Seattle City Council Committee on Public Assets & Homelessness 3/16/22

The March 16, 2022 meeting of the Seattle City Council's Public Assets and Homelessness Committee will come to order.

It's 2.01 p.m.

I'm Andrew Lewis, chair of the committee.

Council President Juarez informed my office she is unable to join us today and is excused.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll, which is not true apparently.

I have to leave in an hour, that's all.

Okay, okay, excellent.

I'm glad we got that out of the way early.

My apologies.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold?

Council President Juarez?

Here.

Council Member Morales?

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Present.

Chair, there are four members present.

I'm also present Mr. Clerk.

Thank you, Chair Lewis.

I'll make a note of it.

Great.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, excellent.

Well, we will move forward.

Council Member Herbold did tell me just before the meeting that she will be joining shortly.

Uh, so approval of the agenda.

There's no objection.

The agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

So we're going to have a fairly crowded agenda this afternoon just to give an overview.

We'll be approving a couple or we'll be considering the recommendation of a few Board of Parks commissioners.

We're going to get an update on the latest reports from the HOPE team in the Human Services Department.

We are also going to get an update at the beginning of the agenda on Partnership for Zero, the new initiative of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, for peer navigation and outreach in the downtown Seattle neighborhood.

We'll get a presentation from the Clean Cities Initiative, and that should close things out.

So hopefully we can get through all of those items of business.

Before those items of business, we do, of course, have public comment.

The public comment period is penciled in for 20 minutes, but I believe we only have two public commenters.

Is that true, Mr. Clerk?

That is correct.

Okay, so it'll probably go faster than that.

Just as a reminder, when you hear your name called for those who are signed up for public comment, you will hear a prompt.

If you've been unmuted, that will be your cue to begin speaking.

Press star six to unmute and begin with your public testimony.

So we will go ahead and recognize each speaker for two minutes.

And Mr. Clerk, if you would please moderate the public comment period and call those speakers, that would be great.

And then we will proceed with the rest of our agenda this afternoon.

So go ahead, please.

The first person signed up for public comment today is David Haynes.

David, you have two minutes.

Begin when you're ready.

Thank you, David Haynes, District 7. The innocent homeless are still suffering a crisis, and yet racist skin color priority, regardless of character issues or criminality, are being prioritized for service and shelter by the race war employees within the homeless service providers and human services department following city council's racist, anti-social injustice lens agenda.

Let's listen to the upcoming data about to be offered council that points out how they only help black and brown homeless, even if they are violating rules and bothering other people or businesses, they get priority while law abiding, innocent, upstanding homeless are forsaken and racially skin color discriminated against because they're white.

Is it true that most of the homeless efforts have gone exclusively to 66% of the black and brown homeless, regardless of crimes or drugs or mental problems?

It's more proof Seattle is the most racist, hypocritical city leadership in America, imploding society, running interference for criminal drug pushers, while skin color misjudging innocent people.

It's tragic how two-faced, passive-aggressively racist this City Council is in their efforts to trick BIPOC community by hating on white people, proving the Democratic Party is the real racist party in America, judging skin color instead of character.

A sacrilege to the namesake of this Martin Luther King, Jr.

County imploding before our eyes by the same aloof City Council more concerned about free hockey jerseys than enforcing the original Memorandum of Understanding by OBG.

who co-opted the ownership of Climate Pledge Arena, who violated the MOU when they went from 15 feet to 40 feet deep in building the most modern third world arena with fancy couches.

to trick the bourgeoisie they got a world-class arena that still has a cracked rooftop from over 60 years old.

Yet the homeless are being cheated by the leaders in this corrupt city who think it's okay to limit the homeless services causing further unnecessary suffering.

Why can't King County Clinic go to Lumenfield or other stadiums instead of being denied dental?

Thank you, David.

Our next public commenter is Damon Tennell.

Damon, we'll begin whenever you're ready.

Damon, you may need to press star six to unmute yourself.

Okay, well, unfortunately, it looks like we won't be able to get that second speaker online.

So I think we'll close the public comment period and move on with our agenda today.

Okay, let's proceed to the first item of business.

Mr. Clerk, will you please read item one into the record?

Item one, King County Regional Homelessness Authority Partnership for Zero Briefing and Discussion.

Excellent.

So my understanding is Mark Dones needs to leave the committee by 3 p.m.

I think we'll be able to easily accommodate that since we're reaching item one earlier than anticipated.

Excellent.

So, Mark, thank you for joining us this afternoon.

Why don't you go ahead, introduce yourself, introduce your fellow panelists, go ahead and dive right into it.

I'd ask committee members to hold questions until the conclusion of the presentation.

But good to see you.

Welcome.

Good to see you, Council Member.

Mark Jones, they've been pronouns.

I am the Chief Executive Officer of the King County Regional Homeless Authority for the record.

And I am joined by my colleagues, Shea Martinez, Heidi Risma, and Felicia Salcedo.

And if you all could briefly introduce yourselves for the record as well, and then we'll get started.

Hi, I'm Dr. Shea Martinez.

I am the Senior Director of Health Initiatives with the RHA.

I use she, they pronouns.

My name is Heidi Wiersma.

I use she, they pronouns and I'm the Director for Special Projects at the RHA.

Good afternoon.

I'm Felicia Salcedo.

I use she and her pronouns and I'm the Executive Director of We Are In.

Wonderful.

And I will share my screen.

And I'm sorry, one brief note, Felicia, you have slides, right?

Not for this one, actually.

Sorry, Felicia and I have been together for two different councils today.

And the last council briefing, I ran Felicia's slides.

And so I'm just making sure I have everything I need.

All right.

Is everyone able to see that?

Great.

So here today, as the chair mentioned, to provide a briefing on Partnership for Zero, which is an emergency response to addressing homelessness.

I'm gonna chat through things a little briskly and a little bit at a high level to make sure that we have enough time for conversation.

and my colleagues, feel free to tag in.

So first up, I'm also seeing, sorry, Jacob, I think we have one more panelist who is waiting to be promoted.

Mark, is that Don Shepard?

That is Don.

I will try to promote on to panelists.

I'm having some difficulty doing so.

Son, if you can hear me, it might be easier if you do it.

Don Sheppard has been promoted.

Thank you very much, all.

Don, do you want to introduce yourself for the record?

Hi, my name is Dawn Shepard.

I use she, her pronouns, and I am just now stepping into one of the co-directors for the Peer Navigation Workforce with KCRHA.

Thanks, Don.

Good to see you.

All right.

So Partnership for Zero is an initiative that is focused on treating an emergency like an emergency.

So we really want to make sure that when we say the word crisis, we are responding with crisis protocols.

And that is what Partnership for Zero is designed to do.

The goal is to create a functional zero subsystem in the downtown core and how that work will be done is the deployment of an emergency management approach to drive a coordinated crisis response for the unsheltered population living downtown and to create a sustainable infrastructure that can maintain that functional zero in a defined space.

When we talk about the downtown core, this is the rough map that we use.

So we're essentially talking Belltown to the international district.

I also want to note that these boundaries might move, and that's actually okay.

The purpose of the boundaries is to denote where there will be a focus of the deployment, but obviously what we will do is respond to where people are.

And so if we identify that there are folks experiencing unsheltered homelessness that are slightly above or below the northern or southern boundaries, we'll look to make sure that we engage them.

I also want to note that the purpose of or that sorry the reason why we are focused on the downtown for is because based on the data that the authority can see it is where the largest concentration of folks experiencing and sheltered homelessness are in the entire county.

And I want to be really straightforward about that.

You know, in a number of spaces, I've been just, you know, trying to be very clear that this initiative is not driven by business needs.

It's not, you know, driven, you know, because we think downtown is special.

It is driven because this is the highest concentration and we need to go to where our humanitarian crisis calls us to be.

The funding partners for this work are philanthropy, business, the authority, the city of Seattle and King County.

And we have a five phase approach.

So we are in phase one right now.

We are ramping up and developing our unified command center.

Dawn and her three co-directors have been hired.

Next, we'll focus on the development of a downtown by name list.

In the third phase, we will focus on case planning and resource matching.

So that by name list will help us really understand with granularity who needs what and then support them in accessing the right services.

The fourth phase will really focus on making sure that we are executing on, we'll be placing people along the way, but the fourth phase is really concentrated drawdown, right?

And so that's where we're really getting people into housing and long-term shelter exits.

And then the fifth phase is hold steady, right?

And that's how we establish and maintain that functional zero.

How we'll do this work is through a unified command center, which is a best practice coming out of the emergency management space.

Unified command centers are designed especially to support multi-jurisdictional work.

So that unified command table will have added the city, the county, the authority, as well as folks with lived experience.

And those four perspectives will inform the daily deployment of resources, inclusive of peer navigation supports, you know, FHIR, HealthONE, et cetera, right?

Like really making sure that all the resources of the jurisdictions are being made available to this work.

The benefit of a unified command response is its replicability and scalability as primary, right?

So, you know, in emergency management, we want to make sure that things that we set up are things that we can scale up or down or move as needed.

This is one of the core reasons we are trying to move towards a true crisis response model, because it will allow us to expand this both to other neighborhoods in Seattle Metro, But frankly, from our perspective, it allows us to also think about what it looks like to scale to other sub-regions and across the county.

Additionally, we also benefit from those clear and shared objectives, streamlined process for gathering, analyzing information to inform decision-making, clear chains of command that increase efficiency and coordination, and then that it coordinated an intentional resource deployment.

And then when we talk about maintaining functional zero, one of the core differences between what we proposed and are doing in partnership for zero and other initiatives is we're going to park the infrastructure that did the work.

Right.

So in a lot of instances where we resolved complex encampments or successfully housed a large number of unsheltered folks, we then have moved the resources that did that.

Right.

And in this initiative, what we're proposing is to really leave that in place.

so that as new folks enter the downtown core and are experiencing unsheltered homelessness, they can be met by people, right, who are able to immediately begin working with them on how they can exit.

And I want to be clear, not just exit downtown, right, exit homelessness.

The other thing that I would lift up is that the navigator costs themselves, we are deeply appreciative of the catalytic investment that allows us to launch this program, But the sustainability path is through accreditation of our navigators and supporting their positions long term via Medicaid reimbursement, which we are in the process of standing up the internal systems necessary to do that now.

And we are working with our partners at King County to identify the needs and then ongoing funding sources for high acuity shelter work and are in weekly conversation with DCHS and in particular some of our colleagues at the Behavioral Health and Recovery Division.

I want to briefly pass it over to my colleagues, in particular, Dr. Martinez and Dawn, to talk a little bit about the reality of some of the boots on the ground work when it comes to being a navigator or providing service.

And so I'm just going to click to this slide.

And I wonder, Shay, if you might kick us off.

You're muted.

Sorry.

So this slide shows us kind of what a week might look like in the lives of one of our clients slash patients.

For me, it's patients.

So that's the terminology that I'm going to be using.

So it's very fragmented.

There are a lot of competing needs, and it requires a lot of travel in between different service sites, whether that's meeting basic needs of health care appointments, food, hygiene needs, you can see that it just it takes a lot of work on a daily basis.

One way we can help people kind of navigate their daily lives is through outreach and I think outreach and peer navigation are very often used as the same terminology when they're actually quite different.

So outreach workers are really connecting people who are in crisis and getting them to a system.

So oftentimes it'll be a helping someone navigate from an encampment to a day center for services, whether it's to meet their case manager, to get a shower, to go to job training.

But once they get to that door, that outreach worker is then out outreaching somebody else to do the same.

Peer navigation is actually much more intensive, and they really help clients or patients work through the entire system.

by building relationships with those individuals.

And it helps them, exactly what it says, navigate a very fragmented system so that they can meet all the needs they have, use the resources they need to get through their recovery out of homelessness.

Thanks, Shay.

Dawn, you've been doing this work.

just like Shay, actually for, you know, out in community.

And I'm curious if there's anything you would add to that.

And in particular, what, you know, is there anything that you're looking forward to being able to execute, you know, as one of the leads now of this new work?

Yeah, thank you.

I would just want to add that I feel like one of the most time-intensive parts of doing our job as outreach and case managers is developing the relationship that you need to have in order for our clients to both trust us and even turn to us and ask for the help that they are interested in.

And a lot of times, the disjointed, sort of chaotic, what was just being described is more about showing people where they need to go instead of necessarily walking through all of it with them.

And so by having one person with a small caseload that's able to Um, literally go through each process with them.

I feel like we're going to have, we're going to reduce the time that it takes to develop and create those relationships.

And we're going to increase the level of trust that our clients have with us.

Um, and then just by being a peer navigator, I think in intrinsically implies that I know for myself, I have a lot of lived experience and there are things about, um, approaching each one of our like government or city or other type of resource that most people don't necessarily think of when it comes to how we engage.

