Housing, Arts and Civil Rights Committee 5/13/2026

All right, good afternoon, everyone.

The May 13th, 2026 meeting of the Housing Arts and Civil Rights Committee will come to order.

It is 2.02 PM.

I'm Dionne Foster, chair of the Housing Arts and Civil Rights Committee.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll?

Council President Hollingsworth.

Council President Hollingsworth.

I'm here.

Council Member Juarez.

Here.

Council Member Rink.

Present.

Vice Chair Lynn.

Present.

And Chair Foster.

Thank you, Clerk.

Clerk, will you please call Vice Chair Lynn one more time?

Vice Chair Lynn?

Present.

Right there are five members present.

Thank you so much.

All right, if there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We will now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda or within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

Currently we have eight in-person speakers and there are two remote speakers.

Okay, fantastic.

So with that number of speakers, each speaker will have two minutes.

We will start with in-person speakers first.

Clerk, can you please read the public comment instructions?

The public comment period is up to 60 minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they are registered.

We'll begin with in-person speakers and then move to remote speakers.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not, and their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open.

We will begin with the first speaker on the list.

And the first speaker is Sharon Nairie Williams, and she'll be followed by Melissa Pailthorpe.

Good afternoon.

Thanks for having me.

So many friendly faces.

Hey, Auntie Juarez.

Hey, Auntie.

Hey, girl.

Hi.

I would like to speak on behalf of the Arts and Cultural Districts, Georgetown and Columbia Hillman.

as well.

I am the leader, co-chair of the Historic Central Area Arts and Cultural District, and I don't have to tell you, you know that arts is everywhere and we do everything, but we're also the holders as arts and cultural districts of the past and the present.

The Central District was started, the Arts and Cultural District for the Central Area was started in the midst of gentrification.

Everybody was moving out, and we were asked to hold that space, to hold on to our past while moving into our future.

Georgetown, you could say they're not already an arts and cultural district.

When you hit the block, come on now, and when you hit Columbia City and Hillman, you're like, wait a minute, this is nothing but arts and culture.

I would like to say on behalf of the Historic Central Area Arts and Cultural District, please vote yes for these districts because it's not just about making art or creating art, it's about bringing community together in different kind of ways, bringing arts, bringing business, being the liaison between the Office of Arts and Culture to our districts and saving what we know makes Seattle the best place in the world to live, and that's arts and culture and its people and community.

So thank you very much.

and I'll give back the rest of my time.

How about that?

See y'all later.

Amen.

All right, Melissa Pilthorpe is our next speaker followed by Kira Jane Hobson.

Good afternoon.

My name is Melissa Pailderp, and I'm here representing Watershed Community Development.

We're a project to establish more than 600 units of housing in the Georgetown neighborhood over the next 10 years.

So here to speak firmly in support of the Arts District.

It will help us do our work.

We need to focus on creating housing in a district where there are about 2,900 units of housing for a workforce of 29,000.

So we're very much an arts-forward organization seeking to create housing that artists can afford, as well as the workers who are already in Georgetown.

So establishing this district will help us accomplish our work and hope you'll, of course, support it.

Thank you.

All right, our next speaker is Kyra Jane Hobson, followed by Virginia Wright.

Oh, good afternoon.

My name is Cyra Jane Hobson, and I am the president and co-founder of the Georgetown Association of Arts and Culture.

I am a surrealist stone carver myself, and I run a stone carving studio out of Georgetown's Equinox Studios, and my work is in galleries across Seattle and homes across the Pacific Northwest.

I found my creative home in Georgetown 15 years ago as part of a collective blacksmith group.

While I've lived all over the city, Georgetown is where I choose to work and volunteer because it is a neighborhood full of people who share my dedication to the arts, people who work hard, who push to better themselves and contribute to their community, and who are passionate about the arts and its ability to uplift society.

It's also one of the only places in Seattle with both affordable studio places for artists to work and a culture that celebrates and enables the arts.

Because of this, our district is growing.

Home to a huge number of studio collectives, art fabrication companies, galleries, creative schools, and specialty supply stores, more of these businesses are moving to Georgetown every year.

We are also close to breaking ground on the Watershed Project, the affordable housing project geared specifically toward arts and industry workers.

The significant influx of artists and creative businesses provides us with the opportunity to build a more solid creative economy that can serve to support and preserve Georgetown's unique culture and help it continue to thrive as an affordable place for us to live and work.

The Georgetown Association of Arts and Culture is dedicated to working with the Office of Arts and Culture, other city departments, and our fellow neighborhood associations through this process.

We are building working relationships with the other arts and cultural districts as well, contributing to a city-wide network of support for the arts in Seattle.

I support Georgetown's designation as one of Seattle's arts and cultural districts and look forward to our continued collaborations.

Thank you very much.

All right, our next speaker is Virginia Wright, followed by Heather Carney.

Thank you.

And just before we welcome Virginia, just a reminder, bring the mic closer just to make sure we're hearing you and we're catching you for Seattle Channel.

Thank you.

Is that better?

