Seattle City Council Committee on Public Assets & Homelessness 3/2/22

Councilmember Herbold?

here.

Chair Lewis?

Present.

Mr. Chair, there are four members present, one excused.

Thank you.

And as the clerk did mention during the roll, Council President Juarez has been excused from today's meeting.

Moving forward to approval of the agenda, if there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

chair's report.

I'm going to go ahead and defer on making a chair's report at the front end, but I will make some comments before both of our presentations.

I'll just preview the agenda for the general public.

Today we're going to be getting an update from the Just Care program.

This, I believe, is the third time Just Care has presented to my committee.

They presented twice.

I have been a member of the select committee on homelessness strategies and investments.

we will get a program update and talk about potential strategies to We will then hear a presentation from the Seattle Public Library, given a general overview to the committee of the Seattle Public Library's scope and scale of services and operation.

It'll include an appearance from newly selected permanent chief librarian, Tom Fay.

So I look forward to that presentation and the ability to congratulate our new public comment period.

we will go on to public comment.

I will moderate the public comment period and we will go ahead right now to indicate that we will go until 233 and give it 30 minutes just to be safe at the front of the agenda here.

then that should be plenty of wiggle room if things run over.

As has been our custom, I will have the clerk call on each speaker by name.

As I said, they will speak for 20 minutes.

To the speakers out there, when you do get ready to speak, there will be a message if you have been unmuted, and that'll be your cue to press star six.

You will then be able to begin speaking and have your two minutes of time.

public comment.

So, Mr. Clerk, with that, why don't we open the public speaking period, and we will go, as I said, until 233. Or let's just say 230. And our first speaker is yours to call, Mr. Clerk.

Mr. Chair, we have 12 people signed up for public comment, but none are

Well, I got a text indicating that there is a login error in the email that they received.

Son, do we have any indicates?

That does seem strange that we would have 12 public commenters, none of which would be present.

Let me, let's, why don't you give us a second to check that out, hang on.

Okay.

Um, I will, uh, I will give just a brief moment, uh, for it to address that.

Uh, there's not really much more we can do until public comment.

So it, do you want us to just kind of recess the meeting for two minutes while you take a look or that would be your prerogative?

Yeah.

Well, I guess I'm asking how, how long do you think it'll take some?

Hold on, I'm checking, I'm looking at the back end now, so hang on for just a sec.

Okay, great.

Excuse me, Council Member Lewis, this is Linda Barron.

You can actually reorder the agenda if you would like and have public comment come in after, but again, it's your choice.

Yeah, understood.

I think that that pacing would be a little strange for how we typically I don't want to have a public comment period necessarily that's like commenting on the meeting.

I think typically it's an opportunity for the public to comment on agenda items and express their input to inform the issue and the meeting looking forward.

And I think it would be sort of a strange departure to do it after.

It would appear we have the wrong information in the forum.

So I'm not sure we can update the forums, but people will have to sign back in for the public commenters.

Or we can send emails out with the updates, but it will take some time for them to get in the meeting.

So I'm not sure what we can do here.

So hang on while we update the forums.

I'll let you know.

Chief Librarian Fay.

who I just said it'll be a while so they can leave the meeting, if they're still present but they're on mute, how long would the library presentation take if you're still with us?

It would be about 20 minutes or so.

I can run through it pretty quickly.

Yeah, my suspicion is the bulk of our public commenters want to weigh in on the Just Care conversation.

So here's what I say we should do to keep the flow of the meeting and not waste time.

Why don't we go ahead and do the Seattle Public Library presentation now for the next 20 minutes, let IT sort out getting the public commenters taken care of, and we will resume for public comment, and then the PDA presentation on Just Care.

So with that, would the clerk, well, Linda, how should I move to reorder the agenda?

Just as simple, if there's no objection, we'd like to reorder the agenda today to bring forward the library presentation.

Thank you.

So I would just ask the indulgence of the committee if there is no objection to reorder the agenda and put agenda item two the presentation from the Seattle Public Library to the front of the agenda, and to then put public comment after agenda item two, and we would then consider agenda item one.

And if there's no objection, that'll be the reordering of the agenda.

Seeing no objection from colleagues, the agenda will be so reordered.

So with that, Mr. Clerk, would you read item two into the record?

Agenda item two, the Seattle Public Library's operations overview.

Thank you.

And we do have joining us some folks from the Seattle Public Library, including auspiciously our new chief librarian, Mr. Tom Fay.

Tom, just want to take a moment to officially congratulate you.

This is great news.

I'm really thrilled that we're hosting your first public appearance since your selection this morning.

And I'll hand it over to you if you would introduce your colleagues from the library and if you would then go ahead and begin your introductory remarks and your presentation.

So thank you for joining us.

Thank you, Chair Lewis.

I appreciate the opportunity to give a little more information about the library operations.

And again, thank you for the congratulations.

It is a big day as we are able to move forward now with this particular position being determined.

So again, thank you all.

Also appreciate all of the council support in this last year through the pandemic and through all the budget crises that we've faced over these last two years.

And I do want to thank you for that with me today.

And I believe Rick Sheridan is here.

I can't see very well at the moment.

Rick is over our institutional strategic advancement, really focuses us on partnerships, government affairs, work, as well as our marketing and communications.

So I am ready, and I believe, Jacob, you're advancing the slides for me, so if you could advance to the next one, please.

Just as a reminder for all, we have 27 libraries here in Seattle, 26 branches, and of course, the Central Library downtown.

We have about 605 FTEs.

We have a five-member governing library board of trustees.

And for 2022, our budget is approximately $103 million across all of our various fund sources.

Jacob, next please.

And some basic data from 2019, we're still using that as we begin to normalize here in 2022, but we have about 4.5 million visitors, 12.5 million online visits, and we circulate about 12.6 million items a year.

As you can see, we have quite a few attendees and we're able to do programs, nearly 300,000.

And just as a reminder, because the council was instrumental in Advancing our levy, it did pass with voter approval of 76%.

Next, please.

And governance.

The board is a governing board.

They are not just simply advisory.

They have all fiscal oversight and policy oversight for the library system.

They have some broad responsibilities and those powers are vested in them through Washington state law.

Currently, they serve five-year terms.

We have just recently have a new president, Carmen Vindickson.

Jay Rich is our vice president.

Ron Chu serves on our board.

Christy England is going to have her term expire in April.

So we will at some point be back in front of this committee to hopefully get a new board member.

And then Tali Hairston is the newest member of the board.

Next, please.

This budget overview gives you a basic idea of how the library's budget is spent.

We are a people business, people serving people.

So 67% of our cost is personnel.

11% is books and materials.

10% is going to be our capital improvement, major maintenance projects.

And then we have our typical facilities, rent, et cetera.

Next, please.

The library staff processes a lot of material.

We are a large system with millions of books.

We process about 350,000 physical and electronic items annually.

And we have, at just about any time, 7.8 million physical items out.

We have 5.2 million holds throughout the course of the year.

And of course, this requires a lot of trucking and a lot of automated material handling.

That's what you see with the AMHS.

The system we have, which is the big beast at the Central Library, is actually being replaced this year, towards the end of the year, which will allow us to be more efficient And it will actually be off-site from the Central Library, which will allow our trucking greater ease to the rest of Seattle.

Next, please.

And our facilities, as mentioned, 27 locations.

And you can see the building here we call the MOC, which is our Maintenance Operations Center.

That's where our automated material handling will be running, as well as all of our other maintenance operations.

But it's important to note that we have seven Carnegie-era libraries in our system that are over 100 years old, and maintaining that infrastructure comes with a cost.

They're dearly loved historical assets, but they come with that extra cost of maintaining them.

And just as a reminder, the library system was really built out in the 90s through a bond measure called Libraries for All.

That measure now is 24 years old.

And we know that we have more infrastructure changes and needs ahead of us as we look to remodel and make our libraries even more relevant to generations today.

Next, please.

Library staffing.

We have public services, facilities, security, IT, HR, all the things that you can imagine to run the library.

We do have staffing constraints, as you can imagine, in a seven-day-a-week operation.

We do have minimum staffing requirements with our contractual obligations with our union.

Schedules are generally four to six weeks in advance.

And of course, we, like everyone, have been experiencing more leaves due to illness, often COVID-related.

And we also see that more of our staff have to live outside of the Seattle area, which also impacts us during a variety of situations such as inclement weather.

Next, please.

Security, obviously making a safe and welcoming environment does take security as we, like others in the city, experience issues from time to time.

We have 18 security officers for 27 locations, so not enough to have an officer present in every location.

So we have to do a lot of rotations and visits with our security.

We do have an increasing number of serious safety and security incidents.

And so that is something we continue to monitor and come up with new techniques and approaches for de-escalation.

But as I like to say, 99% of our transactions go very well.

And we do have a few that obviously do not.

So that does have an impact on staff.

It has an impact on patrons when those do occur.

Some of the areas that we know that we've had probably more incidents than others are listed here on the right, Central, Ballard, Capitol Hill.

And so we do have more security presence there to help assist with incidents as they occur.

Next, please.

And of course, our branch libraries are the jewel of every neighborhood.

All of them have books and materials, as you might imagine, computers, Wi-Fi, reference services, and when we're able to do programs, in-person programs, meeting rooms, and study rooms.

We hope to be able to get back to those now that the mask mandate is being relaxed and eliminated.

For 2019, our branches had over 850,000 items.

It's probably now, probably closer to 900,000 items.

And we have had lots of nonprofit groups use our free meeting room space, as well as individuals.

And our branches saw nearly 3.7 million visits in 2019. And of course, 2.5 million in Wi-Fi sessions throughout the library system.

Folks know that they can connect to us any time.

Next, please.

Central Library.

of course, is the largest location.

It is a 375,000 square foot building, has a million items in it alone, and we usually have anywhere between 1.2 to 1.5 million patron visits a year.

It's a destination.

Folks come to visit when they're on vacation here or holiday.

The Central Library is often seen in pictures across the country and all over the world.

And we have quite a few additional services at the Central Library, such as the Special Collections, which really captures the history of the Northwest and Seattle specifically.

We have our Library Equal Access Program that makes services available for people of all abilities that might have sight, hearing, or other challenges.

And of course, we have our meeting rooms.

And for those who have been in our friend shop, which is a great destination in and of itself to buy all of your maybe holiday or gifts that you might need.

Next, please.

And our mobile services.

This is often one that people don't think about unless they see the bookmobile out, but we have alternative vehicles that also deliver to a number of locations.

We have children's services going to preschools and child care centers.

That's 1,400 bookmobile visits per year.

These we realigned to align with the free or low cost needs within the city and really aligned it with the city of Seattle and state child care subsidies groups to make sure that those most in need are receiving the services first and foremost.

Our adult services, we do a lot of home service, books by mail.

We also deliver to a variety of what we call lobby stops to assisted living centers throughout the city as well.

So we have quite a few stops, nearly 140 stops per month with all of our alternative mobile services.

Next, please.

In our insecurely housed services, we provide a lot of different types of service.

