Good evening, thank you all for being here.
As the City Council moves into its annual budget session and goes into doing what it does every year which is passing a budget which is bar a few marginal things a budget that is business as usual budget we are here as we have done in the last five years to demand a people's budget that is a budget that funds the needs of all the ordinary people in our city And the theme of the people's budget is that in a wealthy city like Seattle, nobody should be poor or hungry or homeless.
And that housing is a human right.
And it is that which brings all of us here together.
Concretely, Some of the demands People's Budget 2019 is fighting for is around affordable housing and renters' rights.
Last year, People's Budget won the funds for one single legal counsel for tenants facing eviction.
And through that one single mechanism, we have been able to prevent hundreds of evictions and maintain the tenancies in hundreds of cases.
We will have representatives from the Housing Justice Project to share that with us.
We want to fully fund the LEAD program, the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, that has shown itself to be incredibly successful as a humane alternative to incarceration and jailing.
We also want to expand yet another program that has succeeded phenomenally in providing our homeless neighbors not only dignity, humanity, and security, but also a much faster solution towards permanent housing, and that is our tiny house villages.
We want to be able to fund all of this by stopping the programs that have shown to not work.
Sweeps of our homeless neighbors do not work, and yet the city's establishment spends $10 million every year sweeping homeless neighbors from spot to spot.
Instead of this forced removal, we want to fund all the other programs at work instead of wasting $10 million on sweeps.
We also want permanent funding for Indigenous Peoples Day.
We want to massively expand affordable housing using a half-billion-dollar bond funded by Taxing Big Business that will build thousands of affordable homes.
We want to fund renter organizing.
Community organizations like Be Seattle, the Tenants Union, and LGBTQ Allyship are building renter power.
We need to fund that even more.
We need to fund the Freedom School, which has provided an admirable summer program for youth of color.
And we need to fund LGBTQ senior services and Vietnamese senior services.
To share some of their thoughts on these demands, we have a number of community members and leaders with us.
First, I want to bring the executive director of the Low Income Housing Institute, Sharon Lee.
Hi, I'm Sharon Lee, Executive Director, Low Income Housing Institute, or LEHI.
We really want to thank Councilwoman Shama Sawant.
She is introducing legislation to expand and create more tiny house villages.
And tiny house villages are much better than having people living in cold, wet tents on the streets.
We now have heated tiny houses with electricity, access to showers.
toilets, kitchens, and most importantly, a case manager that will help move people into housing.
And we have over 500 people who have moved from a tiny house into long-term housing.
And it is an effective strategy for vacant land, public land, private land, church property that's sitting there being unused.
We have over 196 people who have died living on the streets.
not one person should be dying from homelessness.
We want to make sure that tiny house villages can help save people and transition people into long-term housing.
So I want to thank the Councilwoman, thanks Shama Sawant for introducing legislation and also hopefully additional budget allocation for tiny house villages.
Sharon Lee has been a dogged advocate for our homeless neighbors, and Low Income Housing Institute, Nicholsville, the Tenants Union, B-Seattle, many of these organizations have come together to advocate for renters' rights and for homeless services.
And as Sharon said, I have put forward a legislation that will not only expand the land use code so that tiny house villages can be sited throughout the city, but also we through our people's budget we are going to be fighting for funds for tiny house villages.
So please join our people's budget movement and also join us on October 17th for the tiny house village public hearing and make your voice heard.
October 17th at 5 p.m.
right here in City Hall.
Next, we are so honored to have Ludella Bowen, who is a tenant in the Brighton apartment facing economic eviction and has already become a strong advocate for rent control.
Please welcome Ludella.
Thank you so much.
My name is Ludella Bowen.
I am a resident of the Brighton apartments, have been a resident for 15, almost 16 years.
And I'm here because I'm concerned about the residents at the Brighton because our rent is exceeding our income.
We're all seniors.
on a fixed income and the worry now is what are we going to do?
I want to send a message to those out there who are in charge of all these big corporations and buildings that we've been discussing this among ourselves for a while.
What are we going to do?
