Seattle City Council Human Services, Equitable Development, & Renter Rights Committee 9/11/18

Good afternoon.

This is the regularly scheduled meeting of the Human Services Equitable Development and Renters Rights Committee of the Seattle City Council.

The time is 2.02 p.m.

and I'm joined by Council President Harrell.

We have five items on today's agenda.

The first three are appointments to the Seattle Renters Commission.

And as you know, all the appointments come to the committee and then to the full council for confirmation.

Two are appointments authorized by the commission themselves, and the third is a mayoral appointee.

The Seattle Renters Commission also sent the mayor, copying the city council, a letter objecting to the appointment process, and we have copies of that letter on the table at front if people are interested in that.

But I also wanted to make it clear, though, that there's no conflict with today's appointments, but there's some background to some opinions that have been held by the Seattle Renters Commissioners.

Our next discussion will be a report from the Seattle Department of Construction Inspections on their new Renting in Seattle portal.

This is something that they have briefed our committee on earlier this year when they started working on it.

It was intended to be a one-stop place where renters and landlords can get information about the rental housing laws in this city and where renters can file a complaint.

So we have them here to go through that.

And then finally, the Human Services Department will brief the committee on their funding awards for senior centers.

But of course, we have public comment first, and Ted from my office will be reading the names, and each speaker has two minutes.

The first three are Cliff Cawthorn, followed by Alex Zimmerman, followed by Ms. Rashard.

Thank you very much, and it's great to see both of you.

And I'm here today both as a commissioner and also as a renter here in the city of Seattle.

to get right down to it.

I'm here because, as you mentioned, Council Members Sawant, myself and the other Commissioners, I'm just speaking on behalf of myself because we have a statement and I have my colleagues behind me, one of whom is going to read a statement that's a bit farther reaching.

But I'm here today because I want to urge you to take action to reappoint Commissioner Sherry Collier in a future position when it becomes available.

But mainly over the last several months, I've become a bit jaded about how far and how impactful our work will be.

And more importantly, how serious the city really takes our work and how seriously the city takes the crisis that is befalling its most vulnerable renters historically.

you know marginalized populations of which I am a member one of those populations obviously and basically throughout this entire process I have grown so much respect personally for Commissioner Collier and throughout this process both as an organizer as a professor and I'll say that I've been both astounded by her growth about the expertise and the perspective she brings to it, but more importantly, I, going forward, will not be able to take the city's so-called commitment to racial and social justice seriously if the city allows several months of dithering by the mayor in terms of reappointing one of our leaders to simply remain, fall by the wayside, and for that voice of amazing black I'm proud to be a commissioner.

I'm proud to be standing here.

I'm proud of my colleagues behind me.

But that's what we need to move forward.

That's what we need to be effective.

We need Sherry, we need the whole commission, and we need to be taken seriously and not treated with the callous indifference that many of the renters in the city of Seattle are.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Sieg Heil, my dear viewers.

My name is Alex Zimmerman, and I'm president of Stand Up America.

Yes, I want to speak about I want to speak about something that has confused me totally.

I've been renting in Seattle, and I rented in Seattle for 20 years.

We have a very unique situation.

Someone, I love you when you go about taxes.

I love you when you go about taxes, or show a box, or another.

Nice.

Pure Nazi mentality.

Yes.

But it's okay.

Yeah.

We have 25% empty apartment in downtown, and you mentioned this many times.

So why don't go for taxes?

This 25% apartment price from $5,000 to $20,000.

And how is this possible, 25% empty apartment in downtown?

How is this possible?

Who are these guys?

who keep 25 percentage apartment empty, when this come to 10 percentage, it's supposed to be business collapse, boom, 25 percentage, and you, Nazi Gestapo principal, don't want go for taxes for this 25 percentage, who charge $20,000 for apartment, but you charge something for sugar couple penny, or for bullet couple penny.

or for another couple penny.

Yes.

But you don't touch this fat cat with $20,000 landlord who rent your apartment.

Why?

Someone, you surprise me.

I know you're anti-Semite.

I know you're fascist.

I know you're a social democratic Nazi.

This is exactly who you are.

Why you don't touch taxes for this 25-percentage empty apartment?

I can help you.

I'm a business consultant.

They hired my dirty fuhrers.

Ms. Richard, followed by David Mooney, followed by Calvin Jones.

Hello, everybody.

Yes, I'm back.

I'm back because I'm black.

Anyway, I wanted to just kind of highlight what Mr. Cliff said, because we don't want nobody else to fall off the cliff.

And the reason why I'm saying that is because I was in the meeting when they were reading the judgment call for Ms. Collier.

And being as it may, I saw her picture in the medium.

She has an ad, she practices family law, and thus and such.

And I thought she was a very stately black woman, just like Serena Williams.

And they were saying that she was getting axed.

And I said, what?

I said, my first time coming.

So that's what I was yelling, trying to tell Mr. Harrell.

And then the guards come saying, get her up from out of here.

Just like they told Rosa Parks, get up from that seat, else you're going to get a number behind your name.

You're going to be arrested, OK?

So I said, what's up with this dogmatic fascism stuff going on up in here?

So I'm trying to get to the bottom of it, because I'm like them.

If they're supposed to be working together to make it a better place for people to rent, because they got slumlords out there.

They doing some real damage, especially to the disabled and the handicapped and the most vulnerable.

And Trump don't like that.

He said, take that vulnerable name out.

I don't want to hear it no more.

So I don't know.

Maybe they call them Raggedy Ann and Andy.

the homeless or whatever, houseless.

I'm just saying it's a disgrace to walk up in there and see a person that have proved herself in society and then she come up in that meeting and the commission say that we gotta write a letter, we gotta offer a rebuttal to what is happening here.

So I'm just saying, I know, cause I was there.

So, you know, like they said, you just ask me, ask me, I know I'm telling you the truth.

Next up comes David Mooney, followed by Calvin Jones, then Jessica Westgren, and then the Honorable Michael Fuller.

Hello, my name is David Mooney.

I'm a member of the Seattle Renters Commission.

I'm going to read an edited version of the letter spoken of earlier.

Dear Mayor Durkin, we, the members of the Seattle Renters Commission, write to you to express our frustration and deep disappointment with the mishandling of Commissioner Sherry Collier's appointment to the SRC.

Commissioner Collier has been a thorough, consistent, and unwavering in her leadership of this brand new commission since our inception.

As co-chair, she has helped advance our process and procedures and sharpen how the commission functions.

She has consistently been an active participant in the many discussions pertaining to the complexity of rent, housing supply, and community outreach in Seattle.

Her leadership has been integral in the development of our commission, and we find it appalling that your office has failed to recognize her skill and expertise by not renewing her appointment to the commission.

If we are expected to effectively carry out the duties of our terms, we expect the City of Seattle to respect our time and contributions.

We want to express our recognition of Commissioner Collier's contribution and the impact your office has had on providing support to our commission.

Because of this mishandling, the SRC is losing the talent and leadership of one of our most active members.

We hope your office learns from this mishandling and exhibits a stronger commitment of supporting leaders of color, being more transparent with the communication of the future.

We look forward to Commissioner Collier being with us at our October meeting.

Thank you, the Seattle Runners Commission.

Hi, my name is Calvin Jones.

I'm a member of the Seattle Renters Commission.

I'm reading a letter on behalf of our commissioner co-chair, Lori Torres.

Hello, council members.

I would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest members of the Seattle Renters Commission and a request.

As you may have heard, the Seattle Renters Commission has a presence today to both welcome new commissioners, but also inform and urge city council to rectify the mishandling of one of our strongest and most active participants Commissioner Sherry Collier.

