OK, great.
All right.
Hey, thank you, everybody.
I'm going to call this in here and get us kicked off and get this started.
So thank you all for coming out here to Pioneer Park and to the pergola right here in the beating heart of the city of Seattle.
And we're here today to celebrate exceptional work.
We're here today to celebrate what can happen when we come together as service providers, as city officials and as business leaders to revitalize our public spaces, to get people into shelter, to get people the services that they need, and by centering all of our common interest in moving forward in response to the homelessness crisis.
And during COVID, the disagreement has not been, is there a crisis of chronic homelessness?
We all agree there's a crisis of chronic homelessness in the city of Seattle.
The disagreement has been how to respond.
And because the old ways have not worked, and electing to simply do nothing is unacceptable, we decided to do something different called Just Care.
This coalition of get-it-done heroes that are standing behind me today centered the needs of the people living in this encampment, and in so doing, we're able to reclaim this park for the public use of everybody in the community.
By getting the people who are living here into a place with four walls, a door that locks, hygiene, wraparound services and a place that centers their needs to be successful members of our community.
And as if we are and and to center that if we're resourceful enough we can deliver those services and we can continue to replicate the type of outreach we did here in every neighborhood in the city of Seattle.
to make sure that we are bringing people inside, not displacing them, and to make sure that reclaiming one public space is not going to be to the detriment of some other public space in some other neighborhood in the city.
These great leaders that I'm standing with today have shown that by standing together and doing the work, we can rise to the level that that emergency demands.
that we can work together with business leaders like John Scholes and Lisa Howard that ultimately our interests are the same that people should be living in housing not in parks and not in the doorways of a business and that our way to get to that goal to offer shelter to offer hotel rooms to offer tiny houses that it's a moral imperative that we amplify this work and that we tell the community as we go forward how we've been able to make these strides so we can continue to replicate it and build a consensus.
I could not be more proud to stand here with Nicole Alexander, with the people from REACH, with Lisa Dugard from the Public Defender Association, Dominic Davis from Community Passageways who I'm going to introduce in a second, Victor Liu who I don't think was able to join us today but who has been an intimate part of making sure that the hotel-based shelters that the folks who were living in this park are now living in getting those wraparound services are well resourced and have culturally competent services to meet the needs of the people who were living here that could not be met living in a park and living in a tent.
This is the path forward and this is a model that we have used to great success in other parts of the city core over the course of the COVID pandemic.
On 3rd Avenue in front of the in front of Wild Ginger and the triple and the sorry, the triple door over on the 2nd Avenue extension in the Pioneer Square neighborhood.
at City Hall Park next to the courthouse.
These are the kinds of interventions that center the needs of people experiencing homelessness and the needs of the business owners and community members who need to use these public spaces.
And I'm really proud to be joined by a group of folks who can expand more on the program, on how we got to where we are, and what the services at the shelters center.
And I wanna start by bringing up Dominic Davis, the co-founder and CEO of Wheeler Davis Security Team, who's been an integral part of making Just Care a successful intervention.
And I look forward to continuing to work with these leaders to center successful interventions like this so we can continue to meet the need all over the city and make sure that we do it with the urgency the situation requires.
So Dom, why don't you come on up here.
Thank you.
I'm Dominic Davis representing WDC today.
We are a community safety team.
We provide community safety in the facilities that people are transferred to from the outside elements.
This Just Cares process that we're in, this collaboration with all these different organizations, has been nothing but a treasure in our community.
We're literally putting people in a safe place.
putting them in a place where they can get case management, putting them in a place where they can get services, and then putting them in a place where our safety teams keep that community safe.
Our safety teams are from the community, trained up, and put back into the community to keep the community safe in these facilities with the participants.
It's been awesome to watch the way we've been able to collaborate with the organizations and collaborate with the participants to keep that place where we all we do is de-escalate.
We're not a security team.
We don't carry weapons.
We come in and we de-escalate, right?
And what I've seen, being able to clear out these parks, being able to open up the space for businesses to thrive, for the community to come in and participate and sit down and have a cup of coffee and chill out and not worry about things has been really awesome to watch because We didn't have no answers.
Now we have some answers.
This has been working.
Let's continue to build on this.
Let's continue to invest in this.
Let's put our energy and our time into this so that we can really be an answer and not sit around and complain about problems and situations that nobody's really answering.
We have an answer right here.
Let's invest, let's build it, and let's put more energy and more resources into it.
The community is benefiting from it.
Organizations are benefiting from it.
People that are in the outside elements get to be humanized and put into a place where empathy and love is being shown to them and care is being shown to them.
This is what we have to put our energy to.
Thank you.
And next up, I want to introduce Emily Kim and Heather Hodge, the co-founders of the Pastry Project.
Highly recommended.
Subscribe.