But now I want to say publicly that it's time for us to not speak among ourselves, but to come together as a group and to say how we feel.
Because if we keep it on the inside, then nobody knows how we feel.
So we want everybody to know that we're concerned not only for ourselves at the Brighton, but for everyone that's facing the same crisis that we are as seniors, and we are getting older, and we can't afford to move, and we can't afford to stay.
So we're in this fight for the long haul.
I've worked all my life to work hard, to stay in there.
And now that I'm a senior, we always thought that we'd be able to enjoy.
And now we have to worry about where are we going to get the money from to pay our rent.
So I want everybody to be encouraged.
I want everybody to be able to set your mind at ease, because we're going to keep on doing this, and we're going to keep on fighting.
This is worth fighting for, and we're in it to win it.
You know I was feeling a little exhausted and Sister Ludella has just injected new energy and our next speaker brings a similar energy and dedication to building social movements and she has correctly said that It is not enough for Seattle to say it's a welcoming city.
As long as it's a city that is not affordable, then disproportionately, our immigrant communities, people of color, women, and LGBTQ people are the ones that are being economically evicted.
So please welcome Maru Mora, who is with La Resistencia and is a phenomenal immigrant rights activist.
Thank you.
As an undocumented immigrant, I can tell you that most of our immigrant community, low income of color, cannot afford to live in Seattle.
Some of us cannot even afford to the idea of coming back.
For us, rent control is critical because maybe some of us could come back.
But not only getting affordable housing, but also to have the right to fight evictions.
We need a budget that reflects that a wealthy city is not a city for a few, but it's a city for all of us, including undocumented immigrants like me.
A budget that reflects that.
Children like my child that actually went to the Freedom School some years ago and benefited so much of learning from other people of color, it's not open to a few, but it's open to everybody.
We need a budget that reflects what City Council always talks about.
So instead of just talking, we need more action.
So we're here for rent control.
Thank you.
As Maru said, we've had enough talk.
We want action.
And one of the organizations that is actively advocating for renters every single day is the Housing Justice Project, which has, through the dedicated work of its staff, prevented hundreds, if not thousands, of evictions.
So please welcome Caitlin Heinen, who is a Housing Justice Project staff attorney.
Hi, I'm Caitlin Heinen, and I'm a staff attorney with the Housing Justice Project.
Seattle needs more affordable housing, but building these properties takes time.
A cost-effective way to prevent homelessness in our community is to keep people housed where they are already living.
To do this, though, tenants need lawyers.
And our courts are not easy to navigate alone.
The Housing Justice Project is the only in-court program in our area that provides eviction defense, which we've been doing for 20 years.
We are on the front lines of the housing crisis in Seattle, and we see the difference having a lawyer makes in eviction cases.
But as eviction cases rise and our volunteer numbers decline, we are having to turn away more and more clients due to low capacity.
Almost all landlords already have an attorney, so tenants are already at a disadvantage.
Those clients who are turned away from our clinics have to go into court representing themselves pro se.
These tenants will most undoubtedly be evicted within a week.
And this is the hardest part of my job as a staff attorney for the Housing Justice Project.
Having to tell someone in need, someone in crisis, that I can't help them today because there aren't enough lawyers available.
This is why having enough lawyers are crucial in eviction defense.
The newest laws that were passed this year are intended to protect tenants, but they won't be effective without lawyers to enforce these rights in the courts.
Right now, New York City and San Francisco, they guarantee a right to counsel in eviction cases.
It's time that Seattle follows suit, and providing funding for eviction defense lawyers is a great first step.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Kaitlin.
We know the housing and homelessness crisis disproportionately affects our native communities.
And that is why it is so important we have Deo Esquivel here with us, who is a housing case manager for the urban native community.
And I think he's a Seahawks fan also.
I just want to thank everyone for gathering here today to fight for rent control, to represent our people, the people who live here in Seattle, the people who make this city what it is.
Our Native community is constantly shown in the data that we are the highest rate of homelessness and eviction.
And we're the lowest percentage of population in this city on our indigenous land.