And there are barriers for a lot of our clients that are living in shelter that people are not necessarily comfortable talking about.

So I think that being able to have a closer, more continuous relationship with the folks that they're working with that are going to actually step through those things, help them navigate inside of, like, let's say if I'm calling DSHS with a client of mine who has no idea what services they're even trying to access, like being able to sit with them and talk through what their options are so that they can make informed choices about what it is they're looking to do.

I think that we're going to see that increase and we're going to see the level of distrust with government agencies decrease.

Not really sure if that's what you were looking for, Mark.

Yeah, I mean, you always knock it out of the park.

That was brilliant, thank you.

I just briefly would, in closing, would just say, you know, some of what folks were talking about, right, is that the current system experience is just a lot of fragmentation in terms of who you are working with, right?

And one of the core things that we're looking forward to being able to provide through our peer navigation work is that continuity of relational support that Don and Jay were talking about.

The last thing I'll just add, and I can stop sharing for this before turning it over to Felicia, the last thing that I'll just say is, you know, I think that when we talk about sort of like how navigation supports people, I was reflecting the other day on my own story, frankly, and the fact that I never had to sleep in shelter.

And, you know, part of how we approach people needs to have inside of it a core recognition that many people, right, exit homelessness through the strength of community and relationship and not necessarily, right, by accessing shelter or going to permanent supportive housing.

And we need to really keep that in mind because I think that it will help us broaden our notion of what the recovery pathways are for folks to exit the trauma of homelessness and reintegrate into community.

And I'm really looking forward to this work and the expertise that our team can bring to it, helping to shape that real empowerment-based strategy for folks.

And I think that's it, and I'll pass it to Felicia.

Thanks, Mark.

I'm just here to, again, reiterate our support as we are in with the private dollars coming from philanthropy and business for this model.

We're really excited about the hiring of peer navigators, specifically knowing that that comes out of community.

The folks with lived experience and the lived experience coalition have been champions of that approach for many, many years.

And as Mark has shared on numerous occasions, we know how evidence-based practices like peer navigation work in the behavioral health space.

And so it's time for us to really bring that to the homeless response system.

And so, again, just here to reiterate our support for the overall approach.

We want to work in partnership with the Regional Homeless Authority and other communities across the city of Seattle to make sure that we can take this to scale as we learn from this initial pilot project.

Excellent.

And is that the entire presentation?

believe so.

Excellent.

Well, thank you so much for coming by and giving us that overview.

It's really nice always to get an update on how this effort is coming together and all the partners that are involved in making it happen.

And I'm sure that my colleagues have some questions, and I have a couple as well.

I mean, I think I want to start with Something Dr. Martina said that I think is so important in referring to folks who are going to be the clients of the peer navigation as patients.

Because I think increasingly something we lose track of And I'm trying to train myself to say more access to health care instead of services.

We talk about pairing housing with services.

What I think we really mean in a lot of cases is health care, in essence of the co-occurrence chronic homelessness and lots of public health conditions.

And I wonder if we if we might just take a moment to talk about that component of the system navigation that we're looking at here and making the best use of access to public health resources, access to you know, helping break down the barriers of giving folks access to care and culturally competent care and how that could be a component of this work.

I don't know who best to direct that question to on the panel, but just putting that out there generally.

Well, so yes, peer navigators can assist people in getting to appointments.

They can also assist them with getting signed up for benefits.

I mean, one way I like to think about this whole program is that it's almost like a translator service as well as a support service.

I mean, it's hard enough for me as a physician to navigate my own health insurance, let alone someone who has limited health literacy and has never really had the opportunity to engage in health services or be covered by health insurance to figure out how to sign up and use the services that they're eligible for and may not have known in the past.

Health services is important, but I think peer navigators, it's not just health services, right?

So that may be an important part of it.

And I think that's one thing we think about a lot in terms of getting into permanent supportive housing, because so often there are health services within permanent supportive housing buildings with our housing and outreach teams and the health care for the homeless providers that work within permanent supportive housing buildings.

But it's job navigation.

It's criminal justice system navigation.

It really is.

It's whole person care that we're trying to get people engaged with.

And peer navigators help connect people and help translate the language of these systems to their clients to empower them to be able to do this on their own.

So yes, health care is a huge part of that.

And obviously, that's my wheelhouse.

So that's something that I'm very supportive of.

But I don't want to minimize it to saying that it's only one set of services and to limit the phrase services to only health care because there's so much more that goes into it and to recovery from homelessness than just receiving health care.

Although again, huge part of it.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that.

I didn't want to imply that, uh, that this the pure navigators were only going to be providing, um, uh, you know, health care navigation.

So, um, I just want to clarify that, but did just want to drill into that particular component because I think it's one of the places where we've seen a lack of coordination in the past, where hopefully this will see some improvement there.

So I appreciate that.

Don, I apologize.

This does seem humbled.

But I just wondered if you had anything you wanted to add for the chair's question.

Yeah, I think one of the most important parts of the work that I've done with clients one-on-one has been knowing what's available to folks.

Because if you call DSHS and you don't specifically say, I'd like to sign up for your ABD program, they're not going to offer it to you.

There are so many times when I talk to clients and they have no idea what the options are, even that are available to them.

So being able to help folks know what's on the table, like help them identify and even articulate what it is that they're trying to do or what their personal goals are.

And a lot of times if you are not somebody who is comfortable engaging in conversation with a perfect stranger, you're never going to find out that certain services are available to you.

And if you can't articulate what your own needs are, you certainly aren't going to be able to go out looking for them, even if you can advocate for yourself.

So one of the things that I've really enjoyed doing with my clients is that I've been through pretty much every one of the re-entry, mental health, substance use disorders, like all of the things that the folks that I work with are coming into contact with, like I've actually had to do that for myself.

And so in doing that, both with my personal experience and also doing that in my professional, experience, I have a wider range, a much wider range of information that I can share with my clients that they don't even know is available.

So I think that's probably the most key or critical piece of doing this work is that if you can identify with what somebody might actually be facing that they aren't even necessarily aware of as a barrier, and then being able to talk about different ways to overcome that.

For instance, if I have a client who wants to go to shelter, but they've been turned down because they have a pet, an animal or a cat, and they know that the shelters don't usually take animals, I can go ahead and set your animal up to be registered with the USA Pet Registry and get an ID card for that animal.

And then when you move towards shelter or even housing, that barrier's already been taken care of for you.

So just having that experience of somebody who knows exactly what the options are that are available and can help sort of flush out and draw out the things out of the client that are actually meaningful and affect the decision-making on their part.

Yeah, I really appreciate that we're going to see in action the value of pairing folks that have that lived experience in doing this work to help other folks follow through sort of a similar journey.

I wonder too, Dawn, cause you're on board as a co-lead.

You said that earlier for the program?

Co-director, correct.

And there's three others.

Great.

So how's, and maybe this is a better question for Mark actually, but how's that process coming along in terms of staffing the program up and getting ready to get in on the ground and deploy?

Um, we're, I, I feel great.

Actually, I mean, like, you know, we, we've hired, um, you know, uh, Shay come on board, um, actually at the tail end of, uh, um, January.

And then we've hired, as Don mentioned, for co-directors for the PureNav team.

we will be doing an all day, actually day and a half, like orientation, like work plan strategy sesh next week.

And then they will in turn begin to build out the teams that will be deployed.

And I feel very good about our ability to rapidly hire once folks are situated and our strategy is locked in.

Excellent.

So opening it up to colleagues now, Council Member Herbold has her hand raised and then Council Member Mosqueda.

So Council Member Herbold, you go first there.

Thank you so much.

So I have three questions.

I'm just going to get them all out together.

I do want to start with a quick comment.

I appreciate you referencing the high acuity shelter just as a little bit of background.

The council provided $5 billion towards the opening of a high acuity shelter, and I understand we've been tracking its progress, the legislation's progress over at King County.

I understand it's going to be referred later this week, and hopefully it'll be heard soon after that.

And my questions, actually it's four questions, but in order, first, as it relates to the prioritization process, I understand that RHA is introducing some long overdue changes to the prioritization tool.

But differently from that, just trying to understand whether or not people living unsheltered who are served by Partnership for Zero will be prioritized within coordinated entry among people who are already in the system.

waiting for housing but not living unsheltered downtown?

And if so, how is that gonna work?

So that's the prioritization to get to another location.

As it relates to the shelter turnover assumptions, just wanting to understand, I'm sorry, next is the shelter bed availability.

Wondering how many beds do you anticipate will still be available for the HOPE team or other?

providers to offer to other encampments on an average day outside of the Partnership for Zero if in fact large blocks of vacancies are going to be required on a daily basis to serve the Partnership for Zero clients.

On the shelter turnover assumptions, just wondering what your assumptions are about shelter permanent supportive housing capacity.

Are you, do you have a sort of a ballpark on the number of new beds or units that will become available during that 10-month period of time?

Do you have an estimate of how long folks will stay in that location before moving on?

And then lastly, I guess it's more of a Well, there's a question in here.

I don't understand how we're defining functional zero.

Before this was announced, I had expressed some concerns about naming the partnership for zero because I think it results in potentially people expecting to see zero tents.

within the geographic area and zero people living unsheltered downtown.

So just trying to understand what exactly do we mean when we say functional zero?

Thanks.

I can start and team jump in anywhere I'm off.

So on prioritization, as of right now, and I'm talking closely with the coordinated entry team here about this, but as of right now, I don't expect that we'll need to do any additional prioritization because of the nature of the people who are unsheltered downtown, right?

Again, like we are are drawn here because like the majority of people who are on shelter downtown are chronically homeless, have significant medical need right and so once they are in a, the coordinated entry system are prioritized in that way.

To that end, I will, I will.

Thank you, in terms of the recognizing that we are changing how prioritization works in the community.

And we have formally let go of the VI-SPDAT.

There will likely be more changes to come.

We recognize that the COVID prioritization framework that we've been working with, while better, is still not perfect.

And we look forward to working with community to create something that is iteratively better still.

On shelter bed availability, multi-part answer.

So one, my sort of baseline analysis that I'm working off of from our team is that shelter bed turnover is roughly 12 to 18 per month.

And I don't expect that we will suddenly see some sort of increased turnover in in the current beds, right?

I do think that people who are our partnership for zero clients, if they go into shelter, I think they might move through it faster, though, to be honest, right.

And that is that's one of the things that we are are saying is possible with navigator support, is that you're able to move through the system faster because you're not going through a whole bunch of transitions in terms of who's your person and how they're able to support you.

The HOPE team will still have access to the beds that are designated through the set-asides.

There's no change there.

I will also add we do expect new shelter to come online right so I think today, and I checked in with Peter I think we're, we're making some award phone calls today, I think I hope I'm not speaking out of turn because if I did I just said that publicly.

But I did ask him before I came here so I should be allowed to say that.

So, between awards that we will make, expected online of things in terms of SOTO and other shelter investments we expect to be able to make through unallocated resources that we are building RFPs for right now, we will have more shelter this year.

That is just true and certainly as we get to budget, my governing committee members, we will also be continuing to recommend additional investments in both shelter subtypes like that high acuity work, but then also just we have 45,000 people who are unsafely housed and we need a shelter system that is commensurate with that need.

And then the last question, I think, I wrote them down, so hopefully I'm getting all of them, is on the functional zero.

And, you know, I will confess my own, you know, I like things that are a little bit more straightforward.

Functional zero is the federally recognized thing.

And so that's what I'm going with.

So communities can be certified by the feds as having attained functional zero.

So that is part of the reason why that is the benchmark across the field.

Um, what it means is that, uh, you know, on, uh, you, you drive, um, towards, hopefully, right, as low a number as you can get on the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.

For us in that downtown core work, I think that is a sub-50 number, right?

And then you hold it.

And holding it means that as new people show up, the same number of people who show up has to be the same as the number of people who are exited in whatever timeframe you're using to denote, right?

some of the more finely tuned and granular data systems across the country are able to do sort of weekly samplings, right?

I think by having a downtown by name list, we should be able to do the same thing and say, you know, hey, if, you know, folks are coming, let's say five folks come in a week, right?

Like we need to be making sure that five folks are being exited into, you know, stable placements per week as well.

And that if, right, like that number that we hit and are holding is okay, there are, on any given day, there are roughly 30 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the downtown core.

That is down from about 850, right?

And the reality that we are in, and I actually thank you for asking this question, because it allows me to say this again.

The reality that we are in is that the systemic drivers that lead to people being unsheltered in the downtown core are not going anywhere, right?

I was walking back from something just last night and saw a young man who clearly had just been released from the correctional facility and didn't look like he had anywhere to go.

And that is not going anywhere, right?