She recently informed us of her decision to step down after a seven-month-long tireless effort to get Mayor Durkan to make a decision to renew her term as commissioner.

As co-chair of the Seattle Renters Commission, I view her decision as a result of a deprioritization of our commission and a failure to support the leadership of a black woman who has done tremendous work in ensuring the commission functions and moves forward effectively to execute the work plan we are tasked with to help create solutions to our ever-worsening housing crisis.

My request is to either join us in urging Mayor Durkan to correct this mistake and reinstate Commissioner Collier or reappoint her through a commission council appointment position.

As a commission comprised of volunteers, the time invested in this work is a reflection of how much we individually and collectively value and deeply care about renters' issues.

It is disappointing to know that Commissioner Collier's time and talent went unrecognized by Mayor Durkin.

As co-chairs of the commission, Commissioner Collier and I were tasked with helping ensure the functionality and management of new issues in between our monthly meetings, as well as setting the agenda and helping oversee and support our subgroups.

It is not a task meant for one person.

Even after our terms as co-chair come to a close, I would want to continue having Commissioner Collier as part of the commission to at least share her insights and experiences with our incoming commissioners.

Thank you.

After Jessica Westgren comes the Honorable Michael Fuller, and that's our last speaker.

Good afternoon, City Council.

My name is Jessica Westgren, and I'm taking time out of my day to speak as an individual and a renter in Seattle.

My statement is solely mine, and I'm not speaking on behalf of the Seattle Renters Commission as a whole.

First off, I'm very happy to be welcoming more commissioners to the Seattle Renters Commission.

Welcome to you all.

I'm excited to hit the ground running with you so that we can enact positive and meaningful change for the renters in our city.

But I'm not only here to welcome our new commissioners, I'm also here to express my frustration and disappointment in how the city is handling the Seattle Renters Commission.

Our commission has not even been fully staffed since our official appointment in August of 2017. How is it that we are waiting seven months to a year to have anyone appointed?

I understand bureaucracy.

I know that it can take ages to get anything done within government.

At what point are we just waiting for things to work through the normal channels of government, and at what point should we stand up and ask to be acknowledged and respected?

The legislation alone tasks us with huge amounts of important and impactful work.

We are to, one, provide information, advice, and counsel to the mayor, city council, Department of Neighborhoods, Office of Civil Rights, and other city departments concerning issues and policies affecting renters, including, but not limited to, housing, affordability, transportation access, land use, public health, safety, and economic development.

Two, monitor and enforce the effectiveness of legislation related to renters and renter protections and provide periodic advice on priorities and strategies for strengthening enforcement and effectiveness of renter protection.

How are we expected to fulfill this vital role if we cannot get appointments from Mayor Jenny Durkan or the City Council?

Our vacancies should be treated with expedience.

Displacement of our residents doesn't stop for a day.

I can assure you that I intend to do extra good work for the renters in our city.

For me, being a commissioner is not just some feel-good legislature, and currently it appears that our elected officials aren't doing the work we need.

Just making the commission doesn't mean the city can say, see, we did something to help.

You actually have to put the time behind it.

I ask to move forward with our appointments and reappointments are treated with respect and not just left to gather dust for months on end.

Thank you.

And the Honorable is our final speaker.

Yes, I'm the Honorable Michael Fuller, Sioux Heights Jewish.

I had to go to prayer last night, Bruce Harrell.

I didn't like your conduct yesterday.

So that meaning that you're in violation of 1962D conspiracy.

Conspiracy against civil rights under color of law, Bruce Harrell, carries 10 years in prison, $25,000 fine.

three years supervised release, and $100 excessive.

And that deprivation of rights under color law, Bruce Harrell, one year in prison, $206,000 fine, and three years supervised release, and $100 excessive.

You're openly violated.

Yesterday, Margaret Law, Richard Furchman, write due process equal protection of a 14th Amendment rights and procedure due process and substantive due process.

And that was a...

Extraordinary abuse, abusive moral turpitude of extraordinary circumstances, reckless misconduct, wanted misconduct, irreverence, injury, and harm to me and Margaret Lloyd Richards and Black Lives Matter.

A.L. Roy v. Byrne, 1976, and Deerfield Medical Center v. City of Deerfield Beach, 1981. Bruce Hurley.

Now, I'm very disturbed with y'all keep violating that Federal Funding Act of 2000, and openly violating that 42.22020, meaning activities incompatible with public duties, and 98.36080, Bruce Harrel's malicious harassment against Margaret Lloyd Richards, and 49.68030, Bruce Harrell, freedom from discrimination.

Martin Luther King's speech in 1967, where do we go from here?

Bruce Harrell, openly violating the Federal Immigration and Nationality Act, Title VIII U.S.C. 1324A inference.

Thanks.

If you could please wrap up, please.

My God, that's your address and your phone number.

I'm not known to this.

I'm told to this.

And that is our final speaker.

Thank you.

Our first agenda item is the group appointments to the Seattle Renters Commission.

So please, the appointees and presenters should come to the table.

And I'll read the agenda items while you make your way here.

These are agenda items one through three.

Appointments 01126, 01127, and 01128. Appointments of Lori Goff, Devin Silvernail, and Mercedes Tate Lamar as members of the Seattle Renters Commission.

If you could start with a brief round of introductions, and then you can begin the discussion.

Do you want them each to introduce themselves, or do you want me to introduce them?

It's your choice, but just for the record, everybody has to state their name and sort of just where you're coming from.

My name is Lori Goff, and I'm a preschool teacher and a lifelong renter, and I'm from Seattle.

So I am

Excited to be on this to be appointed to this Commission having rented and I live on Capitol Hill So this is incredibly important to me No problem just to for the record council member Morris has joined us If each of you can give a brief round of introductions just we require that for the record and then you can start the discussion All of you at the table should do that.

Oh, sorry.

I'm Maureen Sheena with the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.

Thanks

My name is Mercedes Tate Lamar.

I am a 27-year-old queer disabled anti-violence worker.

My background is in social work and anti-violence work.

And I was compelled to apply to be a commissioner because I care very deeply about, in particular, the Central District.

That's where I grew up.

I feel very deeply about accessibility in renting and in housing and really centering disabled, queer, and trans people of color in my work.

And so I really would love to bring that lens to this commission.

Thank you.

And I'm Devin Silvernail, also a longtime renter, also from the area.

King County, grew up in King County, and I've spent my life loving this city.

I'm really excited to be joining the other new commissioners on the Renters Commission as well.

Like Lori, I also live on Capitol Hill.

and we're neighbors too, actually.

And yeah, and I've seen over the past few years the toll that the affordability crisis has been taking on our neighbors through my own personal time as a neighbor in the city, but also through my work as founder and executive director of Be Seattle, an organization that works with renters and with houseless neighbors every day.

So we're really looking forward to having a close to full Commission Devin and Marcy are Unique in that they have been selected by the Commission themselves to To sit so it's been about a year that's taken us to get organized and do all of that But we're really looking forward to having a unique representation of Marcy and Devin, and then Lori is coming to us from the mayor's office.

So I think they all bring a unique perspective, and that's always helpful in the commission, and there's a lot of work that the commission has kind of tasked themselves to do in their work plan that we shared with you earlier this year.

So we're really looking forward to having some additional support.

Right, and all three of you, as you've stated, live in the heart of the city that is facing the brunt of the housing crisis, although it is really now region wide.

crisis.

And how long have you all lived on Capitol Hill and the Central District?

And just if you want to say a little bit about what changes you've seen.

