Housing and Human Services Committee 6/26/2024

26th meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee will now come to order.

I am Kathy Moore, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council President Nelson?

Present.

Council Member Saka?

Here.

Council Member Wu?

Present.

Vice Chair Morales?

Here.

Chair Moore?

Present.

Five present.

All right, thank you.

We do have quorum.

If there is no objection, today's proposed agenda will be adopted.

All right, hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

So thank you everyone for being here today for the June 26th meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee.

The first item of business we have today is the 2023 Housing Levy Administrative and Financial Plan and the Housing Funding Policies, which are back in committee for continued discussion and possible vote.

We will have central staff provide a quick overview and we also have the Office of Housing here to answer any questions that may arise.

We also on the agenda have an amendment to consider and once we consider the amendment then we will potentially move to a vote.

Second on the agenda, we have four appointments to the Community Roots Housing Public Development Authority and one appointment to the LGBTQ Commission.

And finally, we have an informational briefing on the work of the Third Avenue Project, co-presented by the Human Services Department and the wonderful We Deliver Care team.

So, really looking forward to that presentation.

So with that, let's move to public comment.

We will now open, let's see, we will now open the hybrid public comment period.

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

Madam Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

Currently, we have one in-person speaker signed up and there is one remote speaker.

Okay, well, so each speaker will have two minutes.

We will start with the in-person speaker and then move to the remote speaker.

Can you please read the, Madam Clerk, can you please read the public comment instructions?

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

The public comment period is up to 20 minutes.

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

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Are you ready?

Yeah.

Okay.

The first in-person speaker is Ryan Donahue.

I always have to adjust that a little higher, sorry.

Hello, Chair Morgan, members of the committee.

My name is Ryan Donahue, as you know, and I am the Chief Advocacy Officer at Habitat for Humanity Seattle King and Kittitas Counties.

I'm here today to express Habitat's support for the updates to the Housing Levy Administrative and Financial Plan, as well as the updated housing funding policies, and to urge your swift support of those proposals that you will hopefully be voting on today.

My team and I often find ourselves being asked, where do we build the most and why?

the answer is very clear it's the city of seattle thanks to the seattle office of housing and the funding structures that are in place right here in seattle the affordable housing try or affordable housing funding tripod of mandatory housing affordability jumpstart payroll expense tax and the seattle housing levy is the magic formula that allows us at habitat for humanity and so many others to be able to build more houses and serve more families right here in seattle where unfortunately we find ourselves struggling to be able to produce housing in most other places across the county.

That's why two-thirds of our current pipeline serving over a thousand people is located right here in the city of Seattle.

Between the increase in the per unit caps for both development and down payment assistance, which is going to incentivize the creation of much needed family size units, The flexibility of the first-time homebuyer definition and the creation of short-term loans that can be used for low-cost construction financing as well as acquisition.

These plans and proposals show promise to be able to speed up the deployment of available funding and leverage existing dollars to do even more.

We appreciate the work and commitment the city staff and leadership have shown to this effort and urge the committee to swiftly pass this financial plan and these funding policies.

We look forward to continuing our work with the city and the Office of Housing to deliver on the vision of Habitat, to build a world where everyone has a safe, decent, and affordable place to call home.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Luke.

The first remote speaker is Gary Lee.

Gary, press star six when you hear the prompt of you have been unmuted.

Hi, I'm Gary Lee, member of the CID Public Safety Council and ISRD board member.

As the Housing and Human Services Committee, I want to bring to your attention that the draft One Seattle plan barely touches on homelessness and public safety which are huge issues in Seattle.

The 2035 comp plan began to touch on these issues and included policies regarding public safety community well-being and human service facilities.

So such facilities are convenient while not being over concentrated in the area.

Specifically existing policy DTHSP5 says speak to avoid over concentration of human service facilities in any one area of downtown.

That policy, with the entire community well-being element, are being deleted in the current draft of the One Seattle plan without the goals being achieved first and with no replacement of similar policies anywhere.

The policy should be retained and expanded to the entire city, not just focusing on downtown neighborhoods of the CID, Pioneer Square and Belltown.

We know the city will continue to address chronic homelessness by continuing to provide human service facilities like emergency service shelters, permanent supportive housing, and treatment facilities, as the city should, but not in a fashion that is not guided by comprehensive time policies and regulations.

Therefore, I suggest retaining and combining existing policies CW 7.7 and DTHSB 5 to say something like this.

site new human service facilities in or near urban centers, neighborhood centers, and urban neighborhoods, considering access to frequent transit, and use good neighbor guidelines that consider the needs of consumers and the community, while avoiding the concentration of such facilities in any one area of the city.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Chair, that concludes our list of speakers from the general public.

All right, thank you.

So there are no additional registered speakers.

So we'll now proceed to our items of business.

Members of the public are encouraged to either submit written public comment on the sign up cards available on the podium or email the council at council at seattle.gov.

All right, we'll now move on to our first item on the agenda.

Madam Clerk, will you please read the first item into the first agenda item into the record?

Agenda item one, Council Bill 120804, an ordinance relating to housing for low-income households adopting the 2023 Seattle Housing Levy Administrative and Financial Plan for program years 2024 to 2026. adopting housing funding policies for the 2023 Seattle Housing Levy and other fund sources, authorizing actions by Director of Housing regarding past and future housing loans and contracts, creating two funds for housing levy revenues, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

All right, thank you very much.

So colleagues, we heard an overview of this legislation and committee at our June 12th meeting.

Today, we will have central staff, Tracy Ratzlitt, to provide a quick overview of the legislation, including changes made to the ANF and housing funding policies pre-introduction and an amendment from Council Member Saka.

So I'll just note that procedurally, I will move the underlying council bill.

We can address any questions on the underlying bill.

Then I will invite Councilmember Saka to move his amendment and start our discussion.

And then finally, we will hold the final committee vote today.

So I would note that this is very impactful legislation.

We're looking at making possible to build 3,000 plus units of low-income housing that is desperately needed in our community and also expanding the opportunity for first-time home ownership opportunities and vastly expanding the ability to provide rental assistance to those desperately desperately in need and to be proactive in our prevention of homelessness.

So this is really exciting and important work that we're doing here today.

So I just want to know, I appreciate the time that everyone has committed to.

It's also dense.

in a little bit, takes a lot of attention to detail.

So I appreciate the amount of energy and intention that everyone has committed to this.

So with that said, I'm going to turn it over, oh, I'm sorry, both to Tracy and to Jen from Central Staff.

And I also note that we have Director Waco Chin and Kelly Jensen from the Office of Housing here as well.

Thank you.

Good morning, council members.

Tracy Ratseff, council central staff, again joined by my colleague, Jenna Breck.

So today we will be discussing and you will be voting on council bill 120804. Just to remind you about these two documents that you're going to be voting on, the 2023 housing levy policies and then the housing and funding policies.

So the ANF plan is required to be submitted to the council for approval.

We generally...

REVIEW THAT POLICY DOCUMENT EVERY TWO YEARS AND APPROVE IT THEN.

IT DOES INCORPORATE THE HOUSING FUNDING POLICIES THAT APPLY NOT ONLY TO THE LEVY FUNDING REVENUE STREAM, BUT ALSO TO OTHER FUND SOURCES SUCH AS THE MHA, JUMP START PET, FEDERAL FUNDS AND SO FORTH.

THE ANF PLAN SPECIFICALLY INCLUDES DOLLAR AMOUNTS FOR EACH LEVY PROGRAM.

allowable uses of program income and investment earnings, a brief description of the levy programs, the full program description and guidelines for the Homelessness Prevention and Housing Stability Program, which includes the Rapid Rehousing Program, and then annual reporting requirements.

The housing funding policies themselves, again, apply to all programs operated by the Office of Housing and are funded by those various fund sources that I previously mentioned.

The HFP includes, among other things, the general objectives and priorities for each program, program policies and guidelines, including affordability and eligibility requirements, eligible costs, and so forth, guidelines for administering those loans and grants, the process for selecting programs or projects for funding, and then project monitoring and reporting.

The ANF plan and HFP basically remain unchanged in the majority.

The changes that are in front of you today were discussed at the June 12th meeting, and then there are a few more that we're gonna go through that were made prior to introduction.

So the changes that were included prior to introduction, including modifying the Council Bill 12084 to direct that investment earnings and other proceeds from levy programs to be used for the purposes described in the ANF plan policies themselves.

The NF Plan policies were modified to require that the use of all investment earnings from the Rental Production Program be used for the Homelessness Prevention Program.

This is a program that assists households who are at imminent risk of homelessness to remain housed by providing case management, rental assistance, utility assistance, and other services.

The NF plan policies were also modified to designate the annual funding that would be allocated specifically to the Homelessness Prevention Program to the tune of about $2.4 million a year and the Rapid Rehousing Program, which will receive about $430,000 a year.