And so the vision in Partnership for Zero is that I would have then been able to literally take out my phone and say, hey, I'm going to hang.

I'm going to like, you know, grab a minute to talk to this person.

Can someone meet me at this intersection so that we are connecting him with some place to sleep tonight?

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you have a follow up.

Thank you.

So I completely understand that.

The numbers may not be available at this moment, but we have an estimate of the number of unsheltered homeless people who are living downtown.

We have a target of 10 months.

So there are some numerical assumptions here.

And I would like to know, again, the number of new shelter beds that we expect to become available during this time.

And the amount of time, I appreciate that we expect it to be less than currently, but the amount of time, number of days, they'll stay in shelter before moving.

And then also how many beds are going to be available for both, you're saying no difference for the HOPE team or other providers, but what is the number on the average, I guess, number of beds that are available a day?

I'm just having a little bit of a hard time understanding the answer that it's going to be the same number for non-Partnership for Zero clients if the Partnership for Zero clients are also drawing from that number.

So let's try to clear that up offline.

And then I do want to just flag that in the answer to my prioritization question.

the folks that you are describing as being highly prioritized who live downtown, you're right, they will be highly prioritized, but there are other people like them who don't live downtown that are also highly prioritized already in the system.

And so what I'm asking is, are the people downtown through Partnership for Zero, when they are equally highly prioritized with people who are already in the system, how are we going to treat that?

I appreciate that.

I'm happy to follow up looking at time.

We can set up time with your office.

Does that work for you, Councilmember?

It definitely does.

Thank you.

Okay.

Oh, one thing I would add is on the on the I just want to delineate one thing, because I part of that question, I think should go to my counterparts at HSD is to the bed turnover that I'm referring to is outside of the set aside beds, I do not know the turnover inside the set aside beds.

Actually, that's not a that's not a number that I'm aware of.

I can be aware, but it is not the thing that I monitor.

Thank you so much for that line of questioning Council Member Herbold.

I see Council Member Esqueda has her hand up.

I do want to just touch on one thing that kind of came up in Council Member Herbold's line of questioning before moving on.

And I think a good question was raised where CEO Jones mentioned seeing someone recently released from the King County Jail just to the street without any kind of reentry planning at all.

I just kind of wonder, maybe not necessarily with this initiative, but generally the extent of conversation around reentry work and whether that is kind of a niche that the KCRHA is potentially interested in engaging in.

Since that is one of the asymmetries that makes downtown one of the neighborhoods that has a much higher concentration of people experiencing homelessness is that we do no reentry work whatsoever from the King County Jail to the street.

And if, you know, given that both of these authorities are somewhat housed in the county, right?

Like if there have been some of those discussions and some strategic thinking around that, because that could be an opportunity for, you know, at least a warm handoff of an offer of some kind of assistance.

Obviously, once people are free from the King County Jail, they're free to do as they choose.

But if there was some kind of opportunity to, you know, not have to wait to find that person a couple days later after being in squalor downtown for several days, it might be an interesting opportunity to explore.

But I don't know where those conversations are.

You're muted, Mark.

Once a quarter.

So I will say, and you know, we Internally, we have identified that gap and then the gap from the healthcare system and some of our hospitals situated around the downtown core, right?

As core systemic drivers that we need to have a level of planning around.

I think that, you know, our hope is that we will get to a place where we, you know, think about the discharge reentry planning space as again being connected to an ecosystem of peers where, like, those folks are saying this person is about to be released.

Can someone meet them or can you help to architect that path, right?

I will say our orientation here is we just want to see people housed and no one sleeping outside.

And so if those institutions want to lean into us as helping to do that planning, we are happy to do that.

And we are not yet at a, but I want to be very clear, we're not yet at a place of being in conversation.

We've had some preliminary conversation with the healthcare system, but very preliminary, and spurred on by COVID, frankly.

And, you know, Shea is one of the folks who will lead on tightening that integration as a body of work that they will shepherd.

And then I think that on the criminal legal system side, you know, I think we need to do a little bit more focused work there.

And certainly I think, you know, our colleagues at the PDA and LEAD and some of the other programs that have been in that space for quite some time, we look forward to partnering, you know, really deeply with on crafting whatever that strategy is.

Great.

And we look forward to working with you guys on integrating as much of that work as possible.

So it's it's working together rather than at cross points.

So that's great to hear.

Council Member Mosqueda, your questions.

Thank you very much.

I feel like I just need to at the beginning of all of the conversations that we have with the community about Regional Homelessness Authority.

Folks might hear the title King County Regional Homelessness Authority, but I all again want to take this as a chance to say that Seattle has not only supported the creation of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

This is truly a separate entity from King County and Seattle.

is contributing 68% of the budget currently.

And so I wanted just to underscore the important partnership that we have here, and I really appreciate the time that we get to ask questions and showcase to the community the work that you all are doing in partnership with the King County Council, us, and hopefully soon more of the regional cities who can be contributing to this.

But just in case there's any confusion out there about whether or not Seattle is stepping up, stepping up at 68% in this time to make sure the RHA is supported.

Also, Mark, I want to take the chance to say thank you for being here and your presentation because you must be tired.

I heard the entire interview today on KUOW.

So I know you spent some time talking to folks about some of these systems already and appreciate that one of the callers or one of the questions that was asked of you was about what do we do for folks who shouldn't be allowed downtown?

And you had a very clear answer that from a values perspective, it's not RHA's perspective or your perspective that we should not allow any human in any certain place, no matter where that parcel is, and that we ought to be working in coordination to get those folks inside.

I think I share that value.

We want to, of course, make sure that folks are not living in the elements, but that it is not a matter of not allowing them somewhere.

Instead, how do we get them into healthy housing, healthy shelters and then housing.

But it brought up a question for me about what is currently happening.

And if what's currently happening as reported out there is that there are sweeps happening in downtown and some, like the one on 4th Avenue, what was reported is that there was an hour or two notice.

That is going to cause people to move.

And as you noted in your interview in KUOW, Sometimes this relationship that you're trying to build with existing outreach partners or with the peer navigators that you're planning on bringing on, it takes not months, but a matter of weeks, but you still need at least a few weeks or a week, not two hours, to be able to create the relationship with folks.

I'm really worried that the model that you're talking about isn't gonna work if you don't have that time to do outreach.

So is there a coordinated effort to work with the Regional Homelessness Authority to do outreach.

over a set period of time, like I think was done successfully to a large degree in Ballard Commons, so that you all have the time to do that outreach.

Because the consequence is either they're going to move maybe somewhere else in downtown Seattle, or they're going to move into other areas outside of downtown Seattle.

And I've already seen more and more tents around what had been car and RV spaces.

Maybe people feel a sense of safety coming into that street because there's already people there but that just means that the home homeless community is going to be broader than downtown.

So what is the strategy to make sure that folks are not moving either to other places of downtown or in other areas of the community so that you all can successfully get folks inside?

I appreciate this question.

So you know a couple things.

One I think um you know we are in um good ongoing conversation like yesterday, today, I'm sure tomorrow, with our colleagues, both at HSD and the mayor's office.

And, you know, what, you know, we don't necessarily always agree on like the every, every specific way forward, but we do agree on the end goals.

And we are very clear that the in that shared alignment, right, we are going to find the path that best supports everyone.

You know, I think that Our goal, and I will just speak for the authority, our goal is to get to what you described of having that lead time, right?

I do want to be very clear, though, that, like, you know, where that lead time is not our call and may not be possible is where there are significant issues of safety.

And, frankly, in many of those instances, our outreach staff are the folks who flag it, right, are like, there is a significant concern here around safety.

But beyond that, I will just say right that, like, what I would like to be able to get to is an ecosystem where we are able to, you know, have a couple weeks right I think, to your point of lead time around engaging people, developing a clear understanding of what their needs are and then supporting their placements.

And I think that I really do, and I see Deputy Director Bailey has come on camera, so perhaps he wants to add to this, but I really do feel like we are days from that, right?

And it's about...

I just froze.

I can still see you.

Okay, great.

Thank you, council member.

I was like, oh no, I don't know.

I'm just gonna keep talking.

So, you know, I think we are days away from having clarity around what that coordination looks like.

I think that the, you know, Heidi could speak potential to, you know, how we are standing up the unified command sensor and, you know, beginning to routinize those exchanges of information, et cetera.

But I think we are headed in the right direction is the sum answer.

Okay, and it's nice to meet you, Deputy Mayor.

I don't think we've had the chance to meet yet, but I think the mayor's office potentially would say that they did give two weeks notice, right?

That there was a posting two weeks before the move, the sweep.

So I guess, I'm glad to hear the conversations are happening, but will it be something like if a post goes up immediately or in advance, there's already a conversation with RHA so that you're not having to chase where a post is, but that you are operating through this command and dispatch system.

I'm sure I'm using the wrong terms.

the emergency dispatch control system that you're talking about.

Will that be the place where you're sharing information so that a post never goes up without RHA knowing about it and already having outreach folks on the floor, on the ground?

Yeah, that's correct.

That's the goal, is that when a posting happens, that we know that that is a priority space for whatever reason that the city has flagged as that priority space.

And to be honest, I don't necessarily need to know why.

just tell me that you need our support, right, and we'll be there.

So that is the vision.

I believe Deputy Director Bailey and Interim Director Kim and Deputy Mayor Washington, a lot of titles, all share that vision of being able to be in sync where we know that a thing is coming, and are in actively in the process of supporting people so that we are getting people placed as how we resolve an encampment and that the displacement strategies are not the ones that we are leading into.

And I think just to close the loop on this, I have to correct myself because I just said, you know, you will be there when a posting happens, but going back to year two, three, four, what we were really concerned with was that when the posting goes up, that causes folks to move.

So ideally there would never be a post, right?

It would be the outreach and organization to get folks to a safer, healthier shelter or house.

And then the posting doesn't happen that creates the, folks.

And I think that what we're working on, not to tip the hat too much, but what we're working on, frankly, based on a letter that you sent, Council Member, from a couple years ago, actually, is a way of creating a clear prioritization schema that we all agree on.

and are continuously evaluating so that we're saying like, oh, this, you know, this encampment is a priority one because we have health and safety issues, right?

And so we need to rapidly get to know those folks and support them, you know, moving inside.

Or this encampment is a priority two, et cetera, right?

Because it falls into these, you know, prioritization, you know, factors.

So I think, and I think, again, we are we are days from being able to really move forward on that and I think that it is the goal of HSD the authority in the mayor's office to be in sync around what that is, how it is created, to get outreach to weigh in on it, to get the LEC to weigh in on it.

And that's where we are right now is in that sequence of getting the community input to make sure that we haven't missed anything, that we're headed in the right direction.

And then we'll move forward with having a clear way of being able to say, this is how prioritization works and what we are doing.

And then the authority will simply be be moving through the prioritization schema too, right?

So we won't ever be, you know, I think surprised, right, when, you know, the city raises, you know, hey, like, we're concerned about the folks who are here because of X, Y, or Z issues.

We should be aware of some of the same things and be moving towards resolution.

Thank you so much, panel.

I understand, Mark, you have kind of a hard stop here at three, and I think we can accommodate that.

Look, I think we got it all through right on time.

So really appreciate the panel today.

Appreciate this update.

Looking forward to hopefully having you guys back maybe sometime in the next quarter to give the next update on where we are with this work.

uh, super excited and appreciate getting the detailed briefing.

I appreciate that, Sharon.

I apologize for the hard stop.

I, um, I have to go speak with another elected colleague, so I want to be respectful.

Um, but, uh, we look forward to the opportunity to brief you again and of course to keep you updated.

Um, and Council Member Herbold, we will reach out to your office to schedule something.

great.

And that's actually a really good transition.

Councilmember Mosqueda's line of questioning to our next agenda item.

So I look forward to this presentation as well.

And Mr. Clerk, would you please read into the record agenda item two?

Agenda item number two, Hope Team 2021 quarterly reports.

Excellent.

And we are joined here by Michael Bailey from the Human Services Department.

We've also got Jeff Sims from our Council Central staff.

And Mr. Bailey, I don't know if you want to just kind of go first to sort of queue up.

I don't know if you're being joined by other colleagues or not.

I think that is the way I want to structure this.

All right, well, hopefully folks can see the screen.

I'm looking for a head nod from anybody.

Perfect.

All right, well, good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Michael Bailey, for the record.

I have the pleasure and privilege of serving as the Deputy Director here at the Seattle Human Services Department, or HSD.

The portfolio that I manage here at the department includes the city's homelessness investments, thus my presence here today.

I am also a newbie with the city, so this is actually my first time approaching committee.

That being said, you have my full permission to take it easy on me today.

But it's gonna be a great discussion and I'm excited to have the opportunity.