So I am from Seattle, grew up in Mount Baker, then went to Olympia, Evergreen.

Came back, lived on Capitol Hill, the El Capitan apartments.

Moved to LA for 10 years.

I left in 96, came back in 2006. the growth on Capitol Hill was absolutely stunning.

And if I hadn't, if I didn't go back to the El Capitan apartments, if there wasn't an apartment open for me, I would not have been able to live in Seattle at all.

I'd sort of been sort of house surfing, you know, here and there.

And it's, I mean, the amount of money for a incredibly small studio apartment $1,300.

You can't live and work in Seattle.

It's out of hand.

And then I also worked with Wellspring Family Services as a preschool teacher.

Wellspring works with families experiencing homelessness and DV.

And you would see families who would get their services in Seattle and then have to take the first housing that was available and it would be, you know, all the way in Renton or in Bellevue or wherever.

And so they couldn't live in Seattle.

So their community was here and they're gone.

And it's astounding.

And by the grace of everything, there was an apartment open in El Capitan.

I honestly don't know where I would be living right now.

So it's really important to me.

And also, I used to work with homeless youth.

And the transitional beds, the amount of transitional beds that were open when I left in 96 are the exact same amount.

And that's horrific.

That's a 10-plus year period.

And I don't understand it, because we espouse to be the city that's for affordability and access.

But I don't see it.

Right.

So I want to try to help do something about that.

Fantastic.

My experience as a renter in Seattle is pretty short-lived.

I didn't start renting until about five years ago as I started graduate school.

But I was raised primarily in the Central District and the South End in Kent at some point.

But in the Central District, my family owned a restaurant on 23rd and Union.

It used to be a Philly cheesesteak restaurant.

A lot of folks know that that particular street, that intersection is pretty much just a very contentious spot in terms of racial equity and police surveillance.

And a lot of protests are there right now and have been historically.

for black men in particular being targeted around misdemeanor, just like drugs.

And so I have a lot of historical and familial roots in the Central District.

That restaurant has now moved across from Franklin.

And my uncle who owned it was shot.

And so now it's in different ownership.

But that's really where, that's sort of the root of my, of being compelled to apply.

And then also like just moving back into the city for graduate school.

And really the only way I was able to afford an apartment was to use my experience in the foster care system to apply for the MFTE program, which is like low income subsidized below market rate.

housing, and then I was living downtown at that point and couldn't afford to live in that, and so I moved to the Central District following getting my graduate degree.

And I still was eligible for the multi-family tax exemption program.

Even with a graduate degree, even working in my field and making a pretty solid salary, I'm still eligible for low-income housing.

And I'm not even making the cap.

I'm making close to the cap, but not even that.

And so it's troubling.

It's troubling.

I wonder.

And I know how it's impacting people, black and brown people in arts communities, black and brown people working in their fields in professional degrees, working in schools who can't afford to live where they work, who are commuting and that.

that has a toll on your energy and your ability to perform.

And so I'm very interested in being able to bring that to the table and talk about it and think about ways that we can talk about that and really make some solutions and act on it.

Yeah.

So, like Marcy, I grew up in the South End, too.

And Council Member Small, you asked how long we've been in our particular neighborhoods.

I've been in Capitol Hill since 2007. So, I came to Capitol Hill right when Lori was coming back home.

And I moved to Capitol Hill because that's where I spent my youth.

I would take the two-hour bus trip up to the hill because I felt at home there.

When I turned 18, that's where I wanted to live.

And as an 18-year-old going to Seattle Central, working part-time, I could still live on Capitol Hill.

Now as a 31-year-old who decided to start a non-profit, sometimes it is really difficult.

And I'm lucky that I'm living with my wife, so there is this shared responsibility this shared help, I guess, right?

And not everybody is that lucky.

And even us, I think about every time our rent is about to come and renew, I start looking.

I start looking for something new, because I actually don't know how long I'll live on Capitol Hill.

And kind of like Lori as well, I left, you know, I left to go live in what could be considered the apocalyptic future of Seattle, known as San Francisco, for four years.

And I worked as a political organizer down there, working with tenants.

And in the four years that I was gone, I actually found my old apartment on Craigslist when I moved back.

And the rent had doubled in that apartment on Capitol Hill in just four years.

And so I see my neighbors all over the place, all over, not just in Capitol Hill or in the CD, it's going all over the place.

In Kent, in Auburn, where people are being displaced now because the system is failing them.

And so that's a big part of why I wanted to be part of this too, and I'm really happy to be able to work with really really engaged people who also have a wealth of experience because together I think we can change something.

Together, you know, that system is only broken until we can fix it, right?

And so I'm hoping that we can fix it together.

Thank you for sharing your personal stories.

And I have to say, I've lived in Seattle for a much shorter time than any of you and even in that short of a time, you know, having lived on Capitol Hill and then moved to the city, you can see the massive changes that happen even in very short time, like you said, four years and the rent doubles.

One other question I had, and then of course, if council members have questions, please feel free.

But in terms of your work on the upcoming work on the Renters Commission, what kind of policies do you think the city should be pushing for to actually bring about affordability as opposed to just talking about it?

Before I answer that, I want to say I know that the commission started with like 70 ideas and then sort of whittled them down, so I kind of want to talk with the other commissioners and have a really good idea to see what they've come up with, because the last thing I want to do is throw something else in the mix that will then spiral people off, because part of doing commission work is focusing on issues that we have started with.

So I really want to look at that.

I mean, I understand that landlords and property managers and builders need to make money.

But I think we can do something, work some, figure out a way that everybody is gets paid and can sleep.

But I, you know, everybody wants rent control, lovely, affordability, yes, more capacity.

And one thing that I did run into when I was looking for was that what is considered the federal level of minimum that you reach to get renter's help is different than what is here in Seattle.

And so there's a discrepancy, and that's using the correct verbiage, but you know what I'm saying?

There's a discrepancy.

But really I need to, I really want to listen to the other commissioners and figure out, really understand what we're working on now and support that.

Anybody want to add anything to that?

I mean, I would just echo Lori as well.

I really want to hear what's on the table right now and just double down on accessibility.

That's really why I'm here.

Great.

I would say that I definitely agree with my other two new colleagues.

I would like to add, though, just as a personal citizen, the only way that I could live in San Francisco is with rent control.

It's amazing if it's done right.

I'm talking about with vacancy control as well.

right to counsel.

I think as a personal citizen, I would love to see people.

I volunteer every Tuesday morning over at the Housing Justice Project, which helps folks fighting evictions and gives them free help to do that.

And the line that you see every Tuesday is incredible.

For a free volunteer service, it would be really great to see that extended so people who are caught in a really precarious position could get that help.

But as I said before, that is my personal opinion, and I will join my colleagues and support what the council, or what the committee, the commission as a whole supports.

Thanks.

And I just wanted to also acknowledge that my office has already worked with Devin for at least a couple of years now, I think, and he's been really active on renters' rights.

B-Seattle has organized tenants' rights boot camps, and you've been active on a lot of housing justice campaigns in the city already.

And in terms of rent control, I just, as you said, we need rent control done right, and we, so vacancy control is a very important aspect of it, and I'm hoping that the commission will be discussing this.

I just wanted to mention one thing that was interesting that came up, happened yesterday or the day before, I think the New York Times published an editorial, which is a very rare thing, an editorial advocating for rent control actually.

and advocating for maintaining vacancy controlled rent control in New York City, and pointing out to vacancy decontrol as a major problem as to why rent control doesn't work, and also pointing out that vacancy decontrol is a loophole that has been grabbed by landlord lobbies, and it's not It's not something that rent control advocates want, but that's how it's been done.