We have, of course, welcoming spaces for all, seven days a week.

We have community resource specialists that we are now preparing to hire again.

And we're actually bringing them into the library as staff and not on contract.

That will be happening here in the next month.

community resource specialists for both adults as well as youth.

We also have access to technology, Wi-Fi, device charging, which has been critical.

We've actually made it increased charging capabilities in every library, especially during the pandemic as more folks have needed those services.

We have a variety of classes and instruction.

We have Your Next Job, which allows folks to find and get assistance in finding their next job, and in multiple languages.

We have staff outreach, engagement to encampments, the tiny house villages, and other homeless shelters.

We have hotspots and uncatalog book distribution to folks as well.

We actually provide hotspot internet access in a number of villages in the city.

We have special outreach for veterans and formerly incarcerated.

And of course, we also are part of the distribution of free bus passes.

We also have planned responses for climate events.

We have a snow branch plan that's a tiered system to ensure some branches are open across the city, unless it's the most extreme situations.

We also have smoke closure plans to open air conditioned spaces first.

And it's the same for heat closure plans, so that we are prepared.

We know that the heat and the smoke seems to be more of a constant than an occasional, as we've experienced in the last couple of years.

Next, please.

We also have a very large e-electronic presence or virtual presence.

Our website and digital services, we see over 3.4 million.

That's now moving up even higher.

As far as e-books and audio books circulating, we have 1.4 million streaming and downloadable checkouts, and we have now over 600,000 items in the e-collection.

In response to COVID in 2020, the library expanded its digital and virtual options.

We had a staying home launched on our website, making sure that folks had easy access to our digital resources.

We moved to an instant digital library cart so that folks could process everything without ever coming into a building and make sure that they could receive services, especially those electronic services early in the pandemic when we were shut down.

And we also moved our story time and our thrilling tales and a variety of other programming to the virtual arena.

And then we also expanded our library link program with Seattle Public Schools.

Prior to the pandemic we were in the middle of a pilot beginning to bring on electronic excuse me e-cards for all students that tied to their student account number.

And we moved within about 45 days to having every student in the Seattle Public School system have access to that that that card and those digital services.

We also had virtual tutoring and we also increased the availability of our hotspots for those who needed it, families who needed it during the virtual school sessions.

Next please.

And as most know, we are always focused on outreach and engagement and are really committed to diversity, equity, inclusivity, and accessibility in all that we do.

And we're focused on listening to the community, building those relationships, and we always seek to and hope to advance and become better at co-curating or co-developing programs and services with the public and really addressing their needs.

We meet with partners, as you might imagine.

Regularly, we have hundreds of partners, and we work with hundreds of community-based organizations as well.

Next, please.

Programming instruction and educational opportunities are a hallmark of libraries.

In normal years, when we're able to have both in-person and virtual, we have nearly 10,000 classes and events.

and nearly 300,000 people attending.

One of our favorite programs from our patrons is the Museum Pass program.

As you know, that has been somewhat curtailed during the pandemic, but it's coming back and partners are coming back to that.

That allows folks to get a free access to a number of museums and other institutions in the city that they may not normally be able to afford or be able to get to.

We're happy that that program is now moving forward again as we're able to do more.

We have a lot of adult programs.

As you might know, we have English language learning, we have U.S. citizenship classes, adult education, basic ed classes, a variety of technology classes.

And as I always will encourage anyone, if you've never been to a graduating class of a U.S. citizenship class that you're missing out.

If you leave one of those ceremonies with a dry eye, then you're tougher than I am, for sure, because it's a very moving experience to watch folks become U.S. citizens.

Next, please.

Of course, youth programming is a big piece of what libraries do.

We're very STEAM-focused.

Our Summer of Learning really ties that in throughout the summer to make sure that kids are staying active with their minds and with their reading.

We now also have Global Reading Challenge at 70 of the Seattle Public Schools, and that is really focused on the the kids reading particular books and it's a competition and it's taken a number of years to get every single school participating.

But these fifth graders really get very competitive around this and it's amazing to watch how much they learn through this process.

We have homework help.

At this point, change that with our tutoring product that's digital, but we hope to be able to get back to more in-person services this year.

And we also have a variety of programs, story times, especially that are in other languages, which is critical to serving all the needs of the public.

And the one thing I will point out about all of our programming and primarily kids programming is most of that is funded through our foundation.

We do not have very many general fund dollars at all for programming, so we're very fortunate that the foundation has been able to support the library in these major initiatives and programs that all of our kids and families participate in.

They also fund some staff for the library as well, from our mobile services librarians to our global reading librarians.

It's an important piece to note.

Next, please.

And of course, the current challenges are ongoing COVID impacts.

We know that we look like we might get a little bit of a reprieve here for the next few months, and we hope that that can last beyond that.

We know safety and security is mentioned as we continue to come out of this pandemic and some of the changes it's brought on to the city.

We know that we'll still continue to have some of those concerns moving forward.

We also know that long-term financial sustainability will be an issue for all of us as we look at future budgets.

And then of course, as we mentioned, the aging infrastructure.

Our buildings now, even the Central Library, is moving on to being nearly 20 years old, which means higher costs for replacement, repairs, and significant things like roofs needing to be completely changed out.

We know that we'll continue to experience climate impacts.

That can be everything from heat to smoke.

Those conditions are difficult, especially in buildings that don't have air conditioning.

We are actively working to do that, and we appreciate the council's support in moving to have two libraries in the 2022 budget receive air conditioning, which is the northeast and southwest branches.

Appreciate that support.

That'll bring on larger facilities that, again, can be there in those conditions.

And then, of course, the other concern that I most recently mentioned is that there's obviously a significant reliance on our foundation for program funding, which, while it seems like that's great, it also means that we are relying on day-to-day programming budget from them and not able to do maybe as much of the innovative work that a foundation often provides.

So those are some of the challenges.

And next, please.

I would open it up for any questions that you might have.

Thank you so much, Chief Librarian Fay.

I really appreciate that comprehensive presentation.

Sorry, colleagues, I should have flagged at the beginning that I wanted you to hold comments until the conclusion of the presentation.

But at this time, I will open it up to folks.

And for some reason, I can't see the the gallery.

There we go.

Now I can.

Okay.

So if there are council colleagues who have questions, please raise your virtual hands or go ahead and speak up.

Council member Mosqueda.

Hello.

Thank you very much for your presentation.

I had a quick question about, um, What the process is for libraries when there's inclement weather, whether it's smoke or extreme cold, given that the council has been trying to add some funding in, especially for things like air conditioning units.

I just want to know more about what the coordination looks like with the executive or with the city, maybe including the Emergency Services Command Center.

I'm forgetting the acronym.

But what that process looks like for coordination so that emergency shelters and libraries have the opportunity to have a better understanding of what the network looks like for those urgent situations.

We actually are part of those discussions with emergency management.

So we are involved in that.

We also have over the years developed our internal plans for each of the various conditions.

So we know that And in the heat and usually that also includes smoke or might include smoke.

We know that our air conditioned buildings will get too hot.

People are not going to be able to be in and staff won't be either.

So what we've done and learned over time is let's proactively preemptively, I guess, close those that we know don't have air conditioning and move those staff over to buildings that do have air conditioning to make sure that we have as much physical footprint open for air conditioned spaces or smoke-free, nearly smoke-free spaces as possible.

That's one level of work that we do around that.

And that's coordinated and we let the emergency management team know what we're doing, which buildings will be open, what hours will be open, et cetera.

And in the cold, it is a couple of tiered systems.

We have a tier that's the worst case as far as open buildings.

There are conditions in which we just can't get anything open when transportation is nearly shut down or completely shut down.

But we have two tiers for those branches we can open, and that would be the Central Library is kind of always in that package, as well as six other locations.

And then we have another tier that has about 12 to 14 locations that can be opened.

All of that is planned on basically where our staff live and where we think we can get them.

It's also planned on bus routes and also plowed roads.

So we've done a lot of research on that.

We have kind of a mapping system that we've created to let us see all of that so that we can make sure that that's still the case.

But that allows us to actually have as many assets as possible open, depending upon conditions.

Tom, if I could just add, so the Emergency Operations Center, the Office of Emergency Management, they fold us into their planning operations, notifications, planning, ongoing operations during every event.

So whether it's snow, smoke, wind, we're always part of the conversation with them and plan with them as part of their response.

Do you have a follow-up, Council Member Messina?

No, that's great.

I think that that last comment really helps.

You know, my concern was that it sounded like perhaps some closures were happening sort of and then the emergency operations unit was being informed of that.

So my request was going to be if those decisions about closures could be made with the emergency operations center so that we can have a better assessment of what the needs are.

But it sounds like from that last answer, those decisions are being made together versus just informing the Emergency Operations Center.

Is that correct?

Usually we try to, what we try to do is let them know by a specific time.

We give them a package, possibly the day before or even days before, and then we let them know once we get sick calls in and all the other calls of license that people can't get in, then we're able to tell them this is now the package that is going to be open today.

So there's always going to be a little bit of shuffling depending upon conditions.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Herbold.

My apologies for being off camera.

Just to follow up that question and then I have a question on a completely different component of your staffing.

As it relates specifically to extreme weather events, I'm just What I thought I heard you say is that there is sort of a threshold number of branches that you work to try to ensure are open.

And it sounded like.

There was a goal to keep a certain number of branches open and would love to know if I heard that correctly.

I want to also really thank you for the fact that early in the pandemic, when so many businesses and other public places were entirely closed down, the libraries really responded extremely well to the urgent need for hygiene facilities and you made restrooms available at six public libraries during that time.

Really want to thank you for that.

In instances when perhaps you don't have sufficient staffing to shelter, I'm sorry, to staff the library and the library services for the purposes of the library.

Does your plan consider the possibility of opening as a shelter only, not using your staff, but using staff who are able to serve folks staying in a shelter like we do at City Hall.

We open up City Hall as a shelter and we provide the staffing either through one of our partner nonprofits or as we have done increasingly, We've had city staff who have volunteered for an alternate assignment provide that staffing.

Does your plan consider the possibility of allowing for that?

Well, the answer to that particular question is no in the sense of if we're going to have a building open, there's an expectation of the public that library services would be offered from that building.

That is something that our staff are skilled and able to do.

And that is why we would not generally consider that during the course of our operations, trying to maintain full services, which requires, obviously, skilled librarians, et cetera, to maintain building operations.

The other question I believe you asked was that we try to maintain that tier of libraries being open a certain number.

And yes, we do.

There are times and conditions in which we believe that the conditions are so bad that we can't get people in, or we've already heard enough of the calls that we're not going to have enough people to open buildings.

And so at that point, then I will make that call, if need be, that we would close operations for the entire day.

That's usually pretty extreme situations in which they're either extreme ice conditions, considerable accumulation of snow, and or our teams cannot get in to clear the parking lots or the sidewalks to make it safe for the public to get in.

We do appreciate that several folks or several departments, I should say, helped us in this last session, which, again, is that coordination with emergency management.

