Good afternoon, everyone.
Thank you so much for joining us here today for our in-person and virtual opportunity to hear from members of the community regarding the Select Housing Levy Committee public hearings specifically dedicated to talking about the 2023 Seattle Housing Levy.
The date is April 19th, 2023, and the time is 4.32 p.m.
Again this is a full opportunity for us to hear from members of the community about the proposed 2023 housing levy as transmitted by the mayor's office that the council just began deliberating this month.
We will have next month and the following month to go over any additional ideas that members of the community or our colleagues have and that is the sole purpose of this meeting.
If there's no objection today's agenda for the public hearing will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll for who is present with us in our public hearing this afternoon?
Council Member Herbold.
Council Member Juarez.
Council Member Lewis.
Present.
Council Member Morales.
Council Member Nelson.
Present.
Council Member Peterson.
Present.
Council Members Sawant.
Present.
Council Member Strauss.
Present.
Madam Chair Mosqueda?
Present.
Madam Chair, that is six present.
Excellent, thank you very much.
Colleagues, again, I want to thank you for the opportunity to hear from folks.
We have about 27 people signed up online and we have six people in person.
We will go ahead and do the first three in person and then the first three online, the next three in person, the next three online, and then we'll stay online so that we can keep it balanced here today.
We will provide a full 2 minutes opportunity for public comment.
I don't think I need to run the video, but just as a reminder, you'll hear a chime.
When you have 10 seconds to wrap up your public comment, please keep your comments focused on the 2023 proposed housing levy.
If you do hit the end of your allotted time, which will be two minutes again, the microphone will be muted.
So please do send in any remaining comments that you'd like to share with members of the public or with us at council at Seattle.gov.
For folks who are listening online, it would be great if you could disconnect after your allotted time and we will make sure to continue broadcasting on Seattle Channel or the other listen in options provided on today's agenda.
Just before we jump into it, I want to thank my colleagues who are here with us today.
Those who are either in person or virtual and folks who might be listening in.
but not as part of the roll call this morning or this afternoon.
This is one of two public hearings solely dedicated to the housing levy proposal.
Hello, Council Member Herbold.
Welcome, our Vice Chair.
In addition to these public hearings that we're having now and at the end of May, we also provide opportunity for public comment at the top of each meeting, which we will have a number of coming up in I'm going to turn it back over to you, Mr. Chairman.
Just want to reiterate the amazing success that Seattle has had with our housing levy investments with more than 16,000 people estimated to be estimated to live in levy supported housing that we have already invested in at any given time.
That's a huge accomplishment.
We were also a national leader in putting forward a housing levy proposal and have seen not only wild support for it, but have had wild success, in my opinion.
We have been able to surpass our initial expectations of how many units we were going to be able to provide, but also how many people we were going to serve who came in and out of those units.
Through the housing levy in Seattle, we in Seattle have been able to invest in first-time home ownership opportunities In addition to creating more rental units, we've created housing stability for thousands of families.
And as we know, this provides a solid foundation for maintaining health and well-being, and so that people can participate in their local community, local economy, create pathways out of generational poverty, and work towards greater economic stability and self-resiliency and sustainability for communities and families.
As we talked about this morning in our committee meeting and two weeks ago in our public meeting, we have seen a huge return on these investments.
There is a clear ROI and we should be proud of this as a community.
And for all of its amazing progress that we've championed and we've been able to talk about, we know it's just not enough.
Too many folks are falling into housing instability and often that leads to homelessness.
And so this housing levy is part of the solution.
It provides an opportunity for us to renew the package, but also be bold and pushing forward with new ideas and new ways to create access to affordable housing, home ownership, supportive services and greater resiliency for our community.
Finally, our affordable housing.
efforts that we passed in 2016. We have been able to see how during the COVID pandemic, those housing opportunities, especially for folks at the lowest income, have allowed for us to be able to house folks.
But more people, unfortunately, have found themselves in greater economic insecurity and thus housing insecurity, as so many people lost their jobs and their livelihoods during COVID.
And we saw the disproportionate impact on folks of color during COVID.
More people lost their jobs and housing in the last few years.
So we need to do everything that we can as we think about reinvesting in downtown, reinvesting in our economy.
Investing in housing is a good economic generator as well for working families, for small businesses.
and for individuals and our population health.
So I want to thank you all for being part of our community conversation.
To take on this entire package is a large challenge and it's a huge opportunity.
A seven-year path forward to investing in working families and our economy by creating opportunities for housing and stable housing through the workforce that provides supportive services.
So I look forward to hearing from you all.
What would you like to see from the package that we've already been presented with?
We talked a little bit this morning about how these housing options can be coupled with child care, small business support, community space, and creating more than just a unit, but also opportunity for the families who live there, but also the broader economy and for our broader population cells.
So thanks so much, colleagues, for your questions and for members of the community for weighing in.
We're going to get right into it.
Okay, thanks again for being here.
We're going to tee up a two-minute timer and I'm going to call the first three people in person.
Cliff Cawthorn, good afternoon.
Thanks for being the first one to sign up, followed by David Baker and Tyra Bernard.
Good morning, Cliff.
Good morning.
Good afternoon, Cliff.
Yeah, good afternoon.
Thank you, Chair Mosqueda and Vice Chair Herbold and committee members.
My name is Cliff Cawthon.
I am the Advocacy and Policy Manager for Habitat for Humanity of Seattle-King-Catas counties, and I'm speaking in support of the proposed renewal of the Seattle Housing Levy at $970 million.
First of all, thank you for your amazing work on this.
The Seattle Housing Levy is impactful and groundbreaking tool that, as we've just heard, has made a huge difference in the lives of so many Seattleites.
The $970 million investment over seven years and the $51 million for home ownership specifically will finally allow those who need a home to have a safe and affordable place to live.
Right now, we have a shortage of 30,000 affordable homes at 50% AMI or less, and for those who are slightly above as well.
One of our recent homeowners that you may have seen on news, Amber Cortez, a local art and culture worker, was struggling to continue to live in Seattle, and she would have been priced out of the city if not for Habitat's Capital View development, including her neighbor as well, McKaylee.
So we still need to continue to invest in the entire housing continuum moving forward.
for people like Amber and also her neighbors, as well as so many other Seattleites.