The NF plan policies were also modified to remove the legal fees from eligible costs for Homelessness Prevention and Stability Program.

These changes that I just described were all proposed by Chair Moore.

There were two additional changes proposed to the legislation that were sponsored by Councilmember Nelson, and they include the following.

Modification to the housing funding policies to add a new objective and priority for the rental housing program for housing that supports recovery for those with substance abuse disorders.

Additionally, a modification was made to those policies and to the rental housing program project monitoring provisions to request OH to explore alternative methods for obtaining more frequent vacancy information for city-funded housing units.

As was mentioned, Councilmember Saka has a proposed amendment, and I think I will defer to him to go ahead and describe his amendment to committee members.

Happy to answer questions about any of the information that I just went through prior to Councilmember Saka talking about his amendment.

Just for the record, I'd like to note that Councilmember Rivera has joined us.

Are there any questions for central staff?

Okay.

All right.

I'm not seeing any then.

All right.

So is there being no questions?

Okay, so am I having him present?

I don't have my piece.

I don't have anything to, I don't.

All right, thank you.

I need some consultation here with my expert procedural person.

So actually, I'm going to let Councilmember Saka, if you want to just talk about your underlying, or excuse me, about the amendment to the underlying bill, and then we can move forward procedurally.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And thank you for the opportunity to speak on my proposed amendment to Council Bill 120804 that was circulated, version three, that was circulated this morning around, I think, 9.39 a.m.

That was the latest version.

But in any event, as this slide indicates, my amendment would modify the housing funding policy and rental housing program resident priorities provisions to specifically add the following.

Youth formerly served by the foster care system and those who served in the United States military.

So would it add youth?

who were formerly served and also make clear that that reference also includes adults who were formerly served as applicable as well by the foster care system.

So colleagues, this is very, as the chair, Chair Moore aptly noted, this is very impactful legislation.

The opportunity that we have here today to make better progress in our affordable housing needs and goals and imperatives across this city is really, really important.

Before us today is an opportunity to better address low-income housing.

Again, all as Chair Moore noted, Rental assistance allow us to be much more proactive in homelessness prevention, and then also support first-time home buyers, and something that is really important to me.

And also, let me preface what I'm about to say by saying, I think you all know that I'm a military veteran.

That is a status that I have as a choice, as a result of a professional choice that I've made over time.

I am also someone who, through the help of and the power of community and supports and effective government programs and services, I'm someone who's overcome the foster care system.

And so I feel colleagues like you all, I know you all wake up every morning feel privileged to be able to sit at this dais and it is an absolute honor and privilege to do what we do and serve the people and taxpayers of the city of Seattle.

But for me, given my background, I feel a particular sense of duty and responsibility to uplift and center the voices and make sure that more people from disadvantaged backgrounds and communities, in this case, foster care system, people who have served our country in the military in uniform, are able to achieve their true potential in life.

And we know that they...

experience some of the biggest barriers in housing.

And so this, my proposed amendment is intended to better center and uplift and empower those people and make crystal clear that we need to make sure that all of our housing policies and programs are designed to include, explicitly include them.

And that's why we added including without limitation language, by the way.

Wordsmithing matters in this context.

So, you know, this is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all sort of categories of people.

But, yes, we are explicitly calling them out because, you know, their voices and perspectives matter.

And we want to make sure as a housing policy and priority in the city of Seattle, we need to do better for disadvantaged groups and communities.

And here we're calling out two important ones, not the list.

but important lists.

And so thank you, Madam Chair, colleagues.

I humbly ask for your support for this amendment.

And thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much, Council Member Saka.

Did you have any further presentation on this?

No.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

I have questions if I might.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Council Member Saka, for this amendment.

I think we all know that foster care youth are disproportionately represented in our homeless system.

We don't have a great safety net for people who are aging out.

transition into more stable housing.

And we know that veterans are represented throughout our community in different ways too.

I wonder, I don't know if this is for Director Winklerchen or for Tracy, but I am curious to know a little bit more about what resources are currently available for veterans and how the Office of Housing in terms of, I don't know if it's adding focus or shifting focus, but what would the implementation of this look like for you?

So I will talk about the second part of your question, Councilmember, if I may.

So first, we'd like to thank the Councilmember for his commitment to ensuring housing access for youth and young adults who spend time in the foster care system and for those who have served in the US military.

And we support that addition to the housing funding policies.

Our recommendation is that the amendment change in Section 1ai1, very specifically, which is the section focused on homeless housing population priorities.

And that is the section where vast majorities of specific population priorities are established for that.

And we know that there is a disproportionate number of people who are from the foster care system and veterans in that first segment, which is the homeless population.

the possible impact and I've shared this with Council Member Saka's office, the possible impact of adding language to sections, the later sections, that it may cause confusion for project sponsors, for our staff, for different governmental entities, and for everybody who participates in the housing funding process on what those priorities mean and how to implement that priority.

I'm not sure how our agencies would do that.

Oftentimes our agencies interact with In the past work that I've done, people that want to house a certain priority group would come and talk with us as the developer, and we would have an agreement with them that, yes, we're going to target that.

But I don't know what it means when it hits city policy at this level and how that implementation happens, right?

And I would hate for any signals to the...

to everybody else that may view it as a restriction, so I appreciate the language about limitation.

I guess...

As we've said, we like to stick it in that population that we know exists and that gets targeted.

And there is just trying to keep our language as simple and clear as possible because having an attorney, trying to call an attorney to get clarification on stuff gets really expensive.

And the farther away from this moment in this discussion that they're having right now and having that captured somewhere, the farther away we get that, it just adds to confusion.

I do not know the first part of your question council member, what are the resources that we have for those populations?

And I think Kelly might be better prepared for that.

So there's the King County Veterans, Seniors and Human Services levy, which does often co-fund projects with the Office of Housing, Capital and Services and Operating.

Generally, those population targets are fairly limited because the veteran population within homelessness is a smaller percentage of that population than the remaining single adult population and families.

But there are resources for veterans and we do.

projects for veteran housing for homeless veterans.

There's also VASH vouchers that the Seattle Housing Authority operates that are specifically for veterans.

There's been a campaign to end veteran homelessness.

There are a lot of initiatives federally and locally to support veterans.

There are also fund sources that are targeted for youth and young adults.

I'm less familiar with those, but there is the King County Best Starts for Kids levy.

There are other resources that are specific to these populations.

They generally land in the homelessness system, homelessness response, and supportive housing, permanent supportive housing.

So in those ways, that's how we interact generally with these two populations, not as much in our affordable housing portfolio.

So thank you.

I'm trying to figure out how to be supportive of this amendment.

I have some comments too, but go ahead.

It sounds like the language would be better situated in a different section.

I have the amendment in front of me, but I don't know where precisely the language is contemplated.

And so I'm wondering, Michael, you mentioned in a different section, it might work better.

We are fully in support of adding it to section Reading glasses time.

Section one, housing for families, adults, and youth, which is in the resident population priorities.

So I think it is, if I could just point to it, but I can't, here it is.

Yeah.

Okay, which I think is the most recent version that we have.

Yes, the first one.

Okay, okay.

And for Section 2 and Section 3, we are supportive of Section 1.

Okay.

So, okay, sorry.

I need to be recognized, so I'm gonna...

Yeah, okay.

Let me just clarify and then I'll turn it over.

What I'm hearing you say, Director, let me just clarify, is that we all have draft three in front of us, I'm assuming.

Okay.

That you, the department would support the language under...

One, the first category here, but that your request is that the additions to two and three be deleted.

Is that correct?

Okay.

All right.

That's it.

Council Member Saka.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And a couple quick points of clarification, because this is a fast-moving target.

And for crystal clarity, I'm referring to the version that I emailed at 9.35.

9 a.m., which includes the including without limitation language.

So this is, I don't know how much more clear I need to be, to be honest.

You spoke to the concern about this being perceived as being restrictive, which is why I specifically added without limitation language to make crystal clear, and I'm making crystal clear right now that is not at all the intent.

So I think the words already address that concern from the executive's perspective.

And here we are in a position where we need to move, we need to act, and we need to act quickly.

Again, this is not at all intended to be restrictive.

That's not the list.

It is a illustrative list.

So I think the updated wording addresses the underlying concern from the executive.

But even in the absence of that, you know, this is executive versus legislative prerogatives at its finest.

And appreciate the call out of the city, the resources currently in place at the county, federal, state level.

Yes, there are a fair amount.

Arguably, I would argue not enough to address you know veterans and formerly foster former foster youth that said what the county is doing what the state is doing what the feds are doing does not absolve the city of its duty and responsibility to do more in these areas as well and my my language and amendments does exactly that so uh so again you know i think it's a little bit of a words wordsmithing thing that We ultimately address through my latest version, fast moving target.

So colleagues, yeah, would ask for your support.

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

Thank you, Council Member Saka and Council President Nelson for your amendments.