SDOT and SPU were able to help us with some of our parking lot clearing that we do not have the equipment for when it's a large scale or a large accumulation of snow.

So we do try to do that, and most times I would say we are open more than some of our colleagues in the region who are out and maybe in rural King County and have a harder time opening their system.

But we try to always make sure that we're open as much as is possible.

Thank you.

I just want to follow up on your answer to my first question.

I don't know if I did not do a good job of explaining the question or if You did understand the question, and the answer is just not one I was hoping to hear.

But I'm talking about a situation in which you have determined that you do not have the staffing to staff the library, and you would otherwise close.

Would you consider having it open for purposes of the city addressing an extreme weather if it was staffed by somebody other than you.

Just like the city does for City Hall.

City Hall wasn't open to the public for the purpose of which the public is used to using City Hall, but we have had extreme weather and shelters there.

Just like some of our parks facilities, when they haven't been open, during the pandemic normally to the public for its normal use, there is allowance for some use to address these extreme conditions.

In that particular case, I would say many of our buildings would not lend themselves to that just due to the sheer size.

Most of them are fairly small and don't have open spaces that would really Accommodate that I know the shelter that you're or shelter space that is down at city hall is fairly large and wide open.

And that is not something that we've considered to this to this point.

Yeah, and I wasn't speaking of overnight use.

I'm talking about.

coming in from the cold during the day into the library, as if they were library patrons, but with the understanding that the space would be used a little bit differently in that case.

I'm sorry for...

confusing apples and oranges comparison with an overnight shelter with how patrons who are unsheltered use your space during your regular business hours during extreme weather events.

And I think I would come back to the first answer on that, and that the concern would be if it was also, quote, open in that sense.

If we're saying it's just going to be used for that purpose and not be considered open for the library, which is how people would see it if people are going in and out of it, that would be more problematic for us as they would have expectations of library services that would not be able to be offered.

And as I pointed out in some of our other concerns, we have staff trained, highly trained in a lot of de-escalation.

and security staff that we have, too.

And if they're not able to get in, then we also don't have those supports in place.

Understood.

Okay, thanks.

And then just real quickly, my other staffing question relates to the fact that in mid-January, we were all notified that many library branches would begin operating at reduced hours.

due to these pandemic impacts on staffing levels.

And I'm just wondering whether or not we have a sort of an end date.

I know we received an update last week that said the library would soon be back to pre-pandemic hours.

I know in District 1, branch libraries are continuing to operate on a re-schedule.

Just wondering if we have any more information about restoring full operating hours.

Yes, we're happy to be able to note that we will be moving back to our regular hours about March 30th is what we're shooting for at this point.

Fantastic.

So we're excited about that.

We're also excited that we're going to incrementally bring back days for access to the spiral at the Central Library, which has been another area where we've been lacking some staffing, which is now coming up to speed.

And then we hope to later this spring then also move towards the additional levy hours as well.

So if this all stays smooth as far as COVID, we're excited about finally getting to that stage.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Are there any other questions from committee members for the presenters?

Well, seeing none, Mr. Chief Librarian, appreciate you dropping by today, and I know there will be a lot of business before the committee regarding the Seattle Public Library and for all of the business items that you presented on today that we depend on the Seattle Public Library for as a city government and as a community, and we look forward to being strong civic partners in this work.

with you as you take on this new role, and everybody on your team.

So thank you so much for coming today, and thank you for that thorough presentation.

Thank you, and thank you for the opportunity and the questions.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Now, IT, just checking in real quickly here, did we sort out our public comment issues?

I believe we have.

Okay, well if that's the case, I will open the public comment period.

We will go until, let's say, let's say 3.05 and then potentially re-extend.

So I will set the public comment time at two minutes.

and just to reiterate some of the instructions from earlier, when your name is called, you will hear an instruction if you have been unmuted.

That is your cue to press star six and begin talking as the two-minute timer begins.

And we will begin with our first speaker as called out by the clerk and proceed until the public comment period has expired.

So, Mr. Clerk, would you please recognize the first public

Our first speaker is Chris Woodward.

Chris, you are unmuted and may begin.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Chris Woodward.

I'm the business development director with the Alliance for Pioneer Square located in District 7. I'm calling today to voice my support for the Public Defender Association's Just Care Program.

The Just Care Program's impact on Pioneer Square throughout the past year and a half is decisive in terms of strategy, process and impact.

The Just Care team vigorously and effectively assesses houses and provides case management services to unsheltered individuals, supporting our and neighboring districts' ongoing recovery.

The Just Care team actively engages a group of diverse stakeholders, creating a sense of involvement between the program and neighborhoods while responding to ongoing challenging and impactful issues in Pioneer Square.

Evidence of the Just Care Team's success in providing housing and case management services to unsheltered individuals within Pioneer Square is clear in our neighborhood public spaces, such as City Hall Park, Pioneer Park, Occidental Square, and along 3rd Avenue.

Pioneer Square needs effective solutions implemented in the short and midterm to address the unique challenges our neighborhood faces in response to the regional homelessness issue.

Thank you, council members, for your ongoing support of the Just Care team.

Thank you, Chris.

Our next speaker is Lisa Nitze.

Lisa, you may begin.

Thank you.

As many of you know, because you've been involved with our Pioneer Safety and Security Group for the past two years, Just Care's work in Pioneer Square has been literally transformative.

It's taken an area that was deeply concerning for all from a safety, security and access point of view, and transformed its open spaces, sidewalks, alleyways, to places where pedestrians, visitors, employees, and residents can use them and begin to feel safe.

It's provided relief for its restaurants, galleries, and small businesses, enabling them to get back on their feet by clearing blocked access, regular violence, and frightening proliferation of waste on sidewalks and in doorways.

has restored enough of a sense of stability to enable major employers including Weyerhaeuser, the city and the county to plan and bring back their employees.

It's done its work by building excellent effective and interactive relationships with the neighborhood's key stakeholders through constant communication transparency and rapid responsiveness.

Also by developing effective and strong partnerships with DSA Clean Team, the Mayor's Hope Team, SPD, Seattle Parks and others.

The heart of its work is identifying, assessing the needs of, and finding temporary shelter with services for the unhoused in our neighborhoods, then navigating through their next steps.

This is a systems change approach that saves an enormous amount of money by changing ultimate outcomes of the individuals they serve rather than intervening and then repeating the same interventions over and over again without making things better for those being served or for the other stakeholders in the neighborhood.

Just Cares work leads to thriving neighborhoods and changing lives of those living on the house.

It should have teams working in every neighborhood in Seattle.

It is the only service provider we have been able to call on for two years that always comes through for all involved.

Please increase its funding rather than cutting it.

All of Seattle get back on its feet.

Thank you, Lisa.

Our next caller is Esquerdo Stevens.

Esquerdo, you are unmuted and may begin when ready.

Yes, my name is Esquire Stephen.

My life before Equity Just Care, I stayed at the UGM transformation before the pandemic.

Then when the pandemic came, I was living in a tent.

If Equity Just Care wouldn't have been there, I would never have an opportunity to get permanent housing.

And I and my call my own call my own home.

I wasn't I would have I would have get my retirement Social Security benefit if it wasn't for Equity Judge Care.

Thank you Esquerdo.

Our next speaker is Anna Gibson.

Anna you are unmuted and may begin when ready.

Cool.

Anna, it says you're still on mute.

Please remember to press star six to take yourself off mute.

Okay.

Yes.

Yes.

All right.

My name is Alma Michael Dixon.

I'm a participant of the VIPS Care Program in downtown Seattle, Washington.

I was, before I was a participant of this program, I was a homeless living in a tent off Apron Jackson in Chinatown in Seattle, Washington.

And when I, my tent was swept and I was given the opportunity to be a participant of this program.

my life really has shaped up and turned around and they have helped me in so many ways I can increase the list in tonight and because they've helped me with um getting my housing uh a voucher for housing so I can have my own place place again and be self-sufficient a member of the workforce again they've um helped me get my identification where I would um Before I was a resident in Seattle, Washington, I lived in Oklahoma.

It was very hard to get my education when I was homeless, and they gave me the opportunity to get all that in a row, so I could get back to being a member of the workforce again.

And they helped me in so many ways, from counseling to rehabilitation and recovery.

And I just, I'm so grateful for this program.

I'm glad to know that we're going to be the same without these nice people that help me get back on my feet again.

Everybody deserves a second chance.

And they really gave me one so I can be a member of society and a member of my community again in a beneficial way.

So thank you so much for your time.

And if this program did not exist, there'd be so many people that would still be on the street struggling like I was.

But because of this CARE program, I'm off the street, and I'm about to get my own place.

In fact, to be working with the chef.

So thank you so much for your time, including taking care around the community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ana.

Our next speaker is Lou Bond.

Lou, you're off mute.

Thank you so much.

You can begin when ready.

Thank you, Chair Lewis and council members at large.

I'm Lou Bond, property manager at the Melbourne Tower at 3rd and Pike.

And I've got to say, I'm really thrilled about Just Cares, and I hope that we can continue to support that.

Tiara Dearbone and several of her team members have been really instrumental in helping many people that were afflicted here at 3rd and Pike, 3rd and Union, 3rd and Pine.

And the number of people, I don't have the numbers that they've really helped and supported, but listening to the previous two speakers here really speaks volumes to what the city is doing.

And I thank you all for really supporting Just Cares and the approach that's being taken here.

I pray that we can continue to do this so that we're able to get more and more people off the streets and into some housing and the wraparound services that they individually need to help them really reinvigorate themselves, and have a new hope.

So thank you all so much and continue to support them.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lou.

Our next speaker is David Haynes.

David, you're off mute.

Welcome and begin when you're ready.

Thank you.

Should the homeless advocates tell the law-abiding forsaken homeless to come downtown to set up a tent in the business district because that's the only way they're going to be prioritized?

Because Just Care, who has a priority for criminals, has taken over the budget allocations, gobbling up some of the homeless crisis money.

No offense to the business community, but they only seem to care about their front step.

And why isn't the service providers picking up the homeless in the Central Library when they show up?

And I would like to point out that the Central Library has not done anything to mitigate the spit spray personal space of people needing to go in there and read for 30 minutes or two hours and not be bothered by the flawed, obsolete designs.

And all these people bothering you, like they're just walking through the main hallway and that's where they want you to sit and read the newspaper.

The thing is, is earlier today I had to go get some water because all the water is suspect in the Pioneer Square buildings.

And when I went to the grocery store at third and I think I don't know Seneca and then.

the one right by the f b i office and then at the university there's some do who got spookable walking faster than him he turned in grabbed his john and he had a screwdriver in his back pocket and because i didn't specifically see the gun the cops refused to deploy and he's one of the evil predators that conducting an uncivil war just south of the entire conglomerate of underworld criminals have been exempted from that And it's upsetting to me that I complain about Just Cherry because there's certain criminals who are undermining and committing crimes against humanity and they are destroying other people's lives that are yelling out and screaming every night at First and Cherry and Pioneer Square and elsewhere.