But when it's done right, it can actually work.

So, you know, I thought you, the commission might find that interesting.

And we're happy to send that, the link to that also.

Council members, did you have questions or comments?

A few comments.

Gwyneth, thank you for all, for putting in your time.

I know you have bills to pay and other things, demands on your time.

So thank you.

And I know your family, I didn't put that one together until you shared your story quite well, actually.

The question that Council Member Swamp posed is so complex.

It's a tough, there's no magic bullet to the challenges that are out there.

You know, I sometimes stay away from the term rent control just because I think people misuse it or it's so off-putting.

I think this concept makes all the sense in the world.

We actually have rent control now in our, how we govern our houseboats around Lake Union.

There's an equity ordinance where we actually do regulate the rates and so I talk about regulation that I would like local control over this issue.

It's a local issue that we're contending with.

I have little interest as a council member to regulate the rates in Washington, but I think we know our mentor and know our residents and we should be able to do that better than a state legislature.

That's just where I come out on that issue.

But I commend you because you're up against strong lobbying efforts by landlord organizations, high powered finance groups that are invested in real estate here with so many landlords or organizations out there.

What I think we need are people like you, just grassroots people that are trying to do the right thing and make our city better and realize the demands on the finances of people.

So thank you for serving and I look forward to hearing your recommendations.

I appreciate your approach too because you are a member of a team and so while your own unique ideas are going to be incredibly weighty and important, You know, you're learning from others that are fighting the fight as well.

So I appreciated your approach, but look forward to supporting all three of you.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you very much.

And by the way, I did listen to most of the public comment.

I apologize.

I was on a conference call.

So I am excited because we've been watching this whole evolution of how it came to be to have a renters commission.

And I'm looking back at our last meeting, Chairwoman, where we talked about the work plan.

And the work plan is very robust, not only about rent stabilization, housing supply, protection laws, outreach strategies, but also about urban renewal, displacement, gentrification, tenant and renter's rights.

I mean, all of that, you have a lot of work.

I did hear some of the concerns from some of the people on the commission that they felt that maybe they needed more help from city council.

I'm here to let you know that We are committed.

We do want to see this happen.

We are committed to your work plan.

It looks like you're right on target for what you said, what the commission said it would deliver to us in September, the follow-up on the renter protections and work group recommendations.

And I just, just as more of a side note that not to take it personally for some of the people that gave some public comment that a lot of new commissions, no one's ever had a renter's commission in this city.

In District 5, we now know that 51% of the people there are renters and 49% are homeowners.

So a lot of these issues, and we want to thank the leadership of Councilmember Sawant, we're trying to just get on top of those issues and get organized.

And also we have a couple cases that are being challenged in the court.

So I want to echo what my council president, Harold, said as well.

We know it's a very robust commission.

We want to make sure that you're successful.

We don't put these commissions together lightly.

Obviously I would like more DeFi people on it, but that's okay.

We've got a great representative in Christina.

Christiana.

So I look forward to working with you guys and following through on your work plan and seeing what 2019 has in store for us.

So welcome.

Marie, may I ask you a question?

It's not directly related to these three because I think they're eschewing for our votes on during the committee.

But we heard a lot of testimony about Ms. Collier's appointment.

And in full disclosure, she's a dear friend of mine and known her since she began practicing law.

She's a mentor of several lawyers in an organization we belong to.

Do you have any insight there?

Because the chart says her term doesn't end until 2020. Is the chart incorrect in these materials?

The chart might be incorrect.

Her term ended, because it was a new commission, they stagger the first kind of cohort that comes through.

So half of the commissioners were on a one-year term and the other half were on a two-year term.

I see.

Her term, along with five other commissioners, was up for reappointment.

Those five had been reappointed, three by the council and two by the mayor's office, and hers was held up for a reason that's unknown to me.

Okay, so it's unknown to you, it's unknown to the commissioners, unknown to me, and probably to the chair, so that's not good.

And so what I'd like to do, and I'm sure the chair would, I assume, would also sort of get to the bottom of that, and I'll just, again, lay all my cards on the table.

It seemed like she's doing incredibly good work.

I'd expect that from her, again, having known her so many years, that I'm pretty astounded by what we heard this afternoon.

Just bottom line is she's quality.

Just be candid with you.

So we figure what's going on about that.

So, okay.

Two other points I wanted to make is that we do have two council appointed seats that are in the works right now.

I think just because of some paperwork errors that they're being delayed a little bit.

But one of them I did want to bring to your attention was our Get Engaged member from this last year is going, is hopefully going to be appointed to be a council appointed seat.

That's Calvin Jones.

He's been a huge contributor on three of the four work groups.

They're asked to be on one, and he is on three, if that's any indication of his level of effort on this commission.

So if there's any way that we can get him, as well as the other council appointee, appointed as soon as possible, I think that would be very much appreciated.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Okay, in that case, the terms for Devin Salmonell and Lori Goff are the same.

Does that matter?

Can I just read them all together?

He's not sure either.

OK, I'm going to read them all together for one vote.

So I move appointments 01126, 01127, and 01128 for a vote.

Second.

Thank you.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

OK, congratulations.

And we look forward to talking more with the Renters Commission on the specific ideas that you're coming up with.

Thank you.

And we will definitely take you up on your offer to be available.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Our next agenda item is number four, which is a discussion with the Seattle Department of Construction Inspections on the Renting in Seattle Tenant Landlord Resource Center.

Thanks.

So if we can have anybody else.

Introductions and of course, please get started with it.

Nathan Torgelson, SDCI.

Jeff Talent, SDCI.

Allie Panucci, Council of Central Staff.

You want to go forward to the third slide?

So we're here to talk about the Tenant Landlord Resource Center, and I think a lot of members of the public are surprised to learn how involved our department is in landlord-tenant issues and relationships.

We play a major role in implementing and adhering to the tenant regulations that are on board in the city, and we also oversee the city's rental registration and inspection ordinance program.

So today we want to talk about our work to date on the Resource Center.

In progress right now are infographics, central web portal that we're really excited about, central phone line, and a video.

We want to talk about the launch and then about what's in store for the future after the launch.

So I just want to thank council members for their support on the Renting in Seattle project.

This was requested and funded by the council in the 2017 and 2018 budget, so we're really delighted to be here today.

And in particular, I just want to thank Council Member Gonzalez, who sponsored the resources for the outreach, and also Council Member Johnson, who sponsored the resources for the central website that we'll talk about in a minute.

Through this support, we've been able to do enhanced outreach and education with a focus on underrepresented communities in Seattle.

We've had a lot of great cross-departmental coordination with the Office of Civil Rights, the Department of Neighborhoods, the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, the Office of Housing, and the Human Services Department.

We currently have an interim website that is up and running, but what we really want to talk to you today about is our central web portal.

that will soon go live, improved materials and resources, and also a single phone number that I think will be really helpful for the public.

Because right now, renters might have to call the Human Services Department for one resource, our department for another resource, the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs for another resource.

So if you're a renter and you have any question, you can call one number and then you get redirected.

So I'm going to turn it over to Jeff Talent, who's going to go into the details of all these features.

Thank you, Nathan.

One more thing I'll add about this overall approach that we're taking.

It was informed by work with stakeholders, community partners, specifically talking to renters, some of the community liaisons that work with Department of Neighborhoods with historically underrepresented communities like immigrants and refugees.

And so the whole approach we put together was informed by the community of renters and what they're looking for in terms of accessing resources.

And actually landlords somewhat too have been looking for a better compilation of city resources.

