Select Budget Committee Meeting Session I 10-29-26

Good morning, the October 29th, 2026 Select Budget Committee meeting will come to order.

It is 9.30 a.m.

I'm Dan Strauss, Chair of the Committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Foster, Council President Hollingsworth.

President.

Council Member Juarez.

Here.

Council member Kettle?

Here.

Council member Lynn?

Here.

Council member Rink?

Here.

Council member Rivera?

Present.

Council member Saka?

Here.

Council member Foster?

Here.

and Chair Strauss.

Nine present.

Thank you.

Thank you all for being on time.

We have 68 items to get through today.

Packed agenda.

We have the proposals within the Human Services Department, Seattle Police Department, CARE, CBO, Ledge, and Mayor's Office.

68 items today.

Before we begin, if there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We're gonna get right into all of these items.

Clerk, will you please read items one through five into the record?

Agenda Item 1, Human Services Department.

Agenda Item 2, Seattle Police Department.

Agenda Item 3, Community Assisted Response and Engagement.

Agenda Item 4, City Budget Office.

Agenda Item 5, Legislative Department.

And Agenda Item 6, Office of the Mayor.

All for briefing and discussion.

Thank you.

We are joined by Council Central staff, colleagues.

Ended yesterday's meeting with gratitude and appreciation for how we are working our way through a lot of items with vigor and doing so in a good way.

So we're gonna continue that today.

I will be calling on folks to I'll be facilitating the conversation by calling on folks.

So if you ask a question, just give it a pause.

There are many people that are looking to raise their hand to add to the conversation and I want to just make sure that we keep this conversation flowing.

If I keep talking, we'll be late.

So with that, let's jump right into Human Services Department.

We are going to get through Human Services Department before lunch.

If we are able to take on more items before a standard lunch time, we will.

If we are running slow or I'm getting nervous about time, we will take a half an hour or 45 minute lunch.

If we're working pretty quickly through all this work, we'll be able to take an hour lunch.

I just worry.

We've got eight, nine more items today than we did yesterday.

Took a full hour and we had a little bit of time to spare.

I just wanna monitor the time.

So as always, I'll Google Maps with you.

But for that, right now I'm still talking.

So we're gonna turn it over to central staff to run us through these items.

I believe we are starting with HSD 10A1.

Thank you.

Rebecca Maskin, Council Central Staff.

Good morning.

Today's first item is HSD 10A, which would impose a proviso of $100,000 general fund in the Human Services Department for food bank delivery service to residents of low income and affordable housing at Magnuson Park.

This item is sponsored by Councilmember Rivera and co-sponsored by Councilmember Foster and Council President Hollingsworth.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rivera, sponsor the proposal.

You are recognized.

Thank you chair and thank you central staff for reading this into the record but also just working on it in general.

This colleagues is a really simple request of the money that has already been allocated in the budget for food banks and meals that 100 gets given to the university district food bank for a second day of food at Magnuson Park.

It's the only park you've heard me say where folks are living, both low income and permanent supportive housing folks.

There's a food desert there.

That's why the food bank already goes one day a week there.

And that is not enough for the families and individuals and children that live there.

So this is to allocate 100 of all our food investments so they can get that second day of food there.

And then colleagues, I just wanted to say while we're at the top of the discussions of HSD's $404 million budget proposal, I also want to bring up, and I would be remiss if I didn't say that, as you know, months ago I called for an audit of all of HSD's contracts.

I've been working with the auditor's office toward this end.

While the department does audits of state and of their state and federal dollars, we also need our local dollars.

It's important.

And as you've seen at the county level with their serious problems with their human service contracts, I don't want this here.

So if we audit and we get results, we can fix problems.

We either feel great and we can tell the taxpayers we're doing a great job with our human service contracts or if we need to have fixes, we can do those sooner rather than later and not wait because the longer we delay, then it's harder to fix those problems.

Thank you colleagues.

And I hope you'll support this meal, minor or a moderate rather, not minor, a meal investment for Magnuson Park.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Rink is chair of the committee overseeing this department.

You have anything to add at this time?

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

No comments on this particular proposal, but since we're at the top of HSD, I just want to offer some top-line comments and I'll refrain from commenting on each of the proposals just to spare us time today.

So to that end, thank you everyone for bearing with me as I am virtual.

I am across the country for a friend's wedding that I absolutely could not miss and I absolutely could not miss this important committee meeting.

So thanks for bearing with me.

