Seattle City Council Governance, Equity, and Technology Committee Special Meeting 4/2/19

Good morning.

Thank you for being here for our April 2nd meeting of the Governance, Equity, and Technology Committee.

I'm Bruce Herrold, Chair of the Council.

We'll have Councilmember Mosqueda here just in a brief minute or two, and Councilmember Herbold is under the weather today, but I'm sure she's viewing, and we wish her a speedy recovery.

We have two items on our agenda today.

One will be the reappointment of Ryan Vancell, our Seattle hearing examiner, and the second one will be a introduction and explanation of some software, software and a tool to address homelessness and people experiencing homelessness, the Good Samaritan app.

And I'm sort of excited to see how that works.

And so we'll start off with public comment as we always do.

We have one person sign up, I believe this would be Dale Kim.

And so Dale Kim, come on forward and I'd love to hear from you.

I was wondering if it was possible I know that they rolled out the $1.50 low-income bus pass But it's not available at any of the places that you would normally purchase a bus pass Thank you and then so if it was possible to be able to get access to that a little bit more easier instead of having to go down there usually if that's the case and you have funds and issues with time money and whatever all that kind of stuff that you have to yeah just the barrier to entry to get the bus pass would be better would be a lot nicer the second one is the well there was a few things I'm kind of curious about the Seattle strategist who gets paid six figures In terms of the strategy and the overarching things of going, the different components that are at play, the subcommittees that are, I believe, might not be subcommittees anymore.

I do know that this is more of an end discussion instead of more of a working kind of democratic discussion.

But that's just something, in terms of the strategist, maybe that's something he can work on.

It's weird that he gets paid six figures and all this stuff is going on.

So that's just my gripe.

So anyways.

Thank you.

I didn't fully understand the second point, but the first point, I'll be sure to relay the information on better access to.

I have to do a lot of things on the fly.

So a lot of times it's not just like one repair thing.

There's a lot of things that go on simultaneously.

So I just.

Thanks for coming on and sharing your thoughts, Mr. Kim.

We appreciate that.

OK, that'll end our public comment.

session unless someone else is running to the mic.

Otherwise, I'll close that and we'll move into our first agenda item.

So I would ask that anyone associated with the Vancell appointment come forward and join us at the table.

Appointment 01277 reappointment of Ryan P. Vancell as hearing examiner, office of the hearing examiner for a term to March 2020-23.

Okay, why don't we start with introductions?

Tracy Ratzliff, Council Center staff.

Ryan Vansell hearing examiner.

Okay and Tracy do you have any introduction remarks you want to make?

Just to say that Mr. Vansell's here he's completed a one-year appointment as a hearing examiner and he is now here to be considered for reappointment to a four-year term.

Thank you and so for our colleagues and their staff who are following this Tracy's staffing this issue and helping us out and so Ryan I'm a keep it a little informal and call you Ryan if I may as opposed to hearing examiner Vansel sound like I'm appealing a land-use decision or something for those that don't know what the hearing examiner does can sort of explain the job that you have and what your services are the service of the office of hearing examiners to provide forum for appeals of city sorry city

decisions and permits.

We also make recommendations to the council on some items such as rezones, but it's mostly the appeal side that I think the public sees and is familiar with.

That can be land use appeals or also we handle hundreds of citation appeals, which are more like a small claims court level of addressing disputes that people have with the citations they've been issued.

Very good.

And again, to introduce yourself as the hearing examiner for a year, maybe describe your background, starting with your role as the deputy hearing examiner in your private practice, and give the viewing audience a snapshot of sort of who you are and why you're qualified for this position.

Certainly.

Prior to joining the city, I had a practice of 15, 18 years or so in land use.

Most of the appeals we hear are land use appeals.

And so I was a practitioner in that area.

I had the fortunate opportunity to practice in front of the former hearing examiner, Sue Tanner, and also Anne Watanabe, the deputy hearing examiner.

And so I was familiar with some of the city's codes and practices, but also practiced around the state.

When Ms. Watanabe, after 22 years, retired, the position for Deputy Hearing Examiner came open, and I saw it as a great opportunity to participate and get a front row seat, as it were, to land use development under the Growth Management Act in the largest jurisdiction in the state.

And Ms. Tanner saw that I had some merit, and so I joined the office.

She did tell me at the time I was hired that she was looking at retiring soon.

It really didn't enter my mind to, I just knew that I would have a new boss at some point.

She ended up staying with the office for about a year, longer than she had anticipated.

I got very invested in the office and its administration and ensuring that it would be a good functioning body.

really a leader in the state as far as a hearing examiner's office goes.

And when she did go to retirement, I thought it was incumbent on me to make sure that that process was good.

And so I stepped into, threw my hat in the ring, as it were, to be appointed as hearing examiner.

The council saw fit that I could satisfy that duty and so stepped in.

I don't know if you want to hear about the last year or not, There was a lot to it when I stepped in.

As I mentioned, Ms. Watanabe had retired, Ms. Tanner.

We also had an executive assistant retire, so we had decades worth of institutional memory step out of the office just before I stepped in.

And so when I took the office over, we even had the most short-term executive assistant took another job.

So it was me and a legal assistant trying to keep the office functioning with new hires and the deputy hearing examiner role and the executive assistant, which they needed time to get up to speed.

It was a dynamic, exciting time, both administratively for that reason, and then we, of course, have a caseload at a historic high right now with the number of cases we're having.

And last year was an interesting year for the types of cases as well.

We had the Burt Gilman kicked our year off.

It was the first one of the larger cases I had.

Council's familiar with that process.

And then MHA came to us in the summer I imagine if I look back on my land use career someday that that'll be one of, if not the largest hearing that I will have participated in and or handled.

We also had the LID hearings, which was a little bit different than our normal fair, but it was also very involved.

And so that's in a nutshell our year.

I think it went well.

I don't think for the most part that, with exception of the MHA sort of being the big kid that jumps in the pool and displaces all the water, I think we were able to handle our schedule very well and be responsive in a normal course, even though they're behind the scenes.

Keeping things managing was a challenge.

I think you described in both of the Bergamot Trail and MHA and LID issues and many of the land use issues that we cope with, it affects almost everybody.

I mean, it's widespread and it's impactful work.

I would say to many folks just out there, the average person out there, they may not see the effect But they want a solid person and a job, even though they don't see the tangible effect.

So can you describe a little bit about who you are, your values?

Why did you migrate to this kind of work?

Sort of who you are, I don't want the intimate details, but anything you're comfortable with to describe your DNA in terms of why you do what you do and how your value system and how you make the decisions you make.

I'll give it a shot.

We don't often get too personal on the hearing examiner level, but I appreciate the opportunity to do that.

I appreciate the opportunity to do that.

Just what you're comfortable with, of course.

I actually appreciate that.

That's part of how I appreciate their approach.

The position really is that we are a quasi-judicial forum.

We act essentially as a court.

Yet, what's important is that we present a face, that I present a face to every individual that comes into the hearing room, that their case is going to be heard, that their voice is going to be heard, that they have the right to be there.

And I have no problem doing that.

It's very comfortable to me to approach every case that way.

We do see a broad spread of individuals coming in the hearing room, particularly in the citations hearing, and so I really need to be present to listen and be engaged with what they, this may be the only time they have a hearing, and be present with that.

As I mentioned in the outset, part of what drew me to this is simply I'm just very interested in land use.

I had a long practice history in land use.

A lot of that was actually in rural areas and farming and parks and stuff.

And so the opportunity to be engaged with this heavy urban environment was really a joy to me and something that presents new challenges all the time.

So there was that personal intellectual interest.

