Seattle Human Services, Equitable Development, & Renter Rights Committee Special Meeting 7/29/19

Good evening, everyone.

If I could bring the meeting to order.

Thank you all for being here.

I am Council Member Shama Sawant on the Seattle City Council and Council Member for District 3, which includes where we are right now, which is the Central District.

And I wanted to thank the the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, and the Senior Pastor, Reverend Jeffrey, for generously giving us this space for a very important community issue.

And I wanted to remind everybody that this is not the first time that the church has lent their space for community events.

Our last committee meeting on renters' rights, which was chaired by me, was also in this space, and that was related to the struggle of the working class tenants at the Chateau Apartments.

many of whom we've been joined by here today.

This is a special meeting of the Seattle City Council's Human Services, Equitable Development, and Renters' Rights Committee.

The time is 6.16 p.m.

on Monday, July 29th, 2019, and we will begin the meeting now.

Council Member Juarez's office, another member of this committee, has informed us that they would not be able to make it, and Council Member Harrell's offices have told us that this meeting was on his calendar, so we might be joined by him later.

Tonight's meeting will focus on equitable development and its far more common and unfortunately far more common opposite, which is displacement and gentrification, which is the opposite of equitable development.

And there's lots of discussions about who's to blame for this.

Yes, we know that higher paid workers are moving into the neighborhood and it's a part of gentrification.

However, I think we are all gathered here today because we recognize that the prime movers of gentrification are the the way the housing and construction market works under capitalism as a whole, and the role played by wealthy developers, corporate developers, corporate property management corporations, and many of the entities who make enormous profits through the process of gentrification.

And what gentrification and displacement does is economically evicts and prices out both working families and, as our issue today will show, small businesses, especially immigrant-owned, people-of-color, women-owned, LGBTQ-owned small businesses.

Today we will be discussing with Saba Takale and Worki Wubeshet, the owners of Saba Ethiopian Cuisine, and with many community supporters who will be here.

Their business, their life's work, and a community gathering space has been economically evicted.

And I think it is important to note that we are in the Central District, which was historically the site of racist redlining, overtly racist redlining.

And we don't have that overtly racist redlining today, thanks to the struggles of many generations of activists who fought against racism.

However, we do now have a systematic process of economic redlining where working families who can't pay the rent, the sky-high rents, and small businesses that are getting evicted because of new development are getting economically evicted.

And it should be noted that Saba is facing the situation not because they were somehow unable to run a successful business, but instead because of a rapacious developer, Alchemy and Centric Partners, who purchased the property that Saba had rented for years, for 20 years, to demolish and redevelop.

As many of us know, to move to a new location is very expensive.

Because, especially for a small business, they not only need to find a new landlord, we're talking about a restaurant that needs to be remodeled, have stoves, fire suppression systems, refrigerators installed, and many other costly things in order to simply move in.

And the entire burden of finding the funds to accomplish all this is now put on the shoulders of Sabah, while the corporate developers will undoubtedly make enormous profits.

And the loss to the community is something that we cannot put a value on.

And we are going to be focusing on Sabah's issue today, but this issue is important also because we know that this repeatedly keeps happening, especially for immigrant and black and brown-owned businesses.

And we have seen this happen in the Central District.

Our community loses part of its culture and identity every time this happens.

I have no doubt that Sabah will be able to find a new location, but we believe strongly that Alchemy, the developer, needs to offer relocation assistance to make that possible.

This should be standard in our view.

It should not require us to have to mount a movement and a campaign to achieve that.

It should be the law.

Developers who are profiting from development should take the responsibility for the relocation of the working families and the small businesses they end up displacing.

Although I would say what we really want is not just relocation assistance, we want the kind of development that will allow small businesses of every origin to thrive here and for working families, regardless of income, to find affordable housing in our city because we go to work every day and we make our cities run.

We have the right to our city.

Unfortunately, at this moment, and this is why we are gathered here today, unfortunately, it is almost unheard of for big business to take responsibility for the impact that they have, the negative impacts they have on our communities.

And that is why we need to get organized.

And I'm really very, I'm gratified that we are going to be talking about this issue because it highlights how Many struggling small businesses, especially of color and other minorities, I think we need to join hands with working families, renters, and homeowners struggling to pay their property taxes because we have a lot of our interests in common.

And in fact, later in today's meeting, we will be discussing with central area churches who have had land that they would like to use to work with the city and with nonprofits to build social affordable housing on.

We oppose gentrification, but that does not mean that we want the infrastructure of our neighborhoods to stagnate and crumble.

We want thriving neighborhoods for people of all incomes.

That is what we want.

And as soon as the city invests in our parks, roads, and streetcars, big landlords and developers raise the rents and displace the residents who used to live here.

We want families and businesses of all incomes to be able to enjoy all the development that our public resources provide for, keeping in mind especially that those public resources are funded through the most regressive tax system in the entire nation, meaning the poorest among us have paid the most for the public infrastructure, and they are the first ones to get pushed out.

This is completely wrong.

It's lopsided.

So both our panels, although they will be discussing two different issues, will touch upon the same larger theme of affordability and livability in the central district and the city at large.

We're looking forward to hearing from both panels.

But before that, we have public comment, and some of you have signed for public comment.

I think we can do two minutes.

depending on how many people have signed up.

Okay, 13 people have signed up, so if we give every person two minutes, and if you all please stick to the time, then we can get to the first panel.

The first person who's, I'll call out three or four names at once, so please come and line up here so we don't waste time in transition.

The first person who signed up is Imogene Williams.

Second is Alex Zimmerman.

Third is Caleb Sanford.

And fourth is Miss Clay Method.

I'm sorry, I can't read the writing.

But if you think I've called out your names, please, please come.

Imogene Williams, please go.

A week ago, on Saturday, we had a rally for rent control, and there were 400 people.

One of the speakers said that her landlord had notified her that her rent was going to go up 130%.

Think about it.

If it's going up 100%, that means her rent is doubled.

But it's going up another 30% on top I don't remember that she told us what she's going to do, but this is impossible.

A person that works in Seattle should be able to live in Seattle without working three jobs.

What I have here is, these are signatures we collected in Othello.

I'm just going to read a few of them where they wrote why we need rent control.

to support those who cannot afford a home to have one.

Seattle for all, in order to live a healthy life.

In Seattle, I'm a Seattle youth, I need a place to live.

Seattle is expensive.

The rent is too damn high.

I'm sick of not knowing how long I can live here because my rent is always going up.

So it's clear we need to change this.

Thank you.

Sieg Heil, my brown, Nazi, socialist, alternative, fascist, with Gestapo, anti-Semite principle.

My name is Alexey Merman.

Yeah, we need to stop racism.

because racism key to everything.

But racism don't come only from white.

Racism come from brown and black too.

I give you classic example.

When we don't feel this, if we don't stop and fundamental racism, what is not matter where it come from, nothing will be changed.

Savant, Warris, Mosquito approve 11 trespasses, my for 1200 day.

Why?

Because I have different opinion about rent.

about everything.

Only because I have different opinion, they give me 11 trespasses for 1,200 day.

So absolutely not legal.

You understand?

For four year I don't come, you don't talk it.

What is she talking right now?

It's a pure BS.

And I know this because a professional business consultant and I went to Klasashen behalf of a million people.

Yeah, believe me, I'm good.

We have right now in downtown only 10,000 empty apartments.

25% empty.

For a couple of years, for a few years, I'm talking, guys, come on, we can stop this easy.

She did this, never.

Rent control, rent control, it's a nice, nice fantasy.

You know what this mean, come from what, Mars or Venus?

We can fix it, everything.

We can stop in Amazon now, today.

No taxes.

When she, for example, talk like I talk and stop in Amazon for six years, every meeting, what is a cup?

For this, they take me out because I talk about this problem.

When we stop in Amazon, stop in Amazon.

Everything will be fixed.

Every prices will go down and stabilize.

Very simple.

I should talk about this for six years?

Never.

Taxes, taxes, taxes.

Taxes don't change nothing.

Stand up, America.

We need clean this dirty chamber from this brown freaking Nazi.

My name is Mildred Clay and I'm here today.

I lived here in the state of Seattle for almost 20 years and I got sick and I went home.

My family took care of me and I came back.

When I came back in six years, it has been a tremendous change, a shameful change.

I wasn't able to even afford rent if I wanted to come back and stay in a town that I grew up in, that I foster cared in, that I worked in a community in, and you can't even afford to pay rent.

It seems that I have to go back to Atlanta, where some common sense is.

It's time out.

I'm here to say it's time out to say move over, move over, move over.

It's time to stand together.

Before Caleb goes on, I just wanted to read a few more names after him.

It's Whitney Rarick, Lawrence Petrie, Megan Murphy, David Hackney.

Okay, how is everyone doing today?

For the record, did anybody understand what that guy said?

Oh, because I didn't.

But anyway, my name is Caleb Sanford.

I attend the Goodwill Baptist Church.

I'm also a small business owner, real estate developer, and activist.

But I guess you could say I'm one of the good ones because I'm from Baton Rouge, Louisiana myself.

I don't know if you guys can hear the accent.

But I lived in Seattle, Washington, now going on three and a half years.

I come from poverty.

I come from, you know, the South, some of the places, the worst of the worst.

And then what I can tell you is that Seattle has an abundance of opportunity.

And the thing that I can understand and I've learned is that it's not that people don't want great communities or nicer homes or nicer places to live.

They just don't want to be gentrified.

They don't want to be displaced.

If I can come to anyone in this room and I say, I can build you a four bedroom island kitchen bathroom with all type of marble certain things that I don't want to get deep into, because you might not know what I'm saying, but I think people will go for that.

But long story short is, we're with the Near and My Initiative at the Goodwill Baptist Church.

We work to make sure that people of small communities and underprivileged communities do not be gentrified, displaced, where they live, and they own businesses.

Thank you.

Do you want to speak?

You're going to be on the panel.

So we have Megan Murphy next, David Hackney, please come and line up here, and then Mindy Lee.

Thanks for hosting this.

I got politically active because my grandma was a political activist and my aunt.

And I'm from a smaller town in Iowa, and I lost custody of my son because I had a feeling I was being stalked.

And I read that letter tonight, how people were going in the restaurant and banging tables to kind of bully people.

And so I've become like, I read The Color of Law, which was recommended by a librarian.

They would take neighborhoods of color back in the 50s and 60s.

they would evict people after they paid higher rates of rent, and then they would make a huge profit and then sell it based on color.

And now we're in like a meritocracy where if you can merit to be a part of this money clientelism, then you're set, but you have to have certain values.

And I don't think it's a value of a community to be fractured in such a way as this because, you know, with global warming, I imagine, like, the desert and, like, the earth is cracking and, like, society is cracking apart.

And what we need now is, like, solidarity.

We need to restore healthy relationships within the community.

So I think that this restaurant should be provided assistance with moving, just like the people at the Chateau are being provided assistance.

And I think, just like I keep telling the newspaper in Iowa, I think my son should be restored to me ASAP, because I do not have the diagnosis, and I will fight, and I will organize.

So I come here, and I equip myself with knowledge on how to organize on my own behalf, and on my own case, because I'm the only one fighting it.

But I've gathered signatures, which I've learned from these places, I only hope we can do the same to hold this neighborhood together and its gems, its cultural gems.