In fact, thanks to Levy over, as Chair Mosqueda said, over 16,000 people who are nurses, who are grocery store workers, who are bus drivers, are living in homes here in Seattle and are able to be part of the community, including many of our health care providers that during the pandemic, did fantastic work that I can't even begin to fathom the kind of stress and kind of sacrifices they had to make.
And so when it comes to affordable home ownership, there's triples of funding compared to the last levy.
It helps us realize Seattle's equity goals.
These equity goals are even more pressing given a racial home ownership gap in Seattle, and particularly with BIPOC families being systematically displaced from the city.
So I strongly urge you to renew this levy and support proposed funding levels.
So let's go boldly forth and create a safe and decent place for everyone to live.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Cliff.
Thanks for getting us started here this afternoon.
I wanted to ask IT if you could help out.
There's some folks who are trying to dial in remotely, and they are letting me know that they're getting a busy signal.
So if there's any support that can be provided to IT for folks who are dialing in remotely, we will get that handled.
Sorry about that, David.
Please go ahead and come on up, followed by Herr Bernard.
Thanks, Ter.
Good afternoon to the members of city council.
My name is David Baker and I am a real estate development project manager with Homestead Community Land Trust.
We combine housing development with counseling, education, foreclosure prevention, and other support services to create a growing inventory of permanently affordable homes and to enhance homeowner success.
Every home we develop and sell at an affordable price to an income qualified buyer is kept affordable to all future buyers.
Of the 245 homes in our trust, more than 200 have benefited from city funding with the vast majority of those funds coming from the levy.
We are grateful for the generosity of Seattle citizens who support a funding stream that is a model for other communities.
The proposed levy is a continuation of smart investment in the full continuum of affordable housing, including home ownership.
It significantly boosts investment in home ownership, including more resources for permanently affordable homes, down payment assistance, and support for low income homeowners to remain stably housed.
It triples the funding for home ownership compared to the last levy and helps us realize Seattle's equity goals for putting home ownership within reach of people harmed by discrimination, racial covenants, and redlining.
The levy creates homeownership opportunities for people like Siobhan, a single mom who used to live with her five children in a two-bedroom apartment in Maple Valley.
A case manager who works to help others find housing, she and her children were able to return to their home neighborhood and to their schools by buying a home made affordable by levy funds.
On behalf of Homestead's staff and its stakeholders, I urge you to renew the levy at $970 million.
This will give thousands of people the opportunity to find an affordable home in Seattle, realizing our shared vision for an affordable, equitable, and inclusive community.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
And Tarr.
Thank you for correcting me.
No worries.
I get it all the time.
And just draw the microphone a little closer.
Thanks.
I'm good to go.
Forgive me for not being familiar with the political nature of this.
I am a mechanical engineer.
I also have a background in civil engineering and economics from school.
I wanted to first start off with saying I'm fully in support of the housing levy at $970 million.
I'd even like to see it further, but over the time of you guys developing this levy and going to some of the public comments, I feel like there's this increased focus on the need for these housing, because as you guys established, there's a significant need, but I feel like not all buildings are created the equal.
And with my experience designing buildings, I just want to urge a continual dedication toward the life cycle of these buildings.
I know that currently the, I, you could correct me if I'm wrong but I think you guys have a evergreen sustainability checklist and some other sort of checklists to guide the construction of these like standards to guide the building of of these buildings but I don't think that they're enough and with this new 970 million dollars I don't think you really have an excuse to pick and choose between supplying need but supplying it with bad houses.
I think that you could you could accomplish both tasks together, and you could, I urge an investment in sustainability with these houses as you develop them, and just proper design considerations instead of just like, I've gotten the sentiment that it's a pump, like pump it out because we need it now type of thing, but you can achieve both things.
You can pump it out, but build it considering the life cycle of the building, and that this is just the beginning.
So you signing this levy is just the start of the process.
Those buildings are going to be out for 50 to 100 years after that.
So keep in mind the life cycle of those.
Excellent.
Thank you very much.
Okay, let's go to the folks online.
We'll do three people online.
We'll come back into the room.
Jesse Friedman, followed by Dennis Sills and Michael Seaworth.
Good afternoon, Jesse.
Star 610, mute, just as a reminder for folks, and make sure your own line is also off mute.
Hello, Jessie.
Good afternoon, Chair Mosqueda.
My name is Jessie Friedman, and I'm the Policy Director at YouthCare, here in strong support of the housing levy proposal.
The current levy provides funding for YouthCare's Ravenna House program, which serves primarily LGBTQ plus young people who are experiencing homelessness.
There's never been a more urgent time for us to show up for communities like the folks who serve at Ravenna, and the housing levy makes it possible.
In 2021, YouthCare, in partnership with Community Roots Housing, was fortunate to receive an investment from OH towards construction of the Constellation Center on Capitol Hill, which will provide housing and workforce development training programs for housing insecure young people.
Unfortunately, in the past year alone, the cost of YouthCare's portion of this project has increased by over $1.5 million.
a nearly insurmountable increase for an organization like ours.
The levy proposal before you today is an important step toward their shared responsibility to think bigger about addressing the housing crisis, to make sure that eligible organizations can afford to take on the projects that we so desperately need, and to ensure that when youth care's young people exit programming, there's an adequate supply of truly affordable housing to meet their unique needs throughout adulthood.
This levy also provides us with the opportunity to address another urgent need in our region, wage justice for our frontline nonprofit workers.
This proposal takes an important step towards addressing the low wages that leave our workers housing insecure themselves and our housing programs understaffed.
To address this, a recent report from the UW recommends an immediate 7% wage increase for our frontline staff in addition to substantial wage increases in the coming years.
I recommend that the committee adopt the recommendations of the study into the spending plan for the levy to ensure the additional units of affordable housing do not continue to sit empty and unused.
Thank you for your consideration and I urge the council's support of this historic levy, which supports our most vulnerable young people and those who serve them.
Thank you.
Thanks so much.
The next person is Dennis followed by Michael.
Good afternoon, Dennis.
Chair Mosqueda and select committee members, thank you for the opportunity to provide public comments.
My name is Dennis Hills and I work at Plymouth Housing, a permanent supportive housing provider to more than 1,200 chronically homeless adults in Seattle.
On behalf of those residents, colleagues in Plymouth Housing, I applaud the Seattle housing levy proposal of 970 million over seven years and encourage the city council to move it forward.