Yeah, it's closer than you might think.

Thank you.

Okay.

My name is Virginia Wright.

I'm an art gallery owner in Georgetown, and I've also been associated with the Georgetown Association of Arts and Culture for the last couple years and been working on this whole project, and I'm very excited to see us reach this point.

and I appreciate the support and the recognition and I'm looking forward to how this can move us forward as an organization and as a neighborhood and to see how we can grow and sustain and be our unique arts and cultural areas within the city of Seattle.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Heather Carney followed by Nathan Wall.

Hi, my name's Heather Carney and I live in Georgetown for eight years now.

I am coming here today to be a representative for the Georgetown Community Council, so the GCC.

I serve as the chair and our organization is made up of neighbors and community members who really care deeply about Georgetown and its future.

We are so excited to support the designation of Georgetown as an official arts district because the arts are already deeply woven, as you've just heard, into the identity of our neighborhood.

Georgetown has long been a welcoming home for artists, musicians, performers, creative small businesses, makers, all types of people.

And creativity is not something that's added to Georgetown, it's something that already exists.

Here every day in our streets, businesses, murals, community spaces, I could just go on.

So what makes Georgetown special is the authenticity that you feel there.

It's a place where different artistic disciplines coexist alongside industrial business, historic spaces, and a strong sense of community.

The art really helps create connection, brings people together, and contributes to the unique character that both residents and visitors value.

We believe this designation would provide important recognition for the creative culture that has existed in Georgetown for decades.

It also creates opportunities for future partnerships, cultural investment, tourism, economic support, and preservation of the neighborhood's creative spirit as Seattle continues to grow and change.

On behalf of the Georgetown Community Council, we respectfully encourage the Housing, Arts, and Civil Rights Committee to support this proposal and officially designate Georgetown as an arts district.

Thank you.

All right, our next speaker is Nathan Walla, followed by Tiffany McCoy.

All right, my name is Nathan Walla.

I am a PCO in the 37th district now.

It's the best LD in the state.

I think Dion and Eddie and I think Joy would probably agree with me on that too.

OK.

So in my neighborhood, it's really dangerous for kids.

A lot of kids end up riding on electric scooters because there's nothing to do.

And I don't need to tell you that that's really dangerous.

We actually had a 10-year-old die in my neighborhood.

And that's really difficult to even really think about.

I think something like this, I don't want to say that it would have prevented this, but we need more things to do in the South End.

And I would point out that from New Holly, both of these cultural centers would be walkable.

I can walk to Georgetown, and I can walk to Hillman City from my house.

So just in general, the South End needs more investment.

We need to, all across the South End, and I think we would agree on that.

Sorry, I'm not really talking into the mic very well.

Something else that I think is in the purview of this committee, I think we need to remember that an important civil right is the right to engage in protected speech at government meetings.

That speech can be critical and that speech can be targeted, but as long as it does not violate the bounds of what constitutes free speech, harassment, threats of violence, it should be protected.

If we're going to be talking about people being disrespectful and making personal attacks, we wouldn't be allowing David Haynes to speak, and he is allowed to speak, unfortunately.

I feel that Mr. Howard Gill was discriminated against because of his views yesterday.

by Councilmember Strauss, and I would like to see more consistency from Councilmember Strauss for the council members that he stands up for.

Again, free speech is protected speech, even if you don't like it.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Tiffany McCoy, followed by Jeff Paul.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Tiffany McCoy.

I'm the interim CEO for the Social Housing Developer.

I'm here to speak in favor of the charter changes coming forward before you.

Just want to say that there's still tremendous support in the City of Seattle for permanently affordable, publicly owned social housing.

We are going to be bringing forward to you all 16 charter changes.

A majority of those are technical changes, but there are a few buckets that I do want to highlight for the public.

There are four I'm going to go into for the biggest changes.

One is we never intended for us to not be able to put up our buildings as collateral for debt financing, but apparently that is what is in the charter, so we want to clarify that so that we can put those buildings up to accelerate the production of social housing.

Bucket two, I would say, is that given community input, since I have been the interim CEO, is we want to have the ability for a privately owned commercial condo space for community-based organizations on the bottom floor.

We are still looking to make in some safeguards on that, such as a right of first refusal.

Should that private commercial owner in the future, we would be able to, as a social housing developer, buy that.

And then also potentially putting in some index pricing, so we're also not baking in speculation to that commercial space being sold.

The third is we want to ensure that the current renters appointed by the Seattle Renters Commission get to serve out their term prior to residents having elections.

And then the fourth I would say is we want some time to create a strong container for resident governance.

before we launch our resident constituency and our resident governance councils.

So we want to pass some bylaws for them prior to those taking effect.

I want to thank you to Sage Lawrence and Council Member Foster's office and Jennifer Labreck from Council Center staff for your partnership these past few months while we navigated evolving charter changes and discussions.

And then thank you, Council Member Foster, for your partnership and for opening up space in the committee for these really needed changes.

And thank you all.

Let me know if you have any questions.