David, you're next.

And after David will be Mindy Lee and then Michelle Reese, if you can please line up here.

Good evening.

My name is David Hackney and I'm the legal redress chair for the Seattle King County chapter of the NAACP.

I first learned of this memorandum of understanding that the chapter signed with the developer that was evicting Saba just a week ago.

The board was never provided an opportunity to vote whether the chapter was going to be part of this.

We were never given any information on it, and I realize now we saw a press release today where now the chapter is backing out of the MOU.

This is embarrassing, and it reflects poorly on the leadership.

The organization should be involved in something like that without speaking to its board, speaking to its members, and doing the basic research to understand what you're signing before you do.

MOUs are not binding, but it is a public agreement to collaborate.

We should be collaborating with the community.

We should be collaborating with our community leaders.

We should be collaborating with SABA.

We don't need to be collaborating with the developers.

Thank you.

Let me be very clear.

I just want to be very clear.

My name is Deontay Ambron, the LGBTQ chair of the NAACP, and I'm also a member for homelessness prevention in the Wabash Church.

That was actually a part of our meeting, May 18th.

But one thing that my pastor wants to be clear for everybody that's not in this church, because everybody here is not a member, so I'll just be honest with you.

When we come here and we talk, we don't talk about this is about black and brown people being disparaged.

We don't talk about what we're doing Last week, you are no longer the legal redress if you did not say that in the email.

So since we're very clear on that, we need to make sure that we're respecting our spaces.

I don't want to talk about NAACP.

Nobody better not come up here talking about Africa Town.

Nobody better not come up here talking about what Mr. Petrie is doing, because we're all here for a reason.

This is an official Seattle City Council meeting.

No, please, please.

Please don't speak to me that way.

Please don't speak to me that way.

I don't think that tone from you is warranted.

I am the city council member running this meeting.

This is an official city council meeting.

I do not account for what people say in public comment because that is their right.

Please do not interrupt me.

I am running the meeting now.

We absolutely want to have a meeting that is centrally focused on the issue of Saba and eviction and displacement.

This is a meeting that has been organized by my committee, which is an official committee of the Seattle City Council.

As council member, I have no interest to take up any organizational issues.

That is not my goal at all.

But at the same time, I am not responsible for what people say in public comment.

What happens on the panel is my responsibility and we will make sure that the issues that are discussed on the panel are absolutely and 100% about the Sabah issue and also how we can address displacement and gentrification in the Central District.

And I think It is extremely important for us to be united in our struggle against gentrification and displacement.

There will be disagreements, but those disagreements should be handled outside of this meeting, because this meeting, as I said, is an official city council space, and we will be running it with 100% focus on the Sabah issue and the central area issue.

Hi, Mindy Lee.

I'm a member of Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action.

And no, I don't live in the Central District, but I am definitely in the process of being gentrification.

I live in Green Lake.

And every time I say that, people think, oh, rich, got a lot of money.

Not true.

I've lived there for many years.

And when I first moved in there, there was a dairy.

There were little stores that people went to every day.

Not anymore.

All of a sudden, the community's property has become very valuable, and it's being bought up by large corporations.

Bartels has gone in there.

I'm not disparaging any of the corporations, but there are people that are backed by money.

And those of us that live there, especially those of us who are older, are going to end up in a retirement home somewhere.

And that's nice.

But that's also redlining.

I don't want to go there.

I want to live where I'm at.

And it's getting too expensive.

And I believe that is what we're here to address, is to stop that going on all over the city, but especially in the central district where you guys are hit hard.

Michelle Reese?

Yes.

And after Michelle will be Asha.

Hi everyone.

So first let me take a breather because that's a whole lot of different energy up in this sanctuary.

So I think we all need to just take a moment and like really come to a peace because I think that's what a lot of us are here to get is some peace and some understanding.

So yes, there's a lot of political situations going on that's as normal.

My name is Michelle, I'm from the CD.

I'm a community care coordinator at Odessa Brown.

I work at Leschi Elementary as well.

I grew up in the CD, graduated from Garfield.

Yeah, and I'm just here, walked from Judkins Park.

My kids are at football practice in cheer right now.

There's so many ins and outs.

I see a very good community advocate here who's trying to do some pillar some different things in the community for us.

I'm coming from a black woman's point of view and I don't know anything about Saba but I do know that there has been plenty of our businesses that we started originally in this community that have been pushed away or organizations, non-profit organizations don't have spaces and places to continue to do the healing process and all this stuff that's caused everyone to have all these mental health issues, which nobody can serve those either, right?

So we have a whole big gist of everything.

And until we get all, like, even coming in here and having to deal with all that, we got to get all that together.

All these different political organizations and everything, we really got to get together.

I appreciate the invite, the public invite.

really coming from a point of I work, been working in Seattle for years, but I have to live in Redmond just because of displacement.

You know, everybody, they don't get married and have a picket fence and they don't do all that in life.

So, you know, I'm a mother of an incarcerated father.

One of my daughter's sons is no, my daughter's father is no longer alive.

So then now I'm really a single parent.

So been at my job for eight years, I work for a prestigious company, but I cannot afford to live in the city.

You look at me, I look well and all that and everything, so you get judged by that, but I can't afford to live in the city with my kids.

So that's the real issue.

And I don't know how many of these community events are happening, but it needs to be happening with people like us.

like real people that are really working and really, you know, like it's really, it's really a serious thing.

And then you have brothers that are trying to build things up for us.

And then it's always, it's always these loopholes that you have to go through to get city money, to get this, to get that, when you can clearly see what's needed.

You can clearly see we build everything up and then it gets torn down.

And then, you know, so that's where I'm coming from.

I'm coming from my kids are Seattle Public School students.

I'm coming from Odessa Brown.

I'm coming from Garfield.

I'm coming from Jutkins Park, from CD Panthers Community Nonprofit, CAY, yeah, Girl Trek.

I'm coming from all these places and spaces where we've all been pushed out and we don't, aren't able to even have a space.

Thank you.

Thank you.

After Asha, we have Sosa Nagao.

Am I saying this right?

If you think that's your name, please come.

I think it's Sagae.

Sagae?

Sagae?

Okay, please come so you can speak after her.

Go ahead, Asha.

Hello, I live on Columbia and 19th, and I moved to the Central District about six months ago after my cannabis business failed.

And I was almost homeless for a while.

And I am a product of the 1965 Immigration Act.

My parents and my uncle have small businesses in Long Island and in Michigan.

So I have seen my family do well with small businesses in the East Coast, and I studied business at University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University.

And I had a good career as a management accountant in many big cities, including New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

at NPR.

as a senior financial analyst and over the years in every city, I was in San Francisco in the early 90s when gentrification was starting in the Mission District and now Mission District is so disgusting compared to what it used to be with the small mom and pop businesses and everything.

And what I have found in all the business literature and all the city literature, I received the City of Bellevue Obama Presidential Gold Medal in 2010 for a project I did.

And I've seen how cities operate and I find that they need to be doing a lot better.

It's almost like they're not skilled enough.

It's like why do we need to be begging for our rights when we have a history as a nation?

that if you don't have property, you got nothing.

And where there is a will, there is a way.

We talk about local flavor.

Tourism is paying so much, you know, is earning a lot.

And what the hell are they doing for our local residents that provide the character, the most essential culture and character of a city?

It's about freaking time.

The city do a lot more and get a lot more educated and become global in its outlook.

And then after that, the last speaker is Reverend Harriet Walden.

Good evening.

My name is Aganago.

Actually, I'm not ready to talk much, but I'm coming to support and save Saba restaurant.

Thank you.

We have Reverend Harriet Walden, who's going to be the last speaker.

And then panelists, please make your way.

Good evening.

Good evening, my name is Reverend Walden and I'm here just to talk about gentrification, period.

I mean, we started this fight in 1992 when weed and seed came in and this community didn't stand up to help.

I mean, we knew that it was going to be, the city was going to be gentrified.

We also knew that other communities like Ballard and all the other communities would come to be part of that.

I've watched every city council, the elected city council over the last 25 years give most of the property to the developers.

I mean, yes, Latteris was a good example of that.

And now we want to stop gentrification and all of that, but if you pull up all the council members' records over the years, they all voted to give away the property.

And even with the upzoning, that will get most of the elderly people who have property in the central area and other places, they're going to lose their property because their taxes is going to go up.

So I think that we have to be really astute and hear and understand that Saba is part of this now, but we've been talking about this since 1992. You know, we took the hit for it.

We took the hit for it.

Mothers Against Police Harassment, we told the whole nation about gentrification.

We sent it down to Los Angeles to Michael Zinzin and Old Panther.

He sent it out across the nation.

And what we see is an influx of European Americans coming back to the cities that they left to the Negroes and the rats 40 years ago.

And now they're coming back with a vengeance.

And they're capitalized.

They have money.

And so I'm just here to talk about gentrification and I hope that this situation can have a good resolution.

We've lost a lot and America wants to change the narrative.

They say it's a country of immigrants, but we're the stolen ones.

We didn't come for freedom and we didn't come for safety.

We haven't known any since we've been in America.

We have to rewrite the narrative so we're not written out of history.

We need to understand what's going on.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Reverend Walden, for providing a really good starting point for our panel discussion.

I wanted to say a few things to preface and then invite the speakers.

And we're going to prioritize Ms. Gail Shannon because she has to leave early.

And then we will, of course, begin with Saba and Varki to hear their story.

And then we have many community organizers here in solidarity with them.

But first of all, I just want to echo Reverend Walden's point that the work that we will be doing and hopefully, as she said, hopefully we will be winning a resolution out of this and something bigger, not just a resolution for Saba but on the shoulders of that, win something larger.

But we should keep in mind that all the work we're doing is on the shoulders of many generations of community organizers here in the Central District and region-wide.

The fight against systematic racism, the fight against gentrification, it is not a new phenomenon.

Unfortunately for us, it has been decades long, but we are now here in, you know, we are alive on this earth, so it is our duty to take on that mantle collectively and fight.

And just to emphasize once again, We want to be united in this struggle.

Many organizations have been part of this struggle already and I want to give my respect to many of those organizations and also again restate the objective for me as a city council member conducting this committee meeting tonight on this hallowed ground.

We want to have a united message about defending Saba and also about raising larger policy proposals for how can we prevent this from happening to every business that ends up setting shop in the central district.

How can we ensure that the fabric of our community that is being torn, that process can actually be stopped and what are those citywide and regionwide policies we should be talking about.

And we have speakers here to join us in that and I have some points to make as well.

So I just wanted to emphasize that we want to have a positive discussion about the issues at hand.

And also thank in advance many of the organizations that have already played a big role on these issues, not just on the Saba question, but on the question of gentrification.

And there are some organizations here who have joined us in solidarity.

I wanted to acknowledge them.

If I don't acknowledge you, please let Jonathan Rosenblum from my office to let me know, and I will make sure we acknowledge you.

But as far as I know, I wanted to first express our gratitude from my office to the NAACP, to Africatown, to PASARA, the Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action, Mindy Hughes' book, the Tenants Union, Be Seattle, who many of their activists are here, Socialist Alternative, the Transit Riders Union.

I also wanted to acknowledge that Ms. Angela Ray from the Department of Neighborhoods has joined us here.