I agree that these are important and we should pass them and prioritize these groups.

But I have a question regarding legality and implementation.

I always assumed it was, you know, we first come, first serve.

So how would implementation look like and would we open ourselves to legal issues?

You know, Council Member Wu, I'm a little stuck here on how the implementation, could it be through something like affirmative marketing?

I'm going to have to get back to you on that.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um, I think, um, I, my apologies.

I've got us a little ahead of where we need to be.

So I'm going to walk us back to the underlying bill first.

Um, before we engage in additional conversation about council member soccer's amendment.

So, um, That said, I just want to note that there was a special in the Seattle Times this morning that was written by members of the United Way of King County calling for increased investments from local county and state governments for a prevention-centered approach to reduce homelessness.

By increasing our investments in rental assistance, we are focusing our efforts on a prevention-centered approach.

It is most It is cost-effective to keep people housed.

It is certainly more cost-effective to keep people housed than to rehouse people, and it is less traumatic for families when we can intervene proactively and prevent homelessness.

So I'm committed that Seattle take a more proactive role in homelessness prevention, and this commitment has served as the motivation behind my change to significantly increase our investments in rental assistance, which was discussed by central staff.

So are there any questions about the underlying bill before I move it?

Okay, Council President Nelson, are you asking or did you put your hand down?

I put my hand down because my question was about the amendment.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you for the overview.

I will now move the underlying Council Bill 120804. Second.

Thank you.

All right, it's now been moved and seconded.

Seeing that there are no questions, I am now gonna turn it over to Council Member Saka to move his amendment.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I move to amend Council Bill 120804 as presented as Amendment 1, Version 3 that was circulated to committee members this morning at 9.39 a.m.

I think it addresses the underlying concerns and centers the legislative priorities and, yeah, would ask for your support.

Thank you.

Okay, I'll second that.

Um, so is there any further discussion on that on Council Member Saka's amendment?

Council President Nelson.

Thank you so I am interested in knowing, um, is this targeted at the provider or at the, um.

At the residents that providers seek for their, uh, their.

Uh, the, the buildings that they are are producing so.

Is it designed to incentivize providers to focus on these two populations, which I completely support, or is it designed to not, so is it, By that I mean that these providers would specialize in housing for these two populations.

And I recognize that they probably need different needs that aren't being met right now.

Or is it designed to encourage the existing pool of housing providers that we that are usually funded through these dollars to seek out members of these populations, not in the same building, but different buildings.

So at what level is this priority targeted?

And I will say that I do support this and I plan on voting yes.

I'm just wondering how it works and maybe this gets to the issue of implementation.

I think, Councilmember, it would apply to both providers who might be seeking funding from the city to do projects, and it also would apply when it comes to them having to fill units at a specific project if, in fact, they decided to include a priority for or set aside of units for that specific population.

So at a couple of different levels, it would apply.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

I can see the discussion that came before us in some of the, not necessarily resistance, but the position from the Office of Housing seemed to be that it goes well in the first category, number one, but are you saying, Director, that if it's in number two and three, those number two and three are targeting, I think, I do have the actual full length of the amendment, two is seeking to help people, older adults and people with disabilities, and three is seeking to help people who are low-wage working families and individuals.

So are you saying that Council Member Saka's amendment is focusing on different groups of people that are not represented in those labels?

Council President, what I am saying that it's well documented and known that the veterans and people that are coming out of the foster care system are well documented in the homeless system, the first section.

I am sure that they are represented in the others.

I know that they are.

I just do not know if we are choosing to prioritizing certain groups populations, what that level is and how that can impact on the implementation side.

OK.

Well, in that case, I support I support the language in all three categories because it seems as though there are foster, formerly foster, people that have formerly gone through the foster care program and veterans that are maybe not homeless but fall into these other categories as a subset.

So that is why I will be supporting this amendment.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

And I'm going to note that I don't sit on this committee, so this is just questions.

I don't get to vote today.

But just in terms of director, is your concern on number two and three that the without limitation language is not included?

I'm just trying to get clarity on that.

the concern with, because this isn't saying it's only limited to these, it's just saying, including, it's really a call out to acknowledge that these populations are probably though you can't document it at this point, but it sounds at least anecdotally, we know these are two populations that are highly represented within these groups.

So I think it's acknowledging, the language acknowledges that as an inclusion, it's not an only.

So is the concern that the without limitation language was not included in both these pieces or you haven't just overall concern?

I'm trying to understand.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rivera, part of it is just practice, and we should always reflect on practice and why we do things.

Part of it is to keep clarity in what it is that we're trying to focus on in those other populations, right?

So part of it is truly confusion, and without limitation, I appreciate the language amendment.

The housing funding policies have to be clear for people to understand, right?

And just for...

future versions of me to be able to understand and to be able to do the work.

Of course, these get amended every couple of years.

So this is a conversation that we will probably revisit parts of it.

Just trying to keep things clear, right?

And so it is our practice traditionally to keep it in the first section.

That doesn't mean that there has to be the practice going forward.

But we do get concerned when people get confused about things that are in our government language we do and we as office have tried to become more simpler case in point our amendments around the uh low-income housing because we just had to go through 200 pages of amendment in that just trying to be clear

Thank you for responding, Director.

I will say, as someone who doesn't sit on this committee and is not as, you know, has been working on these issues as long as you all have, I am not confused by this language.

I understand it to mean that it's just inclusive of these populations and that we're acknowledging that these populations probably disproportionately are impacted.

And so, to me, that's all when I read this.

That's all that that signifies for me.

I didn't find the language confusing, so I'm going to say that.

Though I don't get to vote today, I'm supportive of this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Thank you.

For clarity and consistency purposes, that's why I carry forward that including without limitation across all subsections.

Someone I didn't even consult with offline understands the plain meaning, I think the plain meaning of the text taken out of context without checking the records and the tape of this meeting.

Plain meaning makes clear it's not a limiting list.

It's not an exhaustive list.

So I think the plain meaning together with my very clear, crystal clear intent make clear like, hey, what we're doing here is up leveling them.

It's not the list.

These aren't the only two categories of vulnerable groups we need to focus on.

Anyways.

Here we are.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Okay.

Thank you.

I was just reading the language here, like in Section 2, where it says, OH will give priority to projects that provide housing units set aside for older adults or residents with disabilities, particularly projects designed to provide support for underserved groups.

So, I'm thinking that with Councilmember Saka's language, that that simply is an additional factor in looking at a set-aside for an older adult or a resident with disability.

Do they have an additional priority, which would be that they were a veteran or they had at some point been in the foster care system.

I would note under Section 1 that it does say a project may propose to serve residents who fall into more than one population group.

So I'm thinking it's going to be okay.

From a legislative perspective.

It really, I think, is just when you're looking at your population group, it's just one more factor, one more characteristic to add in that bucket to expand it.

And I recognize that it's a change in how you've been going forward.

and change is always difficult, and I also recognize that you are coming from a level of expertise of administering these programs, and now we're up here tinkering with that, and I'm quite hopeful hopeful that that is not going to be detrimental.

And I'm certain that if it is, that you'll come back and let us know.

And that we'll do our best to...

And we haven't voted yet, but I'm just saying that we'll certainly do our best to work with you in any way we need to, to make sure that this does not negatively impact.

And I don't think it is.

We're really just trying to open the tent and maybe force open some of those categories that have perhaps been a little bit closed.

Okay, are there any additional questions?

No.

There does not appear to be.

Okay, so at this point...

So again, thank you for this discussion, Council Member Sacco.

I appreciate that you are always keeping an eye out for veterans and for foster, formerly people in the foster care system, both very important populations, very marginalized and struggling populations.

And so it's important to always keep them front and center in mind when we are trying to expand the services that we are providing to our community.

Okay, so if there's no further comment, let's move to a vote on Council Member Saka's Amendment 1, Version 3.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Vice Chair Morales?

Abstain.

Chair Moore.

Aye.

Four in favor, one abstained.

Okay, so this, thank you, the amendment is adopted.

Okay, and we will now move to a vote on the underlying bill.

Are there any questions before we proceed to that vote?

Okay, there being none, will the clerk please call roll on the committee recommendation to pass Council Bill 120804 as amended.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Vice Chair Morales.

Yes.

Chair Moore.

Aye.

Okay, thank you.

The motion passes and the committee recommendation to pass Council Bill 120804 as amended will be sent to the July 2nd committee meeting.

Thank you to all the presenters for being here today and for your hard work on this.

All right, will the clerk please read agenda items two through five into the record?

Agenda items two through five.

Appointments 2873 through 2876. Appointment of Ann T. Maloney.

And reappointments of Frank F. Alvarado III, Michelle Moreland, and Kristen Winkle as members of the Community Roots Housing Public Development Authority.

Governing Council terms from March 31st, 2027 for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

All right, thank you.

So these are our appointments.