Over two years, When it comes to housing, we'll open five apartment buildings and house 500 people.
We will open Blake House in May, the city's first permanent supportive housing high-rise in over 50 years.
Without the housing levy, many of our residents would not have places to call home.
This proposal is a bold step to address the staggering housing need in Seattle.
This levy is not just about dollars and projects.
It is about making things better for our neighbors.
One Plymouth resident was homeless for 20 years and then invested two years and many phone calls to finally receive housing.
Our residents come from all walks of life and communities and many are veterans and seniors.
People in Seattle should not have to wait years or even decades to find an affordable home.
Plymouth Housing urges the Select Committee to advance this proposal and list all areas of levy programs to meet the diverse challenges in our city.
We support additional operating and maintenance funding for staff who provide human services every day.
We have seen analysis by the Office of Housing that shows that many providers like Plymouth are short-staffed.
As we open more buildings to meet the needs of our city, we're asking staff to take on more and more, but not matching that with new resources.
This proposal can change that and help lift frontline workers and provide truly competitive wages.
Plymouth Support Housing operating funding sources are often insufficient.
And we are grateful that the city is considering stepping up to help the human service sector.
This proposal coupled with workforce investments from Jumpstart are steps towards dignity for supportive housing workers and we urge.
Thank you so much.
The next person is.
Michael.
Hi Michael.
Please go ahead.
Thank you Chair Mosqueda and council members.
Again I'm Michael Syrath.
I'm the executive director of Southeast Effective Development or SEED and we're a nonprofit which provides affordable apartments to families and seniors in Southeast Seattle.
I'm here speaking in favor of the renewal and expansion of the levy.
I was able to raise my own kids for a decade in an affordable apartment in our city funded by the Office of Housing.
We saved our money.
We were able to get a down payment and buy a home.
This levy is the single best tool we have to help people with affordability and address the homelessness crisis Seattle and the region is facing.
It feeds just one organization and we alone have multiple sites for developing more affordable homes.
Right now I'm looking at one of our lots that could be developed into affordable apartments It's screaming for more affordable homes and the greatest constraint we have is public funding for these new apartments.
In addition to these capital dollars, the levy will also help prevent homelessness by investing in resident services and addiction prevention for those neighbors in need.
I urge you to be bold and renew the levy at 970 million.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Okay, we are going to go back to in-person and we have Jesse Simpson followed by Mark Barber, Barbara Harry, and Pauline Van Sanus.
Good afternoon, Jesse.
Hi, I'm Jesse Simpson, Government Relations and Policy Manager for the Housing Development Consortium.
Thanks for the opportunity to testify today.
Seattle faces an exacerbated housing crisis.
We need more than 30,000 affordable homes right now, and this shortage will only grow over time unless we act to meet the moment and create more affordable and abundant housing.
For over 40 years, the housing levy has been foundational for affordable housing in our city.
Levy is a proven effective solution with a consistent record of voter support.
16,000 families and individuals live in levy funded homes.
These are essential workers and members of our community, which otherwise never afford to stably live in quality homes in Seattle.
This levy renewal at 970 million will build on this legacy.
It will create affordable homes, keep families in their homes, and move people experiencing homelessness into permanent supportive housing.
The proposed renewal of the levy will build 3,500 affordable homes for people and families who need the most and stabilize housing for 4,500 more people who would otherwise face eviction and homelessness.
We'll also invest in the workers who turn buildings into homes and ensure that supportive services are available for the people who need them.
By investing in affordable housing of all types, the levy will stabilize housing for thousands of people for generations to come.
I urge you to pass this ambitious $970 million levy renewal.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
And welcome, Mark, followed by Pauline.
Thank you, Chairman Mosqueda, Vice Chair Herbold and council members, committee members.
My name is Mark Barbieri.
I'm a board member.
I serve on the board of Plymouth Housing.
You heard Dennis eloquently describe why this is necessary.
I am grateful for the hard work all of you are putting in through this collaborative and very productive process and 100% endorse this $970 million over seven years for the Seattle housing levy proposal and encourage the council to move it forward.
As Dennis mentioned, Plymouth has been scaling up to meet this critical need in our community.
We admire the council taking bold steps to scale up as well.
We started in the eighties with 17 units.
We're now serving 1200 residents.
And like Dennis mentioned, we'll have 1700 residents served within the, by the end of this next two year period.
And we will continue working hard to raise private dollars that we can leverage against these public funds.
We will continue to work to create the wraparound supportive services that create the 97% success rate for permanent supportive housing.
The solution that works because we are reconnecting people with their lives by putting a roof over their head, number one, and then allowing them to reconnect with their own lives by providing them the services they need.
That's resource intensive work, folks.
And that means that providing the resources to pay these people on the front lines, the wages that they deserve to allow them to do their jobs with dignity is of utmost importance.
We applaud your efforts in this regard.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide this public comment.
This productive process has resulted in a strong proposal that we encourage you to proceed with.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good to see you again.
And Pauline, you're welcome to come up.
Good afternoon.
Hi, and my name is Pauline.
It is pronounced as Anne Sinas.
It's Americanized from the Dutch.
And I do represent, do, I'm not affiliated with the Transit Riders Union, but I'm speaking more on my own behalf today.
So, people know me as the Transit Fairy, and they've seen me doing cleanup all over the place.
I had specially targeted areas at Ballard and Soto and Third and Pike, Southbound Metro Bus Stop 522. It is my belief that if the community sees real change and sees more cleanup of trash and weeds, that maybe we can have same conversations without screaming at each other about how we're going to fund all the community needs out there.
I do believe, though, however, that perhaps housing levies targeting the current funding that taxing homeowners has maybe been overused because it's a very popular funding source to go.
And I think if the smaller businesses saw more cleanup and more support in maybe grant money to help them repair all the damages, the broken windows and all that stuff, if they were supported that maybe there might be a larger source of funding coming from increased sales tax.
And that could be considerable.
That's all I did.
I know that Metro era.
Valor Medical Center and the Slicebox and Blazing Bagels might agree because I've been cleaning in their areas.
Also, the homeless people on 3rd Avenue have noticed and they seem to like what I do.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for your testimony today.
OK, if anybody else in person wants to sign up to provide public comment, you're welcome to.
OK, we're going to shift over to the folks that are listed to sign up on on the remote option here.
So we will continue with that.