Thank you so much, Ms. Ray, for being here.

And we've also been joined by King County Councilmember Larry Gossett.

I think he's sitting somewhere in the back.

Thank you for being here.

And we also have a representative from Congressmember Adam Smith's office.

Yes, thank you.

We really appreciate you all joining us here.

And as I said at the beginning of this meeting, so much gratitude to the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church and the senior pastor, Reverend Jeffrey, for lending us this space.

And we want to respect that space and have a positive discussion.

So having said that, Sabah, did you want to start the discussion by talking about your experience?

Yes, sure.

And also, sorry, just for the record, just the way we do these meetings, can we go across the line, just with very brief, one-sentence introductions of everybody for the record, and then we can start, yeah.

Sure.

Hi, I'm Saba Teko.

I'm sorry.

I'm Saba Teko.

I am the daughter of Werki Wibbeshit, who's the owner of Saba Ethiopian Cuisine.

My name is Lawrence Petrie.

I'm the Central Area Chamber of Commerce president.

Wait, let's have working.

One second.

My name is Warkew Wishet.

I am the owner of Sava Restaurant.

KY King Garrett, president of Africatown Community Land Trust.

My name's Kale Shannon, grew up here in the Central District, community organizer.

Thank you all.

Go ahead.

First, I want to start by thanking the Seattle City Council, starting with Kusama and her team, Jonathan and Adam, for putting this together for us and the support they've given us this entire year.

So just this past year, as Kusama, just to piggyback on what she said earlier, my family restaurant has been open for 20 years.

Just last year, though, there was a sign that came up, and that was our introduction to what felt like a death sentence for the restaurant.

Okay, and I know you guys have seen those signs.

It says a six-story building or whatever building is going to come, okay?

So that sign was pretty scary.

And we found out it was going to be sold for $6 million.

But prior to that, a lot has been going on that we haven't shared.

And we decided not to take a passive role.

We wanted to be really active in knowing what our future was going to be.

So we tried to do some digging to find out who was going to be purchasing it, and so on and so forth.

It was a lot.

But first, I would like to say we were patient after the sign had went up.

We were hoping that someone would kind of tell us something.

In the midst of this, we haven't had communication with her landlord at the time because they had a management company in between them to not really communicate things.

So after some digging and being patient, we finally found out who was going to be purchasing it and the people that were involved.

We scheduled a meeting.

We wanted to know, hey, will we be relocated?

What's going to be happening?

To which most of it was like, well, your lease is your lease, and so on and so forth.

So just to give you a little bit of an idea of why we were evicted, our lease technically expired.

So anyways, we sat with him and after that meeting we felt like we didn't want to just let this go.

We really didn't want to not, you know, not fight for this.

And we went to the Seattle City Council and anybody that would really pretty much listen and help us fight this fight we were knowing we were going to be getting into.

Anyways, we finally met again with the with one of the developers or one of the people involved.

And even though, you know, we started a petition by this time, and even though, you know, we didn't get nothing in writing, they committed to relocating if we stopped the process of petitioning, okay?

All right, so...

Then we started this process that took about five months of finding a space and then getting a build-out cost, which was $327,000.

Now, mind you, we didn't come up with that number, they did.

This also doesn't include restaurant equipment.

This is just bare bones, an empty restaurant.

When having this conversation about who, what, where, and why, it fell on, let's just say, on deaf ears because They never funded the project, and they disappeared shortly after.

This was the end of March, okay?

In April, it ended up selling.

Then in June 16th, my mother was served an intent to evict papers.

And while we were preparing with our lawyer, we called on a meeting for them to, again, to talk about relocation and about the future.

And what transpired was they requested to meet with my mother alone.

And that was the only way they were going to meet with her.

And they also said they were happy to meet with her.

And then this happened.

So I'm going to let my mom kind of share what happened.

You can hear me, right?

Okay.

June 24, I emailed Jay, the company, the one who talked to us first.

I emailed to him because I got a court order and I want to talk to him what's going on.

And he emailed me back.

I can meet him on the 24th.

alone.

They don't want anybody to come with me.

So I say, okay.

On the 26th, July 26th, I went to their office.

There was two of them.

So I was expecting they would say, okay, we are planning this, this, this, because my neighbor, they gave him a notice and they relocate him.

That's what he said.

So I say, what's going on?

What is this court order?

And the other guy forgot his name.

I never see him.

He started screaming and just slamming the table.

And I said, oh, OK.

I will shut up because I never been treated that way as a professional miner.

So I just look at him and I said, well, what is next then?

Oh, next is because you have too much petition, too much politics, you involve with Kashima, Jonathan, and just everybody.

I say this one is all over Seattle.

The petition is not only me, it's all over Seattle because...

And how many signatures did you collect on the petition?

Yes.

Now 2,400.

Yeah.

2,400.

2,400 now.

We would have had more if we hadn't stopped.

Yeah, we have a lot of people.

So here again is Cream, and she just slapped the table again the second time.

When the second time, I just start crying.

I just, I don't know, where is my tears coming down because I never expect like this, even when I was a child, not even my age now, this age.

So I just quiet and I said, okay, what's the next step?

And he shout the third time, so he slap again the table, I'll see you at the court.

If you tell me to go to court, why I'm here, in my mind, I'm asking myself, what am I here?

You know?

I feel like if he slap the table again the first time, I really, I don't know what I'm going to do.

So I was so quiet, and he said to give her all the paper.

They gave me a bunch of paper, and they let me to leave.

That's what happened.

Now, in those documents, it just kind of went over some emails that I sent them.

Of course, some of them coming from an angry daughter.

And those they weren't too happy of.

But some of those emails came from a space of, we know a Seattle, we believe in a Seattle, a Seattle that both can merge.

Businesses can be built.

It went from business can be built and we can be together to if they're not going to help us, we're going to fight.

They didn't like that.

So they tried to put the blame on me and some of the things.

So even after that, though, even after the yelling and screaming, we try to work out our issues, would hope that they would stop the eviction.

They didn't stop.

In fact, they sped up the process, lied in court, still cashed the check and caused her, you know, all of us to pretty much make a quick decision to throw away good, expensive food and and just move out.

And in the process of the nine days when really all we really had was the weekend.

And even when we requested more time, they took their sweet time to a point where If they were going to get back to us, we would only have a day to move.

So we just decided to go.

All right.

So we didn't have enough time.

We threw away those stuff.

That damage alone, of course, can affect a reopening.

But here we are now.

We're still calling on them to get into writing something that's legally binding to cover the cost for move.

We have a lot of support from the city council and members of the community.

And NAACP also has been trying to assist to help us with this, bridging the gap in communication now.

And, you know, again, this isn't the Seattle I know.

The Seattle I know, we stand up for what's right.

Seattle I know really do care about people.

Seattle I know is the people that's in this room, and we know we can make a difference, okay?

So right now, of course, if they didn't choose to buy it or they didn't choose to develop it, she would have still been there and all the money that she's invested, as we already know, well, if you don't know, there's a lot of cost that goes involved into running a restaurant.

So anyways, we're here today pretty much just to hold them accountable, for them to take responsibility for their actions, and to pay the relocation, and we need your support in that.

That's why we're here today.

Thank you so much.

Just a couple of points before our other speakers also join in and we have more of a discussion.

I wanted to acknowledge that we have Reverend Jeffrey here.

Thank you so much for being here and thank you for lending us this important space.

I just wanted to share on some of the account that Burki and Saba shared with us, I wanted to share with our community members here that my office sent a letter to Alchemy and Centric, you know, the corporation, the development corporation, in June, concerned that they had issued an eviction notice to Sabah, the business, and that we didn't think that was appropriate.

And in that letter, I urged them to immediately rescind the eviction notice and begin negotiations with Mrs. Wobuschett.

on what specific assistance they would provide to ensure the restaurant's successful location to a suitable new site in the neighborhood.

And then it was, we were completely outraged to find out that rather than have a meeting where they would have a respectful and you know, just resolution to this crisis that they had put Sabah in, the business in, that they instead used that meeting to be completely disrespectful to Mrs. Gubusheh, which is problematic on so many levels.

So I just wanted to quote a part of the letter that I sent from my office just on the 23rd of this month in response to what we heard from Sabah and Burki.

which is this, I am outraged that instead of working to resolve matters, you and your colleagues have escalated the matters and unilaterally evicted the restaurant.

This unacceptable conduct is a clear example of the systematic gentrification and displacement that is causing so much harm to the working families and small businesses who have transformed the central area into a community.

While corporations like Alchemy and Centric make exorbitant profits, our communities suffer, and your actions are being noticed in the broader community.

Community members, my council office and I are disgusted to learn from Mrs. Wobershed that you and your partner met with her not to find a resolution to the problems you have created for her small business, but instead to berate her and subject her to threats, table-banging, and others similarly.

abusive behavior.

As you have heard, as we have heard, you have treated Mrs. Wibbershed with complete disrespect, revealing your true position towards this immigrant-owned business that you're forcibly displacing.

And I think that it is important that we all, as a community, stand with Sabah against this completely unacceptable behavior, and I commend their courage for standing up for themselves.

And I think one of the main points we want to highlight today is that not only does Mrs. Bubuchet deserve a sincere apology from the developer, but we are also fighting for the full relocation cost that they are going to experience to shift to a different location.

Am I right?

So I wanted to invite our other speakers to join in, please.

You know, my name is Lawrence Petrie again.

I am the president of the Central Area Chamber of Commerce.

You know, this is a continuation of behavior treated among people of color for a long time in this community.

We continue to go through this left and right, and I apologize that you had to deal with that because that's wrong.

And, you know, one of the worst things that we can do as a community is no longer stand up for this type of inappropriate behavior.

And we did it at one time, and it was called the civil rights.

And for some reason or another, we've become so apathetic to believe that it won't happen to us.

But the nature of this is that it is.

Because we went from 90 plus percent of a community down to 12, if even that.

Being born and raised here, I can honestly tell you that I think Joaquin talks about it a lot, the root shock that many of us feel that still live in this community.

I walk my dogs, and I'm sharing this briefly because I want people to understand that this is not just affecting the businesses, it's affecting residents also.

We no longer feel as even as we belong here.

And we didn't even ask to be here.

And so, you know, I can guarantee you one thing, that that type of behavior won't be tolerated.

Not from the Central Area Chamber of Commerce.

And we will support you wholeheartedly.

We will help you.

We will do anything we can.

Because you do deserve that relocation funding.

And you should be given an apology.

Yes.

And if that apology doesn't come, then you need to let us know.

Because I think I only can speak for the chamber, but I know for myself, I will go down there and demand an apology.

Because that's not how you treat people.

So, you know, I am appalled that this type of behavior is going on.

But this isn't the first.

And that's the sad part about it.

You know, one of the things that I really just briefly want to say is that we as a community need to stand up.

We can no longer be apathetic.

We can no longer pretend as if this doesn't affect us.

Because our kids are bused in.

They don't even live here anymore.

And that's even sadder.

You know, as a local artist, I raised, I was working with some of the schools and I had the kids raise their hand and ask them, how many of you are born and raised in the central area?

And there was only two or three that could do that out of a class full.

And so, you know, again, the biggest thing that we can do is really stay informed.

You know, if you haven't read the Mueller report yet, you should.

and stay informed of what the regulations are around here.