So for enhanced outreach, so we started getting support for this in 2017 and we did 27 events that year.

This year we're up to 28 so far.

We've got a number of planned ones.

Plus we're pretty nimble so we can show up if we learn of a community event and get somebody out there to table or do a short presentation on renters' rights.

These partnerships have been one of the most valuable things, in particular with Office for Civil Rights, since we're the two regulatory departments in the city.

We work very closely on both outreach, both to landlords and tenants, as well as compliance work.

Some specific things we're doing are quarterly landlord trainings, and those have been pretty close to sold out.

There's a lot of demand out there in the landlord community to learn about the city's laws, and we really appreciate that they're showing up, and we're glad to give them the information they need.

We've been having quarterly tenants know your rights workshops, and there's one coming up this Saturday on Queen Anne Hill.

A lot of intentional work to reach historically underrepresented communities.

So a couple of recent examples were an event with Latino and Latina renters in South Park in partnership with one of the community organizations there.

And we did that all in Spanish.

We brought along one of our Spanish-speaking staff members who could do interpretation for us and also be a subject matter expert.

And then another recent example was Somali renters in New Holly.

For a lot of these events, we're relying on Department of Neighborhoods and their help for doing interpretation when we're out speaking with communities where our staff may not speak the language.

And that's been a very helpful thing.

And then our ethnic media advertising to help get the word out about where to find city resources.

Can I ask a question about that?

That sounds like some great outreach.

Take the landlord trainings as an example.

Are those, is that the same training over and over or are they building on each other like building blocks as the year goes on.

It's been the same training enhanced as new things come along that we need to teach them about, but it's basically the same core curriculum, mainly us and Office for Civil Rights doing the discrimination and fair housing piece.

And when you're having these trainings, are you finding that there are landlords in that particular area?

Where is the training being held?

Is it here in the city hall, or is it out there in the field?

We've done it both downtown here at Bertha Landis, but we've also been taking it out to some different community locations.

Yeah, I was just sort of curious as to, was it drawing landlords in that particular geographic area or were they all coming from different areas to understand stuff?

Yeah, I think we'd say probably not a strong geographic focus.

We do an announcement through our Rio mailing list to landlords saying, hey, the next one is coming up and you can register in advance and we get people from all over the city attending those events.

Thank you.

And a lot of times we're joining existing meetings, so they have their own outreach and we add on to that agenda.

I see.

And in terms of, sorry, in terms of the tenant outreach, is it, do you reach out to communities or to communities, other communities that know that there My question is, in terms of outreach to historically underrepresented, those are a good example.

I'm assuming you're also doing outreach to indigenous communities.

I'm sure Council Member Juarez will also agree that, you know, given how much of the problem of housing unaffordability and homelessness faced by indigenous communities.

I think that community definitely should.

And also LGBTQ, I'm just wondering.

Yeah, I mean, we want to get the word out to everybody.

And so definitely indigenous communities, LGBTQ community, students and young people entering the housing market that don't know their rights, people living with disabilities, our older population, a lot of them you know, face some challenges and need some information about their rights and protections as well.

So we've got, you know, we're looking at through all these kind of directions trying to reach those communities.

I can't say we've been to everybody, each community yet, but it's certainly in our intentions.

And I mean kind of a call out if there are communities that want us to come speak, we're ready, we're available.

And I think it's best when we're working with a partner organization that already has established relationships and can help bring the people in.

So when I talk about us, we're sponsoring four quarterly tenant Know Your Rights ones.

That's us and Office for Civil Rights sponsoring them.

But most of this work we're doing is through community partners or just opportunities that we learn about and we send somebody there.

Enhanced coordination has been a big piece of this.

For people on the outside, navigating the alphabet soup of city departments is challenging, so we've had regular coordination meetings with the departments that work on landlord-tenant issues or departments with expertise in working with the community, like Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.

And then in particular, a close relationship with Office for Civil Rights.

A lot of sharing of outreach opportunities.

We very quickly learned that there's other departments out there, maybe with different messages, but talking to the same groups.

So with Department of Neighborhoods helping do some of the coordination and just building relationships ourselves, we've been out with OPCD.

And for instance, the utilities on some of their programs with, we invited them to come table at some of our landlord trainings to promote low flow toilets or other efficiency devices.

working with human services department on a review of grant funding, a report that we submitted to council a month or so ago with some ideas there.

And then we hired a renting in Seattle lead that was part of this funding package with somebody to help pick up this work up until we had that person on staff in June.

This was a lot of just bits and pieces of different people in our department pitching in to pull this all together.

So I actually went back to what you said.

I'm just going to quickly ask, when are you going to get the one phone number?

When are you getting the one number?

Jeff's going to talk about the timing for that, yeah.

OK, good.

Because then we'll be calling you too.

I'm tired of calling SDCDI, OPCD, DON when constituents call and are angry.

We're on a wild goose chase too, even though we can, I think a lot, I hope people who are watching this understand that we don't have magic wands, that we can't just make one phone call and it gets fixed.

Sometimes we find ourselves just saying, call 911. I can't drive up there and arrest that person or whatever.

But my point is, you having one number will really, really streamline issues for us to respond to constituents, particularly renters on a lot of these issues and landlords, by the way.

When we did our advanced outreach to put together this plan, that was one of the strongest voices we heard was a single place and easy to find place where tenants and landlords could reach us, so yes.

So let's see.

So things that are in development right now.

So you're going to see four main pieces, infographics, a website, a video, and a phone number.

And they're all working together to support this.

I can give you some draft copies if you'd like to see the infographics we've developed so far.

I guess you know the question on all your outreach when you go out, you're going out once a quarter.

Do you have money for a translator?

I mean, should your staff be doing that?

So we have a contract with Department of Neighborhoods community liaisons who can provide that interpretive services when we need it.

OK, because a professional translator rather than staff, particularly for legal terms and other issues, is really important.

Yeah, and we're not using legal translators.

I would say that.

I mean, we're very careful to not move into legal advice.

We can't give that anyway.

We try and refer tenants to the organizations that can provide that.

Right.

Not legal advice, but I'm sure legal terms come up.

And so to be a good translator, from my experience in court, you need someone that understands and can translate that rather than someone who just speaks Spanish colloquially who doesn't have that expertise because they're trained translators.

And it's even difficult for English speakers to get through this stuff.

So all right.

Thank you.

So we've got these infographics there.

And you're going to see a theme with these on our website that they're, I guess, essentially story based.

So they're talking about the rental experience.

And so these ones are divided into three pieces, moving in, while you're renting or being a renter and moving out.

And there's a lot of really important pieces of information that a landlord or tenant would need to know at each of those steps.

How come none of these people have faces?

I feel like I need to draw them in.

I'm sorry.

It's creepy.

I was about to say the graphics are really great.

You know you were thinking the same thing.

It's not the first time we've heard that comment.

We had a lot of struggle with faces too because sometimes faces can convey meaning or look like caricatures.

So when we had faces in there, there were a lot of reactions to them.

I forgot we're Seattle.

God forbid.

I'm just going to draw mine in.

Maybe you can paint your own picture of what you want to see there.

Anyway, our hope is accessible in plain language, easy to read, the most important information but not everything.

You know, we have materials like information for tenants which is very dense and hard to read and we just wanted to get the most important points.

These will be translated and then these plus the translated versions will become building blocks of our web portal as well.

These are good.

The web portal, I'll probably just, instead of walking, I will walk you through a couple of screenshots so you can see what it looks like maybe instead of going over this whole slide.