Let me find that sheet.
Apologies.
Brie Nicoleau, followed by Allison Isinger and Patience Malaba.
Good afternoon, Brie.
Star six to unmute, please.
Greetings, Chair Mosqueda, Vice Chair Herbold, and members of the council.
My name is Brie Nicoleau, and I am Community Development Director at African Community Housing and Development, also known as ACHD.
ACHD is a community led organization that serves the greater African diaspora throughout Seattle and South King County and we are proud to support the renewal of the Seattle housing levy.
As a new community led developer focusing on culturally specific Black homeownership for larger intergenerational households this funding is critical to advancing homeownership in our region including the affordable townhome project we are working to bring online in Seattle this year.
There is already a higher cost to homeownership due to Washington's condo liability laws, which increase the cost of individual units by tens of thousands of dollars.
And of course, this is in addition to sharply increased construction and lending costs due to inflation.
And this levy must match the true cost of homeownership in our region.
We also, of course, know that housing is the continuum and the stability of tenants is critical to homeownership, as well as access to subsidized, high quality, affordable rental units.
Families cannot move into homeownership without access to affordable rental options and a strong commitment to tenant support.
At APHD, we know this deeply.
From 2020 to 2022, we were a rental assistance provider through the ERAP Large Landlord Program, getting out $38 million to thousands of tenants in our community, in addition to providing critical eviction prevention services.
We know the difficulties that working families and our elders who rent face.
The protections and assistance we saw during COVID-19 are still needed today.
In fact, they were always needed.
Prior to COVID-19, we had virtually no safety net for families and elders facing eviction.
And we know homelessness can be traced to eviction.
We've seen time and time again, tenants who have remained homeless for multiple years over an eviction on their record, many times for often just a month or so.
And so now we need stability, subsidy and increased supply.
We appreciate your work on behalf of the communities we serve and again, voice our strong support for a housing levy that represents the many needs of our community.
Thank you for your time and leadership and have a great day.
Thank you so much, Allison, followed by Patience Malava.
Star six, Allison.
All right, let's go ahead and tee up patience.
Allison, just hit star six when you're ready.
Okay, patience, please go ahead if you can star six.
Folks hear me on the on the online.
There we go.
I see patients unmuted.
Good afternoon, Chair Mosqueda, members of the committee.
My name is Patience Malaba, Executive Director at the Housing Development Consortium.
HDC, together with our members and partners, strongly support the proposal to renew the housing levy at $970 million.
The housing affordability crisis has never been greater in our community.
Chair, you said this very well earlier in your meeting in the morning.
We face a shortage of 30,000 homes affordable homes for people with the lowest income.
This shortage demands that we rise to meet the moment.
And this proposal meets the moment.
Renewing and expanding the levy to create more than 3,000 affordable rental and ownership homes for people and families who need them most and preventing thousands from experiencing homelessness is fundamentally the task of our moment.
It is the task of our generation.
We are grateful for your leadership, carrying forward a 40-year tradition and commitment to affordable housing throughout the city by renewing this levy.
We would like to see investments in both rental and home ownership maintained in the proposal, investments in frontline staff who turn buildings into homes sustained in this proposal, investments in OMS, sustains across the board as we move this proposal forward.
And we would also like to see some work in incorporating support for resident services and non-permanent supportive housing buildings.
We need a fighting chance at maintaining and growing affordable homes in our city.
In a city of rising costs for rent, for healthcare, for food, we can't reduce or prevent homelessness without affordable housing.
I thank you for taking on this work and running on with the baton.
We really appreciate your leadership.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And Allison, you are welcome to go next, followed by Tiffany McCoy.
Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.
Are you able to hear me?
Yes, we can hear you now.
Thanks.
Okay.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to join this public comment.
Good evening to all council members.
For the record, my name is Allison Isinger.
I'm the director of the Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness.
And we mobilize our community to challenge systemic causes of homelessness and advocate for housing justice.
We are here to strongly support your work to review and then put before the voters a housing levy at $970 million or higher.
Because as you have heard from all previous speakers, this levy is effective It is efficient and it is essential.
Today, I just want to give you some small insight into the significance of a specific part of the proposal to invest in the workers who are the ones who, as several have said, turn every unit into a home.
It's imperative for the city of Seattle to advance sustainability and wage equity in its contracts with community agencies.
The staff who work night shifts who help people settle sometimes after years or decades of experiencing homelessness, trauma, and significant disability, help people settle into their new homes and connect to their neighborhoods, those staff are themselves struggling.
We worked very hard at the state legislature two years ago to secure a completely inadequate but necessary workers stipend for people in homeless services and housing.
and the coalition surveyed frontline staff to ask them what they had used their up to $1,200 one-time stipend for.
To a person, people had used those stipends to pay off loans, to get current on their debt, to pay their own rent.
Thank you for your work to make sure that the public understands the value of this housing levy and for renewing it with serious attention to the people who are at the heart.
Thank you very much, Allison.
Please send in the rest of your comments.
I'm sorry, that last sentence got cut off.
Appreciate your testimony.
Tiffany will be followed by Tina Eliason.
Good morning, good afternoon, Tiffany.
Chair Mosqueda, members of the committee, I'm Tiffany McCoy.
I'm the advocacy director at Real Change pulling in to vocalize our strong support of the housing levy, the renewal, and really appreciate you all going big in this year's renewal.
A lot of our vendors at RealChange depend on the housing units that are produced through the housing levy and have been pulled in off the streets because of housing levy dollars being put into affordable housing.
And we are also extremely happy to see the $51 million set aside to address racial inequities and black homeownership in this package as well.
And just want to yeah, you know that real change endorses fully support this, supportive voting for it and continuing to house more of our of our neighbors in the city.
So thank you.
Thank you, Tina, followed by Josh Castile, Castile Castle.
Excuse me, Tina.
Good afternoon.
Hi, good afternoon.
Thank you all council members for having all of us here to speak today.
Really appreciate the work you're doing to create a real equitable and affordable housing network in our city and region.
My name's Tina Ellison.
I'm the director of housing services for Compass Housing Alliance.
We currently provide almost 700 affordable units in the city of Seattle and King County area.
Housing both chronically homeless individuals and families as well as low-income residents, including seniors, people on fixed incomes, people who have already served veterans who have served our country in recent years and historically.