You know, when you see those signs go up that there's something going on, we need to notify each other immediately.

Let's not be reactionary, let's take action.

Because we're always seeming to be caught on the short end of the stick.

Because now we're having to react.

And I firmly believe if we honestly look at these land uses and actually take action upon them before they happen, a lot of this could be mitigated.

And so much, I'm gonna push back just a little bit on Suwant in regards to the churches.

The churches are our last pillars.

So I would say to any church that is left in the community, do not sell.

It is not our responsibility to create affordable housing.

The churches are not responsible for affordable housing.

The city is responsible for affordable housing, and we need to demand that.

So I say again, Reverend.

Do not sell.

Just to clarify, nobody's talking about selling.

Well, we're not going to build affordable houses.

We don't want the churches to go anywhere.

And I apologize if that's not what you're saying, but I just want to say that because churches have been sold in the community.

So no disrespect to you.

No, but I'm not concerned about disrespect.

I'm concerned about accuracy.

I do not want anybody to walk out of here with the understanding that the city is talking about selling the churches.

That is not the plan.

I just want to clarify that.

That is not at all what we're talking about.

Okay, well, again, I might have misunderstood or wrote down what you said, but irregardless of that, bottom line is that the churches are our last pillars, and we need to keep these pillars.

And so I personally am requesting that we do not sell our churches, and that we hold the city responsible for creating family housing, and affordable living.

Thank you.

I just want to clarify there is no disagreement on that whatsoever.

Let's be clear.

I'm here in support and solidarity with a valued, what I would say, Africatown business in our community for many years.

I remember when the doors were open for us to host open mics in that venue many years ago.

And so just what I heard was completely, totally unacceptable, but We know from history that when the smiling face doesn't work, that's when the terrorism shows up.

And that's all I heard is what transpired was attempt to terrorize and intimidate a woman, a black woman, a mother, an elder in our community, and that's 100% totally unacceptable.

We called years ago for a moratorium on development that displaces, that's not equitable, that's not inclusive of the communities that have been here.

We spoke in January at the Design Review hearing about this project and emphatically opposing the proposed development, which is not affordable by any means, did not include any affordable.

And they then wanted to talk to us about the design and maybe we could include some artwork and this and that.

And that's not something that we were interested in entertaining.

We are not about symbol without substance.

So yes, we want our community honored in the art, but we're not gonna become museum pieces in a community where we were.

We're gonna, you know, honor the history, the journey, the blood, sweat, and tears.

that our parents and our grandparents and our great-grandparents have put into this community.

And so, yes, we want that represented in the design and the built environment.

But more than anything, we want to make sure that our community, our residents, our businesses, our organizations are present to be a part of the future of the community.

And we think that this is just another example of the ruthlessness that underlies this process.

And so we are gonna stand, continue to stand in solidarity.

And we all need to be talking and calling for the moratorium on this type of predatory development And at a policy level, we need a reparations package for what has been endured by our community in the Central District.

Because it's documented, it was even documented when HB 1918 passed in the state legislature this year, that there's been systemic public, government, and private practices that have disenfranchised and harmed the residents of this community.

So if it's documented that damages have been done, then the next step is to discuss what reparation to repair and make whole a community that has been damaged.

And lastly, I'll just say it's important that we have unity.

Because some think that, well, what's happening to them is not happening to me.

Maybe they're not working hard enough.

Maybe they're not saving their money.

Maybe they want to buy $200 sneakers.

But then it shows up at the next person's door.

So let's not wait till it's at your door, till your children are also being devoured by this system to understand that this system has not been set up and operated for the benefit of any of us.

And don't let them pit us against each other.

We must unite because the capital is very much united and very much working together.

And so us as our own human capital, We must come together and use our resources and pool our resources because we all have resources.

We all have assets and we need to put them together so that we can all be protected and build a future that includes all of us.

Seattle, you know, wants to be a world-class city, but how is it gonna be a world-class city without the communities of the world that have made this city?

And I said it before and I'll say it again.

brought some of the smartest people on this planet here to be a part of this space race where they're figuring out how to build condos and communities on the moon, on Mars.

So that means that there's enough intelligence, there's enough resources in this region to figure out how we can help communities that have been here grow and thrive in place.

Again, my name is K.L.

Shannon and I grew up in the central area.

I can't live here no more because I can't afford it, but I did grow up here.

I'm a community organizer and I've just seen so many businesses disappear.

In fact, I can't think of one black business in the Central District anymore because of what's going on with developers.

When I heard what happened to the Saba family, it really bothered me, really bothered me because I rarely do anything like this.

I don't sit up on panels.

I don't give speeches.

But when I heard how disrespected the developer, Alchemy, was to the Saba family, it bothered me so much that I felt that it was important for me to be here this evening and let them know that I'm gonna stand with you.

I'm gonna stand with you.

And I think, you know, some of, some of my colleagues up here have said, comrades have said that, that we need to demand an apology.

And I think that should be the next action, to demand an apology for the way you have disrespected these black women, you know, the elder.

That's what really bothered me, the way they disrespected the elder.

And so, you know, it's really important that, you know, we are in solidarity and that we are working together.

We really need to be like having these, someone said it earlier, having these meetings.

When this happens, when these developers come in and are, you know, buying up everything, we need to have these meetings so we can know how to support, you know, support each other.

So I just want you to know that, you know, I'm here and whatever you want to do next, you know, I will stand with you.

And I know that many others will stand with you

We cannot continue to allow this to happen.

I just want to add that I just returned from the original Africa town in Alabama.

Kansas City, and St. Louis, and was able to share because the original Africatown was established by Africans who had been kidnapped from Benin and brought here, and when they were freed, they were not able to go back home.

And they were not even given any land by those who had stolen their labor for years.

But they still pulled their resources and bought the land back from the same plantation owners and made a community, and that was the original.

Africatown in the late 1860s.

And now they're looking at the work that's happening in the Central District as a model for how they can revitalize and lift up their legacy.

And this is the same thing in St. Louis.

And so I'm saying that to say that the eyes of the country, black communities all over the country are going through the same thing.

And not just black communities working, non-high wage earning communities.

But black people are usually first, right?

And so the eyes are on Seattle.

So Seattle, you a council person, the city, the mayor, there's an opportunity to lead.

They led with weed and seed.

Reverend Walden spoke about weed and seed.

It was started in Seattle, Washington, piloted here before being taken out and spread across the country.

And we heard Brother Lawrence speak about the population.

So it's very clear who is identified as the weeds and who is identified as the seeds.

So let us raise the bar that is Seattle gonna be the leader and the solution?

or a leader in how to destroy communities.

Which is mostly what's happened so far.

So we need genuine leadership now, not leadership in the wrong direction.

And I just quickly, the other thing I wanted to add, I know Joaquin talked about the reparation part of it.

One of the first things we need to do is actually do a complete survey of what was and what is today.

So we can actually get an actual amount of actually and show measurably of exactly what's been taken out.

And I would like to throw that proposal out to the city that we would like to be able to do that survey so that we can go around and take accountability and find out exactly what we have left in our communities.

Because right now, I don't think anybody really knows.

in reference to what you were talking about, I think that that would be a great start.

So I would like to throw that proposal.

And the other one is, is we need to figure out a way for, we have a lot of development taking place here, but one thing that we haven't talked about is the ownership part of it.

You know, we talk about inclusivity, we talk about having black-owned businesses and minority-owned businesses in the community, but you're renting.

Now that's a problem for me.

How are we going to acquire wealth if I'm renting?

So I also would like to throw this back to the city in regards to how do we start a campaign in regards to creating, holding these developers in general, how do we get that conversation?

Because it doesn't do me any good to come back into the city only to pay somebody else's rent.

So if I'm going to sweat the labor and I'm going to be producing the product, then I want to be able to acquire some wealth also.

Because the developers are already getting their piece of pie with their tax breaks, you know.

And so my point is, is that we have to look at this from a different perspective and say, well, if you want me here, then I also should be able to get something out of this.

And so again, that's part of the demand process.

We can't go in there lax-a-daisy.

I know that Wykeem and them guys are working a lot of great things that are going on right now to consolidate businesses, to help black-owned businesses, minority people of color businesses.

But we need to take it even that much further because we've got to be able to look at this and say to ourselves, hey, wait a minute.

I'm not owning nothing.

Now, we used to own businesses.

But developers have knocked that out the box.

So, why can't we own?

So, again, thinking about what we can do, those are type of conversations that we need, the moratorium, those are things that we need to add to that conversation about owning.

You know, I'm tired of renting because it ain't getting me nowhere.

So, the last thing is, is the reparation.

There should be, again, I think Suwan, you did, Suwan, you did talk about this, there should be a mandatory policy that any businesses that are taken out of the community need to have that relocation fund.

We shouldn't beg for anything.

We shouldn't be begging.

You are removing us.

Therefore, you should compensate us.

And so again, again, again, We, as a community, need to stand up.

And we will be united.

We will work together.

And we will figure this one out.

Because I guarantee you, this ain't going to be the last.

And the only way we're going to stop it is to work together and to say to ourselves, enough is enough.

So I pledged to each and every one of you, and I ask each and every one of you tonight, don't just walk away from this and share the conversation with somebody else.

Talk about some of the solutions that we need to be doing, and get with one of the representatives of the community, or the city council, or whatever, and start demanding that we have these things put in place.

Because I guarantee you, 45 don't give a blank about us.

That's all I wanna say.

So I want to, again, thank everybody, especially on the panel, Kale.

Wyking, Lawrence, Kashama, and the city council, and NAACP for everybody's participation in assisting us.

And thanks to New Hope for hosting this and continually hosting stuff.

I came here last time when they were here for the Chateau, and I think that's just awesome what they're doing.

So here's our next step for, I guess you can call it, our next action step, is to organize a delegation to go to the Centric office together as a delegation and deliver a letter that will contain our community demands and support for our small businesses.

We want to immediately ask for full relocation assistance and a full apology to my mother, who sometimes can't sleep at night, quite honestly, because of this experience.

Trauma, yeah.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Thank you, everybody, for all your extremely important words, very, very important.

And we're also making notes on some of the concrete policy proposals that have come up, and I wanted to sort of go over them in a bit.

In connection with what Sabah just mentioned in terms of organizing a delegation, a community delegation, we also, in consultation with community members, we've prepared a community sign-on letter that Sasha and others from my office should have many clipboards of this.

But I just, Sasha, if you want to start circulating that, I just wanted to read the substance of that so that you know what is on it and Our appeal would be that all community members here join us in this.

The sign-on letter says, we, the Seattle community, support Saba Ethiopian cuisine on First Hill, located in Central Area.

We demand that Centric Partners, LLC, support the restaurant's immediate relocation.

We call on them to reach a just resolution to relocate the restaurant in the neighborhood.

For 20 years, Saba has been a beloved fixture in the community on 12th Avenue, serving tens of thousands of customers.

Its owner, Wurki Bubushed, has supported nonprofits, donated food, and provided gathering space where everyone is welcomed.

And I should add, I have personally been fortunate enough to experience the wonderful gathering space that Saba was.

It is personally gut-wrenching to me that that space is no longer available for us.

And so I have a strong interest, and I know the community shares this strong interest in seeing Saba up and running and making sure that you win justice from the developer.