So a note, Community Roots Housing is a public development authority, or PDA, that's been established by the City of Seattle pursuant to state law.

Ann T. Malone is the Senior Vice President of U.S.

Bancorp and has played a key role in originating substantial low-income housing tax credit investments and fostering community relations.

Frank Alvarado, Michelle Morlan, and Kristen Winkel are re-appointments.

Frank serves his community as a provider of financial services and offers trusted banking advice and solutions.

Michelle is principal of Lotus Development Partners and has been actively engaged in the direct development of affordable housing and community facility projects for over 30 years.

Kristen is the COO of Jewish Family Services and previously dedicated nine years to the King County Housing Authority, where she led the Section 8 Voucher Program.

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

All right, seeing none, I now move that the committee recommend confirmation of Appointments 2873 through 2876. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

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

Will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendation to confirm the appointments?

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Vice Chair Morales?

Yes.

Chair Moore?

Aye.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation to confirm the appointments will be sent to the July 2nd City Council meeting.

All right, will the clerk please read the sixth agenda item into the record?

Agenda item six, appointment 2903, appointment of Landon Liboski as member Seattle LGBTQ Commission for a term to October 31st, 2024 for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Thank you, Clerk.

Landon has served as the Diversity and Inclusion Chair for USA Swimming.

As a member of the LGBTQ Commission, Landon hopes to work alongside fellow commissioners to help advance productive policy and legislation that directly impact the LGBT community, as well as the entire community of Seattle.

He hopes to directly connect with people in neighborhoods, hear their stories, and advocate for them.

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

All right.

Seeing no further comments or questions, I now move the committee recommend to confirm appointment 2903. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointment.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Vice Chair Morales?

Yes.

Chair Moore?

Aye.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation to confirm the appointment will be sent to the July 2nd City Council meeting.

Will the clerk please read the final agenda item into the record?

Agenda item seven, Third Avenue Project Overview for briefing and discussion.

Thank you.

If everyone would please come to the council table.

Okay, thank you.

So today, we have with us the Human Services Department, and we deliver care to provide an overview of their work, providing services focused on downtown's Third Avenue corridor.

And once everyone gets settled, we'll turn it over to our presenters.

Thank you so much for being here today.

Everything working okay?

Yep, thank you for having us.

Just going to adjust.

Sure, yeah, no rush.

One second.

And just for the record, note that John Scholes has joined us and is attending remotely.

Excellent.

Well, good morning, committee chair Moore and council members.

Thanks for having us today.

My name is Chris Clayson, and I serve as the director of HSDs, the Seattle Human Services Department's Homelessness Division.

And I'm joined here today with We Deliver Care, who I'll turn it over to for introductions.

Good morning.

Oh, good morning.

Stephanie Wheeler-Smith, CEO of WDC.

Good morning, Tabitha Davis, COO for We Deliver Care.

Trey Kendall, community safety ambassador, supervisor with We Deliver Care and TAP.

Hey, good morning, everyone.

I would just ask if you could please speak directly into the microphone.

We'll make sure that they are turned on and working as well.

Excellent.

Well, I'm going to turn the floor over to We Deliver Care in one moment, but I have a couple introductory slides.

First...

Just an introduction to the Human Services Department.

Our mission is to connect people with resources and solutions during times of need so we can all live, learn, work, and take part in strong and healthy communities.

On the screen here, briefly, you'll see HSD's six impact areas, and the Third Avenue project sits within our Supporting Safe Communities work.

In terms of the Third Avenue project itself, this is an initiative that arose from community and business concerns in late 2022 around criminal activity and concerning behavior related to a variety of issues, including mental illness, drug use and homelessness in the Third Avenue community.

Again, in late 2022, HSD executed our initial contract for Third Avenue Project Services.

This is an outreach program operated by We Deliver Care.

that connects individuals on Third Avenue to services to promote their own stability and overall community safety, and it has a team of community ambassadors that are deployed to the area on a daily basis as well.

And to talk more about the initiative to date, its accomplishments, and what WDC has seen on the ground, I'm gonna turn it over to Stephanie.

Thank you, Chris.

Thank you.

Go to the next one.

Thanks for having us.

Just to give you a little bit of history about WDC, we started in 2019 and jumped into a relationship with Co-Lead in their transitional housing services and provided ambassadors that are continuously serving that community today.

We evolved into an outreach work group that is collaborating with the TAP project, and our focus is just to address the public safety and public health concerns in the Third Avenue Quarter.

We were contracted to support the efforts of the mayor, DSA, and King County Regional Homeless Authority, and our goal is really to restore the culture and the vibrancy of Third Avenue in Seattle.

We focus on supporting individuals, human beings at the intersection of homelessness and poverty and criminal activity by directing them to organizations that can provide some level of service and support.

We aim to be visible and to impact the community by embedding ourselves in that community daily.

We are there seven days a week, 15 and a half hours a day.

Our CSAs ensure safe, positive interactions between individuals, and we provide de-escalation services that prevent possible incidents.

We approach this work as a client-centered, trauma-informed, relational, empathetic, and authentic group of individuals who see these people as human beings with needs and without voices.

And so, it's an opportunity for us to serve this community in a way that is holistic, and quite fulfilling.

The services that are provided are nonviolent de-escalation and incident stabilization.

We refer individuals to law enforcement.

We reverse opioid overdoses by administering naloxone and CPR.

We provide electronic documentation.

All of these interactions and helps provided have been documented in what we call...

Gelata.

Gelata, thank you.

We redirect individuals who are loitering in front of businesses, and we refer individuals to organizations that...

for behavioral health, shelter, housing, all of those things.

We provide businesses with non-emergency responses and have provided that response on a consistent basis.

They call us, they know us, they see us.

We have relationships with all of those business owners.

Our community safety ambassadors have lived experience, and that isn't the only thing that they have, but they have that, and so they are able to relate and talk with and be in relationship with individuals on Third Avenue that give them a level of trust that isn't fake.

It's deserved.

It is consistent.

It is...

responsive.

All of our CSAs are trained in nonviolent de-escalation and crisis prevention strategies.

They are trained in CPR, mental health first aid.

All of them know how to administer naloxone in every way that you can administer naloxone.

They are trauma informed care individuals.

They are crisis intervention trained individuals.

They function with a level of conflict resolution that is excellent.

And we are very, very mindful and keen on how important it is for them to have self-care, self-regulation, and health and wellness.

And so we make sure that we implement those things in our organization.

Awesome.

Thank you, Stephanie.

So we're going to take a little bit of a deeper dive into the TAP program.

It does not work without our partners, without a coalition of support providers and the collaboration of community stakeholders.

That also includes our pretty amazing project and data management team.

So we listed a few of the organizations that we work with and tried our best to just kind of summarize what that relationship looks like.

So for starters, the REACH Lead program, they provide housing support, legal coordination, and case management.

This is actually pretty cool because a lot of the participants that we work with actually self-disclose to us some of the legal issues that they have, which speaks to our just presence and collaboration and ability to to really work well on Third Avenue with those folks.

The next is Coley.

They provide intensive case management and housing support.

They also provide some employment support as well.

There are TAP participants that have actually been employed through this program.

DSA and MID are amazing support providers.

Not only do they provide trash mitigation, spot cleanup and biohazard cleanup, but they're also a second chance employer.

And so there are multiple TAP participants that have been employed through that organization as well.

HealthONE provides post-overdose support.

They also reach out to us occasionally.

They have clients that they're working with to provide case management support, and they have difficulty finding them.

So they will call us to see if we can locate them, and we have done that for them as well.

KCRHA, we work with them through the coordinated entry process.

SPD and EMTs provide emergency response.

Every time that we come across an opioid overdose, we always call 911, and so they come out.

But also, we've been able to partner with them really well.

We've grown to the point where they will provide Crowd control for us, EMTs congratulate us or just, you know, thank us for our support for just kind of being first on the scene.

So that relationship has really been amazing.

And then the unified care team provides a shelter referral.

And then in terms of our businesses, there's so many more that we could have listed, but there's a few here.

Money Tree, International Cigar and Tobacco, Ross, McDonald's, the Post Office, et cetera.

I do just want to highlight really quickly Money Tree.

We have, for the last couple of weeks now, they've reached out.

and ask for additional support for us very specifically for their staff.

And so we go out in the mornings and in the afternoons to make sure that their staff are able to enter and exit the building for work.

And so because of that relationship, there's now several other businesses that have reached out for that support as well.

And that is very specific, like kind of shift support that businesses need.

That does not include on-demand support.

So we have a telephone number that businesses can call and reach out to us if needed.

You know, they just, you know, notice that someone is loitering outside of their business or something is going on.

Their staff doesn't feel comfortable walking to the parking garage or whatever the case may be.

They can call us and our response time is usually about five minutes.

And then, of course, our project and data management team, the support that they provide helps us to make really great informed decisions.