Rent control is something that we need now to face the ever-increasing cost of living in this city.
The graphs that they have put together show that if we had rent control 10 years ago, the average person would be saving $600 a month in rent on average.
Rent increases every three to six months when you get hit on a renewal.
It forces people to make a choice.
Do I need to move or do I need to find another place?
And most of our communities of color, especially native people, don't have the income, they don't have the money to be able to pay for those increases in rent.
Myself, living in Renton, we saw a $325 increase just in time to renew our lease.
So we need protections for the people who are living in these communities, single family incomes, low income families, specifically native families.
We're seeing our native community dissipated, people having to move out, move out of the county, move south.
And we need rent control to address the ever rising cost of living Because the cost of living has eaten up all the economic gain that we've seen from the increase of rent.
I'm sorry, the increase of the minimum wage.
The fight for 15. Might as well have never happened because the cost of living just ate up all that extra income.
So we need to take multiple approaches to this issue, not just looking at building public housing or market rate.
I'm sorry.
tax credit housing, mixed income units.
We need all different approaches and this is something that we can enact right away.
And we need to overturn the statewide ban on rent control so that cities and counties can make their own decisions for what's best for their own citizens.
Thank you.
Thank you, Dale.
And I would urge all speakers to speak a little bit louder so everybody can hear us.
And we have been joined by these wonderful Vietnamese elders here.
Thank you so much for being here.
Our next speaker is Laura Wright, who is a Rainier Beach High School and Freedom School educator, and as you heard Sister Maru say, her own daughter is a graduate of the Freedom School, and what a gift it was for so many students, and we need to make sure that we keep this program funded.
Good evening.
My name is Laura Wright and I'm a community organizer, educator, non-profit leader proudly representing Rainier Beach neighborhood of District 2. I'm here today to stand in solidarity and support of the people's budget movement as well as the need for rent control.
I specifically want to uplift and highlight funding for our Freedom Schools program in the Rainier Beach neighborhood.
It has been 55 years since freedom summer when young revolutionaries and organizers sought to dismantle the merciless domestic terrorist state of Mississippi through strategic mobilization, through freedom schools, voter registration, and the creation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
55 years later and here we are amid continued domestic terrorism against black and brown lives in every institution.
It's no surprise to us that Seattle Public Schools is one of the most inequitable school districts in the entire country.
For us, summer is a critical time to not only ensure the most marginalized students in our school district have access to high quality academic programming, but also a time to innovate and mobilize against racial inequities, particular in our public schools.
Freedom Schools is a high-impact social justice leadership and literacy summer program that has become a cornerstone of youth-led action and academic excellence in Rainier Beach community since 2015. Our program centers racial justice, civic engagement, literacy, and social justice leadership, and has most recently become a powerful training ground for young people to become restorative justice practitioners.
The people's budget can offer critical funding to support and ensure that over 200 K through 12th grade scholars in the Rainier Beach neighborhood can continue to have freedom schools.
I would like to remind the public that it was through this freedom schools program in 2015 when our students decided to protest against the inequitable walk zone policy of Seattle Public Schools.
Now four years later we hold the victory of being the largest city in the country providing free year round transportation for all high school students.
The Youth ORCA program would not have been created without the relentless and ongoing organizing and advocacy of Rainier Beach students, particularly scholars in our Freedom Schools program.
I believe that when Rainier Beach speaks out, when we lead, when we agitate, when we move, when we demand, and when we resist, the whole city is better for it.
Programs like Freedom Schools are not just programs, they are youth-led movements that we must continue to invest in and nurture.
The council must center those furthest from educational and racial justice in our budgeting and policy decisions.
So are we going to stand with our young people and fund the Freedom School at Rainier Beach High School?
Yes.
Do we want to expand this program to other schools?
Yes.
Wonderful.
And it's amazing the spectrum of Seattle's working people and ordinary people that are represented at this gathering today.
We have young advocates for young people.
We have advocates for our elders.
We have Asian-Americans.
South Asian Americans are white Americans, black and brown.
I mean, this is amazing.
This is what a movement looks like.