The letter further says, we are outraged to learn that Saba was recently evicted by Centric Partners.

Throughout our community, systematic gentrification and economic eviction is displacing working families and small businesses, while corporate developers like Centric Partners and Alchemy make huge profits.

This is unacceptable.

We are united in our demand that Centric, Alchemy immediately reach a fair settlement with Saba, providing the full resources that the restaurant needs.

to relocate to a new space in the neighborhood.

So I really invite you all to sign this as community members.

But I also wanted to say, if you belong to a community organization that is also as an organization signing onto it, please make sure that you also provide that organization's name.

But if you are not a member of an organization, or if you are, but you don't know if your organization supports it yet, that's fine.

You can sign as an individual, and then be in touch with my office.

to make sure that you let us know if there are more signatures.

We want to have as much support as possible to this sign-on letter because this is going to be part of what the delegation takes to Alchemy Centric when we go very likely next week.

I just wanted to quickly summarize some of the points that came up.

So we have that on record.

First of all, yeah, and we want to move to the next item also because the community members who are going to be speaking on the panel are also waiting.

And I want to make sure we do that before everybody has to go.

I know everybody has families.

dinners and homework and everything to deal with, so we don't want to keep everyone too long, but I want to make sure we have that discussion as well.

But just to acknowledge, absolutely, as Lawrence was saying, we absolutely want our entire community to be organized in support of all our community members, including our church spaces.

And in fact, some of the points that Lawrence was making reminded me of what Ms. Michelle Reese, who spoke in public comment, said, which is that, and we are hearing from more and more, especially African American churches in the neighborhood, that the churches are still surviving somehow.

You know, they're struggling to maintain a foothold, but they're still here.

But their parishioners have been pushed out of the neighborhood and the city.

So really what we're talking about is bringing the community that built this community.

The community that built the community is actually now displaced and economically evicted.

And that is why we do need to talk about larger policy solutions for affordable housing.

I completely agree it is not, the burden should not fall on any church or any community member or organization.

It is absolutely the political and the moral responsibility of the mayor's office and the city council to provide for this and it is deeply unfortunate that I am the only council member here.

This is a council meeting and so My appeal to you all is if we want this message heard, then we need to get organized.

And I really appeal to you all to get organized with my office and with many of the organizations that I mentioned before.

And of course, I should acknowledge the Central Area Chamber of Commerce is also alongside us.

and so many of our churches and church pastors are with us.

And so we need to make sure the mayor's office and the city council understands that it is the responsibility of the mayor and the city's legislature, which is the highest elected body of our city, to solve the affordable housing and homelessness crisis.

And unfortunately, the leadership, that leadership has failed so far.

And this meeting, in our view, as all my fellow panelists have said, is a meeting to highlight that, starting with justice for Saba.

So we absolutely want to talk about not only about relocation assistance from Alchemy Centric for Saba, which is absolutely, you know, it is our starting point.

But we want to talk about a citywide policy of relocation assistance for all working families and small businesses that are displaced because corporate developers buy up your building and then they want to demolish it and put up an expensive place there.

So, I hope that we, you know, in general we have a community agreement on that topic and I just wanted to share the idea of relocation assistance to small businesses and non-profits is not a new idea.

I didn't invent it, nobody in my office invented it.

The fact is that if you look at the city, state and federal government websites, you will see that the federal government provides relocation assistance to small businesses that are displaced because of federal government's construction.

The state government provides assistance when it's a state project, and the same obligation extends to the city, and this is all enshrined in law.

So why should private corporate developers who profit so enormously from development in this city, why should they be absolved of this responsibility, right?

They should be having to pay relocation assistance.

And so coming out of this meeting, we want to pursue that question of, you know, it's a citywide policy.

Why aren't corporate developers being mandated to pay relocation assistance to small businesses?

I think that absolutely should be in the law.

The other thing that hasn't come up so far but I think is related is also the question of commercial rent control for small businesses because rents are skyrocketing not only for working families but small businesses are facing the brunt as well.

Rents are going up for commercial spaces as well.

And so we do need to expand the conversation into commercial rent control, which again would be a citywide policy.

And I wanted to also include in our conversation, we won't have too much time to talk about this, we will come back to this in September after the council break, but we, you know, as Lawrence mentioned, a very important point about community, I mean ownership, of home ownership for our black and brown community members, our low-income community members, and I wanted to point out that the question of residential rent control plays into that, because I just wanted to share an anecdote.

It's an anecdote, but I think this can be statistically proven as well.

One of our community members in the Central District, her children grew up here.

One of her sons moved to the Bay Area.

He and his wife lived there for several years.

They had rent control there.

Because of rent control, because their rents weren't skyrocketing every year, they were able, because their rents were manageable and were affordable, meaning no more than 30% of your income.

If you're paying any more right now, if you're here in the church and you're paying more than 30% of your income in rent, then just know that is not affordable.

You are in critical need of affordable housing.

That's how I would define it as an economist.

Anyway, the community member told me that her son and daughter-in-law, they had rent control in the Bay Area.

Because of that, they were able to save up And they are now, they are a community of color, they are coming back to the Central District because they were able to save up to buy a home in the Central District.

We need to unite homeowners and renters together because our interests are tied together and rent control, an actual rent control, universal rent control policy free of corporate loopholes will actually also be one of the avenues towards homeownership because you're not spending 50, 80% of your income in rent and becoming, you know, priced out of the neighborhood and, you know, far from being able to buy a house.

And we also want to extend the conversation on public banks because predatory lending specifically targets our black and brown community members.

And so we want to talk about affordable home loans as well.

So this is a larger conversation we're having.

We're not going to be able to do all of it today.

But we take all of these points under advisement, also the point that was made about a community survey about the businesses that are being lost.

I think that's a very important point, something that we need to revisit when the city council discusses the budget in September of this year.

So I really urge everyone who's here to join our People's Budget Movement as well.

And we will, so our next steps, we will be organizing a delegation to deliver a letter and the community sign on letter to Alchemy Centric next week.

And the last point I wanted to add in relation to rent control is that on September 17th, this committee will be meeting again.

Unfortunately, this probably will be at City Hall, but we will try to organize it in the community if possible.

And there we will be discussing residential rent control in much more detail, where we will be bringing forward a draft legislation and so on.

So, a lot of points to discuss.

I really appreciate all the community members who spoke in public comment and also on the panel, and we need to revisit this issue, of course, so please stay in touch with my office.

Make sure you sign up on a sign-up sheet.

Even if you didn't speak at public comment, I would really urge you to sign maybe the rent control petition there so that we can keep in touch with you and invite you to the next meeting when we will be organizing.

Because we want to make sure this is not, we're not just talking here, we want to make sure real justice is delivered to Sabah, which means real dollars of relocation assistance and a real apology to Mrs. Wubeschel.

So that is not going to be easy.

Let's be clear, it is not going to be easy.

Can I add a point of clarification?

So I think the survey wasn't just about business is being lost, but he was speaking about wealth being stolen.

Yes, absolutely.

Wealth was stolen from our community coming in.

We couldn't get loans.

There was contract selling, and we were charged more.

And now wealth is being stolen again.

People can only sell at whatever they can sell at, and someone else comes in and captures the real value of the property based on the up zone.

So we want to talk about wealth that's been stolen from our community.

Completely agree.

And in fact, we need to talk in detail so that we formulate the proposal for the study.

So just real quickly, I just want to piggyback on what she was saying about relocation being real.

Just understand this.

When I talk about earlier about some things that we didn't talk about, we took a passive role in what was going on, meaning her previous landlord tried to fight her on the lease.

So, it didn't eventually, she lost, but the point is, they don't want to keep the leases to give the, to enforce relocation.

They wanted her to be as vulnerable as she was, so that she has to fight and go public.

We do live in the days of social justice, which is important, right?

We can go to the people, we can make change.

But they do bend a broken system, so she has to be vulnerable, like a lot of small businesses that are not restarting and not, you know, they're empty in these spaces.

If you notice, all these new buildings are empty.

We watched a building be built, be empty for four years, all commercial space, right across.

What's wrong with that?

Why?

Right?

So not only is the problem of leaving people vulnerable, people are scared to sign these leases, especially with the growing rent.

It's ridiculous.

Anyways, I say that to say that relocation is real.

But they do put you in vulnerable situations that we all have to learn from.

So again, regardless of what happens, feel free to reach out to me if you have questions about how to really secure yourself and your future.

Because it's not happening a lot right now.

Small businesses that are closing aren't reopening, why?

Why?

It's because of this.

All right, thank you.

So yeah, we have lots of steps to follow up on and my office will be working on those things and we, but we are nothing without the active participation of our community members.

So I really really wanted to once again thank all the organizations that have already been in support of Saba and I came here today in solidarity with them and we will be following up with, my office will be following up with Lawrence and Viking and other organizations on what the contents of the community survey should be, but if you all are here and haven't spoken because you're not on the panel, but you have input to give on that, please let me know and we will make sure that is included and that is something that we have to, you know, the conversation will continue.

We have an event coming up.

Sorry?

There's an event coming up to follow up that's dealing with this issue.

What?

Well, a community tradition is Umoja Fest.

It's been our community for seven decades.

The parade started with the East Madison Mardi Gras.

That's next Saturday.

And then you come down to Judkins Park.

But on August 10th, we're having our second Central District Design Weekend, where we'll be discussing connecting the dots, not only between focusing on projects that Africatown has, but our regional presence.

So if we want to plan how are we going to be in the Central District, South Seattle, Renton, Tukwila, Federal Way, all the way down to Tacoma, we're dealing with these same issues.

We have to design our own plans.

What's happening is that we're victims of plans because we don't have our own plans.

We're not executing them as effectively as others are.

And so we need to come together so we're not always reacting also.

And so August 10th at Washington Hall, it'll be a full day of those activities and all community members and organizations are invited and encouraged to come and participate.

Thank you so much for sharing both the Umoja Fest and the design meeting.

Yeah, my office will be represented at both events.

And I hope community members will join in as well.

Thank you very much.

Just because of lack of time, we have to go to the next event, the next agenda item as well.

And can we have a round of applause for all the people who spoke, but especially for Saba and Ruthie.

I apologize to the panel for the second agenda item for the delay.

I know that people are passionate about the issues we are discussing, which is great.

That is what I want to see because we cannot fight these battles alone.

However, we do need to get going.

So actually, because we are so delayed, Can all the conversations please be taken outside?

Sasha, please take all the conversations outside.

Please take all the conversations outside.

I like to be very relaxed, but we have to respect their time.

So let's have very quick introductions, and then Sharon, I will let you just introduce it without any remarks from me.

Can we have one sentence introductions from everybody?

Viking has already introduced himself, but yeah.

Robert Jeffrey, pastor here, and working with Sharon to build low-income housing.

Sharon Lee, Low Income Housing Institute.

Steve Tucker, I'm with Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd.

Joe Staton with CAY.

So I just want to see, do we have a representative from the Goodwill Baptist Church?

Any representative from Goodwill Baptist Church?

OK.

Because Bishop Tyson could not be here, but he was going to send a representative.

All right.

We can get going then.

So we wanted to take this opportunity to talk about the housing needs in the central area.

And I think it's very important to note that the demographic has changed so much.

but there's actually a lot of opportunity.