We've made a lot of improvements in terms of our operational efficiency, et cetera.

So that's just a few of our partnerships.

Okay, so we're gonna talk a little bit about data.

So having the demographics up here is really important because it's important to understand, excuse me, the community in which we serve, including their needs.

And we're hoping that this information will be informative today.

It definitely helps us to be better informed in terms of making decisions regarding future planning and budgeting.

So who's down there?

91% of 1,487 unique participants that we've encountered are unhoused.

The number of unique engagements that our staff has had is 4,083.

In terms of race, white is 46.5%, black is 34.5%, American Indian or Alaska Native is about 8.3%.

In terms of gender, male is 71.9%, female is 27.3%, and other is 0.8%.

And then in terms of ages, 18 to 36 is 56%, ages 37 to 54 is 36%, and 55 to 72 is 8%.

So in terms of our referrals, this is a significant part of what we do.

We are a liaison between the participants on Third Avenue and the Coalition of Support service providers that we work with.

And so we make referrals to them.

And so for housing, we've made 116 referrals.

Of that 116, 36 have moved into permanent housing through that coordinated entry process.

15 have moved from co-lead transitional housing, that program, into permanent housing.

We have been able to reverse 151 overdoses.

This number is also really important because this signifies saving lives, right?

This number represents a participant who the staff has reversed overdosed for him five times.

This number also represents there's three or four participants who have overdosed within 48 hours of being released from detox.

So this number is pretty significant, not just for obvious reasons, but we have to create pathways for people once they come out of detox so they can stop recycling or cycling back onto the streets.

De-escalation, so far, 261. I also want to note that this number is low.

This number is important.

It's low because our staff had, up until recently, maybe a month or so ago, had been noting de-escalations as, you know, uh, just high impact, right?

So people actively fighting.

So this is what this 261 is.

It's people actively fighting.

It's people threatening that they have a weapon.

It's, you know, um, significant crowds of people and that sort of thing.

This does not include moving people from in front of businesses.

This number does not include our staff just being present when they walk up.

People already know, okay, well, WDC is here.

Okay, okay, we know, we know, we know.

Let's kind of move out of the way.

So this number is low.

In terms of employment, there's 29. For case management, we referred 675 people to case management.

Detox, 59. And family reunification is 15. Again, this number is pretty significant because it represents us, our staff encountering participants and through engaging with them and talking with them, they say, I just want to go back home.

And so we will initiate that process for them.

This is also our staff running into family members who are carrying photos of their families and asking us, have you seen this person?

And we have.

And so we've been able to reunite at least 15 families.

So in terms of trends and challenges and successes, trends, there is an increasing need for de-escalation in the summer months.

There's just more people downtown.

It's an influx.

It's very transient, the area that we work in.

And so the need is just greater in the summer months.

There's an increased request for detox.

This is what staff is reporting.

And thankfully, there's a decrease in organized drug activity.

Some of the challenges that we're facing, lack of transitional and permanent housing resources, service providers just aren't open early enough or late enough.

We're out there from 6 a.m.

until 9.30 at night, and crisis is not 9 to 5. And so what do you do at 6.15 when someone says that they're ready for support, or at 7.30, what do you do?

And many TAP participants don't have an ID.

In terms of successes, as the previous slide, many individuals have been housed.

We are excited about that.

And also, we wanted to highlight a TAP participant by the name of Erin has worked for LAZ, who is one of our Second Chance employers, for over a year.

And then also, just the community trust that we have built.

So next we want to share just a couple of testimonies.

We have two letters.

They're brief, but important.

One is from a 30 year resident, Michelle.

The second is from a manager at Money Tree.

So I'll read those two letters.

Then the next voice that you'll hear is that of Trey Kendall.

He is one of our supervisors.

And then after him, you will hear from John, who is the DSA president and CEO.

So Michelle says, I am submitting this letter in support for WDC and their efforts to expand their boots on the ground in the Third Avenue corridor.

I'm a longtime resident of downtown Seattle.

For the recent 30 years, I've lived in the Fisher Studio building at 1519 3rd.

Prior to that, I lived above the sanitary market in Pike Place Market, and 10 years before that, I resided in Pioneer Square.

During these decades, I witnessed the growth, demise, stagnation, and rebirth of our downtown, along with the numerous programs created to effect change.

I see with my own eyes the daily presence and goodwill of the WDC staff, which is much appreciated by fellow neighbors and casual passerbys.

Not only have I lived in downtown Seattle, but it has been my livelihood as well.

I've owned my own business, designing, installing shops and windows on Seattle's Fifth Avenue, Olympic Hotel, and Metropolitan Track.

I advised on interior design of Maximilians in the Pike Place Market and Sur La Table.

I worked for Victor Steinbrueck on the Save the Market initiative.

My husband at the time, John Kleiss, was director of market and the PDA.

Most recently, I had a shop Bazaar De Beers in the market for 10 years.

I list these experience credentials to support my ability to assess and implement my role as a concerned and engaged citizen.

Please know that I support WDC as they continue and expand in their importance and value to the life on our street.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

And then from Chung Lin, the manager of Money Tree.

Uh, going down...

No, I'll skip that line.

Uh, sorry.

I enjoyed the safe, clean, and vibrant environment.

I'm not sure since when the whole atmosphere and vibe started to change.

The streets became smelly and scary to walk on, and it's no longer an inviting place to go to.

In the most recent years, there have been numerous crimes around Third and Pine, where Money Tree is located.

During COVID, the streets became very unsafe for our team members to walk on, especially in front of the store where drug deals and use of drugs takes place.

Calling M.I.D. and LEAD became almost a daily event for me.

In the past year, I've seen an improvement thanks to these two organizations.

I see the team from WDC standing in front of the store to make sure that it's clear of transient so Money Tree team members can enter and leave the building safely every day.

The entire team of Money Tree really appreciates the WDC staff for putting the safety of our team members as their priority.

And try it.

Hi, I'm Trey Kendall, WDC supervisor.

As Tab and Steph referred, our team is full of people with lived experience.

It's allowed us to walk the streets and communicate with people through the experiences we've had on our own.

We're able to relate to a lot of the people that are down there.

Some of us have been in the same position.

And it's also gained trust among the people down there because we talk how they talk.

In return, it has allowed us to receive sort of therapy and helping others down there to see the results that we're able to provide.

It strengthens us to continue to develop in other areas of our life.

It transfers from not only the job, but also we're able to take it home and realize how precious life is. how many are in a position that we're not in.

It allows us to be the support that we would have liked to have been when we were in the position before.

And like I said, that's been very therapeutic for us.

Ms.

Thank you, Trey.

If we can hear from John now.

Well, good morning, Chair Moore and members of the committee.

John Scholes, President and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association.

First, just a huge thank you to the terrific individuals at WDC that are doing difficult, challenging, but very, very important work.

I'm here to express our wholehearted support for it.

It's been complimentary to the efforts of our ambassador teams to engage and support people in need out on the streets, particularly the Third Avenue corridor.

And the reality that we face in Seattle and in downtown today is we have a deeply-infringed drug market in and around Third and Pike.

with a more deadly drug and substance than what we've experienced previously.

And we have a choice as a community whether we're going to intervene and engage to assist those that need support and hold accountable those that are out hurting and harming others.

And WDC in this effort through the Third Avenue project is a conscious decision by the city to intervene and engage.

And that's the only way we will interrupt a dangerous, deadly, expensive cycle that plays out each and every day.

uh in the core of our downtown and has great impact for those that are caught up in that and also those that are trying to run a business or live or work or visit the area we must intervene and we must engage wbc is doing just that and as i talk to our team members we employ 165 full-time ambassadors in cleaning functions and safety and hospitality functions and events and park functions Our ambassadors appreciate WDC being on the ground and our managers and leaders of those teams are closely coordinated with supervisors and leaders with WDC and with the PDA as well and see them as an incredible value add.

The barriers and constraints were noted in the presentation.

It's clear that we could be helping more people in the core of our downtown if there was more access to housing, particularly enhanced shelter, low barrier shelter, 24 hour enhanced shelter with the appropriate services and staffing too.

support and engage with folks that have been struggling, homeless and drug and alcohol addicted for quite some time.

We know the population in this part of town is predominantly chronically homeless.

Folks who've had many experiences with homelessness over the last two years or have spent many years on the streets and they require a significant amount And services and interventions to support them as they're brought into housing on the streets.

Yes, it's expensive, but the status quo, I would suggest is.

Is even more expensive, we're seeing significant cost to the EMS system 100% increase in calls from just last year, just in downtown.

Threats to the tax revenue and tax base to jobs to business tax revenue.

So the status quo is not come up come without significant costs.

I think to make a more meaningful difference in this part of town, we will certainly continue with the investment.

The cities may expand that investment as well.

both in direct engagement and intervention and outreach, but also the services that folks are able to offer to those that are suffering on the streets, both from addiction and a lack of housing.