Outside of this funding being able to provide more units, we also need to make sure we're providing services as other of my colleagues on this call have mentioned.
Just providing a roof over their heads is just the one step to create the stability that people deserve.
in need in our world.
So the renewal of this housing levy is really an opportunity to address both the problem of the lack of affordable housing, as well as more wages for nonprofit workers in the human services field.
As many of you have read in the news and other times, the work, the challenges our staff are facing is so critical.
I myself have worked two grave shifts in the last two weeks One of my managers worked a 24-hour shift last Monday.
It is hard to find qualified, quality employees who have the skillsets to do this work at the wages we're paying.
This is not just the do-gooder job anymore.
We have dealing with people with chronic health issues, from physical health to mental health, and we need the right people who have the commitment, compassion, and desire and skill to be able to do that.
So thank you so much for the work you're doing and the advocacy you're presenting today and have in the past year to increase our affordable housing market and...
Thank you very much.
Please send in the last sentence as well.
John Kustel.
Hi, good afternoon, or is it good evening, Chair Mosqueda and committee members.
My name is Josh Castle, and I'm the Community Engagement Director for the Low-Income Housing Institute, a member of the Housing Development Consortium, and of the Seattle-King County Coalition on Homelessness.
I'm here today to speak in strong support of renewing the Seattle housing levy at $970 million, and I want to thank the council for your outstanding work on this.
We also strongly support the inclusion of funding for resident services in non-PSH properties Lehigh, as an affordable housing provider, has used levy funds for numerous projects, such as Aurora Heights Housing, the Clay Apartments, the Fry Apartments, Good Shepherd Housing, and Nesbitt Family Housing.
As a result of these levy investments, Lehigh has been able to leverage dollars to create hundreds of new units of housing for our most low-income residents, in particular, people experiencing homelessness.
Just this last year, We have been able to house 281 people who are homeless, most of whom have been chronically homeless.
We know we have a steep shortage of 30,000 units for low-income residents, while thousands of Seattleites are experiencing housing insecurity and often at risk of falling into homelessness.
This is a crucial investment to respond to such an urgent need, and we'd be grateful for your support.
Thank you for your time.
Excellent.
Thank you very much for your time.
At this point, I think I have one more person signed up for public comment in the room.
So we will go ahead and come back to the in the room and then we'll do the next 10 folks listed online.
Miss Marguerite Beshar, you are welcome to come and present.
One second, ma'am.
Let's start your time again and make sure your microphones on.
Okay, let's try again.
My name is Marguerite Richard and I guess I wouldn't.
miss this for a lifetime.
I'm just really shocked and appalled and dismayed.
This is 2023, and this racism and discrimination is all race-baited around housing and everything that you do.
Just look across this country and see what's happening to indigenous black people, as far as them trying to get anything.
They're killing us.
They're trying to hoodwink and bamboozle us.
And you have a committee, you have commissions, and you have all this garbage that I'm about to take this right now.
and throw it in that trash can because I feel that another generation happened to suffer up under anything that our constitutional rights right now is bare no ground in this history of this country.
Tyree Nichols is dead.
I think somebody else died at the hands of somebody that just didn't care about us.
And you going to tell me you guys care about us down here?
The devil is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
And I'm going to tell you exactly what the Bible says you're going to reap what you sow.
Because we all got a right to be here, even those homeless people down there.
You know what I did the other day?
Instead of criticizing them, I stood there and prayed for them.
And my girlfriend was standing right there.
She was wondering what was going on because they need prayer.
They don't need to have all this flip flop, the mess going on around them.
Give them some people.
They got a heart for mankind downtown and fix this situation or get out of your profession.
Like I told the other one, go walk your dog and work in your garden.
If you're not,
Thank you.
The next speakers are Andrea Carnes and Brian Lloyd.
Good evening, Andrea.
Hi, good evening, Chair Mosqueda.
Can you hear me?
I can, thank you, yes.
Great, thank you so much to your longstanding dedication of affordable housing and also so many of the rest of the council for this work.
I'm Chief Operations Officer at Plymouth Housing.
And I'm joining my colleague tonight, Dennis Sills, who you heard earlier, and our board member, Mark, and also Lavina.
I'm sharing Plymouth Strong's support to renew the housing levy at $970 million.
Year over year, we've experienced about 30% vacancy in our frontline positions.
Our low wages were resulting in massive turnover and impacting our residents' success.
Last fall, we decided we could no longer operate without investing in living wages.
and we raised our frontline wages even without having the funding to cover it.
Plymouth adopted a budget this year for 2023 that included a deficit of more than $2 million just for the frontline wages.
And it's still not enough.
More than 55% of our workforce currently is paid less than $30 an hour.
So for almost 40 years, Seattle residents have come together to support this housing levy.
It's a proven solution We know this is needed right now and we encourage you to renew the levy at $970 million to ensure that the critical wages for our staff and so that we can continue to expand to meet the needs in our community.
Thank you so much for your support.
I yield my time.
Thank you very much.
The next speaker is Brian Lloyd followed by Lisa Wolters.
Good evening, Brian.
Good evening.
Hello, council members.
Thank you for this opportunity to speak about the housing levy.
My name is Brian Lloyd.
I'm with Beacon Development Group.
We're a nonprofit housing developer.
We've had the honor of working on projects with partners like El Centro, Filipino Community of Seattle, Chief Seattle Club, and Ethiopian Village.
The housing levy is the most impactful policy tool we have to combat homelessness and housing insecurity in the city of Seattle.
I've had the pleasure of working on four housing levy campaigns, phone banks, door knocking, and multiple levy planning committees and stakeholder groups.
And the amazing thing from my vantage point so far in this levy is how aligned all the stakeholders have been in the sizing and the funding plan for this levy.
It's exciting.
It's a dramatic.
And it gives us energy to move this forward.
Great work by the office of housing and the mayor's office on this issue so far.
The $970 million figure is significant and also achievable.
Uh, the levy will produce thousands of units.
It will provide services and rental assistance to thousands more.
And something new as has been mentioned, it will help pay living wages for the frontline staff that make this work possible.
As previously stated, the biggest barrier we have to our affordable housing in our community is the availability of resources.
So this level of levy is essential work for us right now.
So please advance this levy for the benefit of our city and its residents.
Thank you.
Excellent.
Thank you very much.
Lisa Walters followed by Camila Walter.