And I really thank you all for joining us here.
And now we have Kim Lundgren from the Vietnamese Senior Association.
Hi, my name is Kim Lundgren.
I'm here again with a group of seniors from the Vietnamese Senior Association.
I would like to say only a few words.
We are seniors, we have a very limited income, and we depend on the rent, the housing, affordable housing, the rent.
So we would like to have that rent controlled.
And we would like to have funding to support our senior group.
So that can help us to have a healthy life by getting out of the house and going to the community center so we can join the activity and senior program.
So that really help us and thank you.
There are so many people here whom I want to recognize, but I won't have the time.
We are represented by the Transit Riders Union here, by PASARA.
And also, I wanted to make sure to mention Brother Benjamin Shabazz, who is the imam at the Cherry Street Mosque, and who's been a longtime fighter for social and racial justice.
Our last but not least speaker is a representative of the labor movement, which has been on the front lines for housing and workplace justice.
This is one of the unions that has become one of the 23 organizations that have now officially endorsed our movement for rent control, universal rent control free of corporate loopholes.
So please welcome from UAW 4121, the union that represents graduates, students and postdocs at the University of Washington, Adam Capilou.
Hey, I'm Adam Capelo, and I'm here representing my union, the UAW Local 4121. We represent over 5,000 academic student employees and over 1,000 postdocs at the University of Washington.
And we are proud to stand here this evening with all of you to declare that it is time for a people's budget in Seattle.
82% of our members are rent burdened, paying about half of their salaries to the landlord.
This is unacceptable.
People are scraping by and sometimes foregoing health care or other basic necessities because our rent takes so much of our paycheck.
We know that this is unacceptable and unsustainable.
And this is why we need an affordable housing bond.
We need this bond so that we can build a lot more quality, publicly owned, union built, environmentally sustainable, affordable housing, and keep this city livable for working people.
But we also know that building affordable housing alone is not enough.
With corporate developers building luxury apartment after luxury apartment, with working people, small businesses, people of color, and LGBTQ people being rapidly gentrified out of our city, And with rent averaging over $2,000 a month, Seattle urgently needs rent control.
And this is why I was disappointed that no council member besides Council Member Savant attended the September 23rd committee meeting on rent control.
Fellow union members, socialists, community activists have spent the past few months collecting signatures for this campaign.
Over 12,000 people have signed on, calling for rent control now.
These voices matter.
The other council members need to hear our stories and support our struggle for rent control.
And that's why we are delivering a copy of the petition signatures to them tonight.
As we said, my union, along with 20 other labor and community organizations, have come together to pass resolutions.
Ours unanimously supported these resolutions in support of the rent control movement.
And now we are asking our city council to do the same.
We are calling on them to endorse Council Member Sawant's rent control ordinance.
So let's let them hear it.
Tell them, what do we want?
Rent control.
When do we want it?
Now.
What do we want?
Rent control.
When do we want it?
Now.
Thank you.
Thank you, Adam.
And as Adam correctly said, we are going to be in a few minutes, we're going to be heading up as a group to chambers and signing up for public testimony.
So we want to make sure the city council hears our demands for the people's budget.
We're fighting for the expansion of tiny house villages.
We're fighting for the funding for the freedom school, for legal representation for tenants facing evictions to expand the lead program for permanent funding for Indigenous Peoples Day.
We're demanding that the city stop the sweeps of homeless neighbors and fund programs that work instead.
I also want to recognize some other people who are here with us.
Sean Smith and Anitra Freeman from Nicholsville and Cher, who have done tireless work, absolutely tireless work in their advocacy for our homeless neighbors.
We have Devin Silvernail from B-Seattle, which has held boot camps for renters right throughout the city, and now these are rent-controlled boot camps.
So please invite your neighbors, friends, and family to one of these boot camps in your neighborhood so that people can learn why this is important for them and how we can fight to win it.
Are we ready?
Yes!
Alright, so let's go out and sign up for public testimony and while we're walking over there, why don't we say, what do we want?
A people's budget!
When do we want it?
Now!
What do we want?
A people's budget!