So thank you for the opportunity to offer comments on this critical project and the critical work of WBC.

Thank you.

I think Council Member Morales, did you have a question?

Yes, thank you, Chair Moore, and thank you for the presentation.

I wonder if we could go to the data slide.

I think I have it as slide eight.

It might not be.

11, okay.

So I have two questions.

One is you indicate that you had 1,487 unique participants, 91% of whom were unhoused and you were able to house 116. So can you talk a little bit, first question, can you talk a little bit about why that number isn't higher, what are the challenges with actually getting people placed?

And I think John mentioned some of the issues, which are probably not gonna be new to any of us, but I think it's important to indicate why that number is so low.

And then my second question is, on the same slide you have 56%, over half of the folks that you encounter are 18 to 36. I'm wondering if you encounter folks who are under 18 and I'm wondering what kind of support you might be able to provide to young people who you encounter, particularly if you're able to help them get into school or housing or reconnect with their families and just trying to understand what funding might be essential to supporting people who are under 18.

Yeah, sure.

So to answer your first question, this might be a bit of a surprise, but there's a shortage of housing.

So that's really why that number is low.

We absolutely can make referrals.

We hear it.

And so the referrals kind of go to a list.

And so there literally is a lack of places for people to go.

It probably took us the better part of the dates are escaping me, but maybe six to eight months to even be a part of the prioritization process for the coordinated entry process.

And then when we got it, we tried to maximize it.

We are maximizing it as much as we can.

But even there, there's, you know, some limitations.

And so if there's a way that that could be expanded, we have the people that need the support, and so we can definitely make those referrals.

And then also, with CoLead, CoLead has been an amazing partner with us.

They are transitional, temporary, lodging, but after they do their intake and screening process, they're able to get people off of the streets and provide intensive case management that helps them to be, you know, fill in the blank ready.

So that could be employment ready, document ready, right?

ID, birth certificate, that sort of thing, housing ready.

help people get their EBT, like all of those different things, reconnect with family, et cetera.

But right now they are maxed out in terms of beds.

And so they need support.

So it really is an ecosystem where all things should be for the good of those that are on 3rd Avenue.

So at any point, right, if you think about an ecosystem, if one part of it isn't working, it doesn't necessarily mean that the ecosystem fails.

It just puts additional pressure on the other components of that system.

But for it to really work well, all of the components need to be working well.

And now in terms of the age component, I will turn to Trey.

I know that they've run into young people, but he can speak to kind of what that looks like and what kind of support that they may offer.

A rough guesstimate, there's probably about 50 people that are under the age of 18 down there.

A lot of them dealing with addiction, so that's the first thing that we like to address.

And followed up by trying to reunify them with their family.

Some of them are ready.

Some of them find ways to get us to handle it later.

But that's part of the number of the unifications that's listed on there.

There's some people that we've been able to get a bus ticket and send them out of state back to their family.

But out of those that are down there, Yeah, there's probably 50 that are underage.

And like I said, our main focus is to address the drug use that kind of consumes their life and allows them to blend in with everybody else that's down there.

Thank you.

Female Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm just following up on your trends that you're talking about increasing requests for detox.

Can you elaborate on that a little bit?

And another question I had is, do you have access to the Crisis Solutions Center?

Like, are you considered a person who can make a referral to them for treatment?

I'll answer the latter part first, and then I'll give the folks requesting detox.

I'll give that over to you.

The short answer is no.

So we should figure out how to, if that's an opportunity for us, we will absolutely pursue that.

And so maybe I can get the name of that organization from you and give that to our project manager and see what it would look like to, for us to refer to them.

So thank you for that.

Okay.

Thank you.

And again, you were just, the question about increasing requests for detox, what is that looking like?

What are the numbers?

Can you just kind of paint that picture for us?

I think it's more of a timeline thing.

At the beginning, there weren't a lot of requests.

It took us time to get to know people out there, having encounters, conversations with them, and for them to understand the services that we provide, and for us to understand their needs.

Once they did become familiar with us, the request for detox, those requests increased.

They realized that we do have access to a detox center.

We do know that part of the reason they may be asking is just to get some shelter for a few nights, but nevertheless, we're there to provide that for them if it includes detox.

But I think it's just a matter of them getting to know us more and understanding the resources that we have.

Thank you.

And which is the detox center that you have access to?

Valley Cities.

Oh, okay.

So you can refer people to Valley Cities.

Yes.

That's fantastic.

How many referrals do you say you're making?

I think the number was 59. I think, personally, I've probably made about 20 myself, but the number's about 59. Wow.

Have you been able to follow up with any of those individuals or?

Some of them return.

Some of them let us know that they followed up and went to rehab after the detox.

Some of them do come right back down there.

And there's some out of that 59 that the same person has gone more than once.

But yes, we do see them.

A lot of times they're looking for the next step.

Excellent.

Well, thank you so much for that.

Any further questions?

I'm sorry.

Two things really quickly.

I think it's important, the question that you're asking about detox and who it is that we might be referring people to, because the list of support providers on the previous slide, those individuals have been named contractually in support of TAP.

So when we talk about a coalition, all right, like the TAP program, It includes support providers, and that's that list.

We found out probably three months in, four months in, that we need additional support.

We have to go outside of that list.

And so our staff, because of their their nature to want to deliver care.

And also because of their lived experience and also their work experience, they know of other organizations.

And so some of those, the number of referrals for case management, That includes other support providers, so Urban League, Mary's Place, Weld, et cetera.

So I just think that that's important to call that out.

And then there was just one more slide that we wanted to make sure that We talked through really quickly.

This is really about what we see in terms of what's needed to continue this very, very important work.

And so our funding that we received at the beginning of the year was for nine months.

So for us to even continue out the rest of the year, October through December, we need an additional $640,000.

We would like to be funded through 2025. And so that cost is about $2.6 million.

We need priority access to transitional housing like Coley.

We talked about them, permanent supportive housing, shelter, detox beds, and treatment facilities.

And this is important also because TAP initiated as a pilot program.

And so we're over a year and a half in.

It's not a pilot anymore.

I think we've proven the concept.

in terms of the fact that it is a need, right?

And so we need to change how we're approaching talking about how we continue to move forward and support this work and those, the population that we serve.

We are in desperate need of mobile medical van or mobile medical unit.

There are folks who do qualify for a lot of the programs that we've talked about today, but they can't physically make it there.

They can't physically make it to a screening.

There's issues with their limbs.

They're in pain, like all of those things.

And so they don't want to go to the emergency room, et cetera.

So we need medical support on site.

Local day and hygiene center would be amazing.

Mental health support in every capacity.

On demand and also increased capacity in hospitals all of the support service organizations that we've talked about.

Regular inspection and maintenance of existing housing units.

Added this because staff run into participants on Third Avenue who actually have housing, but they don't want to go home because of mold issues because of infestation, because of, you know, that sort of thing.

And so they would rather be on the street.

It's cleaner than being at home.

So we need to correct that.

And then I mentioned this already, but wanted to note it here as well, increased capacity of operating hours for service providers to match the need.

Thank you.

We have lots of questions for you.

So it looks like I think Councilmember Nelson, you were first.

Thank you very much for your presentation.

I've heard nothing but but wonderful things about we deliver care and and that's from john schools representing businesses and down to um you know small individual businesses and also from uh the outreach workers andrea suarez and and tim who are with we heart seattle i noticed they're not in your coalition but i think that there's interaction between the two groups so Thank you very much for everything that you do.

First, I have a hard time understanding the organizational boundaries between TAP and We Deliver Care and then also LEAD and CoLEAD.

So I think I need that explained to me because we do, I think that I saw a presentation last year that said that the City of Seattle funds LEAD by north of 7 million, and that's just coming from City of Seattle.

I think that there's also funding from KCRHA.

Part of that is City of Seattle funding.

And it sounds a lot like what you're doing, the REACH outreach workers also do.

So I'd like to know how is your work different from REACH?

I understand that there's a lived experience component in REACH.

involved in the people that are doing your work.

So is We Deliver Care one component of TAP, the Third Avenue Project?

And then if so, what else is the Third Avenue Project?

Or are they, yeah, is one a program name and the other is this particular, your non-profit.

Can you just explain that to me and then go on to tell me how what you're doing is different than what REACH is supposed to be doing?

And I will also emphasize that Third Avenue needs this work more than any other place in the city.

So I'm glad that there's a concentrated focus.

I just need to understand all of what we're doing when it comes, because there is a funding pitch here, and so I just need to know what, who's doing what, how it's different, and then I have one last question about some referrals.

Okay, awesome.

So that's a great question.

So I'll try to do my best to simplify.

So you are correct.

The phrase TAP, Third Avenue Project, is an umbrella under which a group of organizations have come together to provide this level of support and collaboration on Third Avenue between Stuart and University.