But the thing that I think keeps me engaged with it is the opportunity to really be engaged with Seattleites on a daily basis and really experience a variety of people.

some point maybe we can talk about where I'd like to take the office.

And that's something that I, writing the ship and just keeping it moving was the job of this last year, both from an administrative point and the large caseload.

But my hope is that the office can be increased in its opportunity for transparency, increased in its opportunity for reaching out to the community, and so that maybe it isn't quite a mystery to everyone so much.

And that can be taken from an angle of either us, the work that we're doing to modernize some of our technology equipment in the office so that people can maybe Skype in for a hearing, to me engaging with different public meetings or something and going out into the community and just meeting people so that they see a face to the person that's behind the dais that is a little more neutral.

More standoffish demeanor is as it were when I'm playing that role, but they get to see that it's a human being in other contexts Thank You, mr. Chair with your love of land use any chance you live in district 4 because we're gonna need that love of land use As we have a sad hole that we will be trying to fill with councilmember Johnson leaving I'm very excited that you do have that appreciation for land use and And I think on the whole, your approach to the Fort Lawton and mandatory housing affordability appeals were pretty well received in terms of perception from the community.

I heard folks thought it was a very fair process.

So my first question is, is there any thoughts that you have in retrospect having dealt with those two pretty big issues already this year that you thought are lessons learned from your first year that you'll be applying to your work going forward should you get the reappointment?

specifically from Fort Lawton or process-wise with MHA and Fort Lawton?

MHA I think the way we approached that case is something that I'll be able to speak at CLEs and teach other hearing examiners how to do this that was that was a process that I had to wing it a lot to make sure that it was done right and I was very I was honored and blessed a bit to feel that I, and not just to feel, but to hear from council on both sides or in other meetings and just about in the community that regardless of how I made my decision, that they felt like they had had a process that was good.

Because there was 29 neighborhood groups that were appealing.

We needed to get it through in a timely manner, but we needed to make sure that every issue that needed to be addressed was addressed.

We had lots of motions in the beginning and then of course a lot of e-motions in the room as we went forward.

And I think that what I come back to with that and what I'd like to continue exploring and developing as we go into our hearings is that element of neutrality and helping individuals, sometimes our local papers, understand that This isn't a political decision for me, that the emotions that people bring into the room are valid, but ultimately that's not what I can make a decision based on, that there's a law in place and help them understand what that process is.

One of the things that I think people are challenged by, and I think even our guide to citizens right now says this, that it's more of a user-friendly forum.

I don't think that's the case at all.

I practiced this a lot for decades and so I...

I find it to be a very challenging forum, even as an attorney coming into it.

And so I would like to explore ways that we can make people feel comfortable there, but understand that this is, they have a right to come in and represent a group which you don't get in court.

You can, the rules of evidence are a little looser, but that means something to an attorney.

It really doesn't mean something to an individual who's never done this before.

So how can we make sure that they really understand what they're in for and be prepared is a direction that I think we need to continue.

Okay, one more.

No, that sort of segues into my next question because during, when you were being interviewed, I remember a question was asked about how does a good hearing examiner distinguish if a person is just on fixed income, they're representing themselves, they don't know the rules of evidence, they're not as sophisticated in terms of procedural issues or legal procedural issues.

versus the very affluent litigant that has hired an attorney from a major firm that knows the evidence rules quite well.

And you're looking at one versus perhaps even litigating against the other, and you're trying to make good solid decisions that can withstand appeal.

So how do you do that?

I mean, and subconsciously there could be all kinds of things working as you're looking at these two, um, perhaps one litigant, uh, enormously disadvantaged.

So, so the question I put it in terms of an RSGI context is how, how do you see RSGI playing out in the things you want to do, uh, in the future?

Uh, you know, the city is, is, is behind our RSGI, uh, uh, initiative.

And has there been experiences in the last year or so that you saw, well, we could do a little better here.

So maybe you could talk a little bit about how your office embraces the RSCI initiative.

Certainly.

There's sort of two parts that I heard in your question, Council President.

There's simply how do you address someone who's maybe a pro se litigant coming in and trying to make their case of something they feel is not right or good or a problem with the system that they've experienced.

And the other side may be very well prepared and or very well financed and have a strong legal team.

And then there's also more specifically the RSGI aspect to that.

In the hearing room, to address the first part of that, in the hearing room, I do have my hands behind my back in a sense.

The law is very clear.

I can't help somebody do their case.

I can't hear what they see as a complaint and a problem with their lives.

As a private practitioner, I helped people fix their lives all the time, and I can't do that in this room So one thing I I can I can do though is make sure that they understand the process maybe we slow it down a little bit if they have a If the other side is going to send a motion in to dismiss, I can give them two weeks to respond instead of one week, something along those lines.

And that's all very normal for any hearing process that I can make sure happens there.

Another piece that I want to keep exploring with the office and just didn't get to with all of the administrative changes and the types of cases we had last year, but that I've been able to do some baby steps with, is improving the opportunity for mediation and making sure that individuals are aware of that.

With mediation, before they come to me where I can explain it to everybody, I'm a thumbs up, thumbs down.

I've got to decide on the law.

But with mediation, there's these long-term relationships often, neighbors that are going to be next to each other, landlords and tenants.

I can't fix all those problems, but if they can go in front of a third party neutral that can help guide them through this process, they can address all kinds of issues that they can't, aren't addressed by the law.

So it's an opportunity that I'd like to try and emphasize through the office if I can.

Specifically with RSGI, we aren't, as I understand it, held to that because we're under the legislative branch and aren't required to follow it.

But I've, once I came on as a deputy hearing examiner, was actually really excited about the opportunities for education and understanding what the city is doing under RSGI.

And so I, even as a deputy, I took as many of the RSGI classes as I could.

When I stepped into it as hearing examiner, it was an immediate priority for me to have the office follow that, required or not.

And so at this point, again, like with the mediation, it went a little slower than I would have liked last year, and things just seemed to, you know, I'm not in private practice anymore, so I can't get it done in a couple months.

But what we were able to do is all of my staff have been through RSGI trainings at this point.

We did do, we've just finished the underlying institutional racism trainings.

So we've got the training in place.

Outside of that, there's some programs we're hoping to really see some progress with.

We've reached out to some local law schools to try to start bringing in, develop relationships as we're at the stage now, but ultimately the goal would be to have law students coming into the hearing room, understanding what land use is, and I would love to see people of color in the context of land use practice.

Right now, I just got statistics from the Bar Association Environmental Land Use Group.

It's a minority within a minority.

There simply are not people of color practicing land use law.

And so to hit it at the student level, I'm trying to focus on that and use our office as a platform for that.

Another opportunity I'm looking at, and this is going to be with council discretion as we go, and please keep an eye on it.

You let me know if I'm not doing it right.

But we have a pro tem budget.

So legitimately within the course of time, we need some help occasionally.

We get overloaded.

I have to choose who that pro tem hearing examiner is going to be.

And one thing, in fact, I think it was Council Member Mosqueda, you mentioned this last year when I was looking at the opportunity to hire a deputy hearing examiner.

Is there an opportunity for people of color to come in at that level?

Because we do land use cases and there aren't practitioners practicing land use, there really wasn't there.

But here, I think I found an opportunity where there are individuals for it.

We've connected with one.

His name is Anthony Jones.

He's from the Port Gallem, Port Gamble Sklallam tribe.

I trip over that one.

He serves the Tulalip folks.

And he's done administrative law.

And so what we're going to do with him and one other candidate later this year is, bring them through a training process so that they really understand the hearing process here in Seattle.

Now, they are fully qualified to do hearings, so I think that I'm within the rubric of what my discretion is to hire them as a pro tem, but we're actually going to make it a training program so that they'll understand Seattle laws.

go have them do hearings, vet with them afterwards, they're observing hearings.