All right, our next speaker is Jeff Paul, followed by our first online speaker, Deborah Braz.

Good afternoon, counsel.

My name is Jeff Paul.

I am the interim co-executive director of How's Our Neighbors, here to speak about the charter changes to the social housing developer.

As you all know, How's Our Neighbors is the organization that ran two initiatives to create and fund the social housing developer.

We're the organization that wrote the charter that we're talking about today.

so we care about it a lot.

It's where we baked in all of our values and our vision for what social housing means here in Seattle.

So we take the process of opening it up and making changes to it very seriously, which is why we've been really excited to work so closely with your office, Council Member Foster, and so closely with the social housing developer to come up with a set of charter changes that will really support our vision and make sure that we can actually deliver social housing to the people of Seattle quickly and get this done well so we can show people that social housing is this incredible tool that Seattle now has at its disposal to address our housing affordability crisis.

So I just appreciate all of your time today.

I'm very excited.

How's our neighbors fully support these?

And we look forward to getting this done.

Thank you all so much.

All right, we will now move on to our first remote speaker, who is Deborah Braz.

Please press star six when you hear the prompt that you have been muted.

Unmuted, I should say.

Deborah, are you unmuted?

Can you hear us?

Not hearing you.

We'll jump to the next speaker and then come back to you.

Next speaker is David Haynes.

You're now unmuted and press star six.

Hi, David Haynes.

We're not supposed to use tax dollars to pay politically connected housing speculators looking to dump their dilapidated inflated real estate onto the social housing developer.

The social housing developer is supposed to be developing new homes, not changing all these rules and laws to guarantee certain privileges of acquisition and run-down real estate.

Does the social housing developer actually think that somebody making a six-figure salary wants to pay 30% of their rent to cover everybody else?

living next to transit-oriented housing that's been purchased by the housing developer because they're not qualified to build anything.

Do you really think they want to live there and then decide to turn in their car and use transit?

You all are lying to yourself.

You know, the search housing developer could be literally getting like 20 pieces of land off the fire chief's list of all those condemned buildings.

You all could be developing like really fast if you really put forth the effort and had qualified developers, but instead y'all want to change the laws, tame it with like guarantees for a certain BIPOC community on the commercial real estate floor, but yet we're not going to get any 21st century first world quality housing with the actual livable amenities that make life enjoyable inside the building.

it's gonna be like, oh, we've gotten all this housing that we've just purchased from some politically connected developer who's looking to flip their rundown real estate on everybody else so we can put six-figure salaries on the side of the road, listening to the bus and the train nonstop.

I'm telling you, there's a whole bunch of land to be banked from all the buildings that have been abandoned, that is on the fire chief.

He says, watch your TV McCoy get to the fire chief and say, give me the list.

We're gonna confiscate these lands and start building some homes, some housing, you know?

But it said, well, I'm looking to change the rules on the original intent so that, no offense, but like Council Member Foster can help her associates, affiliates, and supporters get this social housing money You can find real estate.

You can find real estate.

You can find real estate.

You're looking at a line of politics of politically connected, non-profit builders and areas of one building.

It's an abomination.

All right, our next speaker is Deborah Braz.

You're unmuted and press star six when you hear the prompt.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Can you hear me?

Wonderful.

Okay.

It didn't work last time.

Great.

Thank you.

I'm calling to voice my support for designating the Georgetown neighborhood as an arts and cultural district.

I'm the director of the Georgetown Business Association.

I'm also a sculptor and an art restorer myself with a studio in Georgetown.

And I know the economic and social impact the arts have in making Georgetown the thriving neighborhood we see today.

The creative spirit in this neighborhood has long been the heart of it, and this designation would both recognize all the past work of the artists and cultural practitioners and ensure the future health and growth of the creative economy in Georgetown.

Georgetown is a historically underserved community where the arts have thrived in the face of many challenges, and it only makes sense that Georgetown be officially named as an arts and cultural district.

Our artists have sustained the neighborhood and made it a wonderful, unique place to live and work, and we deserve this recognition.

I'd also just like to recognize the work that my colleagues at the Georgetown Association of Arts and Culture have put into this initiative to bring us here today.

So please give us this designation.

It's such a wonderful neighborhood.

I encourage you to come visit Georgetown.

We have our annual Georgetown Carnival coming up on June 13th.

so you can come check out all the arts and culture in our neighborhood that we have to offer.

Thank you so much for your time.

All right, our final online speaker is Sarah Everett.

Please press star six when you hear the prompt.

Hello, can you hear me?

I'm Sarah Everett and I am calling in to support my, to add to the many comments of support for Georgetown being officially designated as a Seattle Arts District.

I'm also in support of Columbia Hillman getting that official designation as well.

I currently serve as the treasurer on the board for the Uptown Art District.

I'm an artist and an art organizer myself and I have a history of also having a studio in Georgetown in my artistic path, so it's a neighborhood that's close to my heart.

Georgetown has long been a rich and diverse epicenter for artists, fabricators, performers, and musicians.