Good evening, Lisa.
Good afternoon, Chair Mosqueda and members of the select committee.
My name is Lisa Walters and I am the Director of Government Relations for the Seattle Housing Authority.
The Seattle Housing Authority is a proud partner of the Seattle Housing Levy with a long history of supporting it dating back to 2002. We currently have committed a combined total of about 1,200 project-based vouchers for extremely low income house, excuse me, extremely low income and homeless households and are proud to also partner with our nonprofit housing providers to make those housing available.
The housing affordability crisis has never been greater in Seattle.
Renting an apartment or buying a home is out of reach for many, and this shortage will only grow over time if we don't rise to meet it.
For the properties that we manage, we have over about a five-year wait list for public housing, and when we last opened our housing choice voucher, often called section eight waitlist.
We had approximately 25,000 people apply for 2,500 spots.
So the need is great.
And as our city continues to experience a housing affordability crisis that threatens the wellbeing of low-income families and homeless households in our communities, we applaud and support the proposal to renew the levy at 970 million.
The dramatic increase of housing costs is impacting livability of Seattle.
The housing levy is the answer and will help us meet the urgent demands of this moment, accelerate and leverage investments for low-income people and families to be able to continue to live in Seattle.
And we ask that you do this also with the levy through an equity lens.
We also are pleased to see support for our fellow partners for addressing the wage gap and issues that are happening for so many housing and homeless providers.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
And Camilla Walter followed by Joel Ng.
Good evening, Camilla.
Hello, thank you for your time and thank you for hearing so many community partners and strong activists for this issue.
My name is Camilla Walter and I'm the executive director of Real Change.
Real Change is an organization that works for social and economic justice while publishing a local independent newspaper.
We represent a community of hundreds of Real Change vendors, people experiencing homelessness and poverty who earn an income through low barrier work opportunities selling the Real Change newspaper.
I speak on behalf of our organization and the needs of our community when I voice my wholehearted support of this needed investment in housing here.
Real Change vendors are among the community members who will benefit from these units.
We are in the midst of a painful and growing housing and affordability crisis.
It is at levels that impact the livability of our city, and we must renew and expand this levy to connect neighbors to the housing that they need to survive and thrive here.
This critical levy will make an impact on the units that are available for our community members, and we need to go even further.
Rising rents and compounding issues around homelessness and affordability are devastating, and this here is an opportunity to stand up for housing at a critical time.
Thank you for listening.
Excellent.
Thank you very much.
And Joel Ng, followed by Kimberly Arrington-White.
Kimberly, it has you listed as not present.
So if you are listening, please dial in.
Go ahead, Joel.
Hello, Chair Mosqueda and council members.
My name is Joel Ng, and I'm a principal at Edge Developers, an affordable housing developer here in Seattle.
As a member of the Housing Development Consortium and a larger affordable housing community, I urge you all to support the 970 million housing levy, which is up for renewal.
Seattle's longtime support and passage of previous housing levies have set the bar for what cities in our state can do to leverage other sources in the development of affordable housing.
An award of city housing levy is the first important and influential step in securing other public resources.
The levy is influential in that the amount is typically the largest public award among other local and state sources.
Seattle's housing levy has prompted other cities to consider and adopt their own levy.
And I believe the housing levy played an important factor in influencing two of our largest tech firms to pledge hundreds of millions of dollars to support affordable housing in the city and county.
The work is never done and our need in Seattle is as great as ever.
I cannot imagine our city without these important funds that are critical to the further construction of affordable housing and other community spaces often located on the ground floor of these developments.
Please renew the levy at the proposed $970 million.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you so much.
Kimberly, I see you still listed as not present.
We can come back to you if you dial in.
Kimberly Arrington White, please dial back in.
Mark Lee followed by Richard Conlan, Council Member, excuse me, I did not see you on our list.
I would have happily come to you first.
We will go ahead and have Mark and then we'll go to Council Member Conlan.
Good evening, Mark Star 6. Thank you.
Hi, Council Member and community members.
My name is Mark Lee, Senior Housing Manager for the Seattle Chinatown National District PDA.
We currently provide 283 units of affordable housing in the CID, and we'll be doubling our housing portfolio over the next two years, thanks to the housing levy funding.
SCIPTA and our partners strongly support the proposal to renew the housing levy at $970 million, so we can continue to provide and develop affordable housing projects to meet the growing needs of our affordable housing for our families in the CID.
The dramatic increase of housing costs has impacted our communities, and it's threatening the livability of Seattle.
The 2023 housing levy will help us meet the urgent demands of this moment, accelerate and leverage investments so that low-income residents, families, people with disabilities, seniors can affordably live here now and well into the future.
The levy will fund resident services program for non-permanent supportive housing.
This would help sustain our resident service program, which has helped many of our residents who are experiencing housing instability continue to stay in their communities and their homes.
We urge that you renew the levy at $970 million.
This will help thousands of people and give them the opportunity to find affordable housing in Seattle and help to realize a shared vision for an affordable, equitable, and an inclusive community.
Thank you.
Thank you so very much.
Council Member Richard Conlon, welcome.
Sorry for the wait.
Thank you very much, Chair Mosqueda.
This is Richard Conlon, and I'd like to thank the mayor and the council for their work, especially on housing.
This housing levy is incredibly important.
And I first want to say that as a homeowner and property taxpayer, I strongly support Mayor Harrell's $970 million proposal.
It addresses our affordable housing gap.
It's a bold step.
It's the right size for Seattle.
I'm also here as a representative of Watershed Community Development, which is a nonprofit that owns four acres in Georgetown.
And we are constructing five buildings with 600 units of workforce housing.
available to those making 60% of median income or below.
Included in our development will be an early childhood learning center, facilities for small businesses in the arts and other kinds of community amenities.
Our first building we believe will be funded without levy funds, but the other four will need gap funding like the funds that the levy could provide.
There's 29,000 jobs within a half mile of our project.
which is why the Manufacturing and Industrial Council has welcomed our project and said it's the kind of thing that they want to see happen.
Many of these employees commute an hour or more each way every day.
And that generates greenhouse gases, it generates traffic congestion.
We did a calculation and believe that if we can house 500 of these employees in our unit, we will save a million highway miles a year.
So this is a climate change.
solution as well as an affordable housing project.
The levy is crucial for supporting workforce housing.