And ultimately my dream would be that when I'm stepping out of this role and or my deputy is that there are people that are qualified that can come into those roles.

So a couple of examples of what we're trying to do with it.

I'm looking for more and I'm always welcome input.

Very good.

And I, again, during your interview process, you had some great ideas about using interns and being very intentional about diversity.

So we appreciate that.

Okay, so let me sort of walk you through the process in this.

Council Member Skidhead, any other questions?

Sure, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

So thank you so much for helping us understand the process that you're undertaking to create pathways for greater representation there.

I think when I asked earlier about what your lessons learned were from MHA and Fort Lawton, it was through this lens that the Council President has outlined through the race and social justice lens.

You know, specifically, And I want to reiterate, overall, what I've heard is very much a sense of fairness coming from your office, which I appreciate.

One of the big concerns that I did hear, though, was specific to the Fort Lawton appeals.

And when an individual, in this case, Liz Campbell, delays the process by going out of country on vacation and that her vacation is given the acceptance to delay the process, that does raise equity concerns.

The equity concerns not only come from who has access to the process, which you accurately described, but the equity concerns of a delay and then another delay on top of that delay given the appeal resulting in less housing as quickly as we need.

So I think what I'd love to hear more about as you go forward is sort of a reflection on that process, the allowance of that extension, given the fact that it's not mostly people who are housing insecure who are coming to your office and challenging land use policies.

It's mostly those who are housing secure who have a fear of the unknown or misconceptions, misperceptions about what is being proposed who are ultimately delaying process.

That raises equity concerns just as much as it is about who does come to your office and the resources that it takes to file those appeals.

So as you think on lessons learned in your first year, We're kind of taking into consideration what types of delays we continue to allow if folks who have resources like that are choosing to do things like go on vacation overseas versus being part of the process that they initiated.

I just don't want us to be fueling additional inequities by allowing a process to get dragged out even further when someone's making those decisions that ultimately So I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

I think that's a really good point.

interesting things that I haven't had a chance to touch on.

And just so you know, after this hearing, you're going to get some written questions that you can elaborate.

I do want to move to the next agenda item, so go ahead and respond.

I'll try to keep it short.

I appreciate your indulgence in hearing my long-winded response.

I like talking about it.

I'm losing my viewer audience when you go on about land use.

My ratings are going down.

I don't talk about my work at parties.

The first item on the schedule is very tricky for us because there is this opportunity for appellants to come in and make their statement.

It's always balancing from this spot as a decision maker trying to balance, is this someone really gaming the system?

Or are they legitimately experiencing a health issue?

Or is their counsel legitimately not available?

And it's a constant balance that I can guarantee I don't get right every time simply because I don't have the information everybody is not telling me.

I can't say I'll always get it right, but it's a constant balance that both Barbara Dykes-Ehrlichman, my deputy, and I have to experience.

You do start figuring it out the longer you've been in the hearing process with someone.

Maybe you're in your second, third pre-hearing conference, and you're hearing motions, and you start to learn about the folks real fast.

And then you can start moving along as opposed to...

giving opportunity to be heard is essential that's on a service of the hearing examiner office.

What I do want to focus on, and I think you touched on this, and I didn't in my RSGI response, is we really do have to figure out how we get access to that hearing room.

I didn't set up the MHA appeal, and I don't want to speak for the folks that were there, but I can speak to my observation of what I saw.

And what I saw were 29 neighborhood groups, and I believe what I saw, and I don't know the background of the people there or their personal orientation or their But what I observed was the representatives, the attorneys, everyone at the table appeared to be Caucasian to me.

And when you have 29 neighborhood groups, you should have some people of color for an issue that covers the whole city.

And so that's, and I see that, it's very common in land use cases.

In the citation process, as I mentioned, you know, I see the diversity of the faces of Seattle.

It's a Vietnamese gentleman who's trying to sell something on the sidewalk and didn't get a permit, all the way to a Caucasian woman who had her gardener cut the tree the wrong way.

You know, we see it all.

I don't see that in the land use hearings.

And so that's really, I don't have a plan for that yet, but it is part of what we're working on.

I went to a meeting just last week at Village of Hope over in South Seattle as an opportunity to start developing those relations because I think that that's where it's got to start.

They've got to see the face of the individual because I can't go to those communities and tell them this is how I do what I do.

This is what you need to know about me.

I need to go to them and find out.

What what I need to know their story before I can I can come up with the answers Thanks, excellent questions and customer mosquito.

Thank you.

Thank you very much So here's the process first, you know, we start with daylighting the process such the public knows we're evaluating you and I've we've sent out evaluation forms to your office and to our council members and we're seeking feedback and on your the last year and whether you should be confirmed you'll get after today a few written questions on Just follow-up questions that kind of thing talking about your vision for the next couple of years I will have this in front of this committee again on April 16th, and I'll schedule a vote for that day and And from there, we'll go to the full council on April 22nd and so that's the process and so next couple weeks we'll stay in touch and Thank you for your public service.

I mean it is that public service and so we appreciate that and thank you Thank you very much for shepherding.

Thank you.

Okay Okay, so why don't you read the next item into the record and Go ahead first

Sure.

Samaritan app presentation, unsheltered individuals, financial capital, and relational guidance.

OK.

So Jonathan and folks, whoever's affiliated, come on forward here, walk right here, and try to sit on my left over here.

We have Jeff from Central Stats going to join us.

And for the viewing audience, I lost a few at the land use discussion, but hopefully they'll tune back in because we're going to show some technology and I'm always nervous when we use technology like this that we haven't done before, but we'll be fine.

So let me sort of tee it up.

The purpose of the discussion today is simply that is that Just one second, let me gather my notes here.

Just one second here.

So Jonathan Kumar has been diligent in trying to explain to the city of Seattle the benefits of this app that I've been told about, and I want to thank you first for your patience.

I know dealing with the city is a huge bureaucracy sometimes, and so thanks for your patience.

And this app, we want to know today how it works and how it changes lives.

There could be some policy questions we may have.

invite members from the Human Services Department and IT, who I think are here in the audience.

Who's from HSD?

We got HSD here.

So they're here just to, they weren't part of bringing you here, but they may have questions.

They can get them to me, but they're here to sort of help evaluate as well.

And so we have Jeff here from Central Staff, who's just sort of monitoring this as well.

So this is going to be informal, a lot of Q&A.

And thank you.

Thank you for being here.

We really are honored to have you.

So why don't we start with just introductions, and then I'm going to just turn it over to however you'd like to proceed, Jonathan.

Jeff Sims, Council of Central Staff.

Jessica McCoy, COO, Samaritan.

Michael McCullough, Samaritan, former Samaritan user.

Raven, beacon holder.

Jonathan Kumar, founder of Samaritan.

I'm Emily Sheikhy.

I'm the community advocate at All Genders at Rest and a partner of Samaritan.

Thank you for being here.

So Jonathan, how would you like to proceed?

Yeah, thank you this morning for inviting us in.

We're excited to be here and hope this will be enlightening and hopefully entertaining for you guys.

I will take 10 minutes to talk about the technology.

We're ultimately here to talk about a contract to provide access to new technology for people who are experiencing homelessness.

And so I'll take maybe 10 minutes to explain how it works, and we'll have a stopping moment for questions for myself or Emily, any of the beacon holders.

We have a current beacon holder who's experiencing homelessness, and then a former beacon holder, a beacon holder alumni who has been permanently housed.

And from there, we will talk about some of the outcomes that we expect the city of Seattle to experience through a pilot expansion, given a contract.

And we'll also have some information about potential budget rollout over the next three years.