Thanks so much.
Hi everyone.
Emily and I are the owners of the Pastry Project in Pioneer Square.
Our business provides free baking and pastry training to individuals with barriers to opportunity in the baking and pastry industry.
Being a part of the Pioneer Square and downtown community, every day we see community members in crisis.
As business owners and as people in the community, we're always looking for and are motivated to find the best ways we can support organizations doing the difficult work of finding solutions that feel respectful and compassionate.
The way folks experiencing homelessness are treated in our neighborhood is a direct reflection on us as a community, and we believe individuals should be met at their need with housing as a priority, and that each person should be treated with compassion and respect.
We believe a model like Just Care is one of the most important things our community needs right now, where the dignity and individual needs of people being supported is prioritized.
We're hopeful that this model of care is the beginning of a new human services solution for our city.
Thank you so much.
Okay and then next up we have Lisa Howard, Director of the Pioneer Square Alliance or Alliance for Pioneer Square.
Here Lisa, take it away.
Thank you.
Thank you Council Member Lewis for inviting me here today.
My name is Lisa Howard and I'm the Executive Director of the Alliance for Pioneer Square.
First off, I'd like to take a step back and recognize all of the organizations and services in Pioneer Square that have been providing services to people for decades.
DESC, Chief Seattle Club, Compass, Union Gospel Mission, Bread of Life, Lehigh, Reach, The Mid, and anyone that I may have missed, we see you in the tireless work you do.
To the Just Cares and the City teams that responded to the needs of the individuals in a humane way, Thank you.
We are eternally grateful for the work that you've done over the last month and more.
The model that you've built is critical to ensure that people have a path to a better life.
In the last 20 months, we've watched as our thriving, vibrant district go from a place that could provide an environment of support, prosperity, and services to all of our residents, businesses, and visitors, to a neighborhood in crisis.
We call on the region to do your fair share within the homelessness crisis that we face.
We call on all of our elected leadership to implement informed programs to ensure the safety and well-being of all of Seattle, not strip away the toolbox to leave a void for people to suffer.
I believe strongly that this is the moment in time when we can effectively dig in and address the systemic challenges we face and the problems that we all care very deeply about.
Vibrant communities can exist when they work for all members of the community.
And we invite everyone to take the time to come on down and support this neighborhood.
We have a lot to offer.
Thank you.
All right.
And next up we have John Scholes from the Downtown Seattle Association.
John thank you for coming down.
Thanks, Councilmember.
Good afternoon, everybody.
And first off, just thanks to the incredible people that helped so many folks get inside out of this wet, cold, windy, damp place into housing and into places with services.
Hats off to them for the incredible skill that they have in reaching people in need, meeting them where they are and connecting them to a better place.
For too long, this situation has just been unacceptable, unacceptable for the people that were suffering outside, unacceptable for the neighborhood, for small business owners, and for the folks who want to use this public space and have access to it.
And I think what we heard last week from voters in Seattle is they want us working together with greater urgency to bring people inside so that we can open up public spaces like this.
for everybody to use.
And that's what this model has been about of business owners and community organizations and outreach professionals, city council members and really appreciate the leadership of Councilmember Lewis for investing in in programs just like this.
That's what this has been about is what voters want to see us working together as a community, as a city to bring people inside so that we can open up our parks and public spaces so small business owners can get back on their feet, so we can invite more visitors and customers back and help our economy recover and help folks that are suffering get inside so that they can get access to the services that are so important to stabilizing their lives.
So we've made great progress here.
We've got a long way to go.
We've got 800 people or so still on the streets in the greater downtown.
I'm hopeful that the council budget that's being debated this week will invest in more efforts just like this so we can help more people get inside and open up these public spaces for all.
So thank you to Councilmember Lewis for the leadership that he's brought to this issue and to the incredible folks behind me that were so critical to helping so many in need and helping all of us begin to reopen this public space.
Thank you, John.
And next up, we have Karen Salinas, the Outreach Director for Evergreen Treatment Services.
Hi, everyone.
My name is Karen Salinas.
I'm the Director of Outreach with the REACH Program through Evergreen Treatment Services.
I just am going to talk really briefly about our model and our approach.
For 25 years, REACH has been conducting street-based outreach on the streets of Seattle and South King County using the same approach we did here at Just Care.
So relationship-based harm reduction, trauma-informed care, that's based on centering our client's autonomy and their choice, because we know when a client is able to make a choice that falls in line with their beliefs, they're going to be more successful in maintaining engagement and more successful in keeping the path that they've outlined for themselves.
So we definitely start with early and consistent rapport building and engagement, really working to just get to know people.
What kind of services can we bring in immediately that are going to immediately alleviate some of those needs, whether that be syringe exchange and disposal or some like hygiene access, bathroom access, getting access to your benefits so that you don't have to steal your food.