So WDC, underneath that umbrella, primarily provides outreach, de-escalation and referrals to other support agencies.

REACH is one of those support agencies.

Of the coalition of support providers that was put together initially by the mayor, DSA, KCRHA, I'm not sure who else was all a part of that original think tank.

REACH was kind of named as the primary case management piece of it.

So they tried to bring together support providers that were experts in very specific lanes, right?

So mental health support, behavioral health support, case management, housing, et cetera.

So REACH provides case management.

REACH does also do outreach on Third Avenue because some of their clients are on Third Avenue.

one of the ways in which we're different in terms of our outreach is, quite honestly, our capacity to be outside 15 hours a day.

And so we have a group text message thread with the case managers over at...

And so a lot of that communication is us trying to help them find some of their clients, right?

So we'll oftentimes go out with a list of names or with pictures or what have you.

So we're constantly trying to connect people back to their resource or to their support.

Does that answer your question?

Yeah, and I'll say that REACH is the subcontractor of LEAD.

So when we're talking about REACH, we're talking about we pay the PDA for LEAD and then LEAD subcontracts with REACH is my understanding.

Okay, so that helps me understand a little bit.

And then another question is, I think that Trey was saying that he hadn't heard of Valley Cities.

Have you all heard of Battleground Addiction?

Well, we have heard of Valley Cities, but not, we're shaking our heads no to the battle.

Okay, so this is a detox and recovery housing for?

people that you might run into every day.

So I would like you to put that on your list.

I can't remember exactly what their location is, but one of the things I see happening is that there are other services and providers that aren't the main ones.

It's not DESC or Plymouth or whatever that's on some coordinated entry list.

And my concern is that we are not taking it, the city of Seattle, And who we contract with isn't taking advantage of a vast network of providers that do exactly the work that you're doing.

People go and they detox there and then they stay in a supportive environment and they work toward recovery.

So that's just one example.

And I know that We Heart Seattle refers people to there.

But at some point, I do believe that we need to really think about the fact that when we say we don't have enough housing and so we have to leave people on the street, maybe there are options that are not on our radar.

So that's that.

And then when we talk about addiction and detox, if people go through detox and then they have nowhere to go but back on the street, they're either gonna end up in detox again or likely eventually overdosing and perhaps dying.

So unless you reunite them with their families.

And so I just don't like to see this revolving door.

And there are places where you can have Medicaid or you can be supported by an organization that will pay your one's rehab.

once one is out of detox.

Because I am really concerned about the fact that we're spending all this money and people are dying at the same time.

And we're not helping people get better ultimately.

Valley Cities does have rehab on site.

I mean, you can go through detox and then get put right into their rehab facility.

And so instead of just...

I would like to see people who are working with the population that you are, instead of just...

encouraging people to go to detox, encourage them to then follow that up with actual recovery-based services or getting on medication for opioid use disorder, whatever it may be.

I tend to favor recovery-based so that they can, if they're on methamphetamine or something that is not reactive to bup or methadone, et cetera.

Thank you very much for your work, but I understand your challenges and I am just, this is just a reflection on peanut buttering our resources around and wanting to make sure that we're actually helping people long-term and accessing the resources that are available right now.

I'm open to your response, though I'm not meaning to close the conversation.

I just want to say thank you.

Yeah, I'd like to say thank you as well.

I think part of our learning curve, growth, and evolving nature, we have been trying to grasp and reach out to different organizations that didn't initially begin this whole TAB project with us.

And I think TAB spoke to that.

just in terms of all of the other organizations that we do reach out to that aren't necessarily under the TAP umbrella for service providers.

And so I think we are doing some of that, but I think we don't know who everybody is and we are not case management folk.

We are referring people to those type of, those case managers.

And so there is that piece as well.

But like you said, I agree with, you know, we need all of the resources at the table.

We need to be able to send folks to all of the available resources.

We don't know who all of those available resources are, quite frankly.

So it's becoming clear that you're on the front line and you're triaging all day long, every day.

And so then the challenge is to upstream our lead partners, our reach partners, whoever pays them, however they're related to the city of Seattle, we need to make sure that they know what to do.

And it's disappointing that we're not closing the loop often enough.

But thank you very much for your work.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Wu.

I thank you.

So I have a comment.

I run a similar safety team in the Chinatown International District that consists of mostly volunteers.

And I've done a walk along with with you.

We deliver care on Third Avenue.

And I've seen firsthand how important and powerful the work that you do on a daily basis.

And so I see that you're making connections, you're building trust, saving lives, and helping to support, you know, our small businesses and our residents, including our in-house residents.

And so I've seen and watched closely the growth of TAP, and I believe this is our best chance to tackle the challenges that we see on Third Avenue and we see in most parts of the city.

So I'm a huge fan of your work, and I've also been advocating for a very similar team to be at 12th and Jackson, because I feel like I see the same people on Third Avenue and then as at 12th and Jackson.

So just want to say thank you.

I'm a huge fan and I am excited to see what more you will do in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilman Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

I just wanna thank you for being here and for the presentation, for taking the time, but most importantly, for the work that you do.

And it's interesting that you say you're not case managers, but you are the frontline folks.

And the thing about this work is, and we all know this, but I wanna say it anyway, is just you have to take people individually because everyone has a different subset of needs.

and so what you are providing is as that front line as council member nelson said folks are determining with that individual what is it what their subset and needs are so that then you can make those referrals and i think that that need that you're filling is is really um critical in trying to help someone get the services they need and back on track.

And I agree with Council Member Nelson.

I think we're all in agreement.

What do you do once you make the referrals and how do we keep them going so that they can have long-term success?

And I think that's all We are all grappling with that, but I am clear that the service that you're providing is really an important one.

And though you're not case managers, you're so critical to that piece.

So I really want to thank you for that.

And Trey, I really want to thank you for the work that you are doing on the ground specifically.

So I recognize the hard work that you do and how hard it is to see individuals day in and day out that are needing care and assistance and all that you're doing to help them get out of that struggle.

As a person who grew up in a very low income neighborhood, I understand and I have seen in my years folks that are needing help.

And so I very much appreciate what you do.

I do have a question about the work that you do.

Like Council Member Nelson, thank you for clarifying all the pieces, because who's doing what is really important.

And I also didn't hear care.

I know is focused downtown, our care team.

And I know that they get, it's a co-model.

So I know it's if 911 calls, care gets sent out.

But I know they're also providing this type of service because they're not meant to be a public safety officer.

They really are meant to provide assistance to help on the ground as well.

So how do you interact with care?

Yeah, that's a good, I'll answer.

And then if there's something maybe that I miss, I'll hand it over to Trey.

So when the care team first started, they came down to the office.

We had some great conversations.

It was a little bit of a family reunion for some of our staff because you all just hired some really great people.

So they know them from, you know, working together in different capacities.

So anyways, but that was really the conversation, right?

So they're new in their roles.

They're trying to understand what their role is and how we are going to be working together.

And so as time went on, it seems as though Right now, what's happening is that the care team will have clients or people that they're trying to follow up with to provide some additional support or to try to get them connected to some other type of case management or resource.

and they may need assistance locating them.

So there's a separate group chat with some of the staff members from the care team, and they'll reach out to us and we'll communicate back and forth with them in that capacity in terms of finding folks.

Anything that I'm missing, Trey?

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

It's really important to know how all these pieces are connected because to council member Nelson's point, we're making all these investments and it's really helpful to know, you know, this is a puzzle and everyone's piece of the puzzle.

And so again, I just want to underscore, underscore how appreciative I am for the work that you do and how I recognize that in order to help an individual, it really is an individual approach.

And it takes time to help folks that are experiencing crisis downtown.

And I would say across the city really, because we're seeing a lot of folks in each of the districts, including the university district who need a lot of help.

So, but I recognize downtown is currently and even pre-pandemic, this has been a huge challenge downtown and so really appreciate your efforts there.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

So I also want to echo Council President Nelson's question and appreciate you sort of the ecosystem you talked about.

It sounds like this is what we're funding, right?

All the different components and how they work together to try to address the challenges that I agree with Council Member Rivera and Wu.

Downtown is certainly a crisis point and each of us know that in our districts there are intersections or parts of, different neighborhoods that are experiencing similar challenges.

So I do think it's important for us to understand what this ecosystem is and understand how it deploys in other parts of the city or not and what we need to do about that.

But getting to your last slide about next steps, I wanna talk about this priority access to shelter, to detox, to transitional housing.

You mentioned Valley Cities, and I toured the Valley Cities recovery place in South Seattle.

I don't remember if it was earlier this year or maybe last year with the mayor and Congressman Smith.

And what we learned on that tour was that half the beds are empty because there's not sufficient funding to staff the facility.

So, and I don't think that that's a city issue that we can fund, but it does speak to the challenge that we face as city elected.

If the federal funding and the state and county level funding isn't coming down to provide us, to provide you with the beds you need to help get people off the street, then we have another conversation that we need to be working on as well.