I'd like to thank Committee Chair Lewis and Vice Chair Mosqueda and the committee as a whole, just for the opportunity to join you today.

And as part of my time today, I plan to present all the 2021 outcomes for HSD's HOPE team.

All right.

So our agenda for today's presentation looks a little bit like this.

We'll begin with a brief introduction.

We'll provide an overview of the whole team and how it functions to support the city's response to sheltering our unhoused neighbors.

We'll cover the whole team's latest quarterly slide report.

And lastly, I'll provide a general update just to let folks know where the team is currently and how we're working to ensure a human services centered and relational approach to the city's future work around addressing homelessness.

So here at the Human Services Department, our mission is a simple one, but very much a critical one.

We're here to connect people with resources and solutions during their time of need.

When we're successfully executing that mission, the city has the benefit of watching Seattle's residents live, learn, and work in a strong and healthy community.

We encourage our teams to see their work through this human services center lens and often encourage our peers and external partners to do the same because, honestly, this really just allows us to collaboratively work together and also just serve both the current and emerging needs.

And while it's true that most of the outreach and service contracts have recently moved from HSD over to the new King County Regional Homelessness Authority, addressing homelessness remains one of the department's six impact areas.

The HOPE team is a reflection of that body of work, and through their work connecting people experiencing homelessness to shelter and services, this remains a city entity.

And the reason being is it allows the city to meet its legal obligation to comply with the MDARs, more specifically, the need to identify and provide alternative shelter before removing non-obstruction encampments and also outreach for encampment removals.

The City is unable to shift this liability and or requirement to RHA despite the contracts moving to RHA and is thus responsible for ensuring that it has the resources, i.e. the HOPE Team, necessary to do this body of work in the event that either a RHA or perhaps one of the service providers decline to assist.

And while HSD is not responsible for leading encampment removals, it is our desire to ensure that people living unsheltered can be connected with resources and solutions as outlined in our mission.

So the HOPE team was introduced as part of the 2021 budget.

They coordinate outreach and referrals to shelter at priority encampments prior to removal, and they also document offers of shelter.

Again, this is done to ensure the legal compliance with the city's MDARs.

The team also supports construction and maintenance projects that are impacted by encampments that are located on public property.

For example, in the second half of 2021, the team supported 61 projects from requesters such as SDOT, SPU, SPR, King County, and other city permanent holders.

And I will say that 93% of these projects were resolved without the need of a removal.

The HOPE team also works to support the city's frontline severe weather response.

In our previous conversation, we heard from RHA and they talked about treating an emergency like an emergency, and I love that philosophy.

In 2021, the team responded to three significant severe weather events, the snow event in February, the heat event in June, and also the cold and snow event in December.

We'll say that each of these events displayed extremes in terms of weather, but each event had the assistance of this team.

Some folks participated in the field by conducting welfare checks and supporting basic needs, while we had a few others assisting with just sharing information.

And that could be as it relates to an emergency shelter or also a day center.

They also assisted with transportation and also with the distribution of winter weather supplies.

The last bullet is really just a reminder, because once again, I believe most folks already know this, but the HOPE team coordinates outreach and connections to shelter at encampments that are prioritized for the city.

We do not prioritize the sites.

We do not lead encampment removal operations.

Our goal is really just to ensure that operations have a human service centered element and that the folks there at those sites are connected with resources and solutions, again, as outlined by our mission.

All righty.

So this slide is intended to talk about the work of our system navigators.

Some people may say small but mighty, but I prefer the order mighty but small, because that's exactly what the unit of these three system navigators are.

In addition to their outreach coordination work at priority sites, they also facilitate shelter referrals through the HOPE team and between outreach and shelter providers citywide.

They also provide a great deal of time really just manually tracking and coordinating bed availability across the shelters that we have the set-asides for.

And this is really just to ensure that the shelter is available for those at a posted site.

I believe the future ideal state would be to have this information in real time and Mark's team spoke to that, so we are excited about the opportunities there.

As presented currently, there are a few issues and that could stem from just capacity, staff turnover, IT restraints.

There's a number of factors that prevent us from getting real-time data, but we are working with partners to address that and to improve the process.

And just for context, the HOPE team set-aside beds represent about 30% of the city's funded shelter spaces.

The process that you see in front of you is really meant to represent the engagement that takes place at a priority site.

And I'll just kind of walk through these for everybody who's listening.

The process begins when an encampment site is identified by the Unified Care Team via a site inspection.

And I recognize that we also have folks listening.

So just for public awareness, the Unified Care Team is essentially the city's multi-department approach to addressing the impacts of homelessness throughout the city of Seattle.

Moving along once a site is prioritized by the city, the whole team begins the process of coordinating outreach to the encampment for context, the process typically starts when one of our system navigators is doing a site specific needs assessment.

That assessment is then used to develop a comprehensive list of just all persons and camps at that particular site.

Information about those persons are also collected, if shared by the individual, and we typically call that list a by names list.

This is often done in partnership with outreach providers, but if an outreach provider declines to assist, then it's typically the system navigators doing this work independently, and that could be through routine conversations or through routine site visits.

As we move along, the outreach providers and or the HOPE team begin the process of making referrals to shelter as availability allows.

If a site is later posted for removal, the system navigators provide offers of shelter leading up to and on the day of removal.

Again, we do not leave the encampment removal efforts.

We are literally there to ensure that offers of shelter and connection to services are done with a human service centered approach.

Council member Mosqueda referenced Ballard Commons.

That's really an example of how this work is intended to play out.

They're the HOPE team partner with REACH, Catholic Community Services host HealthONE, I believe, scofflaw mitigation team over a number of months.

And that was really a collaborative effort.

And as a result of that effort, we were able to refer 70 individuals to shelter prior to the encampment removal.

Another example worth mentioning could potentially be the work that took place at Dexter Mercer earlier this month.

In this case, the whole team in partnership with the Urban League and also the Seattle Indian Center They use this approach and were able to facilitate approximately 25 referrals, again, before the removal of that encampment.

Michael, can I just jump in for a second?

I know I said I would hold questions.

Sure.

But I think this is an important slide just to clarify.

For the illustrations you just made about where on this chart something like Ballard Commons, which is how you're saying this process should work, but I think considering how we're talking about it, it seems sort of exceptional in some respects in kind of how things historically have gone at least.

But would that kind of be resolving things in slide four, and then we never even get to five, or on step four, and then we never get to five and six?

Would that be a way to think about it?

So I think Mark references in this previous conversation.

The idea is to provide resources and to certainly team up with RHA ahead of a potential removal to ensure that resources are deployed.

And it could be as soon as the site is prioritized.

It doesn't have to be at the time of the posting.

And I think the other council member was asking that question.

So there is an opportunity here.

I will say that there are times where certain sites are escalated in terms of priority, and that could off track the timeline.

But ideally, and when we have the ability to do so, we are starting that outreach proactively to ensure that we are able to establish those relationships and that we can assist the individuals at that encampment.

Right, but I guess what I'm asking is with Ballard Commons, I think the way that we structured that is we were able to sort of solve for everybody first and then we did a posting, but the posting was to remove debris at that point because the people had all kind of left the site.

And I'm just wondering in this arrangement of steps, like I sort of see that as like our work kind of finishes at step four.

The removal posting doesn't really kind of matter at that point because it doesn't involve the displacement of any potential people who have been at the site anymore.

And I guess I'm just trying to clear.

I'm asking a clarifying question that, like, would we consider Ballard Commons and Bitter Lake to have resolved in this numbered process at four and not really moved beyond that?

Or are you arguing that or stating that Ballard Commons is out of this process entirely because it was sort of addressed differently?

I'm just trying to get a clarification.

Right, and I appreciate the clarification there.

Our goal is always to get folks inside and there may be a few individuals left on site and that may happen at the time of a posting, but we want to be able to offer shelter up to the actual day of removal.

There are cases where that work is proactive and there's less of a need to provide offers or transportations or connections at the time of the removal.

But it depends on the case.

And I hope that I'm answering your question there.

Yeah, I think I have some other questions, but I'll save them till the end of the presentation.

But I think that mostly answers my question.

Council Member Mesquite, do you have a clarifying question about this slide?

Or is it something we should bookmark till the end of the presentation?

I'll hold.

Okay, great.

Thank you, Mr. Bailey, you can continue.

Certainly.

All right, so as it relates to calendar year 2021, I wanted to highlight some of the information that was provided in our last outcomes report.

The whole team conducted 1203 shelter referrals.

This represents about 30% increase from the 2020 year in total.

In 2021, the HOPE team facilitated referrals from approximately 32 different outreach providers and service organizations and from 119 encampment locations.

793 of those referrals were BIPOC, and while I'm here, I would like to share that the HOPE team's referral process prioritizes people with the highest vulnerabilities from active high-priority sites and individuals that have multiple vulnerabilities regardless of encampment location, race and ability.

We do capture this information, but that's to ensure that equity is not an afterthought.

So just want to make a clarifying statement there.

92% of referrals were to enhanced shelters and this includes tiny house villages.

I believe we ended 2020 with 80% or 81%.

So there is a slight increase there.

Of that 1,203 figure, we had 576 confirmed enrollments.

And while this number improved quite a bit from 2020, our goal is continuous improvement in this area.

As you know, we can't overrule someone's decision to decline shelter, but we can work with the individual to better understand their unique needs and the factors contributing to that decision.

The chart you see here displays some of the previous information, but it provides some additional context, really by comparing it to previous years.

As you can see, in 2021 the city experienced an increase in referrals to shelter and enrollments.

Our 2021 figures are partly due to the enhanced shelter investments that came online, and that includes the addition of 200 plus temporary rooms at hotel-based shelters, that includes Kings Inn and also Executive Hotel Pacific, and also 100 plus new tiny homes that came online around fall of last year.

In presenting this data, I want to be transparent in the struggles that we faced, the impacts from the COVID-19 event.

It challenged staffing capability throughout the year and often resulted in a number of shelters coming offline for weeks at a time.

I also want to highlight the enrollment data.

And while the increase is promising, there is a percentage of this that we're unable to account for.

The HMIS data, which is essentially the Federal Homelessness Management Information System, it anonymizes 25% of the data, which creates complications for us when we're trying to match that data against HSD's NABAP data.

So that figure could be a little bit higher, but we're unable to do that, and that's really due to the state-level rules requiring that opt-in feature.

And I also want to add that over the last year, the whole team has increased efforts to support individuals after a referral is made, and that's really to reduce barriers.

We're doing things such as providing direct transportation to shelter and also helping to facilitate the intake process at the shelter.

Right, so in 2022, this year, we look forward to supporting the RHA as they begin to take lead in this regional coordination of outreach efforts.

I will say that efforts are underway to streamline information sharing and also data collection.

And that's again as part of that unified care team, but also taking direction from RHA.

We really look forward to supporting this innovation and also just identifying opportunities to ensure that the team continues to operate with a human services centered approach and lens.

And I believe RHA also mentioned the prioritization schema.

And to Mark's point, there is a desire to collaborate around collecting the necessary information just to better inform the development of that tool and then see where it could be implemented.

And I also want to end just with some recognition.

As many of you know, March is Social Work Month.

So I want to recognize the team members that step up every day, really just to advance this work.

And they show their dedication.

They show their skill.

That goes for our outreach providers, our service providers, but also our partners in the county, and most certainly our folks here at HSD and on the HOPE team.

So I just want to formally and publicly thank them for their commitment.

And with that being said, that actually concludes our presentation.

Committee Chair Lewis, I will hand it back to you and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you, Deputy Director Bailey.

I really appreciate that presentation.

I definitely have several questions and I know council colleagues do as well.

I want to give an opportunity to Jeff Sims from our council central staff to also provide a little bit of analysis.

Committee viewers will recognize Jeff for his ongoing role in tracking for the council, the HOPE team as well as the preceding navigation teams.

the policy surrounding those entities for the council.

So I wanted to give an opportunity for Jeff to present on a couple of metrics and things that the council has been tracking throughout the history of our engagement in this area before we open it up to broader questions.

So Jeff, why don't you take it away?

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I will take over screen sharing from you, Michael, just a minute.

Hey, Mr. Kirk, could you just let me know that you can see and it's clear enough on my screen?

I can see it.

Great.

Thank you.

Um, so I will, uh, I want to first thank the director Bailey for being here and presenting to us.

Uh, I'll note that a lot of the data that I'm going to share, uh, has been, um, is, is from HSD and including the, the, the report that the deputy director just presented on.

Um, I will add a few more data points, uh, because I've been tracking this for about two and a half years.

And, um, also we'll add in some other data, um, data sources that I think help us to go, in some ways, beyond even what the HOPE team is doing to get a better picture of the HOPE team, but by giving some other pieces of context that I think are important.