I think one of the main points of the web portal is, again, it's story based and it's supposed to be this integrated narrative where you don't have to know which department or which law, you just kind of follow the story and learn everything you need to know about that step in the story, whether it's laws or tips or resources.

So here are a few screenshots from the web portal, which is not live yet.

It's in development.

We've been getting good support from Seattle IT in putting this together.

Let's see if these worked.

Hey, look at that.

So the first thing you see is two main doors here for our two audiences.

And after a lot of struggling with how we write this, we decided it was best to talk to each audience separately.

I mean, they can flip back and forth if they want to see what the other audience is reading.

But it's just important to speak to both landlords and renters in a slightly different way and get them the information they needed directly.

We also know there's going to be a few things that a lot of people come in for and we wanted to make that very prominent.

So like one of the obvious ones is I'm looking for affordable housing.

And we're not going to be the affordable housing providers or the resource providers, but we'll put together a transition page where somebody can get a compilation of the affordable housing resources that we know of and then easily link to the direct service providers.

Can you give an example?

2-1-1 is the big example.

An awful lot of organizations are trying to route people through 2-1-1, and that's both a phone and web-based service.

Office of Housing has a couple of resources that they use on their websites that we'll probably link to, assuming that there's some question about how complete they are, but we're going to look those over and decide.

I can't see this.

Sorry, can I ask?

Sorry to interrupt you.

Can I ask a question on the infographics, draft infographics?

It's really quite impressive.

A lot of the existing tenants' rights are reflected in a very clear way.

This is especially great, the clarity with which the, because this is complex moving in.

Which one are you looking at, Chairwoman?

this move-in fees and deposits, just move-in fee checklist, move-in checklist rather.

Just one question I was wondering is in the repair requests, or maybe it says somewhere else that if you have egregious housing code violations and your landlord increases the rent, then that's against the law.

Is that not, I actually have not read that section yet myself, so we'll go back and take a look at that because that is an important piece that should be there.

I know it's on our web portal.

I haven't read this section yet.

Right, just something I know does too.

Another feature of the website, materials in other languages.

So we're not going to, at least at this point, we don't feel like we can translate the entire website or offer a full web experience in other languages.

But we're going to compile the materials that the different departments have and put them in one spot, the translated materials.

Plus we'll have materials like these translated sort of as an additional feature.

And then related city departments.

Some people do know which department they are looking for and they can come in and get directly to them.

And then if you were to say click on the I am a renter spot on the website, you'd come to the story-based approach that I talked about where you would see what do you need to know before you even start out?

And then are you ready to rent?

And then what do you need to know when you're moving in while you're there and moving out?

And then if you were to say click on the moving in, You'd find a short description of what you need to know, and then a lot of the key pieces of information about move-in, like limits on move-in costs, that you're entitled to installment payments, how to manage your security deposit at the beginning to help protect you when it gets refunded to you later.

other key pieces there.

So you get the body text and then the different topics.

And then if you were to click on, for instance, move-in costs, you'd get a full description of Seattle's laws and protections for move-in costs.

And there's a lot more.

If this wasn't a screenshot, you could scroll down and see the whole thing.

So that's kind of a walkthrough.

And so at each point in those renters' story, there's a couple layers underneath it with quite a bit of information.

I guess that's the one I just spoke to.

So the next big piece is the single phone line, point of entry for customers.

And everybody understands this is to make it easier for people to find us.

It's a lot easier to advertise and promote with a single phone line.

We'll do the work in helping people get to the right resources.

We're staffed with interpretation support.

So if somebody called and is a non-English speaker, we can tap into the language line and get help.

And it also helps us data tracking to know who's calling for what reasons.

And for staffing this, we're going to use the same team we use in SDCI that already handle a lot of these calls that come in, but they were going to train them and expand them to be able to serve as broader resources.

And then they'll be able to help connect people with like if they come in with a civil rights complaint to Office for Civil Rights.

Or if it covers multiple areas, make sure it gets distributed to the right departments.

So we've got some short-term staffing right now for this.

Could I ask about that?

I mean, I know that right now your staff gets so many phone calls given how many renters in Seattle have questions and concerns.

they now have an expanded portfolio of what they're going to need to deal with on the other end of those phones?

Is the staffing going to be sufficient?

We have sufficient staff for this year.

So that's our commitment for this year.

The website's not up this year, right?

So how about next year, especially since we're moving into budget and that sort of thing?

Yeah, we'll have to see what comes through in the budget process.

Yeah, I would just note, probably be easier for me to say, that with all of the additional resources and good work that the department has been doing to get the word out, as well as the additional funding that council has provided to partner organizations to do more work with tenants, I think it is quite likely that if they're successful at getting the word out that enforcement actions will potentially increase.

So I do think over the next year, keeping an eye on those calls and keeping in close contact with the SDCI will give us better information about what staffing levels are needed to really provide not just a response to when the phone is ringing, but also to any follow-up actions that are needed.

We've had a huge uptick this year, which is actually good news.

It means the word is getting out about resources that are available for tenants.

So once the single phone line comes out, as Allie mentioned, we'll have to track if those phone levels go up or if they stay the same.

We know some people will come to the website and get the information they need there.

Other people prefer to talk to a live person.

So we're going to have to monitor that carefully.

So the final piece is an introductory video to be narrated in key city languages, key languages spoken here in the city.

We made it a 30 second length so it could be something used as a PSA or in rotation perhaps on Seattle Channel or even other media outlets.

It's a very short message just mainly just to plant the seed.

We can't, we had a bunch of technical difficulties last time, so I wasn't, I didn't count on it this time.

We may be able to probably find a way to send a link to you so we can follow up with that.

But it's really just a very short message to just let people know, hey, the city can help.

And if that gets shared on social media or they see it in a PSA and they just remember, oh, I don't have a problem now, but if I do at some point, the city is one of the places I can call.

Because one of the things we learned when we were talking with community partners is a lot of people just don't even know that they can call the city.

So launch.

So we've got a lot of pieces that still need to come together here, but we're working very quickly.

We expect to have a soft, what we're calling a soft launch this fall.

So we want to get these pieces all in place and make sure they're working.

And then do a formal launch in 2019. We're worried if we go into the holiday season with a launch, our message might get lost.

So we'll use the time to work out all the bugs and then do a more formal launch where we can make a little bit bigger splash, maybe get some media attention and do some advertising at that time to let everybody know that it's up and running and available to them.

And then just thinking a little further out, another thing we put in our proposal for this landlord-tenant resource center was an update on the information for tenants packet, which is, you know, a very dense legal document right now.

And it's got information that all renters need to know, but it's kind of hard to sort through.

But where the value is, it's put in the hands of renters every time they move in.

And so it's that point where you can really get somebody to be aware that there are protections in place and where to go for resources.

So we want to update that into something, we're thinking of it more like a handbook, something that a renter will want to hang on to as a resource.

And it doesn't just have a compilation of city laws and state laws.

It also has some tips and some phone numbers where they can get resources.

And, you know, if we get really creative, maybe even an app or something like that so people can maintain it in a little bit easier way in the long run.

Are you going to be posting any of this information in public places like we see postings for, like employment discrimination?

Or is that a cost issue where you wouldn't want to have it, like, in any community organizations that have pamphlets or issues, I mean, like at the library?

community centers, where we have.

Yeah, we've done some of that with some of our other materials.

I guess we're not, we haven't thought that far along yet.

These might, some of these infographics might be the kind of materials we'd want to leave at some libraries or community centers.

Yeah, that would be helpful.

That's a good idea.

And food banks.

And that's it.

Okay.