So I guess I'll start at the very beginning, just if you're interested in how this all came to be.

I was standing a couple blocks away from here on the corner of 6th and Cherry on a lunch break at my last startup.

I was watching a black man panhandle for about 20 minutes.

He held a sign that said, need medication for the diabetes in my feet.

And I saw him gingerly standing there as not a single person walking by him, acknowledged he existed, not a single car window open to him.

He's a fairly imposing figure, actually, flat brimmed hat, tattoos, overcoat, fairly large.

So eventually I sort of mustered up my courage to go up and talk to him.

And I just asked him like, excuse me, sir, do you mind if I ask you what you feel your challenges are in terms of raising this money?

Do you feel people don't carry cash anymore?

He cut me off.

He just said, I've got the wrong look for this, the wrong clothing, the wrong skin color.

Nobody actually believes that I'm homeless.

And that was sort of that genesis moment where I realized that beyond the financial poverty that this person was experiencing to the point where he was begging strangers for help, He was experiencing a relational poverty.

He was unable to cut through the biases or the perceptions of people to share his true identity, his true story.

People passing by in a couple seconds, not having the time or ability or capacity to understand who he was and his true needs with a simple way to help.

And so that's why Samaritan exists.

We fast forward two years and some change we have developed these smart wallets You can pass it around called called beacons and We have provided these beacons to several agencies in the city who have used them in outreach relationship building and navigation and And we had a 500 Beacon pilot that was contracted by Vulcan, actually, here in the city, to evaluate could this actually help people elevate themselves off of the street.

And so we're here today at the conclusion of that two-year pilot, thank you, on the behalf of over 10 agencies in the city, and I actually have some written statements I'll provide to you at the end, from these agencies that couldn't be here with us today, to ask for access to more of the technology to provide to up to 2,500 people by the end of next year that are experiencing homelessness.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

When you say agencies, are you referring to organizations and businesses, not city agencies or departments?

Yes, that'd be correct.

Non-profits.

So Salvation Army, Mary's Place, REST.

On the second slide, right in front of you, you'll see some of the organizations that are requesting access to more beacons to use again in outreach, relationship building, and so forth.

So, I'll dive into how the technology works for about five minutes, if that's all right, and then we'll have some time for questions for some of the guys that are here.

So, as I mentioned, we provide these beacons as an outreach tool.

We have seen that about seven out of ten people who are invited to have a beacon will end up accepting one.

So, these are panhandlers.

These are people on street corners.

These are people at off ramps.

These are people at Millionaire Club outdoor meal site.

Whether they be in a meal center or a day center or outside, the basic message to them is like, hey, this thing helps you accept credit card donations from people who want to help.

You can spend it at any of the places on this map, or you can sit down with a counselor.

Would you be interested in one?

We see roughly about 7 out of 10 accepting this form of service.

Once someone has a beacon, We have a group of almost 10,000 Samaritans in the city of Seattle who have equipped Samaritan as a personal and immediate response to someone's homelessness.

We partner with organizations as well that can even add money to beacon holders for completing volunteer behaviors.

So you can imagine if beacon holders are invited to come clean up a park or to participate in some sort of event, you can add $10, $20 to everyone's beacon, that sort of thing.

Beacon holders have the opportunity to share their story through the platform as well, as well as a portrait.

If the beacon holder has funds on their beacon, we actually have a Samaritan that starts every beacon with at least $10.

They can use the money at participating businesses or with a counselor towards goods and services.

We have places like Goodwill, Grocery Outlet, St. Vincent de Paul, different coffee shops, restaurants.

And because the needs of the population we serve are so great, we can't hope to canvas all of their needs within the business community here in Seattle.

We empower counselors to access the money if there's a need that the beacon holder has that's not on our merchant list, essentially.

The counselor can access the money, I think, can access the money and target it towards a rent check, greyhound tickets, bus fare, just something Emily can speak to, a cell phone bill, really anything that the person needs.

I think one of my favorite outcomes to the project is that once a month, beacon holders, the battery actually dies in the beacon.

And beacon holders have both the opportunity but also responsibility if they want to, if they've gotten enough value from the beacon to want to continue to use it, they've got an opportunity to have what we call a life care visit with a counselor at a nonprofit.

So it's about a 10 to 15 minute conversation where they're talking about how the last month went.

They're setting goals for the month ahead.

And they're sharing their greatest financial needs to getting there.

They have an opportunity to share that progress update with supporting Samaritans.

And we see about 99% of beacon holders opt in to that opportunity to share with the Samaritan community.

So thank you for walking through that with us again.

I feel like we've gotten bits and pieces of this presentation over the last year, so having this comprehensive analysis is very helpful, especially as you wrap up two years.

One of the things that we hear, if you've listened to the consultant who's come to the select committee and presented, Mark Dones and his team have talked about, the way in which our intake process can be re-traumatizing, especially for folks who are living unsheltered and the disconnect between the questions that are asked on an intake form or a, you know, consultation form versus the type of service that someone needs.

And I'm really sensitive to that given that we're asking people to retell their story that may be harmful to them every time they come in when it might not be necessary.

Can you sort of explain how the monthly consultation that you just described is going hand-in-hand or complementary to whatever processes that DESC or the Low Income Housing Institute or various places are already required to do with the city?

Or if there's other lessons learned where this type of more, I would say, relational discussion could supplement some of the quantitative responses that many of our agencies are being asked to do.

Any lessons learned so far and can you help assure us that this isn't being added to the list of reporting requirements from the individual's perspective so we're not re-traumatizing folks?

Totally, totally.

We, yeah, a lot of these incredible agencies are already having these conversations and we want this to fit within their existing frameworks.

I'll have a demo of what it looks like at the end, but I'd also like to invite Emily to maybe share her experience because she has met, she's, it sounds like you have helped people sign up for a Beacon as well as you've met with Beacon holders on a monthly basis.

So maybe if you would be willing to speak to Councilwoman Mosqueda's question.

Yeah, so I actually do an intake process.

Oh, sorry.

Here we go.

Is that better?

So I work with REST.

I work with folks that are engaging in sex trafficking or sex work.

So it's already traumatizing to bring up their narrative.

But when going over the needs, whether that's weekly, daily, monthly basis, Beacon is brought up as an opportunity for folks that are engaging in chronic homelessness.

So this is a discussion that's not only something that's comfortable with them with me, but also with other providers in our area.

And they know that we want to create safety.

So these questions of how did you become homeless, we like to reframe that and say, do you even want to disclose that you're homeless?

And what would it look like for you to receive that assistance?

So this is their language, their narrative, and they want to express that.

And with Mary's Place, I work with around 200 women on a daily basis, and we would have check-ins maybe three to four times a day, depending on the schedule of the month.

And it was just a quiet time to just sit amongst all the chaos, amongst food, services being provided, and just really investing into them personally.

And for them to have a moment of being seen and being known is super important, and that's what Beacon Life Care Visits provide.

And can you explain who R.E.S.T. is, what they do?

A lot of people may not be familiar with R.E.S.T.

So R.E.S.T. is Real Escape from the Sex Trade and we engage with folks that are commercially being exploited through sex work.

We work with trafficking victims as well as folks that are engaging in survival sex or sex for substances.

I primarily work with sexual and gender minorities.

So we work within the confines of King County, but some of my clients have even gone farther to Bellingham and beyond to Eastern Washington.

So we provide wraparound care.

Thank you.

Just to conclude the technology introduction, I can see on the screen here it's slide eight on your printouts.

That's a screenshot of the app that Emily has used to, if the person has a need that's not on our list of merchants, to target it, again, towards different needs that they may have.

That's a conversation that happened at Mary's place, the picture that you see there.