And Georgetown has, you know, I won't repeat, there's been so many great comments already, I won't repeat some of the things that people have already, points they've already made, but a point I would like to add is that Georgetown has already been an active participant in the all-district art meetings.

We have been gathering about once a quarter for a number of years as a collective of representatives from all the districts to come together and talk about cross-promotion and opportunities and ways that we can lift each other up.

And Georgetown has already been participating for several years.

They've already been bringing their experience, ingenuity and grassroots creativity to the table.

And so I really strongly believe that acknowledging Georgetown as an official city arts district will only just enrich and expand the art district program, which will in turn further opportunities and access for the arts in Seattle at large.

That's all, thank you.

All right, there are no additional registered speakers.

Thank you.

All right, thank you so much clerk and thank you to our public commenters for joining us in chambers today or online.

We are now going to move on to our first item of business.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Agenda item one, resolution 32201, a resolution creating an arts and cultural district in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle.

For briefing discussion and a possible vote.

Fantastic, and we are welcoming up to the table Kelly Davidson and Pinky Estelle with the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture.

As they are getting settled and pulling their slides up, I'm going to just take a quick moment to speak on this item.

We are today considering Resolution 32201, and after that we will be hearing Resolution 32200. the first which would formally establish Georgetown Arts and Cultural District and the second which would reconfirm the Columbia Hillman Arts and Cultural District.

We heard a lot from our public commenters today and thank you for sharing so many artists, cultural workers, business owners, Georgetown residents about your experience.

I got a fantastic email from a constituent that said Georgetown isn't just for artists, it was built by artists.

and I think it's a really exemplary to the social fabric in the community between the folks who live there, the folks who work there and those of us who come and visit because it's such a fantastic place for arts and culture.

And it's such a distinctive neighborhood where we have so many elements that come together in a way that's quite unique to our city.

and the Columbia Hillman Arts and Cultural District, which is going to be a reconfirmation of work that has been happening since 2016, ensuring that we make an impact for Southeast Seattle.

So I want to first thank and acknowledge the work of the Georgetown Association of Arts and Culture, as well as the Office of Arts and Culture for bringing these resolutions and this work forward.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about what this designation will mean in practice, how we can support an implementation, and what lessons this process offers for our broader cultural districts citywide.

With that, welcome to the table.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Please introduce yourselves.

Hi, thank you everyone.

Kelly Davidson, I'm the Deputy Director of the Office of Arts and Culture, and with me is our Project Manager for Cultural Space Programming.

Hi, I'm Pinky Estelle.

I am the Cultural Space Project Manager, and we're excited to be here today.

Okay, so we're here today to review cultural districts that require legislative action for designated approval, Georgetown and Columbia Hillman neighborhoods.

Designation is not just a label.

It creates structure for collaboration and makes it easier for the city to respond to neighborhood-specific cultural needs.

Key features of all the cultural districts, they are community-led with distinct coalitions.

There is city partnership and visibility.

They have access to planning and advocacy resources, and there are opportunities for special funding initiatives and programs.

Districts work best when they are community-defined, geographically-specific, and program the program gives neighbors a platform, the local coalition gives the platform meaning.

These districts create a city-wide network supporting Seattle's creative economy and cultural diversity.

Economic and place-based benefits and cultural districts include encouraging cultural tourism and local visitation, supporting small business connected to arts activity, activating public spaces through events, performances, and exhibitions, and helping retain cultural spaces amid development pressures.

San Francisco is a useful example because the cultural districts are set up as a city-sponsored strategy to help preserve cultural communities facing displacement and gentrification.

Today, there are 10 districts in total in San Francisco.

One of the major differences is the allocation of $3 million to these districts annually, whereas Seattle provides only $110,000, an average of $25,000 per district.

San Francisco, $300,000.

Another important feature of their model is that districts prepare their own plans specifically around cultural history, housing, and economic sustainability.

The Office of Arts and Culture is looking to evaluate how this can be part of our model as well.

Okay.

We would like to share some of the exciting work of the two cultural districts coming to you for review today, starting with the Georgetown neighborhood.

So Georgetown, home to a lot of things.

Six neighborhood associations, seven art collectives, 11 design studios and centers, seven creative fabrication companies, seven galleries, two museums, eight creative schools, five performance and venue spaces, 13 annual neighborhood festivals, collectively contributing to the culture, economic, and community vitality of this neighborhood.

Distinct landmarks include the brick corridor along Airport Way, Oxbows Park, Hat and Boots sculpture, the steam plant, and the presence of the nearby Boeing Field.

Prior to settlement, there were numerous indigenous villages and longhouses in the area.

Communities lived along the Duwamish River for millennia.

The community group seeking to establish the cultural district reached out to the Duwamish longhouse with an invitation to engage.

They have not received response.

However, there will be future events and programming that the district will be doing and will continue to seek out connections.

Georgetown was annexed to the city of Seattle in 1910, becoming a major industrial center.

The neighborhood has a small residential population of approximately 1,500 residents, with about 37% of that as people of color.

The neighborhood was recognized as a King County community of opportunity.