Those kind of things are things that we can get in place as we start thinking long-term plans for folks.
This model is also really dependent on communication with our clients.
They are involved in the process.
They are involved in the plans for themselves.
So that they can tell us what are the services that they need that are going to fit for them and what shelter resources they need.
So right now our shelter service system does not have the kind of unique situations that our clients need.
So that's a huge thing of having the right resources that fit our clients needs.
So we also are very dependent on having the right resources in place.
so that can you hear me better now okay so we are really dependent on having the right resources in place so that the needs that the clients have can be placed and adequately supported in those spaces so um i think that's the main thing yeah our relationship-based outreach work and consistently engaging people at the site way before the removal happens so that people feel Not as tricked or confused on the day of the removal and that they have a plan in place for them to go to.
OK, thank you Karen.
Next we have Nicole Alexander.
Thank you, Councilman Lewis.
So we find ourselves again in front of cameras speaking about a program that as of today, 18 months into this program, we've been very, very successful at bringing folks from some of the most prominent encampments in Seattle.
Encampments that daily we get pictures, photographs, video of people in the community that are concerned for other humans.
We as a team come into these encampments with human-centered trauma-informed care.
We have been able to expand our team.
We have an amazing team with us.
We have Michael, Sherry, who's hiding in the back, and Ben.
And I know that it's beautiful out here right now.
It's a great Seattle fall day.
Unfortunately, for the last two weeks, we've been sopping wet.
We've been disgustingly soggy, dirty, grimy, and driven.
There's not one part of our team that hasn't shown up every morning before the sun comes out to pack, to help assist, to encourage our folks to the next step of the process.
As Karen said, our process started a long time ago.
For some of us, we've been working with these folks for years.
Right now, as far as this encampment goes, we've been outreaching this encampment for well over two months, every single day, Monday through Friday, bringing all the needs that we can think that our clients will need.
From medical care to mental health stuff, we're out here with supplies.
It's not a granola bar and a pair of socks and thanks, let me get your name.
We literally develop every single day what our clients need and what we can help to see them to the next successful step.
One of the things that we've been able to do with lots of data is find the gap.
Unfortunately for us, since we've been out here, there is a higher acuity need for some of our folks with mental health illnesses that are beyond being able to be placed independently.
And so for that, we've been able to start an independent case conferencing with many different organizations.
We've been calling to the table the need and trying to find the gap where we can start to build something for those that we can't have independently living alone.
I encourage any of the orgs to reach out to us that actually will love to help our folks.
We are out here daily.
We will not stop bringing our folks in as long as we have the resources.
Our future may be in peril as far as a program goes with funding and so forth, but we will continue to work throughout Seattle in the Pioneer and the CID as long as we have the tools that we can.
All right, and next we have Lily Nguyen from Just Care.
Please.
Hello.
My name is Lily Nguyen.
Let me redo that.
Hello, my name is Lilin Nguyen, and my pronouns are she, hers.
I'm a Just Care Program Manager with PDA, Purpose, Dignity, and Action, previously known as Public Defender Association.
Since the referral pathway to assist unsheltered individuals from 3rd Ave and City Hall Park to the pergola here, we've served 33 participants with support from our partners, Evergreen Treatment Services Reach Team and WDC.
We are a hotel-based program that operates 24-7, providing behavioral health care for high-acuity mental health and substance use illnesses who are unsheltered that are mostly BIPOC and LGBTQ+.
The clients we serve face higher barriers with unmet systems needs.
We consist of a multidisciplinary team and all of us are POC.
Some are from LGBTQ plus community and some have lived experiences as well.
What makes our program unique is because we provide 24-7 behavioral health care.
And it is to our knowledge that we are the only provider doing so in a hotel based setting.
Our model of care reduces jail bookings, 911 calls, and emergency department or urgent care visits.
I have had the privilege to serve our unhoused neighbors right here in our community.
Stories have been voiced, laughs have been shared, and tears have healed.
Some clients have even moved forward beyond our care and are continuing their own journey.
When I look into the eyes of these folks, they're not only just part of someone's family or friends, but their human life like you and I, that deserve a space to heal with wrapped holistic services for their specific needs to be addressed.
This is what we do at Just Care, and I am humbled to take part.
Thank you.
Hi, I'm Lisa Dugard.
I am one of the co-executive directors of PDA, and Lily just introduced you to the new name of PDA, Purpose, Dignity, Action.
So it's important to stress that Just Care is not a single organization.
PDA provides project management services, and now we house some of the folks doing the care, doing the work in the facilities where people find their way to.
But we partner with other organizations and, as Nicole said, are seeking additional partners for this work.
Just Care is a framework and an approach that is generalizable.
