointed.

So it's incumbent upon us colleagues, let's make sure we get those in.

I don't want to dissuade the public from engaging in these really important commissions.

And to that end, I also really appreciate and want to make sure that we find a way to support the ability to bring online more safe shelter beds for the LGBTQ community and working with KCRHA to make that happen.

That's actually an action item in KCRHA's five-year plan.

That was something that was identified as a huge gap in our system.

We don't have shelter bed or emergency shelter capacity or spaces for particularly trans individuals.

That's something that is just a major gap in the system.

It doesn't exist.

I know because I did the countywide analysis on it.

We have two programs out of 450 that actually are specific for serving LGBTQIA populations.

Neither of those are specific for trans folks and neither of those are emergency shelter programs either.

And so that feels like a really meaningful area where we can make progress and want to be able to support and having those conversations with KCRHA as they look to re-procure their system.

So all of this to say, I don't think I have any questions for you all, but other than how can we continue to support your work?

Thank you.

I do want to note too, we recently had a commissioner who works with queer youth bring to our commission that they actually face limitations when trying to get queer people into those spaces that are supposedly reserved for queer folks and were forced to put a non-queer identifying person into some of these spaces due to just conflicting legislation that doesn't allow you to put someone in spaces based off identities.

So that's another challenge that we face as well.

It's something that has been recently brought to our attention from some of our commissioners.

Definitely a challenge that people face and a reason that people don't seek shelter as well.

If you know that you can't guarantee that you're going to be safe within these shelters, then it often is put, again, on the backs of queer people to provide their own safety and security and shelter.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Salka.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you all for the wonderful work you all do every day and currently on a volunteer basis.

It is a heavy lift, a non-trivial amount of effort and service and sacrifice, but I am very grateful for the impact that you all have.

Really, really important stuff.

Can you talk about a little more, going back to your slide that says socioeconomic empowerment, Talk a little bit about, learn stuff all the time.

Good, great, great job assembling this presentation, Madam Chair.

Learning stuff all over.

We have hundreds, probably thousands of individual programs administered through 40 plus departments at the city in an eight point something billion dollar annual budget most recently.

hundreds and like I said, thousands of programs.

I'm still learning.

I don't have 100% visibility on all those, but can you talk a little bit more about the Trans Economic Empowerment Project funding through, I think you said, Office of Economic Development.

Talk a little bit more about that.

that program, what it does in your own assessment and observations of the impact.

Thank you.

Yes.

So I actually, I guess it's related.

I had a hard time finding the exact language, like the detailed language of this.

But yes, it is under OED.

It's currently at $185,000.

which is great, but also adding 50% means more staff are available to help programs like these.

We all know nonprofits, like prices are at premium right now for operating a nonprofit, right?

So increasing by 50% means that more people have the opportunity to get job training or help filling out their documentation.

I know that in the past it was used for helping people get identity documents, like things related to job coaching.

And then last year, OED actually asked us to help with assessing an application for, I think it's auto repair transformation.

Thank you.

And so we were able to review the application with them and we were proud of what we saw.

So it was great that the city was involving us in that decision as well.

If you would like, I can work with OED and we can get some more information about that funds to you.

Thank you.

Yes, I would be curious to learn more, but Let me work with, me and my office work with OED to learn more about that, what it sounds like a cool program.

And if you want to be involved in that, I just, all this is to say, you all do a lot.

If you want to be involved in sharing that, I'd be happy to listen and continue the dialogue.

Thank you.

I think a big piece, sorry to add on to Brent's answer and that you brush or mentioned briefly, but I really want to elevate is just the access to finding these funds.

I work as a nonprofit professional.

I seek city funds like pretty regularly and it's almost impossible to find this fund.

The only reason that we really knew about it and knew about like that there was really only one applicant was because of this OED person reached out to us.

So I think that that's also a significant piece of this is how can we help in the sense of getting the word out to the community so that the funds can be used.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Solomon.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

So a couple of things.

Did I hear you say that this fund that's an OED that no one knows about is $185,000?

That's it?

That's how I checked, yes.

Okay, that's budget dust.

We can do more than that.

Not a question, but an offer.

Every one of the commissions...

that has presented to us today, and I think we have one more.

You're all doing very important work, especially with the uncertainty that's looming in the horizon and the threats to our people and our liberties.

I would like to extend an invitation to all of you, or actually take you up on that invitation to meet with you individually.

to learn more about your work and learn more about what we can do to support your work, as well as, you know, how your work can support, especially the LGBTQ commission, you know, supporting, you know, members of my family, you know, my child, supporting members of my staff, who are basically, they have crosshairs on them right now, right?

So again, it's personal for me.