The root cause of our whole problem of societal implosion is drug pushers who have a low-level dollar amount that are being exempted from jail, being considered a misdemeanor non-violent violator.

And they're not being prioritized within the five-pronged response of solving the homeless crisis.

Thank you, David.

Our next speaker is not present.

Zanita Reed, if you are listening, check your email and you should have another call-in number and we'd love to have you still join us for public comment.

Our next speaker who is present is Allison McLean.

Allison, you're off mute and maybe get one ready.

Thank you, Council Chair and members.

My name's Allison McLean and I'm commenting on funding Just Care.

I've lived in the Seattle area since 1972 and in Pioneer Square since 2008. I knew on an intellectual level that the social safety net had failed but in 2020 when COVID forced the homeless shelters to close I really saw close up for the first time the breadth and depth of the human suffering engendered by poverty untreated mental illness and substance abuse.

I saw it close up because an encampment of about seven tents formed on the sidewalk next to our building.

We regularly heard fights, threats, and shouting, saw open drug selling and drug use, and people out of their minds on drugs.

We called the fire department twice to put out fires on the sidewalk next to our building.

One homeless man there burned his hand trying to help put a fire out.

In September 2021, my fellow resident Jeff Cohen and I learned of Just Care for the first time.

After seeing having seen how ineffective sweeps were in keeping the unhoused off the streets this organization was a breath of fresh air.

Not once but twice they were able to locate housing and services for the people in encampments who were so clearly in need of them.

I'm grateful that Just Care uses peer navigators and takes the time necessary to earn the trust of an already traumatized population.

I feel that in Seattle we are at a tipping point in our recovery as the city emerges from COVID.

It would be easy to go back to suites and incarceration but I have seen that Just Care offers not only a meaningful alternative but one that is effective and humane.

Renewing their funding is a win-win situation for unsheltered people and for business.

In my opinion the expense of just care should be considered a normal cost of business if the city is serious about achieving equity.

Thank you to Urban Villages and Henry Watson and thank you for your time.

Thank you, Allison.

We have three speakers who are not present.

Zanita Reed, Harold Odom, and John Grant.

You are not listed as present.

Please check your email.

You should have a second call in number.

And if you call it, you'll be able to join us.

Our next presenter who is here is Jeffrey Cohen.

Jeffrey, you are off mute.

Please begin when ready.

Jeffrey, you'll need to press star six.

Jeffrey Cohen, if you can hear me, you need to press star six and then you'll be able to present.

I'll come back to Jeffrey.

Our next public commenter is Henry Watson.

Henry, you're off mute, and you can begin when ready.

Hi, my name is Henry Watson.

I work for Urban Villages as a property manager for the Rails4Project of 419 Occidental.

The Just Care organization was put on my radar by the Alliance for Pioneer Square after Just Care's incredible work in Pioneer Square Park.

We engaged with Just Care to assist with an encampment of seven tents at 123 Jackson.

From the minute that we reached out to their team, they were incredibly effective, hardworking, and communicative in finding lasting solutions for the individuals on our block.

I witnessed firsthand their process in understanding each individual's situation.

And as a stakeholder in Pioneer Square, I can undoubtedly say that Just Care has made a huge difference in our neighborhood and in the lives of the transient individuals on our block and fully support continuing their funding.

Thank you.

Thank you, Henry.

Our final present public commenter is Jeffrey Cohen.

Jeffrey, are you able to join us?

Jeffrey, a star six to present.

Mr. Chair, I don't believe we have any further public commenters.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk.

We can proceed then to the next agenda item.

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

Agenda item one, Just Care, a community-led alternative.

Thank you so much.

Mr. Clerk, I'm really excited to be joined here by this very large table of folks who have made Just Care possible.

I have a couple of remarks.

I think I just want to get into the presentation given that we've kind of kicked this back a little bit to respect the time of the presenters.

But, you know, I cannot say enough about how great it's been to work with Just Care on some of the hardest and chronic homelessness and public safety challenges we've seen in the downtown core over the past several months and throughout the pandemic.

I think it really goes to the core of what we need to see in this city and what the people of this city expect, which is when there's incredible human misery in the street and there's incredible suffering in the street, that the city is capable of rising to the occasion, working with our partners and sending a response instead of letting these chronic problems fester in public view.

And I really appreciate the adaptability, the creativity, the leadership of the Public Defender Association and their constituent partner organizations in really cobbling together what has been an indispensable and I think model program.

of how to restore confidence in our ability to do this work.

So with that, I just wanna introduce, or rather recognize and invite to the virtual table, Lisa Dugard, who is here from the Defender Association, along with her group of folks who work with her on Just Care, and I'll let her introduce the folks she's brought with her.

Also wanna recognize that we have Brian Cannon from the Downtown Seattle Association.

I want to recognize that we are also joined by Director Tanya Kim from the Human Services Department.

So why don't you guys join at the virtual table, and we'll go ahead, and I know the PDA has a slide deck.

So I'll turn it over to Lisa Dugard to kick that off, and we will get going with the presentation.

Thanks so much, Council Member Lewis, and to Jacob, who is sharing the deck.

I am going to just make a couple of opening comments and then we'll introduce panelists.

And I do hope that our partners from DSA will be able to chime in at the end of the formal presentation as well.

Just Care is an alliance of multiple organizations.

In addition to the three active partners whose logos you see on that opening slide, the approach was co-created by Asian Counseling and Referral Service and Chief Seattle Club, which have moved on to doing other work but continue to be originators and thought partners of this work.

And we should acknowledge that this would never have come into being without the original support of King County Council members and implementation by the King County executive, and then the strong, strong support of this council in the middle of 2021. This would have ended long ago without the council's initiative.

And then we've had really fantastic implementation support from the mayor's office since that time.

Just Care came into being because, as one of the folks in public comment observed, in the middle of the pandemic, the early months of the pandemic, not only were many people who had been in congregate shelters, quote unquote, the intensified out onto the street, but also many people who had never been welcome in the sheltering system also found themselves out on the streets.

Really, as many other people found steady streams of relief funding and support attached to the fact that they had had formal jobs or filed tax returns, had dependent children for which they filed tax returns, many other people were not recipients of the official relief strategies that our country used to support people through the COVID pandemic and economic shutdown and were forced into the illicit economy.

And as well, dealing with the despair and sort of uncertainty about what the future held, as so many people have experienced around this country, left really to alleviate those anxieties with drug use.

And so it was a, miserable and very critical situation for many communities around the city.

And several of our organizations are based in Pioneer Square, right on the border with the Chinatown International District, and could see that these are longstanding issues, but the level of acuity was escalating to a degree that it obviously needed a response.

There were COVID relief funds flowing into our region.

but none being directed toward those living unsheltered.

And so there was kind of a coalition of the willing of these organizations and the others that kicked this off with us.

And we decided that we would, like many communities around the country, try to use suddenly available hotel space to provide non-congregate care for people who had been chronically unsheltered.

So that's the background.

I'm going to call on my colleagues to do quick introductions, just explaining their role in this partnership.

And then we'll go through the presentation.

Stephanie, are you with us and able to introduce yourself?

Stephanie?

I am.

I am.

Good afternoon.

My name is Stephanie Wheeler Smith and I am the co owner for WDC.

We deliver care and we have a safety team component that is in partnership with PDA and just care and we have forged an amazing relationship and are excited to be a part of what is happening in our community.

Thanks, Stephanie.

Karen?

Hey, y'all.

My name is Karen Salinas.

She, they, pronouns.

I'm the Director of Outreach with the REACH Program.

I, along with my coworker, Michael, who won't be presenting today, oversee the field team that works in partnership with PDA, providing outreach assessment and engagement with folks at the sites designated by Jessica.

Thank you, Karen.

Kirby?

Hi, my name is Kirby.

I use they, them pronouns, and I am part of the field team with REACH.

Thank you, and Whitney.

Hi, everybody.

My name is Whitney Walker.

My pronouns are she, her.

I'm the data systems manager at REACH, and I've been supporting the Just Care Coalition since its initiation on our goal of being a data-informed program.

Thanks, Whitney.

And Victor?

Hi, good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Victor Lu.

For this work context, I'll use he, him, his pronouns.

I've been involved with the Just Care program since its inception in fall 2020. And the main program that I support, we provide services at a hotel in downtown Seattle, focusing in Chinatown International District, downtown Seattle, and Pinesport.

And I will talk more about it during the part of my presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Dr. Sen?

Hi, I'm Dr. Sen Katarsky.

She, her pronouns.

I'm the Medical Director for PDA, as well as the Interim Co-Director for the Co-Lead Just Care Program, and I also provide direct healthcare services for primary care for Co-Lead Just Care participants.

Great, and Tiara?

Hi, my name is Tiara Dearbone.

I'm the Program Director for Lead in Seattle and King County, and I oversee the project management team who work to engage the community and collaborate with community members, businesses, and city services for the Just Care work.

Thank you so much.

Okay, we can go to the next slide.

Thank you.

The Just Care model is unique because we collaborate with all of our partners to respond to these encampments, and our clients are a big part of that partnership.

We take time to understand their specific needs, and we partner together to come up with solutions.

We also collaborate with many care providers who all have the goal of a meaningful response.

Some of the people we collaborate with are DESC hosts, Chief Seattle Admin.

Wanted to add that we also collaborated really closely with neighborhoods and businesses and public officials.

Next slide.

The Just Care team focuses on like a kind of twofold target population.

The first would be a site-based regional approach, looking at everybody who is at that site or engages and passes through that site.

So they provide outreach, getting to know those, identifying who's there, and getting to know the dynamics of that space.

Then they also do the next step of also, as Kirby stated, working with other service providers to make the right referrals to the long-term intensive case management, whether that's housed through REACH or other programs through DESC and other partners.

They also focus on that long-term support inside of the hotels for the folks that fit those enhanced accommodations.

With the downtown population, they're often very complicated, like all the fields mentioned here.

but they're also complicated by their comorbidity in addition to the political impact of COVID, where historically a lot of the resources have been localized downtown.

A lot of them closed their doors, but that's the area that folks know.

They know where to go to get those resources in those areas, which has led to a huge accumulation of people in that area.

Plus with other areas being far away and inaccessible, either through public transportation or just in general inaccessible for the people that are living in those encampments, Downtown has easy access to a bunch of different resources that satisfy not just their sheltering needs, but food access, community, legal access if they need to go to court, those other things that are just easier to get to in the downtown corridor.

And so then they are also impacted by a lot of different neighborhood dynamics, as you know, like Little Saigon, the Pioneer Square area, Waterfront, all those different spaces that are differently impacted by economic development needs as well as business needs.

and the people that have historically been in those spaces.

And next slide, please.

One part of our care team is our field team.

It's made up of our outreach professionals and social justice leaders who understand harm reduction, trauma-informed care, and meeting clients where they're at.

And this is the test.

So for the Just Care model that we provide at the Downtown Seattle Hotel, we really focus on addressing social determinants of health, essential needs that the community members and our clients need to face higher disparity.

We serve high-activity clients with mental health and substance use and provide 24-7 care, medication-assisted treatment linkage, as well as a harm reduction model.