Since we have questions throughout, I'm not sure if I have any more questions.

I just wanted to share one.

Just this afternoon, just before coming to this meeting, we got a phone call from just in terms of the excellent work that SDCI does.

We got a phone call from somebody.

They went to their elderly.

They went to their doctor with respiratory problems.

Their doctor, it turns out they have mold in their apartment.

Their doctor told them to call Shama.

So we're helping them get in touch with you.

And in the past, we've been able to.

get people in touch with you, and you send out inspectors and are able to fix people's housing problems.

So if you, if anybody watches this on Channel 21 and has mold in their apartment or that sort of thing, they should call and we'll send them your way.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'll echo Ted in the excellent work SDCA has been doing, and also Ali has done phenomenal work to help the council as well on these issues.

The fact that the tenant has mold is not great at all, but the fact that the community members maybe hopefully are knowing more than they knew before that there are resources that can help them, that's great.

Based on the number of phone calls we're getting, I think the word is starting to get out.

Good.

That's fantastic to hear.

Any other comments, questions?

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And Faith Lobson is sitting there.

She's been quiet, but she is also obviously a big part of everything.

Thank you, Eileen.

Our last item is with the Human Services Department on the Senior Center Funding Awards.

Welcome, and please start with introductions.

Alan Lee, Council Central staff.

Kathy Knight, Aging and Disability Services, Human Services Department.

Hi.

Good afternoon.

Jason Johnson, Interim Director at the Human Services Department.

Good to be with you.

Yeah, go ahead.

I don't think I got you.

Did you have another handout?

I don't think I got that.

Oh, yes, I did.

I'm sorry.

I apologize.

Here it is.

Thank you, Council Member.

Yeah, that PowerPoint came in after the agenda went up, so if anybody wants one here, it's on the table in the front.

Okay.

Got it.

All right.

Good afternoon.

Thanks for the time today.

Again, Jason and Kathy from the Human Services Departments, good to be with you, and good to bring forward and highlight some important work happening in our senior centers throughout the city.

But first, I just wanted to introduce the department quickly.

Typically, we're at this table talking about housing affordability and the city's efforts to address homelessness.

But the department works across six key focus areas that include preparing youth for success, supporting affordability, livability, addressing homelessness, promoting public health, ensuring safe communities, as well as promoting healthy aging.

We have about 350, 360 full-time staff on board managing an overall budget of $168 million.

$130 million of that goes back out to community-based organizations that support the city's most vulnerable populations.

We do this through a racial equity lens, both internally at our organization, we also require that that effort is mirrored by community-based organizations that we invest in.

We just recently announced a 1.7 million dollar investment in senior centers.

Those senior centers are really these age-friendly community hubs.

They offer a range of activities for older adults to improve health, well-being, and ensure they continue to have their independence.

There are also spaces where we can engage people of all ages in the community, and they do that by working with program staff as well as other participants to build social and civic capital.

Just last week, I was able to visit two of the senior centers with Mayor Durkin, one at the Lake City Community Center.

and one in Beacon Hill, referred to as the International Drop-In Center.

And we went to both during mealtime, so they were very lively, very engaged, diverse spaces.

And in Lake City, I was, you know, sort of noted that there was a really strong Latino population of seniors who had tables where they could have a meal, engage with each other in their own language.

So they specifically, some of the meal programming that was occurring in that space was really targeted toward a population and were offered in that population's language.

And it sounds like this is quite a draw, that people are coming from all over the city and really all over the county to be part of this congregate meal, again, so that they can sort of engage with each other and have that engagement occur in their own language.

I've been at those luncheons, and I just want to say I'm going to do this plug here.

We work really closely with Sound Generations at the Lake City Community Center, and we have seen a huge spike in feeding our elders in D5.

District 5 has the highest number of shag housing.

I think we have five buildings just in D5, so we have the most, as you know.

And we're the only district that does not have an elders or a senior center specifically dedicated.

So that's why you see the Lake City Community Center and Lake City Library and Broadview and Northgate bringing food, books and stuff to our elders.

That's when we opened up the second food bank at Bitter Lake in the Shag Building because people were taking two buses over to North Helpline to get food.

So we've seen a rise in people eating more at the Lake City Community Center, which I think is two times a week.

and a huge increase at North Helpline in elders who are there, but also in the van and delivering food.

So that has been my big fight and push for the last two and a half years to build our Lake City Community Center, working with Sound Generations.

And they donated $200,000 and they wanna, so, cause they actually do the cooking for the kitchen piece.

So that was like, I mean, that's real community work and really community development that they would put up $200,000 for us to build our Lake City Community Center for the kitchen.

Nobody wants an Olympic-sized pool.

They want rooms for community.

They want rooms for elders.

They want rooms so we can feed them.

And then we also want to be able to have the piece for the youth before school and after school.

So I'm glad you had a chance to go there and have lunch.

I've been there a couple times with the group.

So thank you.

Likewise, we went to the International Drop-In Center, which is in Beacon Hill, and that place was dynamic, not only because of the wide variety of services that were offered, services that you would expect, like a food bank.

access to DSHS and some benefits, but also some really critical services that surprised me that were being offered that you might see at a consulate.

There was a, you know, they have video conferencing so that people can continue to receive their retirement benefits from their home country and really impressive network of services that were provided on Beacon Hill at this international drop-in service.

I will say they also have a DJ during lunch, and we got to do some line dancing.

So it was a really fun way to just sort of naturally get some exercise in after a meal, and engage with people in a different way.

So it was really, really fun to be there.

Council Member Sawant will be there for that, I'm sure.

Yeah, you should, you should.

Line dancing is, she's actually really good at it.

She's won a couple championships.

She's being very shy.

That I would love to see.

So again, appreciate the time.

We really want to make sure that we go through and talk about the RFP, talk about the investment that were made.

And for that, I'll pass it over to Kathy Knight.

Thanks, Jason.

I want to start off by thanking the city council for the investment that it's made in the senior centers, which are such important community hubs.

And I know that I think 2014 was the first time you made a major investment in senior centers and stepped up and filled a void.

Really appreciate that.

Now we're in the, after four years, we're in a second round of funding for the senior centers.

And I just want to comment too, just the whole presentations ahead of us about renters.

I think the problems that everybody's having in the community and the high cost of living, our senior centers are becoming vitally important for people.

Sometimes that's where they get a meal that they couldn't afford anywhere else.

They're just becoming so much more important to the stability of our older adults in the community.

So with that said, I'm going to go through the process.

So in our request for proposals, the focus is on Supporting senior centers that allow older people to experience stable health and age in place.

So we try to promote equity and reduce social isolation and support health and ability to age in place.

So that's kind of the overall focus of the funding process.

What we hear is always the biggest fear is that they want to age where they're at.

Absolutely.

Yes.

I think that most people, if they could stay in their own homes through the rest of their lives, they would.

So in terms of the actual investment process, we have the priority population of socially isolated older adults.

And within that, then we have a focus population because our data shows that the highest disparities are with the older Hispanic and Latino population and the older black and African-American population.

So those are focus areas that were in this RFP process within the priority population.

So in terms of the process, we had approximately $1.7 million available in the general fund for this.

We received 16 applications that totaled $2.6 million in requests.

So you can see right away the dilemma we had.

All very compelling proposals.

And we had currently 12 funded sites.

So there were an additional four sites requesting funding.

So some of the considerations.

We had a community.

based committee that reviewed all the proposals and developed the recommendations.

And the focus was on recognizing the geographic location of the center, its opportunity to serve focus populations.

And the committee ultimately decided that the programs we have now are strong.

They're doing well with the funding they have.