And all of this information was provided to the committee a few weeks ago, about two weeks ago, I believe, as a write-up that I provided.

And then you'll notice the slides that I'm about to go through have all been provided to you, also for the public.

You can look at the attached memo, and you'll find the majority of these.

So first I want to just go to the first chart and to orient everyone to it.

You'll see that there's a section that has some blue and orange lines at the top.

That's the entire period covered by the navigation team.

Then there is a break, and you'll see a pink line starts.

That break is when the navigation team stopped functioning and when the hook team would begin functioning.

There's a little bit of an interruption there.

So you'll see that we do have some slightly different data points that get reported.

The blue line is duplicated and then unduplicated context, unduplicated is the orange, that the navigation team was reporting.

At that point, Assistant Navigator, they were really being held to a very high data standard.

Anytime they talked to someone, recorded the conversation, And what is being recorded as a shelter recommendation, which is what the HOPE team tracks, is really not analogous.

It's when there's been some more lengthy engagement and an individual has expressed interest in shelter and identified as a good match for the beds that are available at that time.

So there's a lot more work that goes behind what you see on the screen as the pink line.

And I'll get to that in just a moment.

That's the initial orientation that you'll see that one refer, sorry, contacts has been replaced by recommendations.

You will see that the purple and green lines have continued for quite some time.

The purple lines are the number of referrals that the navigation team or help team made to a shelter bed.

And then the green line is the number of individuals that actually arrived within 48 hours at the location that they were specifically referred to.

The WU director already noted that there's, this isn't, that green line is not perfect.

There is people that choose not to not to provide their data.

A lot of people, for example, might have been going to a data center for some time.

They're like, you know, like you already got my data somewhere.

I just want to go to the shelter today.

There's a lot of non-entry or choosing to opt out of showing up.

There's also other issues that could arise there that we can go into more if the committee has questions.

There's four main things then that the memo that I provided covers.

The first, I think it's notable that that pink line that you see is about four times as high as the purple one.

That means that about four people are being recommended for the shelter beds that were reported as available compared to the number of people that actually got to go to them.

So there's, and put another way, there's about four times as much demand just through this process as there is for the actual number of beds that we have.

I think that'll be important in just a minute.

I also want to note, actually, the deputy director already noted that the green line is about half of the purple line.

So about 50% of people that get referred do make it there.

That is an improvement, actually, over the practice navigation team added.

It used to be about a quarter.

So let's give some credit where it's due.

That's improved.

It's hard to know exactly why.

It could be the better matching.

It could be that we are offering better shelters, as the deputy director noted, that we are offering better, making better offers, non-congregate, enhanced shelters, not a mat on the floor kind of a thing.

So, but let's just note that that is happening at a higher rate.

And then the next item I wanted to know is what's going on with the referrals, the purple line from what we see.

As Deputy Director Bailey noted, 2021 did do substantially more.

We had a lot more referrals made to shelter.

But this is where I want to bring in some other data sources and take us a little past what just the HOPE team is doing with a look at our I'm going to go back to that slide in a moment, but mainly what I want to point out here is just at the city funding capacity.

You'll see that in July 2021 and December 2021, our capacity had notably gone up and actually, even before that, it had we had had an.

In July 2020, that number looks just slightly higher than the prior six months.

It's actually notably higher.

We opened 120 tiny home village beds there, but because of COVID and the onset of COVID in that time, we had other places that had to cut back capacity.

That increase wasn't as obvious, but all three of those are times that the shelter expanded.

Now, when I go back to that line graph, you'll see vertical red lines showing when we added shelter capacity as a city.

And all of those correlate to a time when the HOPE team was able to refer more people to shelter.

And I think it's, obviously this isn't perfect research.

I can't guarantee that that's a correlation, but it affirms what, well, frankly, what our system navigators tell us.

But what is a common understanding that when we make a quality referral, to something that matches people's needs, it gets taken and it's sought after.

And I think that that's a story we should highlight, underlying the data that Deputy Director Bailey just provided, that as we increase that, that plays into our success in connecting people to shelter.

That's the primary thing I wanted to highlight related to referrals and the improvement that the hope had over the over 2021 compared to its predecessor.

It'll be intriguing to see the variations here all are times when correlate when we had less shelter that was new.

We had fewer people go to shelter.

The last item that the council members received material on, this is a subject of HSD's written submission, but not as much today, was making referrals to people who identify as Black, Indigenous, or other people of color.

And as you can see, throughout 2021, under the HOPE team, the results were substantial, much better than had been previously.

That did tail off towards the end of the year, so this is an area where perhaps Deputy Director Bailey and his team can provide additional insights, but I think that it'll be worth observing this to see if the progress that was initially made can be sustained and restored.

That encompasses the detail that Council already received from me.

And so I'll turn it back over to you, Mr. Chair.

Jeff, thank you so much for providing that overview.

And I appreciate that we have you on central staff to kind of track these metrics over the years and through several periods of reform and reconstitution of how we do this work.

It's very helpful to see the history all laid out there.

I have some questions that I think are going to overlap with my colleagues.

So I think Councilmember Musqueda, since Councilmember Musqueda got in line kind of early here, I'll hand it over to her and then I see Councilmember Herbold also has her hand up.

And I will sort of back clean up here in terms of the things that are still on the table at the end.

So Councilmember Herbold, I mean, sorry, Musqueda, please go ahead.

Thanks so much.

And Deputy Bailey, thanks for your presentation.

And please do extend our appreciation to the folks at HSD.

Again, I know that the team there has been working under a tremendous amount of stress with high turnover in that area, in large part because of uncertainty that was not clarified given the pandemic.

transition that happened at the end of last year's the RHA.

So I know you all have been doing a lot and there's also stressors on individuals in their own life during these times.

So we appreciate the role that they've had.

And I think my questions are perhaps Jeff if you have additional background you can provide it.

I just don't want Director Bailey for you to feel like these are directed at you or criticism of you and the team because it's really kind of the longer picture that I am aiming to look at here.

So Jeff, you mentioned that there's four people available, four people referred for every one bed available only through this HOPE team alone.

And I know that's something that you and I have worked on over the years has been to try to get a better sense of like the total amount of people referred per bed or the number of average beds available on a given night in a month.

And in terms of asking for data, we had asked for that data repeatedly in 2018 and 2019. I think it's maybe a question for RHA, if not for HSD.

Do we have any additional information?

I believe you made this request over a month ago to have information about the total number of beds available on an average night each month.

Any update on that?

I don't have an update on that.

I did ask a while ago from KCRHA for the total number or an average number of vacancies that occur in shelter.

We could probably guess, if you just took the quarter and assume that all of those are shelter vacancies, that's around maybe 60 per month in total.

That's from the beds that are reserved as well as all others.

But really, that's a place the KCRHA should confirm.

Mark, just a couple of minutes ago, Indicated a number of 12 to 18 per month.

So I think that sorting that out would be useful Yeah, because at one point it was something like three three or four beds available on an average night in 2019, I think, so it would be helpful to see if that number has changed.

And then I'm also interested in knowing, perhaps this is another question for KCHR to say, it's like, what would that number have been if we would have opened the tiny house villages and the RV vehicle safe lots that the city had authorized via council in last summer's budget?

So that number should be bigger if those numbers had opened, if those numbers of beds and available spaces for vehicles had opened.

And I guess I will follow up as well with RHA to see if they have that information, if that seems like the more appropriate place.

Probably so.

I want to make sure that I don't mislead you with one statement that I had made.

The pink line that I showed just a moment ago showing the total number of shelter recommendations, that's what for each quarter lately has been four times as high as the number of people that are actually sent to a shelter.

So I don't know if it would be fair to paint that as on a nightly basis.

There's, I imagine not.

I imagine there's some days we have 12 beds open and only 12 referrals and other days you have no beds open and 20 referrals.

I'm sure it varies.

Deputy Director Bailey, perhaps you want to provide your more, your team's more firsthand knowledge of that.

But definitely we can seek about getting that from KCRA too.

Yeah, Jeff, if we have the opportunity, I'd love to collaborate with you on getting that information from RHA.

I believe our average number of bid availability has historically been seven to 10, and typically it's one referral for one vacancy.

There may be three or four recommendations, but there's only one referral that's made.

Here again, that's data crunching in the background.

I'd like to work with you to get a more sufficient and clear answer back to the committee.

I am just still struggling with trying to understand sort of why we have two separate systems still.

It's not something I can totally understand just hearing the back-to-back presentations about where the coordination is versus where we could have integration.

And I don't have an answer to that, but it's still something that is top of mind to me as we think about the way to create efficiencies and ensure coordination of services.

I don't know if you, Director, have any comments about that, but it's something that I'm still struggling with.

Certainly.

And here again, this is a answer that we can probably work with RHA just to better clarify.

It's one thing for me to say something, but I think it's more powerful for us to come in unison and say this.

But just referencing the previous comment about the city's liability.

In the event that RHA or one of the service provider declines to assist with a removal, the city is still obligated and liable for providing that type of outreach.

That's what the HOPE team does, but I believe there is an opportunity for improved coordination and improved collaboration, just that we're working together.

RHA has a regional approach.

I like to think of the unified care team and the HOPE team as that local extension.

So there is that opportunity to collaborate Here again, we'll come back and do this end with a more appropriate answer.

Council Member Herbold.

Thanks so much.

Deputy Director Bailey, thank you for being with us.

I'm sorry that this is such a thorny project for your first presentation, but really appreciate this presentation and appreciate your clear answers.

Really, I think what this Council wants most, you'll find, is clear answers that we can, even if when the responses are unsatisfactory, we can at least share what we've learned with members of the public so we have a sort of a level setting of expectations.

That's, I think, really what we hope to receive in these engagements and appreciate how you stepped in that direction right off the bat.

A couple of questions I do have.

So Director Doan's in their presentation earlier made reference to some separate sort of buckets of set-asides.

And so I just really would like to understand a little bit more about those set-asides and on slide five, the bullet referenced manually tracking bed availability across all set-aside shelters to ensure shelter is available for those at a posted site.

So just wanna understand what is the number of set-aside beds?

What percentage of all city supported shelter beds are set-asides?

And is the, Hope team the only entity that can refer people to the set-asides?

And how many set-aside beds are available for referral on an average day?

That's one set of questions.

And then my other question relates to the way the city handles obstruction removals versus non-obstruction removals.

And as I think most of us know, according to the MDARs, obstruction removals, as the policy is written on paper, they do not actually require 72-hour advance notice posting, do not require offers of shelter to individuals.

And I think for all the reasons that we've talked about in this presentation and in the conversations that we've had with RHA, taking that kind of a a expeditious approach can actually create harm.

I really appreciate the need to have passable sidewalks, for instance, have it possible for people to get in the doors of their businesses and residents.

But I'm also sort of balancing those needs of public access to public right-of-way with the harm that could be done really following the MDARS to the letter and just want to understand what is the city's approach going to be moving forward.

We saw, of course, the encampment removal here across the street from City Hall.

I think it was, from my observation, it seemed like we were starting with an obstruction removal and treating it as something that didn't need a lot of advanced notice and a lot of engagement.

But then we, I think, had a different perspective and slowed things down to allow for that engagement.

But again, I think it's really important to have some clarity of understanding of what the expectations are moving forward.

I do wanna also flag that the whole concept of obstruction removals um, makes it makes the, uh, the partnership for zero a very confusing concept to me because I think most, um, most encampments downtown, probably 80% of them would qualify as obstructions.

And so what is the partnership for zero accomplishing as far as meeting that functional zero?

if all we've done is remove people from downtown by deeming them obstruction removals and there's no requirement or need for engagement to give people other alternatives.

Perfect.

I am tracking your questions and I thank you for the opportunity to provide some clarity here.

The total number of HOPE set-asides would be 816. This is about 30% of the total city-funded beddeds.

The total number of city-funded beds would be 2,837.

The average number of beds available historically has been seven to 10. I do want to note that that is the statistic that I asked to take back with Jeff and RHA, so we will clarify that and provide that back to committee.

The HOPE team coordinates referrals, but we work in partnership, and we're working with outreach providers, and that's really to ensure that referrals meet the individual needs.

The purpose behind the beds, we need to have an available bed in order to make a legitimate offer.

We don't want to lead people astray, and that relationship building is so critical.

So our folks are often calling the shelters in real time just to say, hey, do you have this availability?

Typically through our chat box feature, we are getting that data typically the morning of, but things may change throughout the day.

So we want to ensure that we're making referrals and recommendations in real time to spaces that are actually available.

As it relates to the partnership for Xero, I would defer to our partners at RHA.

And it is their project.

We are very much supportive of that.

We're excited to support them in that work.