There's a lot of opportunity with historic churches and non-profit organizations that currently own land in the central area.

And instead of selling this land, they could develop the land, but they will need significant resources from the public sector as well as the private sector.

So instead of redlining the community, the opposite needs to take place.

There needs to be a significant infusion of capital.

public and private sector capital and we can preserve existing housing in the central area plus build new affordable housing and mixed income housing so that residents who have been displaced can actually return.

So the black dollar day task force in conjunction with the United Black Clergy are interested in working on a plan to have 500 to 1,000 units of affordable housing, new units or preserved units, returned to the central area.

And so we brought a number of the organizations here to talk about what they see as possibility on land that they own.

Not that long ago, There was a central area fund, and the central area fund helped finance affordable housing, low-income housing.

The fund is now depleted.

But since then, there's not been a focus on resources dedicated to the central area.

I just want to say who Lehigh is.

We're Low Income Housing Institute.

We're a private nonprofit organization.

But if you go around the neighborhood, you will see some of the buildings we developed specifically to offer housing for existing residents of the central area.

So we completed Ernestine Anderson Place, which is on 20th and South Jackson.

We completed Abbey Lincoln Court.

also next door, and then we also own Columbia Court, and then we help the Goodwill Baptist Church develop three properties, Airedale Mitchell Home, Alma Gamble, Norman Mitchell Manor, and so we have the ability and expertise collectively to bring about new housing in the central area for residents, historic residents of the community.

When we leased up Abbey Lincoln Court, we made sure that there was significant marketing and outreach to central area businesses and organizations.

So 75% of the residents were African American or African or people of color, primarily African Americans.

So this is possible to move forward with land that's already under community control.

So I wanted maybe Reverend Jeffrey to talk about the opportunities here.

Thanks, Sharon.

I think that, you know, the battle is not lost.

I mean, there's a lot of land still available in the central area.

And what we have to do is be strategic as to how we develop that land.

and make sure that we develop it in a way that it brings African Americans back into the community in conjunction with what Africatown is doing.

The historical reality is that we're in this dilemma because of redlining, it's already been said, poor city planning, and the criminalization of an entire community.

But, you know, For example, I believe that this place that you're sitting in was a target of weed and seed.

This church burned down without real explanation in 95 because of our advocacy.

And they said it was an accident.

I live three blocks around.

By the time I got down here, the whole building was destroyed.

And this is a new building that we built, and this building is fireproof.

All of the bricks are concrete.

The only wood is that wood in the ceiling.

We built this building because this is a building built out of resistance and in the spirit of resistance.

And we're working now with Sharon to continue that idea that it's not over.

We have land across the street.

We have land here.

And I know it's been stated that we shouldn't build unaffordable buildings.

But one of the reasons, one of the dilemmas we have is that the bank refuses to refinance our debt in a way that is amenable to us.

Eight and a half and nine percent interest is not amenable to a church that's been in this community for almost 70 years.

That is the rate that the bank continues to give us.

We have to, as a matter of survival and as a matter of just integrity, not allow ourselves to be treated that way.

The bank continues to treat us as though we were predators and as though we were aliens, and that's not the case.

Most of our members lived in this community, built this community, and a lot of them have since left, but they left forcibly because They couldn't afford the property taxes, and the bank wouldn't give them money to redo their houses in a way that would be equitable to them.

So this is a war.

This is an economic war being waged against people of color, against black people, against black institutions, against against those of us who resist and will not go the way of the dinosaur and just leave.

So we are delighted to work with Sharon.

Our commitment is to work with other churches.

And we have letters of intent to work with us from at least five or six churches and pastors and organizations and community people.

to help develop land that already exists.

And what we need now is, somebody said that it is not our responsibility to do this, and I agree.

This church is building those townhouses on the corner primarily because of survival, because we have to dig ourselves out of a hole that we were put in against our will and against everything that we stand for.

But, you know, we have to do this.

But we're asking the city to make those units affordable for middle income people because bottom line is you can't just bring poor people back into the community.

Some people have to be coming to a middle income people who can afford a level of rent that may not be at the poverty level.

I mean, this community, existed with all kinds of people.

And it should exist again in that same way.

So we're committed and we're working with Lehigh because we believe that they have the capacity and Sharon is a great person.

And we're working with whoever we can work with to make sure this gets done.

Our church partnership with Lehigh initially to do the tiny village on Yesler.

And so this is just a continuation of that partnership.

Thank you.

Yes, and Reverend Jeffrey has a plan to develop 100 units of housing on two sites that the church owns, but that is highly contingent on resources.

Now, if we don't get the resources, we will develop our land, but we will develop it in other ways.

We're not going to be beggars at the bank.

I mean, we're not going to beg people to do what's right.

We have property.

We will either do the right thing, ask the city to do the right thing, or we're going to use the property to make sure that the people of this community and the people of this church profit.

Simple as that.

And I want.

I'm sorry, Sharon.

Can you also quickly say the numbers?

What's your estimate of how many units can be built on this property?

Well, on Reverend Jeffrey New Hope Baptist, 100 units plus possibly a early learning, child care, and a wellness center.

So it could include community facilities as well as affordable housing.

OK.

Yeah.

So it's look at the land across the street here and then next door.

Right.

And so he doesn't need to go buy new land.

He already owns it.

The church already owns it.

And then I want to introduce Steve Tucker.

He is a trustee with Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd.

And he wants to talk about some of the demographic changes he's seen in their church, as well as opportunities for housing.

All right.

Well, I'll start by saying that We have a four-year partnership working with the Low Income Housing Institute, and it's been very positive and an important part of our outreach ministry at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd.

We're located one block from the corner of 23rd and Union in the middle of Seattle Central area, and we host the first tiny house village in Seattle.

And we have definitely seen how gentrification and displacement has changed the face for our community over the years.

Best example is our annual Vacation Bible School as one of our most successful ministries.

And we used to go out and recruit 80 to 100 kids, all ages through the 70s and the 80s.

And while canvassing the neighborhood the same, and the canvassers are from the neighborhood, they know the neighborhoods, they know the valley, they know Madison, they're up on Cherry, all the way up to Jackson.

And so they know the neighborhoods and where the families were, and they're not there any longer.

So now we're down to maybe 10 or 15 kids, along with some kids from the congregation.

So after the East Union Corridor was rezoned several years ago, we continue to receive multiple offers each year to buy our property at 22nd and Union.

And to answer the gentleman before, that's never gonna happen.

And the developers, of course, are ready to build apartments and condos, displacing even more of the long-term residents.

These buildings are going up around us now, but our mission will remain the same, which is doing what we can to assist in the homeless situation we have here in Seattle area.

We hosted Nicholsville encampments twice over the early part of the decade.

Then as we began working with Lehigh to move from the tent cities to the new tiny house village, we had to explain to our congregation and the surrounding community that this new concept would be much different.

There would be no porta-potties, no scrap wood barriers facing the neighbors, and none of the drug-addicted population you see on the street.

Unfortunately, a lot of the population, as we all know, does not want or need help, but there's a lot of people that do need the help or want the help.

We would be connected, our tiny house village is connected to all utilities, including electricity, oil heaters, restrooms, showers, waste and recycle service, and even the one at Reverend Jeffrey's includes laundry, so they're even improving on that.

And we have a nice fence constructed out in front, the same as our neighbors would construct.

We explain that the population we're helping in those are those individuals and families that just need a break.

Examples, we hosted a family of five, forced to move out while the developers moved in.

They needed two houses.

There's a mother of three kids in school, and this is common, finally escaping a dangerous and abusive relationship at home.

So these are the examples of people we've come in contact with.

military veterans suffering from PTSD trying to get their life back together, unemployed parents with newborn child, and of course individual men and women looking for help and wanting our help.

Lehigh's model of caseworkers providing counseling and access to much-needed social services keep our tenants moving from tents or their cars onto the tiny house and then on to low-income apartments.

I don't have the stats for this type of movement, but the numbers are impressive, and Sherry might be able to help with some of those.

But it's a lot of movement, which is quite a bit different from the tent encampments.

So even though Good Shepherd has hosted the very first tiny home village in the Seattle area, we now hope to continue planning with Lehigh to use two of our lots.

We have four, two on Union and two on 22nd.

So we hope to use two of our lots to replace these houses with much larger low-income apartments with space for social services or nonprofit on the first floor.

We are aware of the EDI funding proposals, and we welcome the opportunity to join collective efforts of the Black Dollar Days Task Force and others to assist with the urgent need for permanent long-term housing for those members of our community experiencing homelessness.

Thank you.

Thank you, Steve.

Thank you.

And next, I wanted to introduce Joe Staten from CAYA, Central Area Youth Association.

And they also own property on close to 23rd and Jackson.

Yes.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Yes.

Good evening.

I don't know if everyone knows, but CAY has been in existence.

This is our 55th year.

Not necessarily being at this location right behind us here.

We're on 23rd between Furr and Yesler.

And we've been having our challenges over the years like everyone else, I guess.

And one of the things that I found out while being the director over here is how much it's affecting this gentrification and all this is affecting the kids.

There's 130 or so homeless kids over at Garfield that we're getting ready to start feeding out of our kitchen here at CAY because that's my school.

My dad went there and graduated in 1929 and all my whole family went there except for my mom.

And I feel it's up to me now to do something about that crisis.

That's just one of the things that we're going through here is this homelessness.

We have people coming into the community, like we were saying, a lot of the people were saying here today, buying up all the property and not doing the things that they should do with it.

I've had a couple of people come in to by our property and so forth and help us develop it, and it never happened.

And it is because of a lot of people come and do a lot of talking.

Some of it was my fault, listening.

But the property is still there.

It is still owned by CAYA, and it always will be.

And I have made sure that that will happen and that we will stay here in the community.

But it's not that easy.

You know, I'm talking, but we got to have the funds to do so.

And it's very expensive to be in the Central District now.

We're two blocks from Paul Allen's development.

And we're right in the middle of Y King's development and Paul Allen.

So we have to do something quickly because our property is, it's just sitting there, actually.

It's being in use and stuff, but we have to develop.

I've talked to Sharon recently, and we're going to try to work on something to get CAY developed and get it back in the place that it's supposed to be.

I remember when I first started at CAY, I was the gentleman who founded CAY was Booth Gardner, our past governor, and O.L.

Mitchell, who was a black man and just a wonderful guy.

And they've done a lot for all of the kids here in the community and so forth.

So I have to do something to step that up.

I'm looking at some of the developments that's going on around us.

It's, I can't even get down the street.

It's so terrible and so big and gaudy and so forth.

And I'm looking at all these houses being destroyed and stuff.

And we used to run around this neighborhood and play and have a good time.

And the whole community was African American.

And I don't know if anybody can understand how in-depth this was.

I grew up in a neighborhood where I'm going to name a few people who were in my neighborhood.

This is five blocks right up on in Madrona.

The Littles, the Hunters, Ray Henry, Mrs. Harbor, the Flores family, my family, Janet Jones Preston, Naeem, Mrs. Alonzo, Aaron Dixon, Reverend McKinney, and Delbert.

We all live within five blocks of each other, straight down 33rd.

And the Chapels and other people were in that area.

And I go by there now, and oh my goodness, I can't even recognize the area anymore.