I want to ask the council to make sure that these resources continue to be available for people making 60% or less.
Those who work in Seattle and can't afford to live in the city need this kind of an investment.
Thank you so much again for your work.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you very much for dialing in and your service council member.
Kate Smith followed by Jess Zimbabwe.
Good evening, Kate.
And just star six to unmute.
I see you still muted.
Just hit star six to unmute.
And as you do that, we're going to also tee up Jess Zimbabwe.
And good evening, Jess.
Just star six to unmute as well.
There we go.
Good evening, Jess.
Good evening, Chair Mosqueda, and good evening.
Thanks to you and the mayor and other members of the committee.
My name is Jess Zimbabwe, and I'm an architect and city planner and executive director at Environmental Work Community Design Center operating out of historic Fire Station 7 in Capitol Hill.
Environmental Works offers our wholehearted support for the renewal and expansion of the housing levy.
Our nonprofit organization has worked with community partners across Seattle for the past 53 years to provide humane and well-designed affordable housing because we believe that housing is a human right.
The date has been our honor to design over 1,318 affordable homes that were funded by the housing levy and through the hard work of the Office of Housing.
This housing meets crucial needs in every neighborhood of our city.
We were one of the founding members of the Housing Development Consortium, and we join our fellow HTC members and partners here today to urge you to renew the housing levy at $970 million.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Just good to hear your voice again.
And Kate, Kate Smith, we'll come back to you.
Kate star six to unmute if you can hear me.
And we'll also tee up Donald King.
Good evening.
Good evening, Donald.
I see unmuted.
Please go ahead.
Well, good afternoon, Chair Mosqueda and members of the select committee on the 2023 housing levy.
I'm Donald King and I'm president and CEO of the Nehemiah Initiative Seattle.
The Nehemiah Initiative Seattle is helping our black faith-based organizations with development of affordable housing on their surplus properties.
And on behalf of the Nehemiah Initiative Seattle and our cohort of faith-based organizations, I urge you to pass through your committee positively on the renewal of the Seattle Housing Levy.
We support both the renewal and the expansion of the housing levy because this year's housing levy is growing to meet the growing needs of our black community.
With equity in our community that is subjected to rapid displacement resulting in a Seattle that is less diverse than it has been in decades.
We're also members of the Black Home initiative, and we believe that passage of the levy will help us realize Seattle's equity goals by also significantly boosting investments in affordable homeownership that can begin to reduce the black-white wealth gap by enabling more black homeowners opportunities for that increase in their wealth.
I urge you to renew the levy at $970 million.
This will give thousands of people the opportunity to find an affordable home in Seattle realizing that our shared vision for an affordable equitable and inclusive is the right thing to do.
Thanks so much.
Thank you very much.
And I just see Kate Kate Smith off mute so we'll come back to Kate and then we'll go to Joe Thompson.
Good afternoon Kate.
Good afternoon.
Thank you.
I'm Kate Smith, a principal with SMR Architects and the Housing Development Consortium's board president.
I'm 100% in support of the proposed Seattle Housing Levy renewal at $970 million.
The levy historically has supported the development, rehabilitation, and operations of affordable housing throughout Seattle, but it seems like we're never able to keep up with the demand.
We now have an opportunity with the proposed levy to make a real impact.
We need a livable and equitable city for all levels of income.
Communities and families need affordable housing both rental and for sale options where they've been historically rooted.
The people who need affordable housing aren't just those currently unhoused.
It's also teachers frontline staff your co-workers your friends your children's families.
We need to support them together by renewing the Seattle housing levy at $970 million.
Thank you.
Excellent.
Thank you.
And we'll go back to Joe.
Joe Thompson, good evening.
Good afternoon, Chair Mosqueda and council members.
My name is Joe Thompson and I am the president of Mercy Housing Northwest.
And I urge you to renew the levy at 970 million.
Renewal at this level will give thousands of people the opportunity to find an affordable home in Seattle.
and help us realize our shared vision of an affordable, equitable, and inclusive community.
The housing levy has created or preserved over 16,000 affordable homes in Seattle over nearly 40 years.
It is a proven, effective solution.
Without its renewal at this level, affordable housing production in Seattle will come to a virtual standstill.
My organization is both an affordable housing provider and a service provider for our residents.
It is critical that the upcoming levy renewal include funding for resident services at non-permanent supportive housing communities.
Even before the pandemic, resident acuity had increased dramatically at all our communities during and since the pandemic and it has exploded.
Simply put, resident services help families not only avoid eviction, but achieve housing success and meet other critical needs and plan for better tomorrows for themselves and their children.
We need these funds to leverage the full power of housing and to better compensate our line staff.
Please support the levy at $970 million, and please include funds for life-changing resident services.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
The next person that we have is Elizabeth Archambault, will be followed by V. Lee.
Good evening, Elizabeth.
Good evening.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you and the council.
My name is Elizabeth Archambault, and I am a low-income senior that's currently living in a Lehigh affordable housing unit in South Lake Union.
And I wanted to call and lend my support to the renewal of the 2023 Seattle levy Because the first barrier to getting affordable housing is actually have the housing built and maintained.
So I think that we can't create affordable housing without this renewal of this exceptional levy at 2023, because it will provide a dedicated funding stream.
So I thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
Excellent.
Thanks for dialing in.
V. V. Lee, it says you're not present.
If you are listening and you'd like to dial back in, please go ahead and do so.
And I do see that Kimberly Arrington White is on the line now.
So we'll go to Kimberly, followed by James Broughton.
Good evening, Kimberly.
Hi, good evening, Chairman Mosqueda.
I apparently called in on the wrong line when you were calling my name earlier.
But again, my name is Kimberly Arrington-White.
I'm the vice president of supportive housing at Plymouth Housing.
I've been joined by a number of colleagues this evening.
Truly grateful to you, the committee members, and for all of those who are working in support of the housing levy.
This housing levy provides needed support to Plymouth Housing.
It allows us to provide permanent supportive housing and trauma-informed care.
to more than 1,200 residents, that number will soon grow to between 16 and 1,700 in the very near future.
It's our hope that while many of our residents will receive appropriate services and aid in place, that a number of our residents will transition into graduate housing with ongoing support.
We're finding that the residents that we are receiving to provide services to require additional support, that as a result of the trauma they've experienced while they are unhoused, and even prior to becoming unhoused.