But I feel as if RHA and or Mark would be better suited to answer that question.

So I guess it wasn't a question.

I didn't have a question about anything RHA was doing.

It was sort of just a reflection.

My question is about how the city is handling obstruction removals.

And my reflection was if the city is truly handing obstruction removals the way that the MDAR say you can, which I hope you're not, which is there is no requirement for advanced notification or engagement, then and 80% of the encampments downtown are obstruction encampments, that doesn't leave a whole lot for Partnership for Zero to do, because we're not, most of the locations are not locations where we're engaging and trying to find people housing for, unless what you tell me is that we are not handling obstruction encampments in the way that the MDAR say we are, that we are not doing removals at obstruction locations without notice and without engagement.

Again, the MDARs allow that for obstructions.

Right, and my apologies there.

So the MDARs do not require the city to provide offers of shelter at an obstruction.

However, the whole team has and will continue to provide shelter offers to individuals during these removals as capacity allows us to do so.

So the three system navigators are really structured to support the MDAR requirements, but we are trying to provide those offers as capacity allows.

So obstruction removals will occur without notice and without engagement in those cases where there's no capacity.

Is that what I'm hearing?

Can you repeat the question one more time, just so I clearly have it?

What I thought I heard, and I may have heard wrong, but what I thought I heard is obstruction removals, which according to the MDORs, you don't have to give advance notice and you don't have to do engagement.

those removals will continue without engagement and without advanced notice in those instances, the points in time when there's no shelter capacity.

So that is a question I would like to take back to the unified care team, just so I can provide an accurate response on the direction ahead.

Appreciate that.

Thank you so much.

Okay, so just jumping in, I do have a few questions I wanna go over here that I think are kind of generally related.

I mean, cutting through to the crux of the general issue, I think it would just be good to have some level setting going forward of just ways that I think we all have the same interest and hopefully can center the work of what needs to be done to realize our shared interests as actors within city government and stakeholders who care deeply about outreach, sheltering, and housing for people experiencing homelessness in Seattle.

And I think that's been the subtext of the questions from some of my colleagues, that when we look at this data, I think where we get bogged down is all of us can agree that we shouldn't have obstructed public infrastructure in the city of Seattle.

We want to be compliant with the ADA.

We want to make sure that everyone can walk and roll through the city in a way that's safe and not obstructed by human created structures.

We also all agree that people should not be living with nothing but the thin layer of a tent between them and the elements, that that's not a humane way for people to live, that we should aspire in a city that's as wealthy as we are to provide some level of shelter, even intermediate shelter to folks.

Barring that, We should also be at the very least pragmatic and clear-eyed that if people do move from a place, we need to have some kind of plan or strategy for people that are moved in the event that there is an exigent removal and we don't have an immediate place they can go that is inside.

I feel like we need to have a conversation about the impact of displacement.

And I'll just say anecdotally, you know, and there's no way for me to really verify, um, if this is true or not.

But when people see a removal that is, uh, that goes around in the media extensively, like the the, um, Fourth Avenue action that happened recently, and they then see shortly thereafter new concentrations of tense adjacent to their building or in front of their building in the same neighborhood, there's immediately a connection from those stakeholders that it's sort of their turn to be in a position of having an encampment in front of their building.

And that that's not fair to them.

And it's certainly not fair to the people living in the tents who are being moved around without some kind of accommodation for the displacement.

So I guess one question I would ask in the operations of how we're doing this and how we do the navigation When it becomes fairly evident there's gonna be a certain amount of displacement of people who are living in an encampment and those folks will not that evening be going to a shelter because there are insufficient spaces to refer them to, what are some of the current plans to mitigate the impact of that displacement in terms of where those folks are gonna go, where those folks are going to camp next, and how are we not losing touch and building mistrust with that population of folks who are displaced?

I guess that would be my first question.

Council Member, thank you for the question.

And when a site is prioritized by the city for removal, our whole team is providing assistance up to and on the day of the removal and that assistance is a genuine offer of shelter.

Here again, we can't force someone to accept the offer, but we're doing everything in our power to build relationships up until that point so that we have a better chance of getting them to say yes.

And that could be getting a better understanding of their needs and aligning their preference with space that is available.

So to the best of our ability, we are trying to ensure that individuals at an encampment have that option prior to an encampment removal taking place.

I will say that as we move forward and as the RHA provides this regional strategy, we are excited to support that work and also that prioritization tool, which may allow us to be even more proactive in that outreach.

Did I answer your question?

Some of it, maybe just to be more clear, right?

I mean, what I'm really just talking about is, and I think what frustrates a lot of community stakeholders all across the spectrum, right?

I mean, it frustrates people who are advocates for folks who are unhoused because they see a certain level of, well, I mean, there's certainly a lot of disruption to somebody if they're getting, if they're being displaced from camping in one place to camp somewhere else.

There's also frustration from businesses and neighborhoods where an encampment will kind of come in to that neighborhood and set up because it was displaced from somewhere else.

I guess what I'm just getting at is to what extent are we planning to mitigate the impacts of displacement, both for the people who are being displaced from the encampment I would just like us to kind of acknowledge that this happens.

I guess it's also part of what I'm saying.

I'd just like us to pragmatically acknowledge that not everyone goes to shelter when we do these removes, despite our best efforts and our best intentions.

And we know no one wants to displace anybody, but the reality is people do get displaced.

So my question is, to what extent do we spend time planning and thinking about mitigating the impact of that?

Because my concern is that I don't know that historically we've spent a lot of time doing that.

It's something I would like to work with the department on, at least in the meantime, between when we all get the magical scale PSH on a hill someday where we have a lot of it, We're going to be and I just feel like historically we've we've sort of.

We've sort of tacitly kind of denied that it happens, or we haven't acknowledged it and it.

it irritates my constituents all across the spectrum.

Like I get all these complaints from people who are progressive or who are conservative that for a variety of reasons express frustration with that impact.

And I was just wondering how we might work together to address it, what some of the current strategies are to address it, because it does seem like a loophole in what we're doing.

Um, you know, I don't have great answers to right now and want to kind of hear from the department's thoughts.

Certainly.

So a lot of this work is taking place with the unified care team, and we are looking at problems holistically.

I do want to acknowledge what you shared.

The desire is not to shift where these individuals are going, but the intent is to house these individuals and to provide them with shelter.

And I recognize that that's not always the case.

We are working as a unified team across the city to identify strategies for this.

but this is also an opportunity for RHA to take the lead and provide guidance on what they see as best and for us to support our county and regional partners in this work.

I think the opportunity to have peer navigators, outreach and case management actually follow these individuals increases the likelihood that they'll actually receive shelter.

But in the event that they decline, those relationships have been established.

So it's an opportunity for those individuals to re-engage and then try again to try to help house these individuals.

So I'm unable to speak to an overarching strategy today, but I believe as we move forward, both with our partnership with RHA, but also with our work around the Unified Care Team, that we'll be able to develop a more comprehensive strategy that we can then bring back to the committee.

Do we identify, and I see Council Member Morales has her hand up, so I'll do this question and then pivot to her.

Do we currently identify in the data we're collecting when we do these postings the number of people who are displaced without any kind of mitigation or exit strategy from the encampment?

Because that honestly might be somewhere at least to start to sort of monitor and acknowledge that there, because look, I think at the base of it, I get the underlying premise that there are certain locations where there are encampments, and the encampment just can't stay there because it is posing an obstruction.

We can debate the extent to which encampments actually are or aren't an obstruction.

There's certainly been debate about that in cases where the posting, people have alleged the posting is abused.

But I'm saying for the sake of argument, we do know there are places where there are clear obstructions and needs to be removed.

And a certain amount of displacement might have to be accommodated because of the risk that that obstruction shows.

What I would just like us to at least do is monitor and track the amount of that displacement as a metric that we are working to minimize and eventually eliminate.

And at least to know, because I feel like right now, if there's a certain number of people in an encampment site that we aren't able to solve for because of our resource deficiencies, We are not really tracking that information as assiduously as we could be.

We might be able to define it from some of the other metrics that we have, like maybe the gap between referrals and actual shelter.

But I'd just like us to acknowledge as a metric that there's a certain level of displacement and track it and work together to get it down.

And that pivots to a discussion that's a little outside of the scope of what we're doing here.

with the data, but I mean, I guess it's related.

I mean, as Jeff's charts show, right, whenever we have more places to send people that are desirable, we do almost entirely eliminate that impact of the displacement.

If Ballard Commons Park is supposed to be the example of how this is supposed to work, we should be coming together to get the 1,000 new tiny homes by June that Mayor Harrell campaigned on building and the 2,000 new ones by December.

Because we could then do Ballard Commons Park constantly and all the time to the great satisfaction of all parties involved, I think.

So I do want to flag that, but in the meantime, you know, between now and when, and the anticipated, you know, the launch of a thousand units in June that the Herald Administration had indicated they want to pursue, you know, there's gonna be displacement and we need to figure out a strategy for it.

So I just, I don't need an answer to that.

I think we've been over it, but I just wanted to get those thoughts out for the department and for Jeff in terms of how we might work to make sure we have more data sets, frankly, like the end of last year, where we did, we had pretty good results for how the whole team was performing, at least relative to history.

And building on that seems to correlate with the availability of desirable shelter space.

So I want to recognize Council Member Morales for a question.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

And Mr. Bailey, I realize this is, I think, your first meeting with us.

You're new in this role.

And so, as Council Member Herbold said, you're in a sticky wicket, and it's welcome.

You know, I appreciate that there is, you know, the new regional authority.

I appreciate that things are shifting and hopefully for the better.

And I also understand that the intent is to house, that there is not a desire to merely shift people from one side of the street to the other.

And yet that is the impact.

And that's what we need to focus on, not the intent of the things that that our city workers are doing but the impact that they are having, which is to displace people, because we don't have sufficient resources, we don't have sufficient shelter beds available.

And so I appreciate what the chair is asking, which is that we actually create and track what that kind of displacement is, how it's happening, what we're doing about it, because that's what we're trying to measure is how that number starts to decrease.

And if we're not paying attention to it, if we are tacitly ignoring it, we're not gonna be able to solve that problem.

And so I just wanna echo what the chair is asking for so that we know if we're actually solving this problem and moving in the direction of the kind of outreach, the kind of relationship building, the lead time as Mark Jones called it, to establish relationships with people so that that number does start to decrease is gonna be really important.

And I think this is a critical time right now for us to figure out how these teams and entities are going to work together to solve this problem.

But solving the problem requires that we acknowledge this very key piece, because every city council member has heard from their constituents about the displacement that happens, the impact that it has on neighbors, the impact that it has on the folks who are displaced, and the frustration with there clearly not being an answer to that problem.

So my hope is that as as these plans start to get implemented, as the teams start to build, as the shelters and the tiny house villages that the mayor campaigned on get produced, that we're able to really see a significant difference and that the impact on our neighbors is one of more stability.

And council member, if I can, I just want to publicly acknowledge the fact that we recognize that this is an issue.

And I will personally take this back to the unified care team so that we can have further discussion.

We will also bring in our partners at RHA.

All right.

Are there any other questions from committee members?

Okay, I really appreciate the opportunity to dive into this.

And Deputy Director Bailey, I think a very good first committee debut.

Thank you so much for being here with us today.

And we look forward to working with you.

I do also just want to give a fine point as we continue to dive into this really hard work.

I do really want to close by acknowledging that in many respects, and this was identified in Jeff's graph, We have seen improvements in this work over the course of the last year from the team at HSD.

And I know that sometimes as a council we can have kind of tough questions in this area.

But I just want to acknowledge that Despite that, over the course of the last year working together, we have made progress in these areas and have seen metrics improve, have seen coordination improve, have brought new partnerships online and new shelter.

And we'll continue to do that and continue to do that in good faith.

And just appreciate you being here today to go through this information.

And hopefully we can build on this progress to continue to make improvement in this critical area and move forward on what most people in the city rate as.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot of work ahead of us.

we have a lot

Okay, well we are joined here today by the various entities that make up our Clean City Initiative.

I don't know who wants to start.

Okay, Superintendent Williams wants to start.

So I will turn it over to him and allow him to introduce the additional panelists, and we will save our questions for the conclusion of the presentation.

So, Superintendent, you take it away, please.

You are muted, Superintendent Williams.

Christopher, it might be on your screen at the bottom.

This is Michelle Finnegan.

Hi, everybody.

Also from Parks and Rec.

Are you on, Christopher?

Still can't hear you there, Superintendent Williams.

I'm sorry.

It looks like you're off mute, but when you talk, maybe it's your headset.

I don't know.

Going from Teams to Zoom.

Man, I still can't.

Do you have an alternative mic?

Is there a mic on your device, like on the computer?

No, I can't hear you still.