And then, yeah, so in conclusion to this process of providing for these real critical emergency needs or potentially strategic needs and these wraparound relationships, We have seen that when you combine these two things, we're seeing outcomes of readiness for housing, readiness for treatment admittance, if they happen to be using drugs, and readiness for employment, job training.

I'll provide two case studies actually.

One is with us today, Michael.

He received a beacon and mentioned, I think one of the most powerful things you mentioned to me was how the Good Samaritans investing in your life was one of the ways that you kept yourself pointed in the right direction.

It wasn't like he was paying for housing through the Beacon, it was about maybe $50 a month.

But it was just enough to fill in some of the small gaps, razors, winter clothing, the ability to go into a restaurant and pick out an item that he wanted like a normal person again.

And over the course of six or eight months, maybe a little bit longer actually, The one-on-ones or the life care visits he was having with his counselor was able to eventually find him a place that he was comfortable moving into in Shoreline.

There is another example, so that I think points to the value of the relationship.

And there's another person who couldn't be with us here today.

His name is John.

He received a beacon, and over the course of a week, received about $125 in about $5 to $10 increments.

Beacon holders receive text messages if they have a phone that can receive texts, or they can get an email whenever someone invests into their life.

And so he was getting repeated text messages from these random strangers saying, hey, I believe in you.

Keep your head up.

I want to invest in your life.

And he called us about a week later saying, hey, turn off my beacon, which we thought was bad news at first.

But he's like, I've decided to finally enter treatment.

And I'm going to be gone for about three months.

And we were ecstatic.

And we were in our database turning his profile off.

And we saw that he actually hadn't spent any of the money.

It was $130 sitting there and it wasn't even that he needed to meet these financial needs.

He just needed to know that he was worth investing in so that he could start investing in himself.

So there's about 43 stories like that from our 500 Beacon pilot.

About 9% of Beacon holders have reported to either their counselor or to us that they have gotten housed or employed or entered some sort of treatment program.

The thing that we can control most is a beacon holder getting enough value from their beacon such that they're willing to keep using it on a monthly basis and accessing our web of care.

And from there, it's our incredible organizations that are doing the heavy lifting in terms of permanently housing them or helping them into recovery.

The housing outcomes are not to be ours and that they're not ours to credit.

This is a technology that helps nonprofits incrementally add to their outcomes.

And so I think this is actually a good stopping point for additional questions for any of the beacon holders.

I'd love to talk for about 10 minutes afterwards about some of the outcomes we would see from an expansion.

Yeah.

It just sounds like a great plan.

Before I ask some of the members of the table a few questions, Can we, I sort of want to know how the technology works a little bit.

Of course.

I know that's part of it.

Can, because I have all these questions about practical applications.

Then I wanted to hear some more how it affected lives.

Yeah.

So can you, is there a way you could sort of display how it works?

I think we had an issue with.

Oh.

You're just saying while you were presenting, she didn't want to be going.

Got it.

Yeah, you have to use your phone.

Okay, so.

I've not seen one of those machines in a very long time.

I know.

Well, the kind you saw were not like that.

That's probably true.

Oh, look at that.

OK.

So, yeah, the technology ends and begins with this smart wallet called a beacon.

It runs on a Bluetooth transmitter.

Oh, could you speak into the microphone?

You can lift them up too if you need to.

The technology starts with these digital wallets called beacons.

This is the Samaritan app and will allow volunteers as well as nonprofits to carry out a intake with a beacon holder.

So it's just a couple questions that will be asked about, you know, how long have you been on the streets?

What led you to be here?

Where, what do you aspire to be?

What would you want to be?

What will you be when you're not experiencing homelessness?

Yeah, so let me start right from there.

So I Download the app on my smartphone if I'm interested in participating as a Samaritan as a Samaritan and we have thousands of people that have participated thus far in this almost 10,000 people of now, how would they have known about the app and

Because homelessness is such a pressing issue, there's a lot of word of mouth, next door communities, the media.

We have been invited to equip employees at Facebook, at Deloitte, at Nordstrom.

Because these individuals who are working downtown are confronting the issue on a daily basis, they've been real interested in a tangible way to help.

So even without an expansive marketing budget, just through grassroots

Yes, Sound Transit donated $5,000 towards a PSA on the light rail and the Metro buses.

Yeah, our advertising budget has been about $502,000 a month so far.

And you were able to get 10,000 Samaritans.

Almost.

And one of the questions that I've gotten as a council member are a lot of people, and they all say, What can I do?

What can I do?

And we talk about the agencies.

They can't give money directly to the city of Seattle.

And a lot of those folks probably are not in some of those Facebook circles, not knowing about the app.

So OK, so the Good Samaritan downloads the app.

And then what happens when they're in proximity?

How do they know how to act?

They see Mike, Michael.

Go by Mike or Michael?

Michael.

Michael.

They see Michael.

And they want to activate Michael.

I know you're a former, but how do they activate to get to know Michael's story?

Yeah.

They do.

So Samaritans, we have this community news feed, which is what I'm scrolling through right now.

It'll show you new Beacon holders that have recently joined Samaritan.

Beacon holders who've chosen to share their monthly life care visit with the community.

Beacon holders who are redeeming things at different merchants around the city.

Beacon holders who are completing goals.

So there's a way to discover individuals on this platform.

We have a beacon holder of the day.

You'll see this instance, there is no photo because we give beacon holders the option to not share a portrait of themselves.

So we'll have a beacon holder every day.

We'll send people push notifications occasionally.

But then we also have this nifty thing with the technology where if the beacon holder has opted into this, they can, just by having their beacon, which runs on Bluetooth, if a Samaritan walks within about 30 yards of the beacon holder, they'll get a push notification on your Android, on your iPhone that just says, hey, you just passed by Jared.

Jared's been on the streets for six months.

And you'll be able to see his story that way.

I see.

That was the part that I was thinking about is the sort of the automatic connection.

So if I see Raven is an example, and I have my Bluetooth on.

I can also, if he has any, like you have a Samaritan hat on, I can sort of know if they're connected, if they're branded, or I could physically see the beacon.

Yeah, this is an example of a push notification, by the way, that Jessica received.

She's obviously near Raven, so she got a push notification that Raven's nearby.

So we see a fair amount of discovery that way through those organic encounters.

You'll be on a bus, and you'll just be going downtown, and then you'll pass by a couple beacon holders who are on the corner, and then you'll pick up notifications So beacon holders will just be walking around the city and then those get hit up with text messages saying like, hey, someone gave you 20 bucks.

Which is, I mean, Raven, maybe you can speak to what that feels like.

Yeah, it's always interesting.

I keep my phone on me in general, like most, but like I'll get texts all the time saying, oh, I have someone donated this much.

Someone said this.

But I've gotten texts from people saying, hey, you want to meet, want to hang out, want to do something.

You know, the fact that I get those texts, whether there was money or not money, I mean, it doesn't bother me none really.

It's the fact that they actually take the time, the effort, the care.

You know, it's the fact that I have to check in once a month.

You know, a lot of people are like, well, it's responsibility.

Yes, homeless people, most of us want a responsibility.

It's hard for some of us because of the background, because of a drug addiction or what have you.

So most people look at us really down.

But a lot of us trying to get a job, trying to go to school, trying to do stuff, we want that responsibility.

And so having that to where people message me just to hang out, I mean, I've met some amazing people through the app that on a daily, on a weekly, I hang out with.

Raven, you had mentioned something about receiving messages of encouragement.

On the screen here, I just gave $5 to one of the Beacon holders, Alizia.

And I have this option to add a message of encouragement.

And this will be received in a couple different ways.

If they have a phone, they'll get a text, like Raven does.