I will comment just overall as chair of human services labor and economic development committee it is critical for me in this budget that we maintain and expand wherever we can essential human services to meet the needs of the people who call Seattle home So, while it was heartened to see generous investments into our social safety net in the wake of federal cuts, particularly with shelter and food access, there are many sunsets of one-time areas and other areas of HSD's budget, including gender-based violence services, that I hope to see this council approved.

So, with that, I will save any remaining time to speak to violence.

Thank you, Chair Spruce.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any discussion on HSD 10A1?

Any discussion?

Further discussion?

Final discussion?

If you would like to co-sponsor at HSD 10A1, please raise your hand at this time.

I'm seeing no additional co-sponsors, so we will move on to HSD 12A.

Great.

HSD-12A would increase appropriations to the Human Services Department by $800,000 general fund one time in 2027 to support the renovation of the Ballard Food Bank annex to expand the food bank's crunched warehouse capacity and increase demand for programming.

This item is sponsored by Council Member Strauss and co-sponsored by Council Members Foster and Rink.

Thank you sponsor the proposal.

I will just say the Ballard Food Bank serves more people today than it did when it opens its doors, not only because of the number of clients that have increased month over month, but also because of the geographic space that has expanded.

They are out of space, they need to build a warehouse, same block.

This will help them expand services for so many people.

The food bank by name is a misnomer.

It provides healthcare services, it provides outreach services, it provides mental, dental health as well.

I mean, it's just the food bank is a misnomer because it's really a community wellbeing hub.

That's why I am proposing to help them expand.

This is not the entire cost of their expansion.

They're fundraising and getting matching dollars as well.

Council Member Rink, anything to add at this time?

Seeing none.

Colleagues, any discussion?

Further discussion, final discussion.

If you would like to co-sponsor HSD 12A, please raise your hand at this time.

Seeing no additional co-sponsors, we're gonna move on to HSD 13A.

HSD 13A would increase appropriations of the Human Services Department by 175,000 general fund in 2027 and 181,000 general fund in 2028 to an organization providing hot meal services and related client support for food insecure residents in Ballard.

Council has identified Edible Hope Kitchen for this funding, and this funding is sponsored by Council Member Strauss and co-sponsored by Council President Hollingsworth and Council Member Lynn.

Thank you, sponsor the proposal.

I'll speak to it.

Edible Hope has been providing free meals, breakfast meals in Ballard for over a hundred years.

They have seen all of the changes that has occurred within our community and what has not changed is their dedication to serving people breakfast.

What we have found is that they are using the private fundraising dollars to hire a kitchen manager and a community manager that helps with de-escalation and conflict resolution.

I believe that it would be prudent for us to support them by funding these two positions so that they are able to better use their route, the fundraised money to provide more food to the community.

Council Member Rink is chair of the committee.

Anything you want to add?

Not at this time.

Colleagues, any discussion?

Further discussion?

Final discussion.

If you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 13A, please raise your hand at this time.

I'm not seeing any, so I'm gonna continue moving on.

HSD 14A.

HSD 14A would impose a proviso of $50,000 general fund appropriations for the Human Services Department to be used solely to support an organization providing hot meals, direct aid, and community resources in Cal Anderson Park to unhoused residents.

Council has identified Stone Soup Crew for this funding.

This item is sponsored by Council President Hollingsworth and co-sponsored by Council Members Foster and Lynn.

Thank you, Council President Hollingsworth, who sponsored the proposal.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Good morning, colleagues.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster and Councilmember Lynn for your support on this, and happy early birthday to Councilmember Foster.

I don't mean to embarrass you.

Founded in 2020. Okay, sorry.

She looked at me.

My apologies.

Founded in 2025, a volunteer run.

It's a transgender group-led mutual aid organization supporting unhoused neighbors at Cal Anderson.

This organization serves over 200 people every Wednesday with hot meals and distribution of hygiene supplies, sleeping bags, and other survival essentials.

Beyond Basic Supplies, they also help people navigate housing, medical care, transportation.

They also partner with organizations supporting transgender refugees and displaced community members.

This is solely for food distribution at Cal Anderson, which they do a great job.

And I know Council Member Rank is familiar with the group as well and for all your work and support.

of this organization.

So I really appreciate the opportunity to bring this forward and hopefully I can get people to support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Rink, anything to add?

Yeah, over to you, Council Member Rink.

Thank you.

And thank you, Council President Hollingsworth for bringing this forward.