Georgetown is home to a strong arts economy, including studios, fabrication shops, galleries, and design firms.

It hosts the Art Attack Art Walks every second Saturday of the month, attracting visitors year-round.

Major neighborhood festivals include the Georgetown Carnival, Honkfest, the San Gennaro Festival, and Rainier Days.

The community has spent the last six years working towards this designation.

The Georgetown Association of Arts and Culture was formed in 2023. Earlier this year, they got their full designation as a non-profit status.

They serve as the neighborhood-wide coalition for creative entities, represent Georgetown at the city's arts and cultural district program.

Their formation was guided by public meetings, stakeholder input, ensuring strategies reflect the community's priorities, strengthening Georgetown's creative network.

They are governed by a board of directors comprised of artists, gallerists, curators, event producers, residents, creative business owners who meet monthly, lead communities, and participate in community events.

According to the 2025 budget report issued from Arts Fund, the creative sector within the zip codes encompassing Georgetown generated more than $6 million in earned revenue and received just over $13 million in contributed revenue, underscoring the substantial economic and community impacts of arts and cultural activity in the district.

Affordable housing units planned for the area are being driven by the neighborhood creative sector.

The up-and-coming development has ownership of 18 properties along 4th Avenue with plans to develop into affordable housing storefronts and community space.

While seeking process details for previously legislated districts, we discovered the Columbia Hillman legislative documents for review.

However, were not confirmed for the legislation, was never formally approved through this process.

The group has been operating as a cultural district successfully and receiving resources as a formalized district, and we are now seeking to finalize that legislation.

Since 2018, the district has been actively committed to programming and advocacy for the neighborhood.

There is work towards acquisition of buildings, having secured one and looking to secure another soon in the same neighborhood.

The process is turning the block of Rainier Ave between Orca Street and Finley into a creative hub for the acquisition of these buildings.

They are currently in that same area working on alleyway activation.

Yeah.

If you want districts to preserve culture, to support local economy, to advance neighborhood equity, we need to move forward from recognition towards sustained implementation and program support.

The development of supporting policies and increased financial investment to empower the districts further.

The Office of Arts and Culture will be working toward developing policies, seeking added resources, and establishing other tools to assist the cultural districts in meeting their goals.

We believe this program can help address larger issues communities are facing.

Our department is hiring a full-time cultural space project manager that will reside in the newly formed Creative Placemaking Division.

We appreciate your time today, and we welcome any questions.

Thank you so much for that fantastic presentation.

I have to just start off by saying, this is actually the second time in council chambers today that hat and boots has been mentioned.

I don't know if that's happened before, but I just wanna say twice in one day.

So shout out to Georgetown and to hat and boots for getting two council mentions in one day.

I worked on hat and boots when I was with the parks department.

Fantastic.

You know what, we knew Kelly that you have, or Deputy Director Davidson, that you have a depth of experience, but now we got three times for Hat and Boots.

So we may have to come back next year and do a proclamation for Hat and Boots Day.

And for folks who don't know what I'm talking about, it's a fantastic sculpture piece of art in Georgetown that's really, really fun to visit.

So anyway, thank you for that presentation and really love the mention of all of the fantastic galleries and festivals and and really excited to have this opportunity to make sure that we are not just creating the formal arts and cultural district in Georgetown, but that we are doing the proper recognition for the Hillman City, the Columbia Hillman Arts District.

And I know they've recently started 98118 Fest, which has also just been a really exciting addition to all of the fantastic local cultural events that we have here in Seattle.

Okay, with that I will turn to my colleagues to ask if you have questions for our panelists today.

All right.

Seeing none, I will just ask, I'll ask a quick question.

I want to make sure that we have awareness just in terms of what does the city commit to with this designation and what remains community led?

And Pinky, you already spoke a little bit about the differences between Seattle's approach and San Francisco's, but just want to make sure we highlight that for folks as awareness.

Yeah, so right now, in hopes to grow more support, we do provide, as I said, funding.

We provide a staff person to help support them, especially when they run into different challenges along with other city departments or through permitting, gives them a guideline to have a staff person to directly connect and link to and give them guide rails on what to do to research on and what to pay attention to in terms of changing landscape here in the city.

Relatively beyond that, it's about uplifting their voices and making sure that they're in the right rooms whether that is private or public.

I will just add, this is definitely a program that we've had a lot of conversations with our new director Nguyen about how we can grow this to really provide even more connections, resources around working through city processes.

So it is definitely something we hope to continue to build on what the communities that are engaged in this program have access to.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

And I'll just ask one more question before I take us to a vote, which is, can you just remind us again, I know we talked about the support that goes to the cultural districts.

Can you just remind us again the level of support given all, I mean, you spoke to this, Deputy Director Davidson, the economic generation that comes from some of these communities.

And I think it's a relatively modest level of support that's provided to the arts and cultural districts for the output that they create.

Can you remind us of that?

So right now, annually, we contribute $110,000.

We try to give 25 to each district.

With adding Georgetown, this means we will be in a deficit.