If they don't have a phone, they can get an email.

If they don't have an email address that they have access to, the next time they stop by a merchant or a nonprofit, they can receive that message and respond that way.

Looks like you had a question.

Thank you.

Michael, I'd also love to hear from you about, you know, what happens on the receiving end and how that's been for you.

Well, as Jonathan already said, I've gone to permanent, I've got permanent housing, been there for just over a year.

But before that, it wasn't so much what I was buying with the beacon as much as just what it represented.

It represented just a feeling of normalcy.

You know, it's a, I go to a restaurant and I can order something off the menu.

Specifically, I go to one of my favorite stores, the Army Navy store, just browse because I could, I felt like a regular customer.

I didn't feel like someone who was in the system.

I didn't feel like someone who was needed to be helped or I'm getting a handout from the government and, and that, to me was the most, single most important thing about The Beacon.

Just how it changed my outlook on the situation I was in and how I felt about myself at the time.

It really, truly wasn't about the physical things I could do with it.

Thank you for that.

I do have a few questions, if I might.

Really appreciate you sharing that.

You know, as you're talking, I can't help but think about a few unintended consequences, and I'm sure you've thought through these already, so maybe help us with the process that you went through to address them.

So you're getting some policy questions?

Can I just ask a technical question?

I just want to get the technical stuff out of my mind.

Yes, go for it.

This is the technical committee.

The app receives some form of a donation.

The vendors, so it's loaded on the beacon.

So how does it transfer to, the beacon transfer to the store that's receiving it?

Right.

So everyone on either, we call them life care providers, whether they be merchants or non-profits.

So when the person walks into a barbershop or they walk into Mary's Place, they both have the same app.

So they're able to bring the beacon up, but because they're logged in as a life care provider, they're able to see additional things like battery life, the balance, and they can charge a good or a service to it.

Okay, so the vendor, if you will, the store, they have to have the app and they're able to withdraw the compensation right from that app and it goes to their till.

basically.

And so if it's a barbershop, let's say, that doesn't have the app, they obviously can't take it.

So part of your task would be to try to get as many vendors as possible to receive the app?

I think one of the lessons learned we've learned over these two years is that that is a fool's errand.

It's pretty tough working with different businesses to canvas the needs of beacon holders.

And so we looked at further empower the non-profit to allocate the money towards whatever is needed.

So the non-profit can put money towards a Orca card, they can put money towards a phone bill.

If they feel it's appropriate, they could give a Visa prepaid card to the individual.

So we try and make it as simple for the non-profit to be helpful.

how the 10 nonprofits came into the picture.

So that's how they come in, because then they are like a wholesaler, if you will.

They'll come in and try to look at the individual needs of the beacon holder.

There are so many incredible people and programs available at the organizations listed.

And our job is just to help people get connected, to get plugged in.

And so the Beacon, and we'll get to some of the outcomes which relates to this, but the Beacon is a way for them to build relationship and get them to opportunities that are much greater than the Beacon.

And what if a Samaritan, after six months, Let's say the receiver starts to bug the Samaritan.

Can the Samaritan go back and then the Samaritan just cuts it off?

I mean, what control does the Samaritan have on the contact if he or she wants to change courses?

Sure.

No personal contact information is shared through the platform.

So if you message a beacon holder, They are not seeing your cell phone.

They're not seeing your email We are monitoring responses.

So we are tracking potential abuse.

We haven't had reports or seen anything Damaging to date not to say that it won't happen But there will be ways for Samaritan to you know, just close a chat So usually if I text someone they could obviously my number on the receiving end.

So this is done within Samaritan so it's like It comes from a Samaritan address of some sort?

It would be, all of the messages would be within Samaritan.

So if you were using WhatsApp or Facebook, like you have messages with people and then you can block them if you don't want to talk to them anymore.

I was just looking at how someone controls it on the giving end of it.

Right.

What interface they have, I see.

They would have the ability to close a chat.

I see.

Go ahead.

So that actually gets to the question that I have regarding the receiving end I mean the population that you talked about having worked with on human trafficking task force for a number of years before this job We know how vulnerable folks are and I think you know some of the some of the folks who are experiencing homelessness are are extremely vulnerable populations.

You say you're monitoring the chat.

Do the receivers also have a chance to shut down a conversation?

Because I feel like there's a power dynamic at play.

If somebody's offering you $5 or $20 and it's, you know, means you can go to a shop or go get food finally, having the not just ability, but the requirement to shut down anybody who might be predatory in this process, or in trying to engage and create a relationship with someone for non-Samaritan reasons, seems really important.

So how does that work in terms of both you monitoring the number of the type of communications, and ensuring that there's not people out there who are using that power or that privilege in their ability to donate to manipulate a relationship.

Right.

Yeah, so we have the ability for both sides to report inappropriate conversations or messages.

And we have the ability to ban either a Samaritan from sending a message or a beacon holder to send a message.

But you're monitoring, right?

So if you think about this in terms of labor standards protections, obviously as workers, any worker has the ability to report wage theft or retaliation in their current, their daily work.

But a lot of people don't report when there's a violation, wage theft, intimidation, harassment, assault, because of that power dynamic.

So are you saying that in addition to the receiver being able to report if there's a violation, you're actively monitoring?

At this time, because it's an experimental feature, the ability to send a message of encouragement to a beacon holder as well as to receive response, because we just introduced that, we are actively monitoring, proactively monitoring those conversations.

And I saw some suggested texts.

But they could also send the individual.

So I love that that can happen.

And I love the examples that both of you shared just about sort of the investment, the value, the encouragement that you've seen when people have written to you.

So thank you for sharing those examples.

I just, as we were talking about the ways in which, unfortunately, people do engage with especially vulnerable populations, that was a major concern.

The other thing, Mr. Chair, if I might.

What I want to underscore is how important I think this could potentially be in addition to

So I think that's a big part of it.

I think that's a big part of it.

public investments and a reliable public revenue.

So I don't hear you saying this is any way supplanting that.

So we need those public dollars that will be non-discretionary as a building block.

The concern that I might have if this were to be a standalone right is that to some degree it is still discretionary.

You know, the example of the individual that you talked to first who was experiencing probably racism and stereotyping and based on skin color and tattoos and appearance, like that I assume still happens.

So how do we avoid dealing with the type of stereotyping or discretionary nature, if at all, in this app?

Or are you saying that that will always happen and what we need to do is backfill some of these programs with reliable, non-discretionary public revenue?

Yeah, the discretionary use of the funds is a core identity to, I think, Samaritan and the beacon holders.

I don't mean discretionary use of the funds, which I think is phenomenal.

I think that is absolutely needed.

And it goes hand in hand with what we've heard from the experts.

Sometimes people just need $200 for that month, which could be the difference between life and death, which could be the difference between getting into that house or not.

So the discretionary nature of the funding is something I appreciate.

I mean the discretionary nature of the Samaritan to pick and choose who they give funding to.

Yeah, and that's something we're exploring too.

We have an internal goal to, we've seen a sweet spot around $800 to $1,000 a year in terms of beacon holder retention, meaning having those monthly life care visits to continue to use their beacon.

And so that's about $80 a month.

And so we want every beacon holder to have a guarantee of two things, access to about $1,000 a year and access to transformative relationships.

If we can do those two things and provide people a social home before they get a physical home, And then do it through the work of these non-profits.

We think we've done our job.

And so we are exploring ways where it's not as discretionary as to who gets the money.

We will have a fund, we call it the Samaritan General Fund, but that will actually be disseminated to beacon holders sort of automatically.

We will also have ways for people to give to geographies.