So please let's, you know, connect with my office and let's get some time.

Let's get some time on the calendar.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much for the work that you've been doing.

I'm really excited about this one pager and to the extent that, you know, KCRHA is putting together an extensive database.

So to the extent that I as a representative to that and Council President can help you access that information, we're happy to do so.

So feel free to reach out about that.

We are going to get your remaining four people appointed.

So my understanding from my clerk is that they are now, they've been approved and they're just waiting for the clerk's office to finalize.

So that will be happening soon.

So great, so thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay, we are now on to the Disability Commission.

Wonderful.

Good morning, council members.

Thank you all for your time today.

I'm so excited to be here and to share about the Seattle Disability Commission.

Next slide, please.

Great.

So the Seattle Disability Commission grounds its work in the following quote, we believe in a world where disability is celebrated as an integral part of human diversity, inclusivity and equity.

The work plan that we're going to share with you represents our actualization of this belief and our work is currently carried out through our four passionate commissioners, as well as three individuals whose status as members on the commission are pending.

Next slide, please.

Our work plan spans 2024 through 2026. We have three major focuses that represent core issues affecting the Seattle disability community.

We have actively engaged on activities within these focuses throughout the past year and will continue to do so in 2025. These three focuses are presented here in brief.

Starting first with advocacy, as you can see on this slide, we hope to amplify the disability community's voice through our commission.

Examples of how we have done so thus far include our sponsorship of a scholarship for the Leadership Exchange and Arts and Disability Conference, input on the direction of funds to create accessible play space through the community fund, and finally providing feedback on anti-ageism training.

Our goals for 2025 is to continue to grow our community so that we can engage in specific tasks, especially to address accessibility concerns that we've heard surrounding public events.

Next slide, please.

The second major area of concern for the disability community is related to transportation.

Transportation is a major topic of concern to the disability community, touching upon items from accessible parking and sidewalks to aspects of public transportation.

The Seattle Disability Commission maintains active partnerships with SDOT, the Seattle Department of Transportation, members of the ADA coordination team through the Seattle Assembly government, and several others.

These groups are frequent visitors to our meetings who seek feedback from the Commission on its projects while providing updates on the many activities that they're pursuing to improve accessibility across the city.

Examples of our work in this domain include the installation of wheelchair charging stations in several public locations, including in Seattle City Hall.

uh the removal of toll booth barriers at the airport which preclude individuals with mobility aids like wheelchairs from maneuvering that space and finally continuing our provision of input to our community partners Our goals are many, as this represents an active area of concern to the disability community.

We want to continue advocating for the enhancement of accessible parking and sidewalks in the Seattle community, to call for the update of the Find It Fix It app, to enhance training around working with people with disabilities on transit, including through programs such as the Sunflower Lanyard Program that highlights visibility of disability.

And finally, to petition for options that reduce the fare burden for people with disabilities who have financial concerns.

Next slide, please.

The final area of concern that I'll discuss briefly is employment.

We have formed several relationships with city members who support the employment of those with disabilities and are grateful for those partnerships.

Given the value of employment to individuals, our goals are to partner with employers to expand employment options for people with disabilities of all types.

Can I expand on this?

Oh, sure.

Shelby, I'm so sorry.

I didn't realize you had joined.

Yeah.

Yeah, so employment is one of our third committees and some of the areas that I have met with is the person who works with a developmental disabilities supported employment program.

And she explained this program to me and what we're hoping to meet with is also the leader of HR with the city employment program.

and it's taken us a few years to get here but what we're hoping to do is expand on that program and hopefully expand it to people with all disabilities and also make it easier for people to understand or maybe have a person.

I understood that at one point they had a person also that they could go to to get coaching in HR to ask questions like on their employment application and also get clarification on whether to put if you had disability or not.

and to also like have more expanded jobs for people with disabilities because city jobs are a more secure job and I think that's really important for me to help people in that realm for me and then also to partner with employers to expand employment options for people, like I said, with disabilities of all type, not just with this city, but also with that.

So one of the ones was DVR with the state.

like having them have connections with people in the city.

Cause oftentimes they help people apply, but they don't have like actual connections.

So it'd be great to have like, that they would know people like in there because often people who get jobs, like know the recruiters and like do the networking, like doing like even doing on LinkedIn, like doing like, um, cold emails and stuff like that type of connections and stuff.

And then the Realize Seattle Promise for children who are 18, expanding that to people who have disabilities regardless of income.

That's one of my other goals, but also removing the ageism part of that is one of my other goals.

And I wanted to also invite...

Sorry, I'm kind of blabbing a lot, but I would really love to invite everyone to come, even if they don't want to come to a whole meeting, but I don't know if we'll get to see you again, but to really...

deep in our relationship because I know that we never really get to see you guys.