And so what we do perhaps have a little more control over is this prioritization process that you talked about.

So I know in the past we have talked about who gets priority access when there is a shelter available or when there is a tiny house available.

Can you talk a little bit about what that prioritization process looks like now and what you would need to be able to move somebody into a space easier?

Sure.

So right now, like for CoLead, I'll use them as an example.

They had set aside a number of beds specifically for tap participants and so It it wasn't enough right but at least We knew the staff knew that if it was 20 beds Then there were 20 people that we could certainly help and so part of the referral process is we have to understand not only the person's need that we're referring, but we also have to understand the agency's need in terms of who it is that they are willing to take in, right?

Because we want to make really great...

you know, effective referrals, right?

And so we've spent a lot of time with Coley first learning who to look for to help just kind of mitigate that intake process for them.

And so we filled those beds up.

And then I don't know necessarily the language or exactly what happened, but we received basically some communication that there weren't any beds available.

It's almost like Colete is on hold or something.

I believe that's associated with funding.

And so because they're on hold, we're on hold.

And if we're on hold, then that means that someone who is in desperate need to get off of the street is on hold as well.

So that's one way that, you know, what prioritization can look like is having something set aside specifically for this work.

Thank you.

I had another question about the, in your list of next steps, what's needed, and this is a great list.

Thank you very much for providing this, and it's definitely something we need to be working on.

I'm interested about the mobile medical van.

I know with the crisis care levy money, there is money floating around right now to expand the mobile medical vans through King County and through the County Department of Public Health.

And I'm wondering if you've had any conversations with them about getting additional access to their mobile van services for treatment.

No, we haven't.

This is the first that I'm hearing that there's more access coming.

So that is wonderful, and we will look into that for sure.

Okay, so we'll make sure my office makes that connection for you.

Something I was trying to pursue a little bit more concretely in the crisis care levy implementation plan was to make sure that Seattle was getting its share of those monies.

And we were reassured that we were going to be having access to expanded mobile medical vans, particularly around treatment.

So we'll make sure we make those connections.

Thank you so much.

And it will be in that area?

Because that was another, okay, that there were mobile vans, but they did not service that 3rd Avenue area.

So that's fantastic.

Thank you so much.

That's what they need to be doing.

And then also looking at ways to see if we can make you considered to be a referral, a referent, like police, medics, mobile vans, all of those individuals who are able to refer people to the DESC Crisis Solutions Center, another resource.

So it seems like we need a lot of

just sitting down and talking about what is the resource map and how do we make all the right connections yeah yeah that is a huge uh um i don't know how to describe it other than it's it's it saddens the staff when they do all of this work with individuals and build relationships and get participants to a place of vulnerability where they say yes i want help and then they we don't have anywhere to to refer them to or send them to.

It's tough.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, are there any further questions?

So Council Member Salka.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And no further questions on my end.

Just a quick comment, and that is I want to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation for you all, the We Deliver Care team, WDC, Ms. Wheeler-Smith, Ms. Davis, Mr. Kendall, really, really appreciate you all.

You work hard every day to uplift and empower our city and residents of our various communities in so many important ways.

The work that you do is impactful.

It's important, and it matters, and just want to say I appreciate it.

Appreciate the collaboration reflected on this panel as well with President of the DSA, John, and Chris from HSD here as well.

But again, thank you all for the work you do.

You obviously work with various folks along Third Avenue and primarily serve those individuals, I hope you also understand that you're not just serving those individuals.

Everyone in the city benefits as a direct, not an indirect, but a direct result of the work you guys do every day.

So I'm grateful for it, appreciate it.

And also wanna thank my colleagues for very thoughtful questions, answered a few that I had.

So Council President, Council Members Rivera, Morales, Moore, And then of course, Chair Moore with her, she's always great at asking very thought-provoking questions.

So I really appreciate, but more important than that, Chair Moore, appreciate your leadership and bringing this important opportunity that we have as an agenda item because Third Avenue here, I mean, that's the gateway, in my view, that's the gateway to all neighborhoods and communities across this city.

That's the gateway right there.

So really important, really appreciate you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Saka.

It looks like we've got Council President Nelson.

Well, now I'm confused again because I heard that on the one hand, you work on the front lines and you refer to case managers, but then it also sounded like Ms. Wheeler-Smith, you were just saying that you actually refer to providers of services.

So maybe you do all of the above, but again, it's clarity of mission that I'm wanting to make sure that everybody has.

So if you are doing the work that LEAD should be doing or LEAD case managers, or I say LEAD, but they're REACH case managers that work for LEAD that we pay through the PDA, if they are not doing what their bucket of tasks, then we've got a system that is that lacks coordination and you never know where the weak links are that need to be fixed or worked around is what I'm getting at.

And so, Clayson, I know that you do have a HSD does have an RFP, I believe, open.

So perhaps offline we can talk about how you're prioritizing Upcoming round of funding, and we haven't spoken yet of public health.

Seattle gives, uh, we pay public health 22Million dollars a year, and we should be getting a lot of recovery and services with that or treatment services.

So need to follow up on that and again.

Their work downtown is a little bit, was stalled last year.

Hopefully we can make sure that it's actually going forward with robustness now that they have a new CEO.

But I'm pointing out that this is the worst, addiction and homelessness intersect to be the biggest challenge that Seattle faces right now.

And then public safety touches right up against that and that's interrelated too.

And so I just am expressing a little bit of desire that we all get our ducks in a row so that we can have a cohesive system that we're working with with our limited funding.

So to be continued, I suppose.

Thanks.

Can I just say before we wrap, Councilmember Nelson, thank you so much for that.

I will just say and thank you also for acknowledging the components of case management that you see and hear our staff doing.

Stephanie and I try to do our best to hold a firm line with using that word case management.

Personally, I've worked very closely with case managers.

I know how difficult that work is, the one-to-one, having a specific caseload, working with people, setting client-centered goals, just all of that, holding their hand, along their journey, our staff, We are, we deliver care.

That is community, that is action.

And the care part, our staff embodies that to the point where they stretch the definition as far as it can possibly go.

And so our staff does hold participants hands.

They put them in Ubers, make sure that they get to an appointment or what have you.

If that participant says, will you come with me?

I don't know these people, but I know you.

Our staff will call a second Uber and go with them and meet them.

If our staff discerns this person needs help, but they haven't asked for it, they will initiate and go with them.

They will walk with them to.

you know, an office or what have you to do their paperwork.

They'll sit with them.

Our employment number, they put together a screening process and took it upon themselves to put participants through an interviewing process just to help make sure that they're putting their best foot forward.

They've asked employers, please call me if you feel like this person might be going a little to the a relationship with them, and I could probably help them, right, before it becomes a disciplinary action on the job.

So, again, they will stretch that line, and we love that.

You can't teach that, right?

And so, what that makes for, I feel like, is, It's not a warm handoff.

That hand is hot.

So we warm that thing up.

And so for the other provider who should be an expert in their particular functions to take that and carry it forward.

It really is that collaboration and us working together.

So yes, let's continue that conversation.

I just wanted to maybe try to help to frame up a little bit about that.

Well, thank goodness you're doing the work that you're doing.

I almost said a different word, but we should have been doing this.

We should have been paying for people to do this all the time.

frankly.

So, um, thank you again.

All right.

I'll stop repeating myself.

Okay.

Thank you.

Just to follow up.

I was going to say warm hand, hand off, but hot is a better way to describe it.

I will say that, um, you know, I understand council members, um, uh, Nelson's remarks because we don't want to make also more.

We want to make sure you're able to deliver on your service.

And so I think council member Nelson, what I'm hearing you say, and you can correct me if I'm wrong is making sure that, you know, each piece of the ecosystem is working well so that it's not putting more on what you are actually delivering, um, uh, and making sure that each piece is working, how it should be working.

because we do have limited funding and we want to make sure each of those pieces is working well.

So it's less about, I understand very much that you are doing that.

This is why I led with before the individual you're taking it.

There are these individual needs.

You have to get in the weeds with people to understand how to help them.

So it's less.

Maybe there are too many pieces to the ecosystem.

Exactly, each piece of the ecosystem.

So it's more about that and making sure each piece is doing what they are contracted to do so that you can do what you do best.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

All right, well, there are no further questions or comments.

Thank you so much for your presentation today, and thank you.

I feel like we had a really good conversation in the beginning of a conversation, actually.

I wanted to thank all of you for the amazing work that you're doing out there, and to let you know that we do have open doors up here, and we want to hear from you and be helpful in the ways that we can facilitate the very important work that's being done.

So thank you again for that.

It's been a pleasure.

Thank you for your time.

All right.

All right.

If there are no further comments or questions, this is going to conclude the June 26th meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee.

The next meeting is scheduled for July 10th, 2024. The time is 1039 and we are adjourned.

Thank you, everyone.