And if people identify with a neighborhood, like, hey, I hang out mostly in the Central District, or I hang out mostly in Ballard, for Ballard donors to give to Ballard, and for that to go to all people who identify as hanging out in Ballard.

So actually, your question is, you're asking a question that I sort of had, but in a different way.

So let me tell you, my thinking was, If the recipient wants to tell their story, a lot of them may not even be able to key it in.

They may struggle with telling their story.

Do you help them tell their story on there?

The intake happens through the Samaritan app.

There's a form on there that will just have some optional questions for them to respond to, just like, how did you get to the streets?

Where are you aspiring to go?

What are your greatest needs to getting there?

Job skills that you have, interesting life facts.

So the volunteer is keying it in on their phone on behalf of the beacon holder.

Okay, because to Council Member Mosqueda's point, I was thinking, You know, these five folks are constantly getting 5, 10, 20, 30 bucks.

Expert storytellers.

And this poor person over here isn't getting anything.

I was thinking the way to address that is for their stories, it's all about their story.

Yeah.

And this person's, and there are, there could be gems in this person's story that no one pulled out.

And then you say, oh, well, geez, you used to do this and you want to do this.

So I think, That's because I was thinking about there's always sort of winners and losers in certain programs.

And so I think what you're saying is so the volunteer helps, but that's a volunteer of your organization.

No, that's the volunteer of the nonprofits or the nonprofit staff themselves.

And they, you know, everyone's changing, that has, uses Facebook and those kinds of tools.

They're changing their profile, changing their pictures.

Updates, yeah.

So do, does the recipient sometimes occasionally change their story, and I'm doing better?

It actually, we've made it really hard on the nonprofits to change the profile of beacon holders, but we are working on that.

And they will have the ability to update the profile with the next month's goals that the person has set, with the next month's financial needs during that monthly life care visit.

And is, I'm just going to have to ask, is it a 501c3, so the donations are tax deductible, or have we gotten there yet?

Yes.

We have a fiscal sponsor that we process the donations through, which makes every app transaction tax deductible.

OK.

Interesting.

OK.

Kessler-Mosqueda.

Thank you.

And feel free, anybody at the table, to answer these questions, because I feel like I'm just brainstorming out loud here.

And that's the purpose of this session.

Good.

OK, great.

I really appreciate you both again telling your story about how this has helped and the stories that you brought up about ways in which you've seen folks not only get into housing, but also treatment, maybe additional supports that were necessary because they had access to this beacon.

Again, on the sort of technology unintended consequences side, I think we've spent a lot of time in this committee and others.

talking about data protection.

I worry a little bit if someone is, you know, engaging in conversation with you, for example, and all of a sudden they decide, you know, that one individual has gone from a worthy donator to not worthy and how folks are being tracked.

And, you know, the concern I have is the protection of the data and the location of folks, the type of hate that we've seen in this country and the volume that's been turned up on both racism and classism and sexism and homophobia, I think, you know, in terms of vulnerable populations, I know folks who are living unsheltered have experienced increased numbers of hate, I hate violence.

I don't know what else to call it.

So how do you protect against individuals from tracking where people are at and who protects your data?

And we use some of the best security in the industry in terms of data production.

And in terms of the tracking, there isn't any functionality possible for real time location awareness of beacon holders.

So the beacons have their run on Bluetooth, which the range is from maybe me to that wall over there.

So if you're outside that range, you wouldn't know where the beacon was.

There's no Google Maps of beacon holders running around in real time.

There's just no way we could do that.

There's no GPS.

There's no Wi-Fi.

There's no RFID.

The discretionary thing, I think, is important, and it is something we're learning.

I mentioned briefly earlier that we want to empower organizations, including the city of Seattle, to award beacon holders, or add money to beacon holders, and do that indiscretionally.

So all beacon holders, maybe that complete this act of service, or all beacon holders in this area, or just all beacon holders, will receive $50.

that you guys know will be money well spent because it's spent in concert of someone like Emily.

Well, you know, for me, I mean, I move around quite a bit, so it's, I don't have too much issues, but the fact that like, you know, like Jonathan said, you know, they can't really track us.

unless we hang out with them personally and tell them where we're at and stuff, which, you know, I've not had an issue yet with that, thankfully.

So, but I don't know anyone who else has, but like, it is a big concern for those of us who are homeless.

Because I've dealt with a ton, still do to a point.

So, I've never met anyone on the Samaritan app that has been at all threatening.

I've found people helpful, way more helpful than anything.

So.

Maybe just speak to like privacy or feeling tracked or mistrusted.

No, I didn't feel that way at all with the beacon.

In fact, there were actually a couple of occasions where I was like, one of the biggest things about the beacon was it offered anonymity.

You know, you could donate to someone.

if you didn't feel comfortable giving them money directly.

But I kept finding, you know, people were actually, once they, once my profile came up on their app, they were actually looking for me.

You know, it's like, oh, I actually want to meet this guy now.

And that was like one of the unintended things.

And when I think about it like that, it's really cool because now it's actually bridging the gap because now, The person was using Samaritan because they didn't know how to approach someone.

But now they're willing to do that because they've read the profile.

They know they're helping them.

They see this person.

It's like, oh, that's the guy right there.

I want to go talk to him.

And it's happened to me.

It's happened to other beacon holders, too.

The Executive Director of Facing Homelessness, Rex Holbein, is one of our advisors, and he propagated this movement of just saying hello.

And so certainly there is evil that can be done face-to-face, but we are absolutely encouraging personal face-to-face interaction as much as we can.

So let's look at the budget piece.

Were there other parts?

Because I wanted to.

I'd love to, yeah.

Any questions that you needed to ask at all at the table?

Either IT or HSD?

Did you have any questions you wanted to?

No, I'm very familiar.

OK.

OK, very good.

OK.

Let's go ahead.

Sure.

Yeah, before we go into the budget, I'll just kind of look over the five critical outcomes that we want to deliver on an expanded pilot.

And so I think that is starting at slide 12 and 13. I know that one of the key metrics that organizations like the navigation team reports on is service acceptance rate.

And so, for example, the Union Gospel Mission maintains these search and rescue vans for which there are spots every night for people to come into shelter.

they are turned down 99% of the time.

And so when people are unwilling to come in for a job opportunity or for a shelter opportunity or a treatment opportunity, they have been willing to accept a beacon, which is a very low barrier form of service.

Hey, take this thing.

It's got $10 on it.

Go get a meal.

People will continue to add money to your beacon.

If it's helping you, come in, talk to us at the end of the month and we'll get it started back for you.

So it's a very low barrier way to help people think about accepting services that normally don't accept service.

And so we expect that given an opportunity to expand access to a beacon that we will see growth in service acceptance rate across the organizations that are using Samaritan in their work.

The second outcome that we see is reduced recidivism from programs.

So less no-shows, less dropouts.

If we are, if I am doing my job, and my team is doing our job, and we are making sure that the beacon holder has access to meaningful capital, they will be more likely to continue to access care, which is the true transformation.

Meeting with people like Emily, accessing employment, accessing treatment and recovery, that is the transformation.

But we can help people stay in track with those programs until the life-changing outcome is achieved.

So we would look to see that people entering a program are more likely to succeed and stay in that program if we can provide them a beacon.

The third outcome we see for the city is obviously citizen engagement.

So just through private means, our budget from Vulcan was roughly $100,000.

Oh, yeah.

And so we will expect that many more Samaritans in Seattle, people who have, like you've been asked, how do I help?

We'll see this as a low-hanging fruit.

Everyone has seen that Como News documentary.

This is their next action step.

fact check the Como news documentary would be a good first start.

Because I wouldn't say that that's an accurate news coverage piece, nor would I call it a documentary.

Just putting that out there.