I don't know what you're pointing to, Superintendent.

I think he's probably pointing at me.

Why don't I try to fill in?

These are some large shoes, sorry.

I'm Michelle Finnegan, also with Seattle Parks and Recreation, and we're here today with our friends from SPU.

Would you guys like to introduce yourselves?

Hello.

Thank you for having us.

Idris Beauregard, Deputy Director here at SPU.

Hello.

My name is Lee Bowman and I'm SPU Director at SPU for Clean City Division.

We sent over our presentation.

Is that going to be loaded or are we to share it to ourselves?

Yes, Michelle.

I have it here and I can share it whenever you're ready.

We're ready.

Thanks, Jacob.

Just one moment.

So council members from the park side, you're getting the C team today because Donna Waters was going to join Christopher and she is out of the office and now we have Christopher.

without his mic.

So forgive me if I'm not quite as well informed as our teammates.

But we also have a great partnership with SPU and I appreciate them joining us today.

And in fact, I think Idrees is going to kick it off with the next slide.

Yeah.

Thank you, Michelle.

And again, council members, I appreciate you having us here.

I know a lot of you are familiar with the work that SPU's Clean City Program does.

And more recently, the Clean Cities Initiative, it's been creating a little bit of confusion.

So we thought it was important to come today and provide a line of sight and a quick background about how Clean Cities Program and SPU originated.

Roughly about 20 years ago, the city, we've seen a need to provide a clean and safe environment to the communities and neighborhoods that we serve.

Part of that objective was to take a certain portion of our tonnage tax, which we collect at transfer stations, and reinvest that in communities.

Now, a suite of these programs were designed to provide services related to illegal dumping, graffiti, community cleanup, volunteer programs.

More recently, over the past, I want to say six years, that tonnage tax became a component of the larger budget, the citywide general fund budget now.

And over the past six, seven years, you all are quite familiar with a lot of the increase in services that SPU now delivers, including our remediation program, sharps collection, and our proactive littering routes.

Since 2020, we actually seen a huge increase in illegal dumping, graffiti in public parks and open spaces.

We also seen a large amount of litter and we can relate that coupled with the city staffing shortage and the challenges of COVID reducing our volunteer base.

We've seen a significant amount of trash and litter that was just accumulating along with graffiti throughout the city.

In response, in late 2020, we temporarily, the city temporarily funded the Clean Cities Initiative.

And this was to address the trash that was accumulating based on the reduction of services that our other departments weren't able to address along with us.

And for today's presentation, we're going to focus on the surge services, which relate to a lot of the work that was deferred to parts in SDOT, For SPU, we've increased the number of geo RV claims with the surge.

We also provided private property graffiti abatement services from our graffiti rangers.

And lastly, we increased our community litter routes.

So now I'm going to, hopefully Christopher has his mic is working.

So we'll try to pass it over to him.

All right.

Can you folks hear me?

Here we go.

Okay.

Thank you.

And I apologize for that.

So to remind us, this surge was initially funded for four months over the 2021 winter, and then as part of the Seattle Rescue Plan.

Surge services were funded to end in 2021. The mayor's proposed 22 budget included eight months of funding to continue these services, and the council adopted budget extended that to the full year.

The surge services are all one time funding from the coronavirus relief funds in 2022. And therefore the surge is slated to sunset and the year rather at the end of the year.

Next slide.

More specifically, this slide here summarizes the 2022 budget for the clean city surge.

The 2022 adopted budget includes $9.3 million.

Christopher, I think we're one slide off.

Jacob, would you mind moving it forward one more?

There you go.

Thanks.

I'm sorry.

Okay, so this is sort of a breakdown of that funding.

The 2022 adopted budget includes $9.3 million in one-time coronavirus relief funds in 2022. The bulk of the funds our collaboration between Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Department of Transportation to stand up for geographically based clean teams.

This work is to provide focused cleaning of parks and neighborhood spaces.

Let's see here, including those in the center city.

We will discuss these teams in a bit more detail here in a few minutes.

The total of $8.4 million in 2022 to support this work is roughly $4.2 million per department.

You can see that at SPR and SDOT.

And then there is roughly just under a million dollars allocated to SPU for litter routes.

Next slide.

Surge enhancements.

Again, most of the funding in 2022 supports the work of temporary clean teams to support safe and accessible rights of way.

Here we've got some metrics on how much litter and garbage was collected in 2021, how many hypodermic needles were collected.

This program is making significant progress.

Next slide.

Uh, more examples of work, uh, before and after pictures are very compelling.

And, uh, these are pictures of, uh, street rights of way and sidewalks.

And, uh, there's some, uh, before and after work in parks, uh, really with the goal just to help the, just to help the entire city look cleaner, uh, over the last two years.

So, uh, this has been a very successful program.

Next slide.

Here, more successful work, I believe this photo is the sixth in Massachusetts site, I think, that really shows the before, the during, and the after.

And this is one of those programs where I think the taxpayer is getting a huge bang for the buck.

With the shelter in place direction set forth during COVID, COVID-19 trash and debris within encampments was increasing across the city.

The city's contractors, SVU contractors, collect materials outside of encampments.

Clean City Surge funding supports specially trained city staff, field coordinators, and their teams operating with encampments to work with campers to address trash collection and removal and unwanted materials.

Think about the Clean Cities Initiative as a sort of concierge program for encampments where we would drop by encampments, not necessarily disturb the encampment, but clean the litter and debris each day.

In fact, we have regular routes that staff go around and make sure this work is being done.

And on this slide, This reflects the increased litter collection routes that are part of the Clean City Program.

We're serving 18 neighborhoods throughout the city.

We are cleaning more than 3,500 block faces and these services are being provided seven days a week.

Next slide.

I kind of wanted to say something at the beginning when my PowerPoint, or rather my audio wasn't working, I wanted to initially introduce this program as part of an effort to sort of normalize the language around the Unified Care Team.

And the goal of the Unified Care Team, once again, to sort of double down on sort of opening remarks by my colleague, Michael Bailey.

This is the administration's approach to a comprehensive suite of services and programs related to solutions for our unhoused neighbors.

The intent is to create holistic unified approaches.

Examples of services include the HOPE team, which you've just previously heard about, RV removals, housing and shelter, and of course, clean cities, which we're here talking to you about today.

So that concludes our presentation.

And then last on this last slide, of course, a big hats off to the staff who are actually out there doing the work.

Thank you so much.

Is there any more presentation from the panel here?

Or are we all set for council questions?

I think we're all set.

Excellent.

Well, thank you so much for that overview.

Before I jump into it, colleagues, are there any questions?

OK, I'll get started here.

because I certainly have been following along with and appreciating the increased work that Clean City Initiative has been doing over the course of the previous couple months, given the added demand due to the situation around the COVID crisis and the amount of public trash that we've seen in a lot of parts of the city and really appreciate the difference this team has made, appreciate the intergovernmental or the interdepartmental coordination to make this an effective response.

Can we talk a little bit about how sites are identified and prioritized and what process that goes through and what ways council members and constituents might engage with the initiative if there are potential sites we want to flag for extension and how that can be incorporated as a threshold question.

I might turn that over to Idris or Lee.

Yeah.

Thank you, council member.

And I assume that you're speaking to the, we got two options where for the RV remediations where we have something called a site assessment form.

Now throughout the city, the site assessment form measures a number of areas and categories, including safety.

hazardous waste, a number of RVs that are at a location.

And each month we'll tally up the top seven locations.

And based on the highest rankings, we would then identify those areas throughout the city where we would deploy an RV remediation clean act.

So for the RV remediation approach, we use a site assessment form again that tallies up a number of categories and the type of hazards that are associated with them, the number of RVs and a few other factors.

For our community litter routes that we deployed, the 18 that Superintendent Williams spoke of, we look at the historical data.

So the data that's delivered that we take, we use crowdsourcing, for instance, from the Find and Fix it application.

And based on the historical data of where illegal dumping and litter complaints go, we then create a heat map, which then we target and drill that down into proactive litter routes, where we know historically these areas throughout the city have been most impacted by litter and illegal dumping.

So that's how we've identified the 18 routes for those.

those aspects of our proactive cleans.

However, utilizing an equity lens, we also make sure that areas that aren't highly reported that we do know have challenges with illegal dumping, trash litter and debris.

We're proactive with deploying them routes as based on an equity lens that we deploy as the city.

Council member.

Oh, go ahead.

Sorry, Superintendent, please.

I was also going to say that people can use the city's Find It Fix It app or the Customer Service Bureau contact to make reports.

Excellent.

Going back to some of the things that Idris laid out, how often are the 18 routes modified based on the equity analysis and an assessment of the heat maps?

And then depends, that depends.

And we have been in constant contact with whether it's community.

We work closely with business improvement associations and other groups.

And if we see a reduction in the amount of litter that's being collected, we would then pivot.

We would then redeploy or we would repurpose the routes in order to make sure that we're being most efficient.

and we're targeting the areas that are most impacted.

In addition to the 18 routes, we do deploy something called on-demand cleans.

So them cleans, we have a little bit more flexibility and we can be nimble.

So for instance, in North Lakeway, we know there was an increase in litter and debris along that stretch, about a couple of miles there.

So rather than create a whole new route or take away from a route, we just made the decision to say, hey, let's proactively clean along that stretch.

So it's ongoing.

We are in constant assessment and utilizing community and data to tell us where to pivot and course correct.

What's the capacity to do those on-demand cleans?

How many of those can be done in a given month or quarter?

It just depends.

I know that for the on-demand one that we've done with the North Lakeway, I'm assuming in We can chime in here, but we've probably deployed between five and eight based on the clean city surge the available funding.

So in addition to the 18. community litter routes, we can deploy them five or eight.

And additional fundings were also contributed to do something called the geo cleans.

So in addition to the RV remediation cleans, we do geo cleans, meaning that we target areas that are impacted by RVs that might not be more than five or seven, but have longstanding issues.

And we deploy about, Lee, how many of them do we deploy a month for the geo cleans?

We're around 30. Yep.

about 30 a month right now.

Wow.

So that's geographical targeted cleans council member Lewis.

Uh, going back to maybe, well, the on-demand cleans, but I think the work just generally at what point is, uh, a potential source of garbage so large, it can't be mitigated through clean cities.

To give us a particular example of something that I think is still mostly unaddressed or was partially addressed, there's a site in my district where a boat was just dumped in a completely destroyed state.

I mean, torn apart, graffiti, all the windows broken out of it, like a motorboat.

completely inoperable, clearly abandoned.

At what point is something so large that the team can't address it?

Or if there's a debris or obstruction of any kind, is the team equipped to mitigate it?

Based on our interdepartmental partnerships that you spoke to earlier, we have a lot of resources and partners that would step in, for instance, for the boat that was abandoned, which we do come across them several times a year.

We just have to work with SDOT and what we would normally do was make sure that all the permitting and everything was in place and we would shut down the road and SDOT would help bring some heavy equipment out and take that boat and put it on a trailer and then dispose of it.

I personally, since I've been doing this work for the past 10, 15 years, haven't seen an issue we couldn't resolve.

Nice.

Well, I think that boat is still out there on 15th, so let's be in touch, you know.

See, I set you up with a question.

Yeah, let me know.

No, but I just want to clarify that question because it was kind of unclear.

I was like, well, you know, not a car.

So I don't know if this is a parking enforcement thing.

So send us an email.

OK, well, thanks for clarifying about about that as a threshold matter, because I know that, you know, sometimes we run into constituent requests for some fairly large pieces of debris that need to be thrown away.

And it may take a little longer for us to address because we have to work out some of the details in the back end, like shutting down the street or getting out some of the heavy equipment, making sure that we got backhoes and the right size flatbeds to pull something like a boat out of the area.

Yeah, understood.

Appreciate that clarification.

I'm sorry, Superintendent Williamson, do you have something else to throw in there?

I was going to also say that the park department will also supplement cleaning through a program we call Jamborees, and it's where we bring together sort of the complement of our grounds maintenance crews from all over the department to ascend typically on a park.

We don't do Jamborees publicly on right-of-way, but certainly in a park where we have lots of debris to clean up or remove.

that is an ongoing approach to uh which is kind of an internal internal companion piece to clean cities.

Is there an opening superintendent Williams for um for volunteers who might want to participate in some of these activities?

You know there is a threshold of work that is suitable for volunteers that we're happy to work with volunteers on um you know, maybe on the re-vegetation side, on the litter pickup side, but a lot of the work we're talking about is probably not suitable for volunteers.

Bloodborne pathogens from hypodermic needles, and there is frequently lots of other debris that, you know, paid city staff were trained to do and have personal protective equipment.

Yeah, certainly, but it does sound like on Litter Pick and Remediate.