The support that we provide includes a stable frontline workforce who earn a living wage.
These staff are the building blocks of the community, and this community provides stability and well-being to our residents.
In addition, we are building out behavioral health services to continue to maintain the residents' housing stability, which we are currently at a level of 97%.
Finally, our units require upkeep, repair, maintenance, um, supported services in order to ensure that our residents are living in a clean and safe environment.
I 100% support the levy of $970 million over seven years.
Um, so that every member of our community can have a place that they can call home.
Thank you.
Thank you, and I'm glad you were able to dial back in just for our colleagues in the viewing public.
We are getting towards the end of the folks who signed up.
We have three people who are present to testify, and that would be James Bruton, Vanessa Tran and Dennis Rodriguez and two that are listed to speak but are not present.
Kalmedi and V. Lee.
So if you do hear your name and you're not dialed in yet, please go ahead and call us and we will hear from you then.
In the meantime, please go ahead, James.
Good evening, Council.
My name is James Brodden.
I'm the Senior Pastor of Damascus International Fellowship that's located in Columbia City, and I'm also on the Board of Trustees for the Nehemiah Initiative And I want, and I appreciate this opportunity to speak with you this evening concerning the housing levy.
We applaud the progress that the levy has made over the years.
Well, the first time home first time homeowners and also the 16,000 levy supported homeowners.
So we appreciate all the hard work that you're doing, but we also are urging you to expand your support to faith based organizations who are many of us are land rich and cash poor.
And so as we support this $970 million levy, we understand that Seattle has a reputation of being very innovative and very inclusive and equitable.
And so the Nehemiah Initiative acts as an advocate, and our goal is to propose solutions to address the housing shortages.
So as advocates for that which is diverse and that which impacts traditional ethnic enclaves, then we have been lamenting the displacement of many of our local black residents who are unable to remain in the community as long as black businesses and black churches.
And so the Nehemiah Initiative, what we understand is the power of land.
And so we are urging you and asking you for this $970 million levy so we can also address the needs because as churches, As black churches, we have many underutilized places and spaces in our land that we want to now dedicate to address the quiet crisis, which is a lack of senior housing.
So we urge you and we thank you and we appreciate you for this bold step.
Thank you.
Excellent.
Thank you very much.
And Vanessa, good afternoon.
Vanessa Tran, you're welcome to speak.
If you can hear me, just double check your phones off mute.
Looks like you're unmuted.
Oh, there we go.
Hi, Vanessa.
Hi.
I'm an attorney at Cantor-Taylor and also a board member of the Housing Development Consortium.
In my work as an attorney, I represent developers and owners of affordable housing as they close on financing to rehabilitate or construct affordable housing.
I'm here today to express my strong support of the housing levy renewal at $970 million.
Just in the last two years, Cantor Taylor has closed about 19 transactions financed with city dollars, primarily levy dollars.
So it's safe to say that no affordable housing unit can exist in Seattle without city funding.
The levy renewal will bring about 3,000 new homes for people who need them most and will prevent thousands more from experiencing homelessness.
This only scratches the surface to meet the region's current and projected housing needs.
So I urge you to take bold action.
Thank you.
Excellent.
Thank you very much.
And we love hearing the kiddos in the background.
So thank you for sharing that as well.
And the last person who's present to speak with us is Denise Rodriguez and V. Lee Skelcom Kelmendi.
If you are listening, you're still have time to dial in.
They can't make it.
Skelcom can't make it.
Hello, Denise.
Hi.
Thank you so much for your time.
My name is Denise Rodriguez, and I am Executive Director of the Washington Homeownership Resource Center.
Our mission is to increase and preserve homeownership in Washington, and we do that by educating and empowering current and future homeowners.
We are members of the HCC, as well as of the Black Home Initiative, and I also was a member of the workgroup that produced the state's Improving Homeownership Rates for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in Washington report.
I'm testifying in strong support of the mayor's proposal to renew the Seattle housing levy at 970 million.
Over half of all residents of levy funded homes are people of color.
The Seattle housing levy effectively advances housing justice and racial equity and should be renewed at the proposed 970 million dollar level.
The housing levy works to bridge the racial wealth and home ownership gaps by creating safe stable and affordable home options for households of color who are disproportionately displaced rent burdened and unhoused.
The proposed $51 million for homeownership will create and maintain 360 affordable homeownership opportunities through new development, foreclosure prevention assistance, down payment assistance, and home repair grants.
As a supporter of the Black Home Initiative, I urge you to join me in ensuring that this work can be done.
Housing is foundational for individual and community health, safety, and resilience, and the housing levy is our best tool for investing in the permanent affordable homes Seattle so desperately needs.
Please renew the Seattle housing levy at the $970 million level and send it forward to the voters so we can approve it in November.
I look forward to working together with everyone who testified in favor today and members of the council to realize our shared vision for an affordable, equitable and inclusive community.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or requests for additional information.
And I wanna thank you for your support of affordable housing and for your time today.
Excellent.
Thank you so much.
Well, that is a great note to end on.
I don't see anybody else signed up for public testimony.
Thanks, Councilmember Nelson.
We know that Skelcham is not able to make it today, so we got through everybody who signed up for public comment and all the folks in the room and online.
A reminder that We will have another opportunity for public comment on May 31st again in the evening or late afternoon to try to accommodate as many folks as possible who might be interested in providing us with any feedback at that juncture.
We'll have remote and and in person public testimony as well.
That's May 31st at 430 PM.
We will have our next meeting on the housing levy coming up on Wednesday, May 3rd at 930 in the morning where again we will start with a overview from the community with their public comment and then get into the central staff's presentation with potential issues for identification and potential modifications.
I want to underscore the really near unanimous support today, very much glowing enthusiasm from members of the community, both for the amount and for the types of programs that are included in the proposed levy.
So we look forward to building on those great comments that have been shared with us today.
And thanks to the folks who made this evening's presentation possible, the clerks, Jody, Amelia, and Elizabeth, our very own clerk, Frida Cuevas, from my office.
IT, including Ian and Eric and the whole crew, Seattle Channel as well, the comms team and all of our council members that are here with us this evening, along with Aaron House, who leads our work on housing and chief of staff in our office.
If there's no further questions.
Hearing none, our committee is adjourned.
See you on May 3rd.
Thanks, everyone.
Thank you.