We do have a plan as to how we will navigate that in this budget cycle, but we'll have to address that as we move forward.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

All right.

Committee members, just one more check to see if there's any questions with those comments from our presenters, and otherwise they'll be taking us to a vote.

Okay, thank you so much.

Clerk, can I ask that you, where am I?

I move that the committee recommend adoption of resolution 32201. Is there a second?

Second.

It is moved and seconded to recommend adoption of the resolution.

Are there any further comments?

Will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendation to adopt resolution 32201?

Council President Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Vice Chair Lynn.

Yes.

Chair Foster.

Yes.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and none opposed.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the resolution will be adopted will be sent to the May 19th, 2026 Seattle City Council meeting.

We will move on to our next item of business, which is the vote on the resolution creating an arts and cultural district in Columbia City.

Will the clerk please read item two into the record?

Agenda Item 2, Resolution 32200, Resolution Creating an Arts and Cultural District in the Columbia-Hillman City neighborhood of Seattle for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Thank you.

Do committee members have any questions regarding the Columbia-Hillman City Cultural District?

Seeing none, I move that the committee recommend adoption of Resolution 32200. Is there a second?

Second.

It is moved and seconded to recommend adoption of the resolution.

Are there any further comments?

Will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendation to adopt Resolution 32200?

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Vice Chair Lin?

Yes.

Chair Foster?

Yes.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and none opposed.

All right, the motion carries and the committee recommendation that the resolution be adopted will be sent to the May 19th, 2026 Seattle City Council meeting.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you all for having us.

Okay.

With that, we will now move on to agenda item three.

Will the clerk please read item three into the record?

Agenda item three, social housing developer charter change for briefing and discussion.

Fantastic.

So we are for this conversation, as we move on to a discussion of the Seattle Social Housing Developer Charter Change, we are going to be joined by Jen Labreck from Council Central Staff, who is joining us virtually.

And before I pass it over to Jen, I'm just going to say a few words about what we are bringing forward and we're bringing this forward for discussion today.

So I'm really excited to be discussing these changes to the charter of the social housing developer as they are working quickly to deliver on the promise of permanently affordable housing and planning to make acquisitions.

And as we've already heard from some of our public commenters earlier today, these are changes that my office has been working closely with the developer on to ensure that they have all the tools necessary at their disposal to bring forth the vision of social housing.

The need for this update in the charter was first identified by the previous CEO and was reinforced as a necessary change by interim CEO Tiffany McCoy and her team.

After identifying the need for this update and engaging closely with potential leaders, the Seattle social housing developer identified several changes to the charter that are necessary to successfully align with the values and goals that voters approved when they overwhelmingly voted in support of initiative I-135.

As we have this discussion today, we'll talk a little bit about the process regarding approving these changes.

We will be voting on a, in the future, my office will be bringing forward a resolution to affirm the changes that the CEO of the Social Housing Developer has already brought to the Social Housing Developer Board.

So a bit of a different process for my colleagues.

So you'll be hearing from Jen on there.

I want to make sure that we understand that.

So Jen is going to talk us through that process, and we just want to make sure that folks understand both the changes that we are talking about as well as the process that we will be moving forward.

So with that, I'm really excited.

I believe that what we're talking about are just smart technical changes for the developer.

I will be handing it over to Jen.

Thank you.

Jennifer LeBreck Hi, I'm Jennifer LeBreck I'm a City Council Central Staff and I'm going to go ahead and share this presentation for you today.

Okay.

Can everyone see that?

We can see.

Thank you, Jen.

Great.

All right, so today's presentation is on proposed changes to the Seattle Social Housing Developer Charter.

Chair Foster just alluded to this, but the proposed changes and the accompanying resolution are on the agenda as an information item.

They haven't been introduced yet, and that is because we are waiting for the Social Housing Developer Board to make to approve one final technical tweak to the charter before we go forward and introduce it.

And I'll talk more about why that is and why that's important later on in this presentation.

Just a little bit of background.

Initiative measure number 135, otherwise known as I-135, was passed by voters in February of 2023 and it created the Seattle Social Housing Developer, whose mission is to develop, acquire, and operate social housing in the city of Seattle.

I-135 included a charter for the Seattle Social Housing Developer which was essentially Exhibit A to I-135.

Under that charter, while the Social Housing Developer Board can recommend changes to the charter, City Council approval is needed to make any final revisions to the charter.

The Social Housing Developer Board did vote last week to recommend all the proposed changes to the charter that you see, and essentially the charter that was attached to this agenda as an information item.

There is one small exception.

We need to make one more small tweak to the definition section, really a technical change, and the Social Housing Developer Board will be voting next week to make that technical change.

So the version that is attached to the agenda essentially assumes that the board will make that technical change next week and RE reflects it.

I am now going to talk through the proposed changes to the Charter and their purpose.

I think just taking a step back, overall the purpose of the changes are to help the social housing developer be able to accomplish its mission of acquiring, developing, and operating social housing in the City of Seattle, and especially in some cases just to facilitate them being able to do real estate transactions.