It's kind of, I feel like an echo chamber.

So I would really love it if you guys could come and attend a meeting because I feel that for me, sorry, I'll wrap this up really quickly.

But for me, I used to be someone who was normal and then Six years ago, I had this traumatic brain injury and then finding a job after that was pretty much impossible.

And before that, I was someone who like was going to be like an actuary like that.

And I was worked at Merrill Lynch.

And then after that, my life just kind of like crashed.

And so I think I would really love it if you guys came to the meetings and just kind of interacted with us and you know, kind of got to know us and understand.

And I really love it, like come meeting with you guys.

And I really thank you for taking the time to meet with us.

It's really amazing.

So thank you for the opportunity, Jessica.

Thanks, Shelby.

So glad that we could hear your voice here.

Before we hop to questions, I just want to summarize a couple of points and really highlight a couple of the things that you said, Shelby.

So in summary, as we look ahead to 2025, we have excitement about our anticipated work.

With respect to advocacy, we hope to create a toolkit for ensuring that events are accessible, which will be shared with event planners for public events proactively.

For transportation, our goal is to extend our partnership with allied groups in the transportation sphere to expand accessible transit options and to improve the experience of people with disabilities on public transit.

And finally, for employment, our goal is to expand programs and support people with disabilities who are seeking employment through actions such as recognizing institutions that positively support the employment of this community.

In terms of the types of support that we like from the Council, to kind of highlight a couple of things that Shelby mentioned, we're really excited to have this space to be speaking with you all today and very much invite you to join us at meetings if you're able to and to really kind of keep these lines of dialogue open for that.

We're extremely grateful.

And in general, we appreciate the council approaching legislation with a disability justice and accessibility lens.

To close, I'd say that we'd like to partner with the Council through the creation of initiatives that support the focuses we've discussed here, through the support of bills that positively address the concerns of the disability community, and finally maintaining that active line of communication that we are so grateful for.

Great.

Thank you all for your time, and any questions that you have, we're happy to answer them.

All right.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

Any questions?

Oh, Councilman Rivera?

Thank you.

Thank you, Jessica and Shelby for being here and presenting this.

I have a quick question and then I'm so sorry I have to run because I have another meeting.

But Jessica, when you brought up updating, one of the goals is to update the Find It, Fix It app.

Can you tell me a little bit more about what that would entail?

What is needed?

Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you so much for asking that question.

It's a great one.

Essentially, the Find It Fix It app is an application that folks can use to say report issues of concern regarding accessible parking, for example, if it isn't available or being used in a way that's concerning.

And so our hopes with kind of updating that app would be to make it more responsive.

We've heard some feedback from community members that despite using that resource, there isn't always kind of a clear follow through on the feedback that's provided or there's not really that kind of closed loop communication there.

So our goal in updating the app would be to make that process more reliable and to make that clear for folks about what that process would entail if they were to report something of concern.

So our kind of goals there would be to kind of meet with the folks who operate that app and to kind of provide the feedback that we've gotten from the community and see what can be done there.

Got it.

So it's more about how do you, once you report, because I'm very familiar with the app, once you report, folks are not getting a response back as to where their report went, if you will.

That type of, that is, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jessica.

Yeah, absolutely.

Of course.

Thank you, Council Member Rink.

Thank you for your presentation today and so nice to meet you.

Thank you for your service on this commission and I certainly want to take you up on the offer to attend an upcoming meeting and want to make sure that we develop a good connection.

I really appreciate what you noted and I think it's important to name that anyone can become a member of the disability community.

acquired disabilities exist, and building an accessible world benefits all of us, even when we're thinking about how we build communities that allow us to age in place too.

And certainly want to support in your work plan and want to know if there's an opportunity to be engaging you all on the comprehensive plan.

This is just such an important opportunity and timely opportunity for us to be thinking about how we're building our city, particularly in terms of incorporating elements of universal design into this work.

And our office had a great meeting with Disability Rights Washington where we started this conversation and just want to open the door and say we'd love to continue that discussion with the commission and ask if it'd be possible to work with you all as we are shaping up a comprehensive plan.

Yes, thank you so much for that invitation.

And we're also really excited to deepen this partnership.

If there's any way that we can contribute and be supportive of that, we'd love to be involved.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Saka.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And I want to thank the members of the Disability Commission here for sharing your insights and expertise and doing so very graciously.

This is critically important work and work, all of the work, by the way, you know, I aspire to be the best advocate and ally can be in helping to amplify and uplift.

As chair of our city's transportation committee, it is another thing I learned or were some of the opportunities that we have in the city to address, you know, some per your slide there on transportation to, and transportation infrastructure more accessible and inclusive.