I would encourage the initiative to maybe work with us here at the Council on ways to, in the scope of those categories you identified around litter picks and remediation, just scope out opportunities to get people involved.

You on the Council get large volumes of people who, seeing the state of the city the way it is, want to step up and want some way to engage.

And this might be a way to the extent the program can accommodate it to rope folks in to be a part of making the city better and would just encourage an opportunity to figure out how we might do that.

I know that the Harold administration has talked about a citywide day of service potentially later in the spring.

And I think that that is being borne out, right?

what I'm sure Mayor Harrell heard on the campaign trail extensively is people desperately wanting to help.

And this seems like it could be a way we could plug people in and give them that opportunity to serve in some of our efforts.

So Council Member Herbold, you have a question.

Thank you.

I wasn't going to go into this area because I didn't think we were gonna talk about RVs, but we did.

I did, my ears perked up when I heard reference to the RV remediation program, the Geocleans, I think you're calling them.

And I know there are locations where there are RVs, where people are living them all over the city.

The council has funded a safe lot program, Those dollars have gone over to King County.

King County is about ready to issue an RFP.

We expect to see great stuff out of that RFP.

I want to just take this opportunity to say that I have, and Council Member Muscat, as a citywide council member and neighbor, have a very, very large RV encampment in the Andover neighborhood.

It has been there for three years, predates the COVID-19 emergency.

It is in a residential neighborhood.

It is not in an industrial neighborhood.

And as I think both Council Member Mosqueda and I have said, expressed many, many times, the community who lives in that area, the service providers who work in that area, community organizations are really at their wit's end in they would like some relief.

And, um, we have we had done a lot, I think, to make sure that the previous administration was aware of this location, understood why we were, um, why it was that we were suspending enforcement of the 72 hour notice.

Um, we have had meetings with members of the new administration I had a meeting in early February to follow up, sharing with the new administration a community letter from Nucor about the impacts, followed up with a meeting in February, requested that folks, I know SPU, you guys have been out there, you respond to my calls when I ask you to go out there and do a purple bag pickup ask for you to do another round with the geocleans with people in place, not requiring them to move their vehicles.

But the RV situation, I really think people need a break.

And I'm frustrated having had, under the prior administration, I think it was in April 2021, there was the conversation of, well, there was a statement that they were gonna be, that they had lifted the enforcement of the 72 hour ordinance, but then that was never implemented.

We have, I don't think we have anybody from SDOT here, but maybe we do.

We have begun enforcement of the 72 hour ordinance as it relates to clearly abandoned vehicles.

And I know that we, that the RV remediation program has, experienced very good clients in the past.

Often that was after, I know it's after a lot of engagement, but that people voluntarily, when they have operable vehicles, move their vehicles when they know there is the threat of enforcement.

I have sort of a, probably you're hearing me say I have a little bit of a different approach towards sharing public space.

when people are living in vehicles.

ask for more of an approach that is patient and works with people where they're at.

It takes time for engagement when it comes to people who are living in tents outside.

When people are living in their vehicles, I think folks should be asked to move periodically.

I just really do.

And so this is just a plea.

I don't know if there's anybody in this panel who can speak to the the future of enforcement of the 72-hour notice, or 72-hour parking law.

Again, we had a meeting in early February about precisely this issue.

I've not had any follow-up.

And again, people are pleading with me to do something in this area.

Thank you.

Council Member Herbold, go ahead.

Um, you probably have a more precise answer.

I was going to say from the park perspective, we would absolutely take this back to the unified care team for discussion.

Yeah.

And along the same lines, council member Herbert, I appreciate your insight.

And I know that we have been working diligently at this juncture.

We are posting with the artery mediation enforcement program.

We are doing the postings and We're doing something called compassionate compliance.

We're really trying to work with them to voluntarily move at this juncture.

We know that SDOT is working on the 72-hour enforcement, and there should be something soon that's coming out to provide some assistance in that area.

But to Superintendent Williams' point, we definitely would bring it back to the Unified Care Team.

And if I may just second, I want to Talk about the Adopt-A-Street program.

If we have constituents that want to volunteer and clean up around the city, the Adopt-A-Street program is thriving.

It stopped and it started back up in April, and we're just getting lots and lots of folks.

It also, the Adopt-A-Street program also helps out with people that want to paint over graffiti.

And basically, you just need to get the business owner a waiver.

If it's a private property owner, you get a waiver and we can get you the paint, we can get you the rollers.

The same as the Adopt-A-Street, we get you a bag, utensils to clean up and we'll even come pick those things up and you can again use the find and fix it app.

So there's a lot of opportunities for people to volunteer.

Jenny Frankel, our program manager, is great and just has a passion for it.

When I drive around the city, I see her out there picking up garbage all the time.

So let us know.

We'd love to have more people volunteer for that program.

Thank you.

Any other questions from colleagues for the Clean City Initiative team?

Council Member Mosqueda, you look quite pensive.

Well, it's an interesting lineup of presenters today because I feel like everybody has a role in the multiple issues that we're trying to address.

So I appreciate trying to have many departments involved in a non-governmental entity, quasi-governmental entity as well.

I just want to add to what Councilmember Herbold noted for the North Delridge area here.

I'm guessing this is similar to other areas across the city as well.

And I tried to make a comment about this earlier to Mark Jones and the RHA crew, but I will try to reiterate my point.

I am concerned that as people are getting moved out of downtown potentially or if there are sweeps in other areas of the city, individuals who are fearful of those postings or for whatever reason are either not able to get into shelter or move because of a posting.

that they're coming to ot they see folks who are un I think that that's occu of the areas that have b more vehicles and RVs.

I' tents and a lot of folks near more of those vehic is this is just wanting t that I think it also com the work of your members, right?

If you're out there sort of doing cleanup for items that are trash and they have been identified by folks in that area as part of the Purple Bad program and they're clearly being placed in an area for pickup, if there's now more folks living around that area, I think that complicates your work and thank you for taking Council Member Herbold's suggestion back because I think it is a city-wide issue.

As you see more folks potentially being affected or fearful of these sweeps going to places like where RVs and cars are parked.

I think that it is going to complicate the work of trying to create cleaner areas.

And so thank you for taking that back to the coordinated team.

This will maybe be a good example here of how we can try to get those folks into housing.

And Council Member Herbold and I also worked on the safe parking lots.

And I think that that's a really important element that has still not been stood up, the RV safe parking lots.

for places for folks to go so that there is not waste outside.

And then lastly, I would very much like to follow up with you on how it's going with finding more places for us to open up restrooms and restroom facilities.

We had funded some efforts around kind of port-a-potties if that's not the best approach to move forward and you all have different ideas of how to create more restrooms for not just folks who are unsheltered but all of us, you know, for folks going out for a run or tourists in the area or what have you.

We want people to be able to have a place to use the restroom so that's still an area of real deep concern to me that we have not seen a tremendous amount of new Hygiene facilities opened up and I know that's something that Council Member Morales also worked on last year.

So if we don't have time today, maybe a follow up at some point.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Definitely would appreciate if we could follow up offline with the hygiene Council Member Musqueda.

I know that there are a lot of work and efforts being put in and reassessing what that objective might look like and how we can move that work forward.

So I do appreciate that.

All right, thank you so much.

Do we have any other questions from council colleagues?

It does not appear that we do.

Okay, thank you so much for dropping by and giving this presentation.

I think it'd be good to just get an occasional update, maybe a quarterly update from Clean Cities.

And I appreciate having the information to share at Council Briefing every week.

from this team.

But it does seem like there's going to be continued demand in the near term for the work that you guys are doing.

So if there's ever a big change in circumstances or some big developments you want to report on, always happy to have you come to committee.

And thank you so much for making yourselves available.

Thank you for the invitation.

Yes, thank you.

Have a good day.

All right, Mr. Clerk, will you please read our last item of business into the record, which will hopefully go quite soon so we can get people out before five.

Please read it into the record.

Items four and five, appointments 02120 and 02121, the appointments of Amy Brockhouse and Pascual Contreras as members of the Board of Parks and Recreation for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Thank you so much.

And we are joined here today, I believe by both of the nominees that have been sent forward.

And I believe we still have Superintendent Williams.

Good thing we've worked all the technical difficulties out of previous presentations.

Thank you for your patience.

So Superintendent, I will turn it over to you to introduce our great appointment candidates.

All right, well, first I would like to thank them for hanging in on the call for so long.

I'll provide a brief introduction and give each new member an opportunity to kind of talk about why they want to serve.

The first is Amy Brockhouse, who's going to represent D6.

Amy is the Deputy Director for the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust.

She lives in the Greenwood neighborhood and values the importance of collaborative partnerships to help ensure long-term stewardship of our parks.

And then following Amy, we've got Pascual Contreras, who is an at-large member.

Pascual grew up in Mexico, or rather grew up Mexican-American in Central California where he found the neighborhood separate from a lack of investment and open spaces and trees.

He and his family would travel great distances to find outdoor spaces.

Pascual is currently working at the University of Washington as a project manager.

So I'll turn it over to Amy and then we'll also hear from Pascual.

Thank you, Superintendent Williams.

And thank you, Council Member Lewis and members of the council.

It's an honor to be here today.

As mentioned, I'm a Greenwood resident, District 6, and I have devoted my both personal and professional life to stewardship of public lands.

So I'm honored by the opportunity to serve on the Seattle Parks and Recreation Commission.

I think it's gonna be instructive and enlightening for me and also a really interesting process to observe and to learn.

As mentioned, I'm deputy director of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, which is the coordinating nonprofit organization working on the collaborative conservation model for the Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Area.

which encompasses the entire city of Seattle as well as running up and over Snoqualmie Pass to Ellensburg.

And we have always worked in a collaborative partnership model for conservation and outdoor recreation access, equitable access, environmental education, lots of different topics on a very specific landscape.

And I'm really looking forward to deepening my own work in Seattle as a volunteer.

So I really appreciate the opportunity and thanks so much for meeting with us today.

And sorry, Superintendent Williams, did you want us to ask questions of Amy before we move on to?

You know, we've already had a chance to talk to Amy and are really happy she is volunteering to undertake this effort.

That's great.

Yeah, thank you.

So what I would rather do is I want us to also hear from Pasquale and then ask questions to the panel.

So Pasquale, please take it away.

Thank you.

Thank you, City Council and all members remaining on this call.

I don't take too much time, but I'm grateful for this opportunity to speak with you.

I'm currently a resident of the Central District.

And as many of you have, I spent most of the pandemic utilizing the facilities owned and operated by the Parks Department.

I recognize that these were important places for not just local folks, but also regionally.

And wanted to take an opportunity to support them in any way possible.

And that's why I have put myself forward for this appointment.

I currently work for the University of Washington and capital projects, and we are tasked with maintaining and improving.

The facility is for the university on all three campuses.

I'm also a small-time, very small-time developer and investor in real estate in Seattle.

And I think that the parks department is such an important part of the neighborhoods that I work and live in.

So thank you so much for hearing from me, and I look forward to talking with you more.

Thank you so much.

And it's always great for this part of our work on the council to consider nominees for boards and commissions.

You know, Council Member Morales and I both served as members of a city commission for our service to the city council.

So it's always great to be able to bring new folks into the city family and give opportunities to serve.

So thank you both for stepping forward and thank you Superintendent Williams for being here to speak to the nominations.

Colleagues, are there any questions for either of our nominees today?

Hearing no questions, that's good.

That means that we're satisfied.

We've previewed the materials, we've heard the presentation, we've given you an opportunity to present to the committee and really look forward to working with you in this new capacity and hope to see more of you as hopefully future commissioners if the recommendations of the committee are accepted by the full council.

So with that, I would move that we recommend appointments 02120 and 02121 to the full council for confirmation of the appointments of Amy Brockhaus and Pascal Contreras.

Is there a second?

Okay, it has been seconded by Councilmember Mosqueda.

Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll on confirmation of the recommendation for the appointment?

Councilmember Herbold?

Yes.

Councilmember Juarez?

Councilmember Morales?

Yes.

Councilmember Mosqueda?

Aye.

Chair Lewis?

Yes.

Councilmember Warren?

Councilmember Warren?

hearing that, the appointments 02120 and 02121 will be considered at the next full council agenda, probably next week.

We'll check in with council member Juarez on that.

And let's go ahead and move forward to the adjournment of the meeting.

I want to thank Amy and Pasquale for coming by.

Remember that you are not required to attend the full council meeting where the recommendations are considered.

You are, of course, more than welcome to come if you so choose.

But your attendance will not be required.

So thank you so much for coming by.

Thank you.

OK.

Is there anything for the good of the order?

Hearing nothing for the good of the order, this meeting is adjourned.

We will not have another committee meeting until April.

And I look forward to seeing all of you then.