The first change allows the social housing developer to form a single purpose entity, such as a limited liability corporation.

But I think a key thing here, the Seattle social housing developer would have to retain control over the housing, even if it was owned by a single purpose entity.

the Seattle social housing developer would retain control over the housing by having to both own and control the single purpose entity.

And this is a fairly common thing in real estate where you would set up an LLC in order to develop a property in order to provide some protection if something happened against other assets that the social housing developer might own.

Another change would allow rental rates to be based on more than just the cost of the buildings in order to allow for cross subsidization across buildings.

So for example, maybe one building has more affordable units, another building that had higher market rate rents could be used to cross subsidize.

the building with the lower rents or would allow the use of building revenue to support bond payments.

The social housing developer was concerned that as the charter is currently written, it was a little too restrictive, which seemed to imply that building revenue could just be used to support the operations of a specific building and wouldn't allow them to accomplish some of the other objectives that they had.

The changes facilitate the Seattle social housing developer being able to use properties as collateral for debt.

This is a key change.

There is language in the charter that says that the properties must be owned into perpetuity by the social housing developer.

and banks found that language problematic because essentially it meant that they couldn't foreclose on a property should the social housing developer go into foreclosure.

So this essentially allows the social housing developer to use a property as collateral eases a concern of banks that was preventing them from being able to take on debt.

It also allows the social housing developer to execute regulatory agreements.

One example for that, for example, might be the mandatory housing affordability performance agreement, if that's a path that they wanted to go down.

Another key change, and I think this was alluded to during public comment, is that essentially the charter changes allow the social housing developer to condoize a property, so to form a condo and to sell that would have a residential portion of the condo, which they would continue to own.

They have to own and control any residential or housing portion of a building, but they would be able to sell the commercial portion.

And this would allow them, for example, to partner with a community or organization who might be interested in, you know, who might own land, for example, and be interested in working with a social housing developer to develop the property but would want to own the commercial portion for their own community uses.

Also alluded to during public comment there are some protections around that commercial portion so the social housing developer would have a right of first refusal for the commercial portion of the building were it to be sold and there would be a limit to the essentially to the resale price that the commercial condominium owner could make off any sale whether it went to the social housing developer or they said they weren't interested and it went to a private party there would just be a limit on the profit that could be made Continuing on, currently, Seven out of the 13 board positions are appointed by the renters' commission.

Under the charter, as the social housing developer begins to own and operate buildings, they will have what is called the constituency, which is comprised of residents living within the social housing developments.

And eventually, under the charter, it is the constituency who will appoint seven board members, and those will replace essentially the board members that are currently appointed by the renter's commission.

Previously the charter had been very silent about what that process would look like and if the board members appointed by the renter's commission would finish out their terms.

So this just adds some clarity to the process including stating that there does have to be constituency rules and regulations in place before essentially board members would be appointed by the constituency.

It also eliminates the requirement that the constituency select an independent auditor.

I just want to know, this is kind of a technical change, It's there because the social housing developer has to be audited by the state auditor, so there's really no choice in selection of an independent auditor.

And I also just want to note that the social housing developer is still required to provide audited financial statements to the city clerk annually.

It adds a new section related to definitions, and then there are just some other miscellaneous changes for purpose of clarity.

I want to take a moment to talk about timeline and also why this particular piece of legislation is a little unique in terms of amendments.

I'll talk about timeline first.

We're here today.

June 2nd, the resolution and attached charter will be on the IRC, the Introduction and Referral Committee calendar.

Sorry, that's a typo.

June 10th, there will be another discussion and potential vote at committee, and then June 16th is the first available date at Council.

This is where I just want to talk about the unique position we're in.

After the board votes next week, the social housing developer votes next week on that one technical change, essentially the changes that are attached to this resolution that are in the proposed charter will match exactly what the board has recommended.

And because there's a match there, essentially because council is adopting exactly the changes that the board recommended, we can do this through a resolution, which is currently, which is how it's being done.

If Council wanted to make further changes via amendments, you know, they said, well, we want to do more than just the Board wanted to do, we want to make other changes to the Charter, an ordinance would actually be necessary instead, so that would essentially require a different and new piece of legislation.

I am going to stop there and see if there are any questions.

Thank you so much.

Madam Chair?

Yep, you're recognized.

Go ahead, Council Member Juarez.

I apologize for not getting my little hand up quick enough.

I just had a quick little clarification on the summary and fiscal note.

Jennifer, just so I'm clear, because I want to make sure it's not me, because, you know, elder status here.

In the beginning, you had the resolution would amend the Seattle Social Housing Developer Charter.

All proposed charter changes were recommended by the Seattle Social Housing Developer Board at their May 5th.

and May 21st, 2026 meeting.

I'm guessing that's not correct on the 21st because it hasn't happened yet.

Thank you for calling that out.

On May 21st, the Social Housing Developer Board will be making a technical tweak in order to align the proposed changes that are attached to the resolution to what they recommended, but you are correct, that hasn't happened yet.