And it's kind of sad, you know what I mean, because when we moved in those houses and so forth, they were anywhere between $10,000 and $15,000.

And I drove by there the other day, and the houses started about a million.

I saw two or $3 million houses in the same neighborhood that we grew up in.

That doesn't make any sense.

The kids ask me all the time, Mr. Joe, how can I buy a house?

You know, and it's hard to talk to a kid about buying a house when they cost $800,000.

What can you tell them?

$15,000 is not going to get them.

So there's a lot of stuff that we need to go through, and I've noticed these developers All they got to do is write a check and they don't have to put any affordable housing on the top.

That's got to stop.

Affordable housing has got to go everywhere.

They can't just write a check.

So we write a check.

We don't have to do that.

Let's go ahead and move on and $3,000 rent.

Who can pay $300?

I'm looking at some of these things.

I'm very proud of Joaquin for his accomplishments because a lot of people have moved back into the community because of his efforts.

And I know he didn't do it alone, but people couldn't afford to move back here without what he's done over on 23rd, 24th.

So I'm happy about that.

And there'll be more developments like that.

But we're going to have to help him.

You know, we can't just talk.

We just really can't.

I see a lot of talking going on, but nobody's really doing anything.

We got to get together and help each other.

So I don't have a, you know, a whole lot to say right now.

I'm kind of tired.

I've been going through a lot these last few days trying to deal with these developers.

And seriously, they're giving me a headache.

But we have our property where we want it to be.

And we have about 11 to 12,000 square feet.

It's not a whole lot, but we're trying to go out to the corner.

So we're going to have to put some affordable housing and stuff on our property.

It isn't what we do.

We're in the kid business, but that's part of being in the kid business, developing property and finding places for these families to live.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I was hoping, Y King, would you like to jump in and talk about Africatown and your efforts?

Sure.

Thank you.

I'm a product of the Central District.

I'm a product of CAY.

This is my baseball coach, Joe Staton.

And the Central District had been written off.

There was a moratorium on low-income housing in the Central District.

Now there needs to be a moratorium on predatory development.

I think that was about 20 years, that moratorium on affordable housing was here.

And the Central District had been written off, and people were basically, given up, I think.

The city was only talking about the South End and immigrant and refugee populations as it related to needing housing or services or preserving those communities.

And then Chinatown International District began to feel pressure.

And so they were recognized.

But the Central District, as a black community, have been written off.

And so it's very encouraging to hear now, after really pushing and raising the issues, that we're not dead, one.

We're still here.

And we really wanted to see our churches stay, because there was a lot, and some have gone recently, right?

And we said, well, if you develop the property and put housing there that your congregation can afford to live in, then we'll have a community.

So, to see that coming to fruition, you don't have to, we have this community, and we have new communities, and we need plans to develop both.

The total Pan-Asian community doesn't live in Chinatown International District, but that's still their cultural and economic hub.

And so, We don't all have to live in the Central District, but this is still, for almost 140 years, been the heart of black African descent people in the state of Washington, the Northwest, and so that should continue.

And one entity can't develop enough, because if you look around, you see cranes everywhere.

You see Vulcan got their cranes, this group got their cranes, this person had their crane.

So to create any type of balance, we know we need 10, 20, 100 Liberty Bank buildings.

And it's not just the Liberty Bank building as affordable housing, but the next step is definitely ownership.

But as you heard and as you know, there's a big gap between what our community has been excluded from economically as the city has grown.

If we participated equitably in the growth of the economics of the city, then yes, we would be buying $800,000 houses as well.

But because the school system has been systematically failing black children for X amount of years, 50 years, and we've been, not included in this high-growth, tech, knowledge-based economy, yeah, we are still at a working-class level.

And the city has to have places or I wouldn't say it has to have places, it should have places for everyone that needs to be here.

Because everyone is not gonna be a developer, a programmer at Amazon.

Someone has to, someone's doing security.

Someone's doing fulfillment of these boxes.

Someone's working in the coffee shop.

Someone is taking care of the children.

So where are these people gonna live?

Because they're gonna be a part of the economy.

Africatown has been about maintaining, preserving the Central District as a place where the beauty, the brilliance, and the best of the black experience and African diaspora, whether it's here in the city, but we didn't start here, we came from somewhere.

And we had greatness there that we brought here.

And we didn't start on plantations, we had greatness that we brought there.

So, and we're all over.

So we want to have our community where our Harlem Renaissance, our Motown, our Black Wall Street, our Egypt, our Timbuktu, our Afro-Brazilian, our Afro-Caribbean, all these different rich experiences can be built and inspired the development of our community.

We don't define our community based on deficit.

We define our community based on richness.

The problem is that our richness has been exploited and stolen for so often.

And so now we want to make sure that as we go forward, we're able to capture the value from our culture and our talents and our genius the same way others are, like the Seahawks, right?

Look at that team.

like Starbucks, Ethiopian coffee ceremony, a piece of African culture.

And it goes on.

We could keep going.

But that's what Africatown is about.

It's asset-based, comprehensive.

It's a big tent.

We can all be in it together.

Those of us that have been here for many generations, those who have migrated more recently and added new flavors and richness, And how do we, you know, build on that and add value, not only to each other in our community, but to the city and to the world from this place.

And so we are calling for a robust fund.

We've identified, we need at least a billion dollars over, we need two, at least two, three projects a year to keep up with the pace of what's going on.

And it needs to be grounded in the fact that our wealth has been stolen through many different policies, as we said before.

Contract selling coming in, they were stealing wealth from us.

Depressing our property values through redlining while we were here, stealing value from us, you know?

And so, paying higher rates for things.

And so, now it's time for us to have some justice.

We hear about social justice in Seattle.

We hear about shared prosperity, race and social justice initiative, equitable development.

But we have to make that real in bricks and mortars.

And we need to own the land.

We don't want to be developed for.

We can work with.

But we need to build the capacity in our own.

We're tired of being exploited by so many other people that are not.

particularly the ones that are impacted by what happens in this community.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, just one second, Reverend Jeffrey.

Among other things that you all bring up in your upcoming points, and especially Sharon, if you could, I'm hoping that coming out of this committee discussion, my office could have some guidance on what next steps we can pursue to begin bringing this to fruition.

And some of the questions I had are, Do we, you talked about how an estimated 100 units plus childcare center and something else you mentioned, wellness center potentially just on the property of Reverend Jeffrey's church.

Do we have a similar accounting for other churches and then, but also overall, Can we bring together churches, community churches that are interested in doing this project, and can we come up with an accounting of how many potential units we could build?

And then flowing from that, what kind of funds we're looking for, how do we go from there?

Okay, so Reverend Jeffrey can build about 100 affordable units on his site and Goodwill Baptist Church has some vacant land and they already own three apartment buildings and those apartment buildings could also take on more capacity because they've been up zoned.

Some of the land has been up zoned.

And some of the buildings are very, very old.

And then Good Shepherd has land that they could, I think it's like two lots, approximately two lots that they could build.

And it's directly, directly across the street from luxury housing.

They are surrounded by luxury multifamily housing.

Yes.

Then we also have Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, also has land.

I think they would need some help with zoning.

I think their zoning is very low density, but I think if you worked with Reverend Manoway, he would be interested in looking at higher density housing as well.

So, and then we also have Greater Mount Baker, right?

And they also are sitting on property right next door to the Vulcan development.

So, there are quite an, unfortunately, the church that's next to Uncle Ike's just put their property on the market for, is it 4.6 million or something?

Some huge number.

And so, they are, their property is on the market already next to Uncle Ike's on 23rd.

which is very unfortunate.

So I think if we can develop a plan for how to reverse the trend, build 1,000 units for central area historic residents of the central area, I think we can then start reversing that trend.

But I think we need targeted financing to do that.

Right now, it's not enough to say, oh, we'll do one project in the central area every five years.

That is not going to get us there.

So with your leadership, Councilwoman Sawant, maybe we can persuade the council that there ought to be significant focus because the greatest gentrification and displacement in the entire region has been the central area.

So it's deserving of extraordinary resources.

Absolutely.

Now, we do know that the mayor and the council, you're selling the Mercer megablocks, and then you're also raising additional funds.

And then also, council member Larry Gossett has resources for affordable housing as well at the county level that could be targeted to the central area and other places.

So maybe- So sorry, this would be land owned by the county?

No, no, they have transit-oriented development funds available.

Okay.

That could be targeted as well to the central area.

Okay.

So I think if we can get to the point where we have like five or six new housing efforts going up in the central area per year, then we can definitely reverse the, you know, what's gone on, reverse the trend.

And then Reverend Jeffrey wanted to announce something too.

Well, first I want to say, some of the people who've had to sell out are good friends of mine.

I mean, they didn't sell because they wanted to.

They sell because this is a very, the exploitation is just real.

I mean, a marijuana shop opened up right next door to a church where you have young people coming every Sunday morning.

And nobody said anything about it.

I mean, the exploitation and the disrespect is just palpable.

I mean, nobody wants to be disrespected like that.

And nobody wants to be treated like that.

And where is your capacity to do anything about it?

I mean, your membership can generate so many dollars, but that's not gonna help you fight the kind of development funds that are coming into a place like Uncle Ike's and the kind of tax breaks he's getting to basically terrorize you out of the community.

I mean, so I, you know, I'm not defending selling your building, I'm just saying that there are There are systemic reasons why African-Americans left their homes.

Wheat and seed was a monumental part of that, just a total land grab.

And then just the escalating property taxes and then just the disrespect that is going on in terms of institutions like Mount Calvary.

But we have, To partnership with Lehigh, we are creating, we've created what we call New Hope Development Institute, which is going to be chaired by Lanisha DeBartolaban.

She's the head of the museum, the Black Museum, and she's going to be chairing the housing project.

I just, I believe that there is a way out of this.

I think that the city needs to do its share, but I don't hold out a lot of hope.

because it seems like the city is just totally blind to what its responsibilities are as it relates to the preservation of integrity of the city planning process.

I mean, these people just, I mean, the people, many people have just been totally just ripped from their properties and they have no way to get back.

They have no way to get back.

I have a house.

If I sold my house tomorrow, I wouldn't be able to get back here.

I'd be locked out.

And that's progress, but that's also almost an insane way to move forward.

That's not happening in places necessarily like Ballard and other places where you have this unclear.

And so to some extent, but not to the way it's being done here, that there are protections being given to certain communities that are not being given.

and that weren't given to African-Americans.

And I just think it's unfair.

And so we need the help of the city to do this.

There are churches right now, I mean, the head of the black group, African-American ministers group, which has about 17, 18, 20 churches wrote a letter and they want to do this.

I mean, they want a way out.

Everybody wants a way out.

But that is fair.

And that is going to bring people back in.

Not necessarily their members, but people of color, black people who have a historical place here.

They want to bring them back.

And they want to do their part to do it.

They're ready to do it.

And they're organized to do it.

Not only the churches, but the institutions.

Like CAY and other institutions.

But, I mean, there has to be some movement.

For one, I'm not gonna beg.

These churches are sitting on gold mines.

We're creating a development corporation so we can teach them how to leverage that gold mine.

I'm not gonna beg, I'm gonna sit around and beg the city to do what it should be doing.

We're gonna ask the city, we're gonna pray that the city does what it's supposed to do before other things have to be done that none of us want to do.