Yeah, fair point.

Oh yeah, we actually have one of our Samaritan app users here.

I know we're running short on time.

I'd love to have you join us at the table.

Yeah, from the Samaritan engagement standpoint, and I understand we are limited on time here.

And just make sure the green light is on and pull the mic.

Can we segue to this young lady just for a second?

Yeah, of course.

Can you introduce yourself and just talk about why you signed up and how it's worked for you?

Oh sure, I'm a little nervous.

Oh yeah, well I am too.

I am too, so just talk to me and we'll be alright.

So my name is Aziza Sassary.

I joined, I downloaded the app July 2017. I remember my number, I think I was like three thousand 940 something.

So, yes.

I decided to download it because I had done the Union Gospel Mission Search and Rescue, and I was born and raised here, so I've seen the you know, the homeless, how much it's exasperated.

And so I got invited to do the search and rescue, and I have to say that was a real tough, it really took an emotional toll on me.

You know, I realized it was a good experience, but at the same time, it was just, it was too much.

You know, and then, and I was talking about it with a colleague of mine, and she had come across, she had heard about the Samaritan app through, I think, Cairo or something, a news piece.

And for me, I felt this would be a better way how I can engage and, because I want to do something, you know, but at the same time, I, you know, I, for me, I want to do something, but I want to do it in a way where, it's not too much of an emotional toll, because you really do have to have a mental strength.

Because I remember that night, you learn so much, and there's so much to their story.

They're just not someone on the street.

There's more to them.

And so for me, this app has allowed me to learn everyone's story.

And it's a way to engage, and also like, oh, OK, oh, that's interesting.

Oh, I see how.

That's a person.

You know, so that's why I downloaded it, and I've enjoyed it since.

Oh, thank you for sharing.

That's very impactful.

Go ahead, gentlemen.

Yeah, that is the citizen engagement piece that we are really thankful for.

Our primary mission is, again, to give people access to capital and relational guidance, but one of our secondary outcome is giving people a way to walk with individuals on the street.

And so the fourth outcome we would see for the city is that we will be able to de-identify and provide a rich source of real-time data on how to help people experiencing homelessness.

Those monthly life care visits, provide insight as to what people's goals are, as well as their greatest needs.

And so we will be able to see on a month-to-month basis what's keeping people back, what's moving people forward into permanent housing or employment opportunities or treatment opportunities.

And then ultimately, we're looking at being able to provide hope, housing, better health outcomes for by the end of year three, 2,000 of our city's most vulnerable.

You may have seen earlier, we had called out that we would look to permanently house 500 individuals.

And so we'll talk about why this number is 2,000 in a second here.

So going on to the next slide, our budget, we see that to provide access for 2,500 people to access a beacon by the end of next year.

We have 500 now, and we'll look to provide, in the next nine months, access for 750 this year and 1,250 next year.

And we will predict, we will see that of the 750 this year, that 75 of those will reach some sort of life changing outcome, whether it be housing, employment, treatment.

outcome as well as an additional about 250 at least meeting critical needs in their lives, which I don't think should be understated.

I understand that that's not necessarily the outcome that the city is tracking, but for people like Raven, who is not yet housed, not yet employed, but at least is connected in community and is meeting critical needs to keep his spirits up, we wanted to make sure we call that out as well.

So I'd love to, yeah, obviously leave some questions for the budget.

If we go to the next slide, you'll see some of our expenses from the hardware, the data provision, and the platform development.

We actually plan on granting one of our lead agencies a full-time employee for for helping train other organizations, as well as train volunteers to provide beacons to folks who are interested in having one, as well as train people to effectively use those monthly opportunities to advance people's lives.

And so there is a small advertising budget in there as well, some operational items.

Ultimately, we know that every person who enters housing doesn't necessarily save the city hard out-of-pocket dollars.

I totally understand that, but I do also realize that when one person exits the system, it provides that opportunity, that shelter bed or that program for the next person that needs it, and that has value.

And so it's really up to, you know, city budget office to see what that value capture per housing outcome is.

But because this is inherently technology based, we see this pilot as having a great ROI opportunity for the city.

Thus far your interaction with the city has been what have you met with some departments or just talked to some of our some of the agencies that we fund, or can you talk about your interaction with the city thus far outside of this presentation?

The Mobile Vedic Van, which I believe is a city initiative, they use beacons in their outreach and their relationship building.

I'm trying to think of other city-funded agencies.

I'm sure there are many.

So we've been working with the nonprofits to try and empower their outcomes, first and foremost, and then we've had exploratory conversations with Dusty and basically city council, and soon I'll meet with David Mosley, the deputy mayor.

That's forthcoming?

Yeah.

Oh, very good.

Okay, so a few things.

One is, and thank you for coming and sharing.

So as I explained to you offline, you know, I personally have an interest in this technology.

I don't see it as curing cancer of this problem we're dealing with, but I see it as a possible tool, a great tool at that.

And sort of tapping into an unused resource often, and that is just people that want to help and they don't know where their entry point is.

And some of the concerns I had, you know, that Council Member Skater raised, I had as well about, you know, we really try to make sure that there aren't unintended consequences even well-intended investments.

So from this point, what I'm hoping to do is have some discussions with the departments that It would fall under both HSD and IT and maybe maybe even have you back I'll talk off off line with you to look at budget impacts the whole bit But I sort of wanted to see how to work and I think you did an outstanding job and the participants are stunning Outstanding job short telling the the stories behind it it when I hear good people like this talking about the fact that it works.

I mean, like that movie said, you had me at hello, right?

I see this stuff working.

So I look forward to continuing our discussion.

Are there any questions any of you had of the two council members before we adjourn?

Go ahead, Jonathan.

So we'll talk offline about a game plan and and we'll be talking to the departments as well.

Please.

One more thing I'd like to point out on the 20th slide, the pilot evaluation.

We want to make sure that we convey that we want to find out the impact that this can make as badly as you do.

We understand that we have more to prove and that burden is on us.

We've shown some anecdotal outcomes from a small pilot group, but there's more to show that this can make a scalable difference.

And so we expect that were we to do a contract that we'd love to have a structure for three years, but we understand that the second and third year may be conditional on the outcomes from the first year that are measured.

So we're totally comfortable with that.

One of the things that we want to learn is the difference between a beacon holder population and a non-beacon holder population.

So a randomized control group would be a part of our initial pilot in the first year.

If there are 750 beacons that will go to individuals, we would develop a control group of 750 people without a beacon.

And we would look to gather data on both populations and be able to see, does this really make a difference?

Or is this just conflated with different opportunities?

So I just wanted to make that clear that, you know, we expect to be revisiting metrics quarterly.

We expect to be looking at the percentages of beacon holders that are elevating their life versus a non-beacon holder.

We would look to team up with the city on access to historical data, on emergency service usage, on jail rates, arrest rates, things of that nature.

We'd be soliciting feedback from different nonprofits.

So all to say that we want to pilot this with you guys and continue to evaluate, does this make a discernible difference?

We feel that what we have done so far justifies the raise to give more people access.

as well as give us access to the historical data and perhaps a randomized control group to Continue to evaluate so we're not there yet, but we'd love to do this hand in hand with you guys moving forward Well, you're you're you're way in front of the kinds of things the city looks that's outstanding description of the kinds of things the outcomes in the

and the data to support something that's sustainable.

But, and more importantly than that, it seems like this stuff is just really working.

So, I appreciate you being mindful of the kinds of outcome and measurements, outcomes and measurements that the city typically does look at.

So, outstanding presentation, John.

I'm going to say outstanding presentation.

Okay.

Thank you very much for being here.

Everyone have a great rest of the day.

And with that, we'll stand adjourned.