We are not anticipating any issues, and I am working closely with the Social Housing Developer and coordinating that, but you are correct that that has not occurred yet.

Okay.

I just want to make sure because I thought if they had two board meetings, but you saying that they had one and then they're anticipating on the 21st to make it final.

Okay.

That's all the clarification I need.

Thank you, Jennifer.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much, Council Member Juarez.

Colleagues, I will pause to see if there are other questions.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you for bringing this.

Just a quick question, Jennifer, on Sorry, now I spend all my time telling people to speak into the mic and the fact that you had to remind me is very embarrassing.

Can you go to page four, please, Jennifer?

Just wanted to get the timeline down.

So just to reiterate, when would amendments be due?

There's no amendments.

There's no amendments.

As a resolution, council can only adopt exactly what the board recommended.

So it can be a yes or no.

Yes, exactly.

Okay.

So up or down vote.

And that is...

Okay.

Good to know.

Thank you.

That was my only question.

So there's no changes that can be made.

If a council member wanted to make changes above and beyond what the board recommended, they would have to introduce a new piece of legislation and it would have to be an ordinance rather than a resolution.

So I want to be clear, council always has the authority and the ability to make changes above and beyond what the Social Housing Developer Board recommends, and they can do that at any time.

They're not dependent on the board to initiate changes.

But we just need a different vehicle if council does that, and the vehicle is an ordinance as compared to a resolution.

Understood.

Okay.

That's good clarity.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much, Council President.

Colleagues, other questions from committee members for the board at this time regarding any of the proposed changes to the charter?

Okay, and I will just quickly ask Jen, can you just elaborate for us about the technical changes that the board is gonna be considering at their later meeting on the 21st?

I just wanna make sure colleagues here know what to expect and have a sense of, these are relatively minor tweaks.

Oh, sure.

And they are already reflected in the version that is shared.

It's all to do with the definition section.

I think that what the board originally voted on, a couple of things.

One, they're changing the definition of restorative justice, but what the board voted on accidentally referenced a part of the charter that doesn't exist.

And so we're just making sure that that new definition of restorative justice ends up in the definition section, which is a part of the charter.

and then there was just a little bit of clarity about, lack of clarity about, they restated a couple definitions so they're different than what's in I-135 and we just added some clarity that the definitions are being restated for the purposes of the charter but that we're not trying to amend I-135 in any way and also adding some clarity about sort of which definitions take precedence in which situation.

So truly technical.

Thank you for that, Jen.

And then just reiterating that what we put forward that we uploaded into legislature and what colleagues have in front of us reflects the changes that we anticipate the board voting on in that meeting later on this month, which is also part of the reason why, as you noted, Councilmember Juarez, who catches every detail with a fine tooth comb said it's not May 21st yet.

We wanted to go ahead and reflect the version that we anticipate the board voting on.

so that colleagues, you had the opportunity in this briefing and discussion to be reading and engaging and asking questions around that version.

So that's why that date changes there and we wanted to make sure that was reflected clearly.

And I will just say, I know there's not a ton more of questions from the committee.

You know, Sage has been really working from my office and working closely with the developer on this.

If there are any questions about the changes or the implementation Our office, or Jen, is happy to work closely with folks.

And Jen, we really appreciate all the hard work that you did, as well as the hard work coming from the developer and the partnership to figure out how we can make these technical tweaks to ensure that the developer can be successful in the coming months and years.

Chair.

Oh, sorry, I didn't see your hand.

Yes, Council Member Rink.

Chair, I just wanted to I don't have any questions for today.

I know I've had a chance to review and get my questions answered ahead of this meeting.

And so I just wanted to take a moment to thank you and your office for your work alongside the social housing developer and just offer a couple of comments for this moment that we're in, because I think it's important to note that Seattle voters continue to affirm their support for the social housing developer.

Prop 1A passed with 63% of the vote, and I believe the actions from the developer since that vote really speak to the intent to make sure that the social housing developer as a body delivers, including the board taking necessary action for important leadership changes, including the hiring of housing development experts, staff the developer that I know you've brought into committee to hear directly from, and now proposing these technical changes to the charter, which I believe will help enable the developer to deliver on social housing.

And I offer that context as also a reminder that we're engaging in something new and when My office hosted a local progress just about a month ago.

We had folks from other cities around the country coming to learn from us on how our social housing developer is doing, how we've done this.

And so this is really a learning opportunity.

We're figuring things out as we go.

And I think I just wanted to take that moment to voice my support for these technical amendments and changes to the charter as we are really carving out a new path forward and folks are eager to learn from us on how we're doing this.

And so I wanted to offer those comments for today.

Thank you again for bringing this before us.

Fantastic.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Rink.

I appreciate that.

And seeing no further questions or comments from colleagues, thanks again, Jen, for your time and your leadership on this.

Is there any further business to come before committee today?

All right, seeing none, this concludes the May 13th, 2026 meeting of the Housing Arts and Civil Rights Committee.

Our next scheduled meeting is on May 27th.

Thank you for attending.

It is three o'clock and we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.