But there are ways in which we can leverage our property.

And I don't apologize for those ways because I'm not gonna lose my property because I let, because I didn't do what was necessary.

Does that make sense?

And we're going to teach others to do the same.

And we're going to be building homeless villages wherever we choose to build them.

I mean, the days of us apologizing and on our hands and knees, I mean, you know, it's just, this is a responsibility of city government to do something about this problem.

This is a glaring problem.

Let's do something.

We have people lined up, churches lined up, organizations lined up.

Joaquin is doing his thing.

We need a multifaceted approach to do this.

And the city needs to get on board.

We're together.

The city needs to get his act together and get on board.

I would just like to add a point of clarification.

I'm not doing my thing.

Africatown Community Land Trust was established because there was no development entity in the Central District that had the capacity to develop, and this is where the partnerships and things of that nature came.

So one of the things that we've been doing is striving to build that development capacity into our community and that we have a land trust, which are used for long-term ownership to keep things affordable or for whatever the mission of that situation is.

And so we would hope that we would have the support in there.

I know there are many new initiatives.

We know about there's a PDA that's being formed.

what we want to do is try to concentrate our efforts as much as possible and leverage the strengths that have been existing and been being developed so that we're not always also reinventing the wheel at every turn, right?

And so how do we, you know, organize things in that manner and collaborate in that manner so that long term, When we're thinking about our future and our next generations, I represent a different generation.

The support of the previous generations is critical in terms of a viable institution, because it was in a void that we had to raise and build something from scratch, and that should be a viable institution.

embraced and look at how can we collectively strengthen that with the assets that we have in our community.

And so I just wanted to make a note of that, that it's not a personal, it's not my thing.

It's community.

I want to apologize for making that reference.

I mean, all of this is about community.

And I have utmost respect.

I don't mean to imply anything about that, except that it is an effort spearheaded by you and others.

That's all I meant to reference.

I mean, I did not in any way intend to say it's you.

I mean, because you had a packed out place up here full of community people.

And that place and the housing that you built is 95% full of African-Americans.

So I have nothing but respect, nothing but respect.

But what I'm saying is that this effort is multifaceted, has to be multifaceted, and that at some point, we're going to have to do some profit-making stuff.

Because ultimately, if people don't step up to the plate, then we have to create a level of wealth ourselves to get done what has to be done.

And I don't apologize for that.

Thank you so much to everybody who spoke on this and shed light on a very specific kind of initiative that we can take with the partnership of so many churches in our district.

And as Sharon correctly said, we don't want like a trickle of one project every five years, that is simply, this crisis is exploding around us and it is just destroying our community and displacing people in the tens of thousands.

And so this is, I would say, in fact, this is the very least that the city should be doing and signing off on this year because we need much, much more than this.

But just out of respect for everybody who's here, and also I wanted to acknowledge everybody that because this is an official council meeting, we have our audiovisual technicians from the Seattle channel, and I wanted everybody to thank them as well, because they've been here all evening.

And I do want to bring this meeting, not the issues, but the meeting to a close.

I have a technical point.

Sure.

So one of the things, and I'm sure Sharon can expound on this as an expert in the field, is that we're being told about the bond caps at the state around the 4% financing and et cetera.

So if there's a way that the fund can be used to specifically expand the bond cap with a focus on the central district.

So I would like to add that to the specific technical points.

And that can be grounded back towards, again, HB 1918, which identified and documented that there has been systematic practices and policies that have injured, disenfranchised, and harmed the African-American population that populated the Central District for many years.

And we also have Seattle Vocational Institute, which is a very important project, and we don't want a repeat of what happened at Coleman School, which is supposed to be a world-class African-American cultural museum and cultural heritage museum and cultural center that we have an anchor institution.

Right now there is no anchor institution in our community.

There's no place in this community that you can go to deal with black innovation, black economic development, black cultural development.

I mean, they made it into an event space and an art gallery, but I'm talking about an actual center where we have our media studios, we have our technology facility, we have all of this emanating from our culture.

So when I hear that, you know, we're looking to bring people from there to now be on top of our development, that doesn't sound like a good start, right?

And what we see going on with this PDA proposed and the inside behind-the-scenes non-public process to repeat and take us back after we've been making some strides, we cannot accept that.

So I want to put that on the record.

We are not gonna stand for that part of things going back to what got us here Because we got here while certain people were on the watch and on the post so that needs to be clear We are trying to put things back together so I just want to put that on the record and so that we can keep things going forward and Because we don't want to be slowed down now.

We got traction.

We got a big tent.

We got Africatown.

Everybody has a place in it.

All religions, churches, mosques, black, Hebrew, Jewish, whatever, we all can be there.

We need economic development.

We need cultural development across the board.

So I just want to put that on the record.

Thank you so much.

And I think, why can you...

I want to respond to that because I think that LaNisha is a great person.

And she was not involved in whatever happened at the museum.

It's not personal.

It's economics.

The board is the same people that have been there.

So look at the board.

That's who hires an executive director.

And that's who sets policy.

She came from Detroit.

And she's working on her PhD in this work.

I don't know.

Only thing I know is.

We want to go forward.

Only thing I know is.

We want to go forward.

That's all I know.

All I know is is that we don't want to repeat history.

Next year we'll be building low-income housing or we'll be building townhouses.

Next year after that we'll be building low-income housings or we'll be building some more townhouses.

Next year after that we'll be building low-income housing or we'll be building some more townhouses.

Once we get wealth enough then we will build our own low-income housing.

Thank you.

That's all I know.

All your points are well taken from all panelists.

It's extremely important that you all came here.

I cannot thank you all enough for speaking so frankly.

poignantly about the problems we're facing and what solutions we need.

And my office absolutely intends to follow up and we will be in touch with Sharon and then in touch with everybody through that.

But I just wanted to outline some next steps publicly before we close the meeting.

One is we will be in touch with all the organizations represented here to get, as I said, a quantitative understanding of what kind of projects we're talking about.

And Sharon, if you could sort of help spearhead that, it would be extremely valuable for us.

And I do think that there should be sort of a coalition of all of the groups.

Yes.

And sort of a council, a development council that works together with everybody so that we can have a clearinghouse to do all of this.

Yes.

And I pledge my support to work with anybody.

I mean, I'll sit down at the table with any group or anybody, but I don't want people incorporating me against my will.

I'll sit down at the table with anybody and talk about anything and do anything to solve the problem.

Absolutely.

We will need, there is no, I mean, this is actually a beginnings of a coalition and certainly the, you know, all the successful projects in the community like the Liberty Bank building, like the projects that Lehigh has been involved in, they didn't come about without community support and organized coalition building.

So we absolutely need to do that.

So in fact, in addition to, some of the quantitative information that we need to talk about what kind of funds we are looking at and, you know, also let's build a timeline, like how many units will go up at what time, you know, and how many units will we see at what, you know, a year from now, two years from now, you know, I think that will give us a solid basis to move forward.

And then one thing that is bringing that coalition together and I think Viking made an important point which is that we're not, this is not something about any specific religion so we should absolutely be doing, as a coalition that is building together, we need to start actively doing outreach to mosques and other community places of worship as well, and if they have land at their disposal, if they share in our goal, which I have no doubt that they would if they had land at their disposal, then let's include them in this conversation as well.

But let's also get the numbers right, because the city council is sort of winding down its work for now, because it will be going into a break in the last two weeks of August, and then when we come back in September, that's when we will be discussing, start the budget discussions.

And I can tell you, I mean, I've been through, you know, five of these budget discussions, and every year it's just, unless we get organized and fight for something, it is business as usual.

They're tweaking, making a few tweaks here and a few tweaks there, but it's still the same business as usual budget every year where the police department gets the biggest chunk of the resources while the question of housing and homelessness is neglected.

But I think the biggest problem that we face is there's just not, there's not going to be enough revenues.

Every year we face this problem.

And that is why I really urge everybody to join our People's Budget Movement.

And I think this project, this whole project that we're talking about, a collective project of housing units in Churchland, and other places of worship, I think we need to make that a rallying point for the people's budget movement.

Because again, I'll tell you what happens, not because I can tell the future with a crystal ball, but because I've been through this many years.

Every year, the question, if they're left to themselves, the city council and the mayor will pose this question as robbing Peter to pay Paul.

And rather than get into that kind of divide and conquer, I think what we should focus on is raising progressive revenues to fund all the projects in the central district.

And there are many other deserving projects of communities of color that have not been funded in the last several years, even though we know that they have everything ready to go.

It's ready to go, they just don't have the funds.

And so let's make sure we do outreach to other communities as well outside the central district so that together we can fight for affordable housing funding on all of these project locations.

I know the Ethiopian, the Vietnamese, and other communities also have projects ready to go, but they've just not been able to find the funds.

And the city council will keep talking about something called the Equitable Development Initiative, and that was something that was fought for by community members.

It did not exist without that, but it is, all of $5.5 million.

This is not going to give us the funds that we will need.

We are going to need to try to expand the revenues.

And so let's include that in our conversation as well when we go into September.

But my hope is that by the time we come into September, Sharon will have some of these numbers lined up and also have built a larger coalition.

The next time we meet, let's our goal be to have more people at the table who share this goal.

in the central district.

Let's do that outreach work between now and then.

And just in the interest of time and in the interest of the staff members who have been standing here, one of them has been on his feet for all this while.

Just out of respect for everybody, I want to...

I just want to...

There's two projects in the central district also that are important.

The fire station sits, which is part of the equitable development initiative, which is supposed to be transferred so we can repurpose that as an innovation hub.

And then we also...

would like to ask you to look into why our community is being excluded from equitable participation in the King County record site.

because that is a government-owned site in the Central District, which has been the African-American community, but we're being excluded from equitable participation in the redevelopment of that site, which is receiving public funds to do it.

So our public funds should not be excluding us from participation.

And then lastly, I just want to thank you again, Shama, for constantly coming and standing up and fighting with the community and raising the hard issues.

So I just wanted to make sure that that was said today.

Thank you very much and I really really appreciate the thorough manner in which everybody has participated in all the points.

Please do also follow up with my office if we don't follow up on one of those points just because we might have just overlooked it accidentally.

Just make sure you all the important points that came up, we need to follow up on those systematically.

And community members, thank you so much for being here.

I know some have already left because it's almost nine o'clock, but I really, really appreciate, especially those of you who hung around until the end.

I cannot thank you enough and really, really just incredible.

And you know what?

I like that we did this meeting in the community and it's not all stiff and boring and where and and there's a there's a political point behind this when meetings are when City Council meetings are boring it ends up excluding and disenfranchising community members because people are working so hard they're you know struggling with two jobs three jobs just to put food on the table it's the City Council's obligation that meetings are in the community and My office tries as much as we can to do this here, and we will continue to do that.

And hopefully all the discussions that we will have on this topic, we will try to do it right here if Reverend Jeffrey gives us a space.

That's great.

Let's just plan on doing that.

But please stay involved because we...

We should have one at SVI too.

We should have one at SVI, I totally agree.

Thank you for suggesting that.

But come budget time, we're going to have to build a fighting movement.

So at that time, we're going to need not just everybody who's here, but hundreds of us because there's clearly such exciting initiatives that can be funded and should be funded.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much and meeting adjourned.