So to meet the unique and complex needs of our participants, we utilize our direct service providers for 24-7 on-site medical and behavioral health care.

We provide in-field and on-site COVID-19 testing and care for those who need to isolate after testing positive for COVID-19.

We reduce the overuse of the emergency departments for non-emergency illnesses.

And we assist increasing access to a more appropriate level of care in lieu of that.

All of our participants in Just Care are enrolled or reactivated in Apple Health, which is the Washington Medicaid plans.

And then we also coordinate for the longer term care by helping folks access primary care homes, behavioral health care, so that after their time with us is over, that you still have access to that longer term care.

We coordinate care with specialty care clinics and support in access to medication assisted treatment for substance use disorders when appropriate.

And then we also provide harm reduction education to all of our participants, including overdose prevention, an essential service of paramount importance during our opioid epidemic and to currently to prevent deaths during this current rise of street based, highly potent opioid fentanyl.

Stephanie?

WDC's role in the support of Just Care has been something that has grown and morphed into a good relationship that provides a high level of safety to the participants, to the staff, and to the community that it supports.

We currently are scheduled for on-call support.

We are also scheduled for nighttime shifts as well as roving shifts that provide safety at each site.

And we have successfully been a part of creating an environment and a culture of safety.

We haven't had any incidences of needing to call the police and we have kept the community safe.

and we build relationships.

We view our participants as human beings and we value them in this community as important parts of what's going on in the world.

And so it's been a good partnership and we look forward to continuing to support Just Care.

And next slide, please.

The participants in the Just Care sheltering programs have complex needs, and so the partnership itself is complex.

You've heard about most of the other aspects.

I just wanted to highlight that many, not all, of the participants in Just Care have pending or old court involvement and as courts shut down in 2020, but as they have come back online, we're seeing old cases sort of crop up so that they could really interrupt people's path to stabilization and recovery.

And we coordinate with the support of the Seattle City Attorney's Office and the King County Prosecutor's Office, the resolution of those cases, address warrants and make sure that people don't have these outstanding legal impediments to stabilization.

Next slide, please.

Dr. Sin, you're on mute.

Thank you.

The Dusk Care approach uses a housing-first, complex trauma-informed, person-centered and harm reduction model.

We find success specifically in the building of the relationships is what's needed in order to help people by meeting them where they're at and learning what their goals are in order to create that individualized plan that'll work for them.

To speak a little bit on the expertise.

REACH has been providing outreach for the last 25 years in all areas of Seattle and so really going to that street based reputation working with folks long term, whether it's to help move them into a placement, whether it's there's not the right placement for them and helping them find the right placement.

It's really going back to that just lived experience by name, working with them to identify the different needs and find the right fit and then working with people in a long term kind of capacity to allow that time to create that relationship and give them the space to provide more information if maybe on the first time they don't tell us everything and really recognizing that folks need some time to give us all the answers to their story.

Regarding the community response, this really is a community effort.

It's important for us to coordinate with not only other social service providers who might be working with the folks who we come in contact with, but the community.

So other folks who are living in the area, residents, neighbors, businesses who are near the folks we are working with.

Some of the folks we work with have are commonly encountered in front of businesses or sidewalks or public spaces.

It's important for us to stay in communication with the folks who are responsible for those spaces and those businesses so that they understand what we're doing, that they don't interfere in a way that disrupts the work that we're doing and that they understand that this is the most appropriate response.

Our fourth approach is compassion.

We take the time to get to know our clients for weeks, what their specific needs are, and together we come up with a plan that makes our clients feel heard and at the center of this project.

Next slide.

The Just Care process is best summarized as following these primary steps.

We began by making a commitment to individuals living outside in the surrounding neighborhood.

Second, Just Care staff built trust with each individual living at the encampments in the surrounding neighborhood.

Following this period of trust building, the team completes an assessment on each individual to support resource allocation and inform system design.

Next, we prepare each individual at the encampment and the neighborhood for moving day.

And finally, the step of revitalization of individuals through stabilization and lodging and the reactivation of the space by the neighborhood.

Next slide, please.

The first step is commitment.

We stay engaged with the surrounding community, so consistently participate in community conversations about public safety, about addressing homelessness, about community concern or businesses who might have concern.

The green highlighted sites, so these are sites that Just Care has worked at.

and the green highlighted sites we'll talk about a little bit more later.

It is, you know, we commit to participants first and foremost, and we have worked at and addressed 14, come up with 14 different encampment resolutions in under two years.

We have served over 500 participants during that time, 68% of who identify as BIPOC.

Just Care also commits to the communities.

We are engaged with neighborhoods, the CID, Pioneer Square, and Downtown Corridor.

We attend community meetings where neighborhood concerns are brought up, respond to stakeholders, address individual business concerns that's large and small, do intentional outreach to smaller businesses who might not have a voice in larger organized meetings, and we also respond to and communicate with the media as needed.

Next slide, please.

Our next step is build trust.

This step takes our field's team weeks.

We are out every morning handing out food, harm reduction supplies, and warm clothes.

We get to know who is living there and who is stopping by.

Sometimes a client doesn't want to engage, and that makes sense.

We try not to be in a rush, but rather build trust through consistency and showing up every day.

And this is where we get to understand some of the vulnerabilities, dynamics, and specific needs of the sites.

We also engage with the neighborhood, work with businesses and neighborhood leaders to create activation plans once all folks are indoors.

And next slide.

After an often weeks long period of trust building, the Just Care field team transitions into the assessment step of the Just Care process.

This step aims to address the problem that care providers need to solve of how to equitably and intentionally connect individuals to a limited number of community resources.

Through the administration of a field-based assessment, the outreach team surveys each individual about their situation and what types of support they are seeking.

After retrieving explicit consent, the field team accesses information about each individual and community databases to gauge their system involvement.

This includes accessing an individual's homeless service engagement, behavioral health system involvement, and criminal legal history.

These findings are all compiled on a site-specific by name list.

A by name list is a tool that supports resource allocation and team coordination.

And it is used in the Just Care process and also by reach at other encampments and in housing case conferences.

A by name list allows us to equitably and intentionally allocate specific resources based on individual needs and preferences.

And it also allows us to better understand and elevate the experiences of individuals living outside to inform the system and tailor program design.

It also creates a space for information sharing.

to problem solve, safety plan, better inform the encampment timeline, and track linkages to lodging outcomes.

A binding list is the way to center client voice while holding ourselves and the system accountable to their needs.

With the compiled information, the field team can better understand eligibility, need, desires, and relative vulnerability.

All critical components of intentional and equitable resource matching in order to connect individuals to lodging provided by Just Care, Coaline and Equity, and the shelters coordinated by the HOPE team, and also to address other requested support needs like harm reduction resources.

Because of the assessment process, Just Care is also able to provide comprehensive analysis with more confidence on the experience and acuity of individuals living in encampments downtown, because this information is gathered only after a dedicated period of trust building.

Wendy, can I jump in and just ask a question real quick before we pivot to the next slide?

I really appreciate this slide.

I think it's very instructive and helpful for our discussion.

Can you talk a little bit about these equity, co-lead, and hope icons on the bottom here in terms of what those symbolize and what those placements are?

Yes, of course.

So equity and co-lead are two of the lodging resources available through Just Care.

When the field team is working to determine the best lodging resource match for an individual, these are the resources that are considered.

So these icons here represent two of the available shelter models provided through Just Care.

We can go to the next slide unless there's another question.

Matt, that's fine for now.

Well, actually, let me ask just a brief follow up.

Does HOPE indicate the HOPE team resources?

So would that be more like tiny house village placements and things of that nature?

Yes, it does.

Great, thanks.

Thank you, Whitney.

Yeah, so to kind of taking that question into consideration.

So that is like a really helpful part of the by name list is that we know that not everybody fits into an equity hotel or co-lead hotel.

And then the rest that we have to work with is hope placement.

And so that's where the by name list is really helpful in identifying and triaging around that, because we know we don't have enough resources for everybody through that pathway.

And so we are put in the position of having to make clinical assessments as well as prioritization assessments.

to decide out of that limited pool provided by the HOPE team, who are the best fits for what we have out of that amount.

And so the by name list is really helpful in resource allocation and matching, as well as for identifying what would be the best fit for people that we don't have enough of.

For example, tiny house villages like that seems to be a really huge fit for a lot of folks, but we just don't have enough of them.

Or also identifying the resources that would be the best fit for a person that just in general do not exist.

I know in doing other similar by name lists in other areas.

For example, if we're looking at this chart at the types of support requested, the intersection of physical health, mental health, substance use, there aren't appropriate shelters offered through the HOPE team that would fit someone with that.

There aren't shelters that have ADA accessible sheltering spots.

So if somebody has a huge physical health need barrier, that resource doesn't exist for them.

And so being able to like use a by name list and that kind of systematic way to identify those resources that do not exist for people that need them and how that is a systematic failure that continues to keep them in the system of homelessness is an issue and that's how we use the Banging List for more systemic processes.

And so I think Hittney really hit on a lot of the points of what I said, but I just wanted to highlight of some of the numbers.

Here, a third of the encampment participated have experienced five years of homelessness.

That's a significant point because it changes the kind of intervention that's necessary for that person.

If you're looking at it less than a year of homelessness, the needs that that person has encountered, the barriers that they've encountered, and the trauma that they've encountered is different than someone that's been out for five years.

So getting a good profile on the length of homelessness that exists in the encampments is going to give an indication of the dynamics that exist there.

Because if the predominant group that exists in that one site have been there homeless for over five years, there's a good chance they hit on every single one of the marks that are hitted here, the type of support that people need.

And then we're looking on the other side, that 88% of encampment participants did be honest and open about their wants and desire for substance use support.

And that's really based on the time-based, relationship-based approach, where we get that kind of honesty to begin with.

As many of you guys saw, the viagra is racist and terrible use, but one of those marks is that when people ask about, oh, what's your substance use, people interpret it as, I'm going to be further stigmatized for this behavior and I'm going to answer dishonestly.

And that's why a lot of people get X out from certain things because they don't feel that the system is going to believe them or honor their youth or their needs in the way that they really want and need.

And so I think that it's really significant that over, you know, four fifths of the population are saying, I do want this help.

Tanya, do you have a question?

I do, thanks.

Tawny Kim with HSD.

Just a quick point of clarification.

This isn't, of course, HSD's presentation, but wanted to clarify, since the HOPE team is a part of HSD, that we do have ADA accessible resources, as well as some other resources.

So just wanted to offer that clarification.

Now, whether it's readily available, but this isn't about the HOPE team, but wanted to offer as a clarification there.

Yeah, thank you for that.

Absolutely.

What's available?

It's not always readily available for people.

I think we can move on to the next slide then.

Moving day.

So our next step is prepare for moving day.

This is around when our days get longer.

We are playing Tetris with our client specific needs and our limited resources.

We're signing hotel rooms and collaborating with hotel staff.

arranging our transportation for our clients and collaborating with teams like Hope if they're available.