It has been remarkable to see the work that Stone Soup Group has been doing in Cal Anderson Park We've heard recently over the past couple of months about the challenges in Cal Anderson Park with so many new arrivals.

There is tremendous need and this is an organization that is showing up to try and meet that need.

And I think it'd be meaningful to be able to add and provide the support so they can continue doing this good work.

So I will be adding my name as a co-sponsor.

And I thank you again, Council President Hollingsworth for bringing this forward.

Thank you, Council Member Rink.

Colleagues, discussion, Council Member Rivera.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Council Member Hollingsworth and Council Member Foster.

Thank you for supporting the proviso I put in for similar food efforts at Magnuson Park.

I really appreciate the support.

Folks need food.

I'm gonna support Council Member Hollingsworth in this effort.

Thank you for always, you do a lot on the food space and to support food and I really appreciate you for that.

So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member.

Well said, Councilmember Rivera.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Further discussion?

Final discussion.

If you would like to co-sponsor HSD 14A, please raise your hand at this time.

I see you, Debra.

So we've got- Good.

I want to make sure Lish sees me.

Lish is nodding his head, yes.

So we are going to call these co-sponsors right now, adding their co-sponsorship to HSD 14A.

Council member Juarez, Rink, Strauss, and Rivera.

Council members Juarez, Rink, Strauss, and Rivera.

Thank you.

And sir, we can't have public disruptions while we're doing our business.

This is your first warning.

Thank you.

This is your first warning.

If we continue, we'll continue.

Thank you.

We're gonna move right on to HSD 15A.

HSD 15A would increase appropriations to the Human Services Department by $50,000 general fund on a one-time basis in 2027 to support an organization providing breakfast meal services in the Central District.

Council has identified Art Noir as for this funding.

This item is sponsored by Council President Hollingsworth and co-sponsored by Council Members Juarez and Saka.

Thank you.

Council President Hollingsworth, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Sacca and Councilmember Juarez for your support on this.

Colleagues, Art Noir partners with Deaf Chef Miller, provides free community breakfasts at the historic Prince Hall Masonic Temple right here in Central District off Jackson.

if a lot of people don't know we lost a grocery store this year and we also lost the Walgreens and so we're trying to continue to activate the space right around 23rd and Jackson with different type of food programs and different type of meal distributions during the summer June through the end of August they offer three breakfasts for three morning breakfasts Monday Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m.

to 10 a.m.

Everything is free for people and they get a lot of kids as well and their breakfast initiative prioritizes children's and family and they recently expanded their service to provide free breakfast on Fridays and they also partner with the Seattle Black Panther Party interpretive center that's right here in Pioneer Square with Elmer and Erin Dixon.

So we'd love your support on this as well.

Again, we lost a grocery store and we're just trying to figure out how we're gonna continue to distribute meals in that area.

So thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Rink, anything to add?

Not at this time.

Colleagues, discussion?

Further discussion?

Final discussion?

Colleagues, if you would like to co-sponsor HSD 15A, please raise your hand at this time.

We've got council member Rivera, Rink, Lynn and Foster.

Council members Rivera, Rink, Lynn and Foster.

Thank you.

Moving on to HSD 19A.

Good morning, Ann Gorman, Council Central Staff.

HSD 19A would increase HSD by two FTE, adding position authority only and not funding for HSD participation on the City Unified Care Team.

It is sponsored by Chair Strauss and co-sponsors are Councilmembers Juarez and Kettle.

Thank you.

As sponsor of the proposal, I'll speak to it.

This is position authority only.

There's no funding associated with this.

It is so that we don't have to go through the functions of re-passing additional law bills in the future to put this position authority back in.

This is really, again, about keeping our city clean from trash, not from people.

And so if...

We've discussed this a bit yesterday.

We'll probably have a couple more of these.

Same thing every time.

No new money except for trash cleanup.

Everything is just position authority.

Councilmember Rank is chair of the committee.

Anything to add?

Not at this time.

Colleagues, any discussion?

Further discussion?

Final discussion.

If you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 19A, please raise your hand at this time.

I have Councilmember Saka adding his name to HSD 19A.

Adding Councilmember Saka.

And Rivera.

and Hollingsworth.

All right, I'll slow down a little bit.

Sorry folks.

Moving on to HSD 21A.

HSD21A and HSD22SA are companion pieces.

I will start with HSD21A.

This item would increase HSD by $350,000 general fund in 2027 only for an operational and funding plan for a veteran's shelter and service campus in West Seattle.

It is sponsored by Councilmember Saka and co-sponsors are Councilmembers Kettle and Rink.