And so during the levy conversations last year, the transportation levy conversations, voters ultimately, as we all know, overwhelmingly approved that levy.

But last year I had the privilege really of engaging with a lot of stakeholders including many from the disability committee or community more broadly, and nonprofit leaders and advocacy organizations, parents with differently abled kids, worried about access to sidewalks, to schools, for example, specific groups, including Disability Rights Washington.

I'm actually very proud of the stakeholding that we did leading up to the transportation levy because I think we shaped a really great package and it included a lot of important, really cool investments for the disability community, including sidewalks.

We funded, it included the singular biggest investments in new sidewalks ever in the city's history, ever.

The three council members coincidentally with the, so we have 27% missing sidewalks in the whole city, as we all know, and the three council members who are the worst off, whose districts are the worst off, are actually here at this dais today.

And council member Moore, up north, myself in the southwest, west side, and then council member Solomon, east of I-5.

And it was, but we added a ton of new sidewalks and despite that, like nothing is perfect.

I didn't even think to engage with you all during that conversation.

So all that is to say, thank you for sharing this.

I would love to personally meet with you all.

If you're flexible in timing, we'd love to personally meet with you all and learn more about your thoughts, perspectives on what more we could potentially do in that space.

And also wanna, except my direct personal, my office is available to all.

And a few of them, you know, we talked about, there might be, if you're interested, I just don't want to impose more work on you.

That's my struggle.

Also, the Civil Rights Commission on that area, I wanna sit down and meet, again, if you all are flexible on timing too, would love to schedule some time to discuss opportunities in this specific area of foster youth.

In any event, all this to say, thank you, Disability Rights or Disability Commission.

Let's connect.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member, we would love to connect.

Yeah, I would definitely like to connect, especially on foster youth.

One of the things I had a question on was like, I know that I'm allergic to the pertussis vaccine.

And I think that I know that I don't know if it's still true that I had a question, can you foster kids if you're allergic or get to vaccines?

Is that still true?

I was wondering if that had been updated or not, because I wanted to foster kids when I was younger, but I think you can't.

But I was wondering if that had changed or not.

But I really do love, like, I used to sub and stuff, so I really love kids.

They're a passion of mine.

Thank you.

That's a great question.

And we could potentially explore more during our offline huddle, but would love to discuss that.

Anything else you guys like to talk and especially transportation.

So let's get it.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

All right, thank you very much.

I was going to ask about the Find It Fix It app, so that's been asked.

And also really something, I don't sit on this committee, but it is a concern of mine, which is being able to access employment at the city.

There do seem to be a lot of barriers.

It does seem to be an inordinately difficult process to get through the process.

initial screening and hiring.

So all that to say I'm very interested in learning more about the developmental disabilities supported employment and trying to make access more readily available.

So, yeah, interested to learn more about that.

Well, thank you so much, Jessica and Shelby, for your presentation.

And I think that...

I have a lot of questions today because I just really appreciate our commissioners again and I didn't want to miss an opportunity.

Just out of curiosity, you know, we've been talking a lot about these cuts to federal funding and it just dawned on me thinking about some of our critical programs that many living with disabilities in our community depend on, particularly SSDI and SSI.

And I'm wondering, I mean, there's a lot of different threats.

Is there anything on your radar in terms of critical programs that are serving people living with disabilities that could be on the chopping block?

Yeah, thank you so much for that.

A thoughtful question.

Shelby, I certainly invite your thoughts on this as well.

But I think you've named a couple that are certainly on our mind.

SSI and SSDI being those and kind of watching what we understand about Medicaid and Medicare as well as being things that really impact this community.

So certainly things that we're keeping tabs on and would love to kind of bring up as we get more information about them for all of y'all's support.

would love to just stay in contact about those impacts and certainly would like to know as things come up.

Thank you, and thank you, Chair Moore.

Absolutely.

All right, well, thank you to everyone for all of your presentations.

This was an active session, which I think shows that we are all truly interested in what you're doing and want to continue to be better, be partners and be better partners.

So I think we are all interested in meeting with you individually, I mean, as commissions and also trying to get to the commission meetings in the evening.

Anyway, thank you for all the work that you're doing and for your presentations.

It was really informative.

Thank you.

Okay, well, thank you to committee members for being willing to stay.

We did run over a little bit, but I think it was worthwhile to be able to hear all this information and to have an opportunity to really engage in conversation.

So thank you for your willingness to stay a little bit late.

So, that said, this will conclude the February 12th meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee.

The next meeting is scheduled for February 26th.

The time is 11.22 and we are adjourned.

Thank you.

you