Our field team goes out days before to make sure everyone is aware of the move plan and where they're going and to make sure that they have all the supplies necessary to move.

And the morning of the move where they're bright and early and going all day until everyone has moved inside or has a plan.

And our work doesn't just stop that day.

We continue outreaching afterwards for anyone we come across at other sites.

Also, we include the surrounding neighborhoods and businesses, help coordinate site activation when our work is complete.

We stay in contact so that we can discuss a timeline for when we expect that to be complete.

Just keep folks aware, keep attending public meetings so people know that we're making progress.

The outreach team, consistently visits surrounding businesses and goes into the small businesses just to keep people aware of, hey, this is the work that we're doing today, and this is the timeline that we expect.

And to ask people that they don't take action that would interfere with the work that we're doing.

just so folks are aware that something is going to happen and there is going to be a resolution to some of their concerns.

We also coordinate with DSA and Parks and Recreation for debris removal afterwards.

So that is also really important.

Next slide, please.

So looking on the left, you'll see that the objective of this approach is to find a plan for everybody or as close to everybody as we possibly can get.

And over the space of time from October 2020 to March 2021, you see the distribution of destinations that people were able to take up.

By and large, most people moved into a Just Care hotel.

There were a tiny number of people who were offered and declined, and there were specific, often power dynamics there involving exploitative situations that drove those decisions, but a vanishingly small number of people offered and not accepting those resources.

There are a few people for whom the resources that we have to offer are not consistent with their physical health needs or very, very high acuity mental health needs and where we weren't able to find a match.

But as was just noted, So, throughout that period, when necessary and when HOPE resources were available, the HOPE team was fantastic at supplementing what we could offer through the Just Care shelters.

So, and you see a racial distribution of those who received help through the project and that overwhelmingly the recipients of placement resources were BIPOC.

On the right-hand side, we see the City Hall Park story.

And I'm just going to move us on in the interest of time.

But the distribution of people who left City Hall Park reflects that almost everybody had a plan to move inside that worked for them, that they voluntarily accepted.

And that site was completed when each of those people had a plan.

It was only at that point that we were finalizing the timeline and working on debris removal for the items that people chose to leave behind them.

We can move on.

I think we can move two slides down.

These are just photographs of people inside and what the space looks afterwards.

We just have a couple or like five quick slides showing some examples of this work.

Tiara?

Yeah, so here are A couple of photos of the work before and after.

This one's Second Avenue Extension in Maine.

You can advance, please.

And then Pioneer Square Park that we worked on in October.

Next, please.

8th and King, where we worked at in December of 2021. And King Street Station, and that was in February.

4th and Pike in February as well.

And then I will call Kirby just to add some comments about the work at those sites and observation.

Yeah, I just wanted to mention that the King Street was a really great example of how we collaborated and adjusted.

We had a higher number of immigrant clients there, so we had to respond to their specific needs.

And our fourth site, which was our last big project, we had a great partnership with DSA MidClean team, where they showed up, saw what we were doing, and jumped in to collaborate.

Thanks, Kirby.

I should just mention that last site, Fourth and Pike in the last slide, was our last site to make placements from.

I know that's not grammatical.

But we are at an end of new placements unless there is a continuation plan, because we only have a few more months of funding left.

And we'll need to find an exit plan for people to move on in a secure way.

And if we bring people on from now forward, will really not be possible to do that.

This is a summary of the equity team's impact, Victor.

Now, so to provide some context, the Just Care Program, we've renamed ourselves as Equity Just Care, just to align with the scope of work that we do to really reflect that we live with equity and address disparities with the BIPOC and a significant number of LGBTQ plus individuals.

Our services are provided at a downtown Seattle hotel that I referenced earlier.

And our hotel actually holds the most number of clients.

The unique part of the Equity Just Care Program also is that we serve clients with the most highest acuity mental health and substance use disorder issues with chronic mental health and substance use disorder.

Since implementation on November 2020, as of today, we have served over 147 unduplicated clients.

And to me, I just want us to take a moment to reflect on the impact we have made in such a short period of time, of which the clients that we, at this time, as on today, we have 71 currently active clients at our hotel.

And as on today, 67 clients have been assisted with housing support.

All of us are well aware that the Just Care program is going to be a transition, a pathway to support an individual to housing support.

So that has always been our value from day one.

I'm really pleased to say that we have assisted 67. And as of today, 50 clients have transitioned into permanent support housing, 13 pending on wait list.

So it's going to be an overall of 63. Again, the unique thing about this program beyond the service population is a 24-7 care that is provided by a multidisciplinary team with licensed behavioral health professional, mental health professional, substance use disorder professional, as well as advanced registered practitioner nurses.

So it's a very skilled team.

And coincidentally, all of us in this program, we are POC, some of us have live experience.

We also are from the LGBTQ community.

That allows us to have the shared experience to deliver culture competence care for the clients we serve that really focus on that relationship and building that trust and leading with equity.

And the last one on this slide that I want to note is that Stephanie already spoken about WDC, We Deliver Care, where she's a co-founder.

We are really glad that we can partner with WDC when there's a need for the escalation service.

Our approach is to use a community a community diversion approach versus law enforcement.

Because a lot of our clients, as I talked about earlier, are bi, queer, LGBTQ, which already have not very positive experience with law enforcement, as well as they already have some trauma.

So I'm really glad that there's this partnership with WDC.

And WDC, to my understanding, is a 100% Black lab organization as well.

Thank you.

We can move on to the next slide, but I do want to say, despite that WDC has provided this incredible non-police safety response, SPD has been a great partner as well in this work.

The level of awareness of what we're doing and willingness to coordinate so that we're not stepping on each other's operations and work has been exceptional and the more SPD personnel have become aware of the ability of this team to work on many situations that in the past they would have been called to respond to, the more support we've seen.

And so we really appreciate that partnership.

Dr. Sin.

Thank you.

So we find the people that we serve at the intersection of homelessness, complex medical and behavioral health needs, significant trauma history and substance use disorder.

And COLEAD has served 159 unduplicated clients with legal system involvement as well.

And currently we have 106 active COLEAD participants who are located in four lodging sites in the city of Seattle.

And they all sites include highly intensive case management, And you can see on the slide, 60 hours of case management and contact through 90 plus service encounters by the responders.

And this also incorporates a really integral part of safety support through de-escalation through one of our partners, the WDC safety team.

currently 23 participants connected with emergency housing vouchers in order to support them with their transition into permanent housing.

Next slide.

Just to reiterate that as impactful and successful as this partnership has proven to be, and we've made many modifications in the approach as needed over the last 18 months, there are There are system gaps that we collectively try to raise up that we ourselves cannot solve for.

There are some individuals out there who are not either going to be civilly committed, or if they are, they're going to come right back out the back end of that process without any real progress in addressing deep needs.

So highest acuity mental illness is definitely a gap.

There are some people, a small number, who cannot be safely, although we've tried and try to give everybody a chance.

There are some people who have not been able to work with the safety requirements of this sort of community living.

Many of those people though remain in touch with the team and have been placed again in the future or are community supporters, even if they leave.

And again, this is a small number of people.

To connect people to care, folks are not going to stay with us forever, and that is not the model.

So connecting people to care involves encountering and trying to resolve some eligibility barriers to benefits, particularly for the immigrant non-citizen population.

Tenuous funding, this program has been operating without assurance of continued support for most of its existence.

has also had to move locations numerous times as hotels went back into commercial traffic.

And so in addition to all the other functions, the team has had to be like a moving company.

We would be able to elevate and intensify our impact if we just knew that we were going to be doing this work for a longer period of time and knew where we would be doing the work.

The COVID impact has hit our team.

One of our key team members is ill and not with us today for that reason.

And like almost everybody during the Omicron surge, we faced staffing impacts that made it tough to continue the work and have needed to work on workforce incentives to make sure that we could recruit and retain staff.

We have been able to do that.

Conflicting initiatives and approaches, this just flags that this approach requires essentially like site control that what people at the site are being told is consistent and that we are able to follow through.

And when various entities are kind of bearing down on the same site with a different plan of action, it can get confusing and can impede trust development.

So hopefully going forward, there will be a really solid alignment of approach among the various entities that have been assigned responsibility to respond to unsheltered homelessness.

We are at the end, except for one beautiful quote from Victor.

So I'm going to actually share this quote from one of the Equity Program participants with her permission.

I don't have to worry about what I got to wake up to.

When I need someone, they're always there.

I care about myself more than I did before I come here.

My walls are so high.

It's from my dad dying, my mom dying, me being raped at 11 years old.

Since I've been here, my wall has been almost down.

It is a miracle.

To be honest, it is the only program that I didn't get kicked out.

The program not here, it would be a lot more homelessness, a lot more people found dead, a lot more outside overdose.

They got me stronger.

When I get into another place, I won't be out homeless again.

I feel ready.

And this is one of the hundreds of clients that we have served that have make an impact.

I really urge the city council to think about a way to maintain this program, a model of care that has proven to be effective to treat our unsheltered homeless clients who can be a brother, a sister, a family member who need the care that they need with respect, dignity, and compassion.

Thank you.

Victor, thank you so much for those closing words.

And thank you, Lisa and the other presenters for that comprehensive presentation.

Victor, I cannot agree more with that sentiment, and really think that's a good transition to start moving toward how we might accomplish that.

Before we do so, though, I want to recognize Brian Cannon to give some remarks from the Downtown Seattle Association and the Metropolitan Improvement District.

You know, I do so because I want to recognize one of the things I love so much about working with Just Care and this program is the coalition building in the neighborhoods where Just Care is active to not be siloed, to take advantage of other resources, to build partnerships, and to win hearts and minds that other approaches are effective that, you know, that they can get everybody's needs met in a way that centers what all of us wanna see.

And the DSA has been an integral part of this work and the MID has been an integral part of this work.

And I'm thrilled that we have Brian here to speak to that before we pivot to the next part of the discussion.

And Brian, now would be the time and thank you for being here.

Please take it away.

Thanks for the opportunity to share and talk about our experiences and our support for Just Care.

It's really hard to follow that presentation.

Our team has worked with them over the past two years, and they do incredible work.

And I do want to say starting from my experience working on quality of life issues in downtown over the past 10 years, we know that suites don't work.

Over the years I've seen people displaced, I've seen people lose contact with their caseworkers and their support systems, and I've seen people lose vital personal possessions like IDs and medications.

What does work is the Just Care approach.

In all the time that I've been kind of working in public realm work, especially in downtown, Just Care is the most effective program that I've seen in terms of addressing encampments, moving people indoors into supportive environments, and to helping to stabilize individuals to be able to adjust the course of their life.

Several of our mid-teams have worked with Just Care.

Our outreach team has assisted at some locations in making connections with clients.

Our staff has also worked at several locations to help connect Just Care with properties and businesses that are impacted by nearby encampments.

That public outreach that I've seen has been just a vital part of the work that they do.

Understanding just kind of the impact on local businesses, on local properties, and making that extra step to, you know, sometimes involve them and making sure they're aware of what's going on.