So when we fight to see it survive, we're fighting to see this approach.
generalized and universalized because it works and because it is so hard to get this work right and it is so frequently done in a way that is counterproductive and harmful.
When we land on an approach that works, we must preserve it and safeguard it.
The partners who came together a year ago to form Just Care reject sweeps or dispersal It's harmful.
It's also ineffective.
We also reject the need for or the appropriateness of taking an enforcement approach to the situation of people like the people who are living here in this park.
But we also reject the idea that we can accept and normalize that people live in the conditions that we saw here and in spaces like this and we affirm the urgency that neighborhoods and businesses and advocacy groups have focused on this issue.
It absolutely cannot be the way that we live as a city.
And the good news is that there is a way forward that can result in people not living in public, but not because they were chased away, scared away, or warned away, but because people who had the relationships and the competency based on clinical skill and lived experience were able to understand past experiences of these individuals, what did not work for them in the past.
I should say almost everybody in this space was had had system interactions and been kicked out rejected bounced out wasn't working for them and we needed new strategies and we take the time and are committed as a matter of principle to take the time as we say, to be finished when we finish.
When we have a plan for everybody, that's when the project is done.
And I just want to express our thanks for the public officials and the business and neighborhood groups who have listened to that new style and new approach to the work, rallied behind it, and temporarily found the resources for it to continue and for us to demonstrate that this is effective.
As several people have said our future is uncertain.
There is absolutely no confirmation that this style of work will continue but we hope to keep doing this work in this way because it is the way to bring the city together and to have a win-win for everybody from the people who are living here to the surrounding businesses to the people who have to lead this city and find a way forward that works for everyone.
Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you, Lisa.
It's so great to stand next to this diverse coalition of action-oriented folks, and I think it's really a testament to the fact that we're not going to move forward by finger-pointing.
Finger-pointing is about parsing blame for problems that we all agree we're never going to solve, but we want to decide who takes the fall.
Instead of pointing fingers, we have to be joining hands, because joining hands is about centering the work to rise to the occasion the situation requires.
and that's what's happened here that's what can happen in other locations that's how we can move forward together as a city government as a business community and as providers to center the reality all of us want to see so with that i want to take a moment to ask a you know answer a couple of questions, not just for myself but for some of the other folks who came down here today.
And I'm happy to make myself available afterwards if folks want to ask questions after the event.
So why don't we go ahead and open it up.
So, is Just Care already being implemented at other camps, like in Ballard or around Queen Lake, or is it just here right now?
Lisa, that'd probably be a good question for you.
Yeah.
Just Care is geographically limited so that that felt impact can be seen and so the areas where we work and we're funded to work are Pioneer Square, the Chinatown International District, and the downtown core.
That's not because this approach isn't the right approach elsewhere, it's because our teams only have so much capacity and the destination shelters and bridge housing only has so much capacity.
But when we said that this is a demonstration project and a model, truthfully the experts who do this work elsewhere in the city also use these same techniques and just often don't have access to the same destination facilities.
So that's why we're hoping that this approach can be generalized so that the entire city can follow this pattern.
I had a quick follow-up for Lisa.
Sorry, Chris, who are you next?
Sorry, Chris, were you next?
Do you have a question?
I'm not going to do it here.
Okay, great.
Go ahead, David.
Okay, sorry.
You mentioned or somebody was mentioning that, you know, there are certain individuals who have higher needs and couldn't be placed.
You know, it's amazing how many were placed, but do you know by any chance if some of those higher need individuals have relocated to under Yesler?
That's what some residents in the area were asking about.
No one was relocated under Yesler?
I mean, not relocated by Just Care, but if they themselves?
Nobody was displaced onto Yesler, no.
We actually are down on Yesler.
I was actually just out there with the mural today, so we do interact with those folks out there.
They have been part of our program for quite some time, but no one was displaced onto Yesler.
And Nicole, could you maybe talk a little bit about the by name list process or how you might do that?
Yeah, so for any site that we work at, one of the reasons that it takes us so long to work is that we develop relationships with every single person here.
so every single tent here we actually know by name and have a by name list and what that means is that we list out every single person who's here with their consent who wants to interact with our program and then even those who say they don't want to come inside we work with them still on our list to make sure that we can get them other resources that they are interested in.
And we continue to work off that list.
So say that somebody is here and for whatever reason, because some of our sites are pretty violent, that they move in the middle of the night for fear of themselves or for safety.
When we find them at another location, we will bring them in.
It does not mean that they've lost their turn.
Yep.
Okay, additional questions from the press here before we open it up.
All right, great.
Well, hey, thank you everybody for coming down here and thank you to everyone who came down to support this great work and center and recognize this exceptional work.
I'm happy to stick around and answer a few more questions one-on-one if folks want to.
So, cheers.
Thank you so much.