Let's take the next item as well, if they're a package, please.

Sure.

HSD22SA would request that HSD provide a report with an implementation roadmap for the siting and establishment of a veteran shelter and service campus in West Seattle.

As with the previous item, the sponsor is Councilmember Saka and co-sponsors are Councilmembers Kettle and Rink.

Thank you.

Councilmember Saka, you were recognized to speak to both and then when I call for co-sponsors, it'll be individually.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

So, colleagues, you all know that I'm an Air Force veteran.

I also believe that service to our country must be met with service from our community.

By the data, West Seattle, further south through White Center and Burien has a high concentration relative to the broader population in the greater metropolitan Seattle area of veterans.

particularly with respect to veterans living at or below the federal poverty line who are the most at risk of becoming homelessness or experiencing homelessness.

Indeed, census estimates indicate that nearly 7,600 veterans live across West Seattle and nearby White Center and Burien with more than 440 or roughly 5.8% living below the poverty line.

Again, by the data, the highest concentrations of vets living below the poverty line are in zip codes 98136, which includes Seaview, Lincoln Park, 98146, Shorewood, White Center, 98166, Burien, Normandy Park, and 98168, which is White Center, Tequila.

average in these four zip codes of veterans living below the poverty line is 8.85%, which compared to the broader Seattle metro area average of 6.2% of the region's 195,000 veterans living below the federal poverty line.

Seattle is home to more than 21,000 veterans overall, of which nearly about 11.8% are living below the poverty line.

So in all, we have four zip codes in the West Seattle area where the percentage of veterans living below the poverty line is higher than the King County and Seattle metropolitan area averages.

Colleagues, these are not mere data points or abstractions.

These reflect people who are our neighbors, people who wore the nation's uniform and may now need a safe place to rebuild.

It's also no secret that there is a dearth of professionally operated shelter and services facilities in West Seattle.

This amendment invests $350,000 in the critical pre-development work needed to create a new purpose-built, professionally operated, permanent veteran shelter and services campus in West Seattle, established as part of a new public-private partnership.

This critical work includes looking at the best service models, feasibility, site screening, due diligence, qualified operator criteria, preliminary design, community engagement, and financing.

West Seattle leader and Navy veteran, Mr. Keith Hughes and the West Side Neighbors Shelter stepped into a gap when veterans needed help operating informally inside of the American Legion Post 160 in the Alaska Junction in West Seattle.

I honor and respect that service.

This proposal builds upon Keith's legacy by moving from an informal, 100% volunteer-driven response toward a properly permitted, professionally operated, trauma-informed regional facility with trained providers and strong community accountability.

I've been having constructive conversations with folks from the Junction BIA, the West Seattle Chamber, Mr. Hughes himself, potential service partners, including Compass Housing, philanthropic leaders in West Seattle and many more.

In addition, my office has recently engaged directly with our partners at the King County Department of Community and Human Services and their King County Veterans Program Initiative.

Proud to share that the response has been encouraging because people see both the need and the opportunity.

This is not $350,000 for just another study, that sits on a shelf.

It is vital seed capital to identify a site, assemble the right partners, build a financing strategy, and move from compassion to construction.

I want to thank my co-sponsors for this launch effort, Navy veteran Councilmember Kettle, and Committee Chair Rink, I appreciate you and your leadership for your co-sponsorship.

Veterans, answer the call for us.

West Seattle and the City of Seattle can now answer the call for them, and I ask for your support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Saka.

Council Member Rink, anything to add at this time?

Yes, thank you, Chair Strauss.

I'll be brief, and I want to thank Councilmember Saka for bringing this forward.

He correctly identified something that has been a long-standing issue.

Two things, really.

The lack of services for people experiencing homelessness in West Seattle.

and the shortcomings of our system in addressing the needs of veterans experiencing homelessness.

So I'm proud to be a co-sponsor on both of these budget actions to support bringing something like this online.

I think it's tremendously important and needed in our system.

So very excited to see where we go from here.

And thank you again, Councilmember Salva.

Thank you.

Colleagues.

Discussion?

Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Saka for bringing this forward.

We don't do enough for veterans in this country.

And I think and very much appreciate that you are keeping in mind are vulnerable veterans who are now, after having served our country, find themselves homeless and in need.

And so I really appreciate you for bringing this forward.

You know, I don't know how this will get paid for.

I support the underlying intent.