And then Just Care has also partnered with our clean team to assist with trash removal as people are moving into housing.

And then just one other thing I would like to mention.

Some of the frustration that we've seen over the past two years is just the limits of funding as well as the impacts of a program that has to be run with short-term contracts.

With funding, I've seen Just Care be able to move really quickly and operate at scale, though once they hit the limits of their funding, they're often just kind of stuck in a holding pattern.

I'm grateful that they've had their contracts renewed several times, but similar to the situation that they're in right now, we've seen with looming end dates, they often find themselves in the position of not being able to take on more clients, just looking at that possible forced exit at the end of a contract.

If anything, I just want to reiterate, I've never seen a program as effective as Just Care in its ability to quickly move people indoors with supportive services and to do so at scale.

very much appreciate their work and their partnership.

And I hope that this program can be funded and for the long term.

So thank you.

Brian, thank you so much for those strong statements.

I really appreciate you prefacing your remarks at the beginning about the difference between traditional sweeps and the work that is being done by this group here and the contrast in effectiveness.

Because, I mean, I have seen the exact same result that you're speaking to.

And it, you know, I mean, when people see it and when people interact with it, I mean, it converts them to this way of doing business and this way of helping our neighbors.

So with that, I do have a memo from central staff that I think a lot of people have reviewed.

It's been publicly posted.

And we have Jeff Sims from central staff who can just walk through it real quick.

Because, Brian, your remarks are an excellent pivot to the thing that we all agree on and how can we figure out how to do it, which is I have a question for Jeff.

Can we give this program the support and the resource necessary to avoid funding cliffs?

To avoid delays in service?

To guarantee continuity of service?

And what would that cost for that we did just to kind of get an idea of what it would cost to scope it.

You know, these numbers are going to be preliminary.

We, you know, we can also have a discussion about, you know, exactly how it would work for this to be ongoing.

Like no funding source has been identified just for members of the general public.

But before we have those discussions, we do need to kind of just come together in scope, like what are we talking about being honest in terms of the numbers and the potential hit that it would have to our budget.

So I just wanted to give that context at the beginning and Jeff will go through this analysis and break it down and then we can have a bit of a conversation where we open it up to colleagues for questions and we can also do questions of the DSA and central staff during that time.

So Jeff, why don't I turn it over to you?

Thank you for the record, Jeff Finns, Council Central staff.

The chair asked Central staff to prepare three different numbers in advance of the committee meeting.

I don't have slides, I'll just talk through what the three are and the three data points and how they came out.

The first was an estimate of when acquiring a hotel or multiple hotels in order to achieve a range of 100 to 150 hotel rooms at cost.

The second was what would be the associated annual debt service for such a capital investment, assuming that there would not be a one-time upfront acquisition that was fully paid for and not the resources for that.

And then third was the estimated operational funding to maintain Just Care on an annual basis going forward.

I want to acknowledge that I work with Tracy Ratzliff, who is also on the call right now on central staff, and Tom Mikesell, who is not with us today but could be reached if we need to for further follow-up.

The results of those three, on question number one, we utilized information from the health and housing sales tax acquisitions that the county has undertaken because the city has not actually been purchasing hotels.

We've acquired other types of buildings.

And using that estimate, we could see a range, depending on the number of units and what the types of the configuration of those would be.

Some, for example, have kitchens.

Some don't.

You could see a range anywhere from $12 to $47 million.

If we just used what was the average cost per bed from the Health Through Housing Sales Tax and did some simple math, we'd estimate that it costs about $21 million to acquire something around 100 beds.

and approximately $32 million to acquire 150 hotel shelter beds.

The associated debt service, then, recall that this would assume a 20-year bond issuance, about a 3% cost of issuance, 4% annual interest rate.

So the annual debt service is what we would be estimating.

And just using those numbers I just gave, the $21 million and the $32 million, we would assume the annual debt service would be $1.6 million.

That'd be for 100 beds.

For 150 beds, it would be $2.4 million.

So if you're keeping track at home, we're actually, we'll get to the next one in a minute.

And then the last data point was operational funding.

And I wanna thank everyone from the Just Care teams that assisted in this and making sure that I had all the right numbers, which fortunately we were able to compare against recent contracts, things like that.

It's estimated that operations of 100 beds would cost $4.9 million.

You'd need 7.3 million for 150 beds.

So now if you're keeping track at home, the bottom line would be that for 150 beds, which is comparable to what Just Care currently operates as its main base, would be about $10 million in annual funding and on an ongoing basis.

With that, I'll yield over to my time back to the chair.

i'm thinking so much jeff i i do want to know real quick to uh...

you know just because we we don't really know how the legislative session in olympia's and we can be hopeful uh...

about how that's going to go uh...

but for this exercise i'm as jeff indicated i did i did sort of assume what if we had to by uh...

some kind of hoteling asset on our own and without the additional support uh...

my understanding is that the state does come through with the level we are anticipating, that could be a potential source of revenue to do something like this that would avoid the entire potential need for this whole bonding exercise.

but I did just want to, for the general public that is viewing, I wanted to make sure that we did a little diligence on that option, assuming a potential worst-case scenario of external support.

an attainable goal to keep this going.

So with that, I'm happy to turn it over for questions from colleagues.

It's been a long presentation.

I appreciate your patience, but I think given the stakes of what we're talking about, it's worth it to really dig in here.

So does anyone have a question in terms of council members who are present?

Okay, my colleagues are not jumping up and down to ask questions initially, so I think I'll jump in a little bit and ask a few clarifying questions in terms of some of the things that we covered over the course of the discussion.

Can we talk a little bit about assuming the program were to go away in June?

what the impact of your wind down would be in terms of people currently on your caseload and kind of the exit planning that would be required in that kind of a circumstance.

I can start.

We are, of course, working on that as a contingency plan because it would be irresponsible not to.

As some of our partners in public policy positions have pointed out, whether the program continues or not, we should – the way forward is the same.

We should try to find Permanent housing placements for everybody that we're working with right now, because if the program does continue that will make sure that we have additional space to begin to place more people.

So it is still the right.

It's the right thing to do either way about a third of our folks have.

been identified for emergency housing vouchers through the Regional Homelessness Authority.

We really want to acknowledge a great co-planning partnership with RHA around both those vouchers and also what needs to happen for exit planning for our current participants there.

We're meeting on Friday to do some scenario planning.

But so those vouchers come with challenges for our population and finding units that will accept them.

We have an incredible team working to resolve those.

But that still leaves two-thirds of our folks who will need to find housing strategies through coordinated entry, which has historically not prioritized this population.

I know about half of us could go on for hours about that, and I will not.

But just know that without a different approach to coordinated entry, this population will not find its way into permanent housing through that channel.

RHA has put that topic on the table and we really appreciate that.

That's a structural system change that's overdue.

And then sort of other strategies to find housing outcomes for people are going to be more ad hoc.

Quite a few people have by a couple dozen people, maybe three dozen people have found housing by becoming employed and supporting themselves in this very difficult time to do that and find housing in this region, but they have been able to do that.

So some of this is kind of one-off solutions.

So in any event, we have turned all power to that project.

And if the project is, if Just Care does sustain, that means that we'll have a lot of open capacity to take on more folks.

Anybody want to add anything?

So Lisa, just as a follow-up, if instead there was the identification of some kind of general fund-esque support, like so instead of one-time federal dollars, like an ongoing support of general fund that can be more broadly used and more effectively used.

Can you talk a little bit about how that might programmatically impact the effectiveness of Just Care moving forward in terms of your ability to do this work and what we might expect to see potentially from a program that was supported in that?

Yes, I want to just the partner I forgot to acknowledge about that exit planning and contingency planning is King County Behavioral Health and Recovery Division and DCHS who are looking at mobilizing their housing division to assist with people who would potentially match with health through housing or other strategies that they have available.

So I want to thank them as well.

In terms of programmatic impact of stabilization of funding, I just can't say enough about it's astonishing that the team's been able to have the impact that it has given the adverse conditions that it's been working in both having to relocate the site of the sheltering facilities multiple times.

as well as trying to recruit and retain staff when we have no idea whether or not the program is going to continue.

I think everybody watching knows the workforce challenges in every sector.

And those are really complicated when you can't tell people what their job will look like in three months.

And so there's no doubt that it will stabilize recruitment and staff retention.

And it will allow us to be more methodical about sort of timeline and sequencing.

Right now, there are a number of neighborhood partners who have identified completely appropriate, you know, sites and groups of people, other social service providers who have identified folks that we really should work with and being able to provide an answer about what folks can expect rather than we'd love to, we don't know if we can, we don't know when we can, we'll certainly build legitimacy and confidence.

And at some point, we will have a better idea about how many people in the Catchment area, the downtown and adjacent neighborhoods are really, you know, best matched to just care.

other approaches come online led by RHA and so sort of figuring out the division of labor there and who are the folks who we are the right match to is something that we look forward to doing.

There are people when Just Care and HOPE have been the only options There's no question that we've taken a few people who probably didn't need the level of service that we provide, and so sorting out that division of labor will be really important.

Thank you for all of that.

I definitely look forward to that kind of a world in the near future.

That's probably just the most honest way I can say it.

Council Member Herbold, you had a question?

I just want to turn to the central staff memo and the statement in this memo given the budget general fund revenue, increasing ongoing general fund expenditure to cover the service and ongoing capital costs will exacerbate the problem, unless a dedicated source of funds is identified.

And so what I am seeing here is that we're looking at identifying ongoing non-general fund source of funds for up to $10 million a year.

I just think it's really important that we think about how we are going to propose to identify a source for this very needed purpose within the context of the efforts that the budget office and the executive departments in collaboration hopefully, with the council is going through right now.

There are not decisions that have been made, but the city budget office and the executive are, you know, they're going through the 2022 budget to look at making some very, very significant reductions to the budget that we passed last November.

And so this is just all, very challenging to think about how to both add a new dedicated source of funds for this, again, very needed purpose, while simultaneously we are potentially making very, very deep cuts to the budget that we passed in November.

I think we have a lot of work to do.

Councilmember Herbold, I completely agree which is why I wanted to have this hearing in the beginning of March given that we have a looming cliff in June for this program.

I mean, honestly, part of my context for this program is thinking about the future vitality of the general fund in a city where we can't get a grip of the very problems that Just Care is designed to respond to.

And if we're gonna have a compounding decline in the city of a general sense of unease and frustration and malaise around the intersecting issues of chronic homelessness, crime, and everything else that Just Care is effectively responding to, we're gonna have a compounding budget crisis that's gonna continue to impact the city in perpetuity.

So I would hope as we are having this conversation as a city family, we are trying to prioritize investments designed to get our general fund back on track and rebuild the coffers of the city in a way that reduces having a budgeting process of austerity due to COVID-era decline and some of the compounding impacts that we have seen regarding chronic homelessness and crime that have exacerbated that.

So, you know, that's a pivot too, actually, for the panel, and maybe this is for you again, Lisa, but feel free to delegate to somebody else.

who was on the panel.