And they felt like to remove any of that funding, to reduce that funding, would be really unfair to those programs in terms of the important work they're doing.

But in order to be able to fund those programs at the current level, that meant we were not able to fund all proposals, which was very unfortunate.

But you knew that was coming.

We knew that was coming, yes.

I'm sorry to interrupt.

I'm curious were there first-time applicants in the RFP process?

Yes, there were yes, so You know we'll look forward to the next RFP process Okay, so that's Now in terms of, okay, so what the review committee did was they recommended, as I said, that currently funded programs should be kept at the current level.

Some got small increases, not much.

Really, I don't even know if you'd say it costs the actual, covered the cost of inflation.

But in order to kind of meet the need, we made a few small increases.

And then the remaining funds, that were allocated according to, the analysis was based on quality, quantity, impact, and leverage.

And that's where we had basically at the highest a 3% increase.

And that was just to kind of keep those programs stable.

And I think part of what the committee decided was if we kept keeping at the current level for all the current 12 centers, there would still not be enough money left over to meet any single request from the other four sites.

So what I can show you then are the senior center investments that were made.

You can see here, we did make sure that we had a site in each district so that we were serving the population geographic areas.

You can kind of see that and you can see the funding requests and the amount that they received.

So I don't know if you have any questions about any of the particular, they should look familiar to you since they're all ones that were funded in 2014. All doing really good work.

Are any of these programs the beyond the wall type program where they don't have a central building infrastructure?

Well, the Finney Neighborhood Association works with the Greenwood Center, so I think that these are all pretty much related to a site.

Pike Place, Chinese.

Yeah, they have physical locations.

Thank you.

Some of them are just, you actually have brick-and-mortar centers.

Some of them, like Lake City and the Asian, don't have actual building dedicated for senior.

Right, but they operate out of, there's like the Asian, yes, ACRS, they have a big building where they operate the senior center inside that building.

Is it Finney Ridge or Greenwood that is wanting to expand or have more capacity in their senior center?

It could be.

I know Greenwood is very popular.

Greenwood, we met with those folks.

Yeah.

Okay.

Let me ask you a question.

These are all operational needs, not capital needs for these institutions.

I would venture to say all of, most if not all of them have capital needs as well.

Do you all ever, look at the other side of the curtain to see if they're applying for capital needs or our own department on whether we're investing on the capital needs or you just stay pure to the HSD side of things for these organizations.

Yeah, so the Human Services Department also administers the CDBG, the Community Development Block Grant.

And a lot of those investments can be made on the capital side.

So there have been investments, you know, out of the Human Services Department.

to help, you know, improve, make improvements to current facilities.

I will say that, you know, in the two visits that we just did last week, the directors, the program staff all talked about facility needs.

They have either run out of space, it's not adequate space, it's not the space that they would design to offer the services that they're trying to get back out to the community.

So I think there is a big question of where that resource could come from.

I think I heard from the board chair at the International Drop-In Center that they are trying to launch a capital campaign.

They have a strong partnership with the church that hosts them, but ideally they would like to have their own facility.

Most of the services that are offered, including the food bank, are in the church basement.

They would love to have something that's more visible and that can accommodate more people.

So, I think the capital needs are most definitely there.

As already mentioned, many of these services are happening in sort of borrowed space.

And, you know, I'm thrilled that the community center can host the senior center and that much needed senior center, senior congregate meal.

They definitely have some facility needs.

We can address those sometimes, again, with grants like the Community Development Block Grant.

But all of the investments that we're talking about today are all for services and operation.

Just food for thought as we think about how we can help these different organizations.

All this looks like a good process with good results.

So it's a little outside of this.

But over the years, I've done a lot of work on trying to help some of these organizations with their capital needs, which never seem to end, the leaky roof, that kind of stuff.

Often they'll look at the city as just writing them a check to help them out with their capital needs, and we've done that in the past.

I was always wondering if we could sometimes think outside of the box and allow us provide them resources, but resources in terms of capacity building.

In other words, we give them some resources to help them raise funds.

An example would be, let's say, for example, we gave an organization $30,000 of money for them to do an annual, a huge annual event where they can raise $140,000, as opposed to just giving $140,000.

I'm just being facetious on my numbers, of course, to allow them to be more sustainable, but then to give them a kickstart.

Because in a lot of these organizations, they just don't have the staff, the capacity, the wherewithal, or even the relationships to go and go after philanthropic dollars for their cause.

And so we're always usually just sort of writing checks.

But I was wondering if There's somehow we could craft an RFP or make ourselves available to help them leverage all of these corporations and employers and much more deeper pockets than ours out there that they all understand we have an aging population and this is an investment in our city.

So as you look at your work plan, maybe this is the kind of things we could think of as opposed to just being a bank.

It's okay being a bank, but we have limited funds and some of these other companies seem to have almost unlimited funds when you read the articles of the day.

I just wanted to mention when you're talking about capital costs, through the Veterans, Seniors, and Human Services Levy, there is now some funding that, through an RFP process that the county just finished with, capital funds to senior centers.

Just with that concept in mind, a small amount of funds.

I don't think anybody could apply for more than $50,000, but it was things like, we have to repair our floor, we need to get new furniture.

And I think, I don't know which centers, but I think a few of the city senior centers did take advantage of that funding process.

And then they will be, I think by 2020, doing an RFP process to provide more funding for centers throughout the county.

And we certainly hope to be partnering with them and taking advantage of maximizing resources between both the city and the county.

We should add that on the veterans levy.

What was that, 13 cents that we negotiated?

Right.

I'm not sure if it wound up being 10 cents for the- So for two extra pennies, we could have gotten a lot more.

Oh, absolutely.

Just two cents.

I agree.

We lost that vote.

I just hope people are watching that and we'll go back and look at the tape.

I'm just going to say that.

So this doesn't exactly mirror what President Harrell was just saying, but I know that I believe we have a contract with Nonprofit Assistance Center, and they provide capacity building and trainings and things like that.

Do they provide assistance to nonprofits around fundraising and things like that?

Yeah, so the Nonprofit Assistance Center is a nonprofit that we've partnered closely with, and they help typically smaller grassroots sort of startup, people of color-led organizations here in the city of Seattle to apply for funding.

So it may be that they'll help them craft a response to an RFP, write a grant proposal, do some of that capacity building work on the development side.

I'm not sure.

I'll have to check back to see if they do any kind of sort of campaign development, capital campaign development.

But I know we've partnered very closely with them to make sure that small organizations who don't have a grant writer on staff, who don't have the capacity they need to respond to government RFPs or to write a strong grant for corporate giving, that they can have some support.

But I'll have to check to see if they do that sort of broader development work.

If I could, I want to sort of highlight two other things.

One, I just want to acknowledge that this process is still open.

So we are receiving some letters of appeal.

If there's any, so we're showing you these numbers now.

This is how things stand today.

Barring any successful appeal, this will sort of be where this process lands.

But I just want to acknowledge that we still are in an open process.

and organizations do have an opportunity to appeal these decisions.

Secondly, I just wanted to thank the Aging and Disability Services Division, Kathy for her leadership, as well as Maria, Andrea, Jonathan, and the ADS planning team.

Anytime we put money out the door, it's a significant effort.

It takes a lot of careful planning, as well as a bit of a careful and watchful process to guide other reviewers through this decision-making process.

So couldn't have happened without those key staff, and I just want to acknowledge them and say thank you.

It's a good leader.

Yes, he is.

Thanks again for your time.

I appreciate it.

We don't have any other items listed on the agenda, so I will adjourn the meeting.

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