And I want to be respectful of people's time.

So I would indulge maybe 10 more minutes if people are amenable to that.

But in terms of going forward, as I alluded to earlier when I was introducing Brian, the way Just Care kind of came about has been this evolution of partnerships kind of fusing together in order to tackle common issues as a united front.

And I feel like there are some other neighborhoods in the city where we have seen organizing.

I know my colleague, Council Member Morales, had to unfortunately leave the meeting to go to another meeting, but has done, for example, great organizing in Mount Baker with a community there that would pose potentially great partners for a Just Care expansion.

I know the university district, which has a very active BIA and has tons of partnerships through the institutions at the university itself, would potentially be another place that could be a great opportunity for those kinds of partnerships.

Obviously, we are not talking about that today.

We are talking about the survival of this essential program.

But I did want to plant a flag and get your response.

Going forward, is there the possibility to explore ways that we can look to continue to expand and replicate the role this program is serving in other neighborhoods that have similar partners and similar institutions take advantage of sheltering programs resourced the way Just Care is?

Our goal in starting down this road was to demonstrate that this can work.

And having experienced that, you know, that model, that lesson is available for expansion and replication.

I will say, you know, to your earlier question about stable funding, you know, what would be the operational impact.

If there is a plan for people that we engage and support for six to nine months to move on to appropriate permanent housing, and we've often said a lot of it, almost everybody that comes in the front door would traditionally have been thought to be an appropriate candidate for permanent supportive housing.

But after months of support, that is often not necessary.

In that sorting process, people could head off into various directions, but if there were an established plan to get this population into permanent supportive house or sorry into permanent housing solutions, we could use the same.

rooms, you know, over and over again.

So 150 rooms can support hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people over a several year period.

And that begins to be a real, you know, to have a real impact on the citywide population that fits the suite of services that we're providing here.

So I think ultimately, yes.

the population that we could work with appropriately is larger than the number of people we've served so far, but it's not infinite.

So yes, ultimately, over a multi-year period, I think it could have a citywide impact.

Okay, thanks for that.

I mean, I would hope that if we put something together, I'm not sure if there is a need in the spring to expand the program.

We might put in some kind of statement of legislative intent or something to that effect to monitor opportunities to look toward the expansion of this program to go to other nodes in the city and provide this essential service.

I'm going to move on to the next item.

This is for director Kim who I know is here and has been very patient.

Thank you for spending your afternoon with us, director Kim.

I do think one thing we need to address, too, in terms of the We're going to have to have a conversation if we do want to continue this program about where this program would live.

and the current contract, as I understand it, while we are supporting this program with money transmitted through HSD to the county, King County holds the contract.

It is something we were not quite able to migrate to the regional homelessness authority in the fall, despite actually the council, with my recollection, wanting to figure out a way to send it to the authority.

But at that time, it wasn't quite practical since the existence beyond June was not clear.

I guess that my question for Director Kim in like her professional opinion being the person who would either be kind of working with RHA if we moved this to RHA or putting this into one of the HSD workgroups.

Like initially if there's any thoughts about where we would want this program to live if we were to fund it.

I realize it's a little cart before the horse because we need to find the money first.

But if we do, it would just be good to maybe queue up a conversation for some time in April where we could kind of have that discussion as well, obviously with county and RHA officials in the room to hash it out.

But just some of your initial reactions, Director Kim, as the professional in this area.

Thanks.

Well, it's my pleasure to be here with such a great panel.

So thank you for letting me sit in.

I think you're right, it just warrants further conversation.

You know, I was brought into this very recently, and I haven't had an opportunity to talk with the executive or with RHA, but I think you're onto something, that more conversation needs to be had.

I'm a mission-driven person, and so, and also I look to the RHA for their leadership around our region's strategy.

And I know that that's why we're supporting them to succeed.

But you're right.

So I'm there when we're ready to have those conversations.

I'm happy to have those.

We will try to queue that up in our work plan for an April committee meeting.

Presuming we have some good conversations about ways to bake this into the mayor's balance package somehow.

Pending tough financial conversations.

Thanks so much.

I really want to thank the panel for this robust presentation today.

And I just want to again remind maybe the viewing public, and I know folks on this panel are well aware, that the council specifically has really tried to make sure to not treat homelessness and homeless services as a business as usual investment in the budget.

The last budget investment, and I believe Lisa Dugard, you mentioned this, At the beginning Council's budget for 2022, we started with building back the Just Cares model and I want to thank Council Members Herbold and Council Member Lewis for really their staunch support for this program and continuing to bring it up throughout the budget negotiation discussions at Council's level.

But we built it back for another six-month period and I think that the The takeaway message that I am getting from today's presentation is we all want to make sure we're not in that situation where we're having to rebuild Just Cares every six months when it's truly a proven program that helps create stability.

And as all of the panelists from community to business leaders have noted, is effective at making sure that folks get into housing.

So appreciate the work you've done.

And again, I think that you know, to clarify for anybody who is out there who's wondering how council has approached this before.

A, council rebuilt this program in the 2022 budget, and B, $115 million from council's general fund is going into the Regional Homelessness Authority, which makes up near 70% of the Regional Homelessness Authority budget.

So when 68% of the funding is coming from the city, And as the vice chair of finance has noted, we all are gearing up for these conversations around short-term or time-limited funding going into ongoing investment needs.

There is going to be a budget crunch, but this is something that's predated me as budget chair.

This is something that predated the COVID, predated the last few chairs as well.

And I think it gets back to our need for ongoing progressive revenue.

We've had a population that's grown by 21% in the last 10 years, and we haven't seen, absent the jumpstart program on progressive payroll tax, we haven't seen corresponding investments in deep revenue changes.

So I think that that's something to very much be considered here.

I appreciate the ongoing need that's been flagged and I too want to make sure that there is ongoing funding specific for homeless services, including just cares, so that we can create that stability stability for programs and really importantly.

stability for the human service providers.

I want to appreciate all of you in fighting for the cost of living increase, the AWI application that hadn't been approved for 10 years before.

We on council helped to fight for that, and you all were very vocal in that.

So we got some additional funding in last year's budget, and there's an ongoing wage study happening right now, but I think that those two things go hand in glove.

Stability for funding for services and supporting the providers.

And I had two questions.

One is related to the Regional Homelessness Authority.

I've been pleased in some of the initial outreach that I have done to Mark Jones and the team at the Regional Homelessness Authority when asking about support for the Just Cares program.

Pretty immediately heard back that there is space for that conversation.

Want to hear more about the cost of how to get us through at least 2022. And an openness to having a dialogue there, especially perhaps given the additional funding, $10 million coming from philanthropic contributions just two weeks ago.

Perhaps there's another opening there.

So there is a referral to somewhere and that somewhere being just cares would be.

So wondering how those conversations have gone and would love to hear more about the stability in terms of funding and potential opportunity with Regional Homelessness Authority at least through 2022. And then the second question I have is a lot of conversations were had throughout last year, a pledge from our current mayor to create 2,000 new units for services, excuse me, homeless shelter and services.

And I think that's really important.

I think on the end of that spectrum, I've been really focused on building the housing, which is what Jumpstart really focuses on, building more affordable housing and permanent supportive housing so that there's an exit from shelters, which are currently at capacity.

So we know we need to build additional housing and we need to build additional shelter.

With the mayor's pledge for 2 million new units, Can you tell us more about where you all have been plugged in on that, excuse me, 2,000 new units?

Can you tell me where you all have been plugged in on that, how that conversation's going?

Ideally, we'd be around 333 new units given that it's March 1st right now, but we know that there's a lot in flux given RHA taking all the contracts over, implementation happening right now.

Lots of funding being discussed at the state level.

How do you see the creation of 2,000 units coming together and anything that you can lift up for us that we can support?

First, I do want to say we wouldn't be here making this presentation today without the leadership of this council in making sure that this impact was possible.

So this would be a historical reflection at this point.

So thank you so much for that leadership.

I think the thing about the 2,000 unit concept is that it always, to my understanding, has been a blended concept, incorporating has to be new, not units that were already planned or in the pipeline to have the impact that was theorized that I know everybody wants to see.

And so some of it has to be bridge housing, what has variously been referred to as, we use the term temporary lodging or bridge housing.

And that is the resource that allows for very nimble movement.

And then, as we described in the presentation, sort of a deeper dive into what is happening in somebody's life so that a good housing placement can be designed and identified.

And so bridge housing really has or temporary lodging has a really valuable place in that portfolio of the 2000 units that hopefully will come online.

And we are some, sorry, my dog feels strongly about this too.

We are somewhere between 150 and we presently have 240 rooms.

So that's a important but minor slice of the 2000 unit goal.

So if we can hang on to this and others are augmenting in other ways, we can really have the impact that that 2000 unit pledge is intended to deliver.

But going backward, obviously, we're going to see deteriorating conditions on the street.

In terms of RHA, I just can't say enough about the thought partnership that we're starting to see emerge there.

And as I said, we're meeting on Friday to talk about support for housing, the people we're currently working with, understanding the impact on the city, if those people were not, did not have a solid exit plan.

But that that has not that has come along with the idea that if the program was continued, that would expand additional capacity to have an immediate impact on the street.

So hopeful.

Well, thank you so much for that.

Given the late hour, I don't have any additional questions I'll ask here, but I do just want to signal a couple next steps.

And I think we still have Jeff and Tracy with us on the line here from Council Central staff.

So in terms of the next step, I do want to have another hearing, and I guess actually for Jacob, committee clerk as well, I do want to have another hearing on this in terms of moving forward, ideally first hearing in April, if that can be accommodated by stakeholders, but we can work on that.

And in the interim, I know the mayor's office is probably listening, too.

Let's try to have a meeting, mayor's office, about how we might incorporate planning around Just Care into our broader public safety planning and homelessness outreach planning.

To the interaction with Director Kim earlier, I firmly believe if this continues, that it should, pending their approval and interest, that it should continue in the regional homelessness authority.

I'm generally supportive of making sure we're integrating most of our homelessness assets in one place.

I'm frankly still a little disappointed that we weren't able to completely square the circle on hope team resources kind of falling under that umbrella as well.

So if this were to continue, I just want to flag that I would like to have a discussion on what that might look like, just to make sure that we are integrating all of our resources in one unified place.

And the RHA, I think, would be the most appropriate in the current landscape.

I'd like to have that conversation with them if they're interested sometime in March as well.

And maybe we can have another hearing in April where we discuss our progress on how to square a lot of these circles.

So that is, I think, a good place to leave it for now.

One thing I do just want to say to everyone here who is doing this work in the field every day that by far this work with you and the work with Just Care is the best thing I've done in my two years and two or so months on the city council.

It is by far the best thing I've done.

It has been a great privilege to watch you guys work and do this and evolve and make a positive impact on an issue that everyone thinks is intractable and prove that there are ways we can bring compassion and our humanitarian spirit to resolving these issues in a humane and compassionate way.

Thank you so much for everything you're doing.

And let's see if we can continue to keep working together.

Thank you.

And with that, this meeting is adjourned.