I will say that if If this can't move forward because we don't have additional dollars, as you know, in our budget, I would hope that in the mayor's shelter plan, she would include this because this really is important.

And I know it won't just serve veterans in West Seattle, but across it could be a shelter to serve veterans from across the city.

And so, you know, thank you again for bringing this forward.

I'll, I'll support it for the underlying pieces, but if it should not make its way into the budget, because it is an ad, not a proviso, I would hope that you're able to work with the mayor's office to make sure that she includes this type of shelter in her plan.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Further discussion?

Final discussion?

I'll just say, there's a really good Veterans Day parade in Auburn that occurs where it shuts, I heard 40,000 people come.

It's not Seattle, but it is the town where Red Barn Ranch is.

So there's the connection back to budget.

Colleagues, if you would like to add your name and co-sponsorship to HSD 2021, this is the funding and then Following that, I'll take the co-sponsorships on the sly.

On the funding, I have Council President Hollingsworth and Council Member Rivera.

Council Members Hollingsworth and Rivera.

And on the Statement of Legislative Intent, we will call for co-sponsors now.

I have Council Members Rivera, Hollingsworth and Foster.

Council Members Rivera, Hollingsworth and Foster.

Thank you.

We're now going to move on to HSD 23 S A. HSD 23 S A is a statement of legislative intent.

It would request that HSD provide quarterly reports regarding activities and performance of the unified care team and any collaborating departments that manage the city's response to unsanctioned encampments.

It is sponsored by Councilmember Rivera.

Co-sponsors are Council President Hollingsworth and Councilmember Saka.

Thank you.

Councilman Rivera's sponsor of the proposal you were recognized.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ann.

Chair, as you know, you'd put in the quarterly reports last year.

So this is a continuation and our offices work together.

So wanted to acknowledge you for putting this in last year.

And it's a continuation of getting these quarterly reports from the UCT team.

They did a really great job with their reporting.

So we know exactly what they did, where they went, who was served, et cetera.

and this is, you know, it's important information for us to have as we move forward with the work.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Council Member Rink, anything to add at this time?

Not at this time, colleagues discussion?

Council Member Saga.

First off, I want to thank Councilmember Rivera for putting this critical data transparency and good governance feature back into the budget.

I do have a question for central staff.

So as was noted, we have over a number of years on a one-time individual bespoke custom basis called for this reporting, which isn't scalable, isn't a best practice for data of this significance and magnitude in terms of importance.

How do we make this one-time, how do we avoid the one-time thrash, frenzy, fray, churn, minimize our time, our staff's time, central staff's time on a going-forward basis and just making this a permanent durable reporting requirement, because this information should automatically be reported every year.

How do we make it an automatic reporting requirement?

Central staff?

Jennifer or Lish Whitson, Director of Central Staff, take it away.

Yeah.

So it could be added to the city's code as a requirement.

What we have seen is that we get better responses over time from statement of legislative intent that there's more attention paid to them than to ongoing reporting requirements in the code which over time often get forgotten.

So the sort of annual effort that we're doing here tends to result in better outcomes from what I've seen.

I think it also gives an opportunity for the council making the consideration to consider any changes that might have happened, any sort of details or specifics.

I think there's a high level of information that is useful, but oftentimes there's very specific changes that council members are interested in discussing and that can't easily be tracked through the code.

And I'll take, Jennifer, do you want to add something in?

Just very quickly, I agree with what Cal said.

Unified Care Team has changed over time.

It does iterate, and so having this as part of the budget cycle allows us to update our reporting requirements as Unified Care Team adapts and iterates.

Thank you.

Councilmember Saka, you still have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yeah, all that is true.

and it should still be an automatic reporting requirement.

And on Mr. Chow's point, I'll note that if we had a lasting, durable, ongoing requirement, we can continue to supplement every year with additional, you know, supplement this statutory requirement with these new data points.

It also ensures that it gets done.

because there's a lot going on here.

In any event, appreciate the insight there.

Thank you again, Council Member Rivera for putting it forward.

Thank you.

Council Member Juarez.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First of all, I want to commend you with your comment that you made.

And I wrote it down because I think it's very profound.

Keeping our city clean for trash, not people.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss, in regarding the Unified Care Team.

And great question, Council Member Saka.

And I wanna thank Council Member Rivera for bringing this forward because now that we are in districts and we have been for a decade, this is something that we've been talking about in district parity and district information.

And again, It just means that those of us that live in the district and represent a district in which we honor those needs, but of course we represent all of Seattle.

It would be really helpful, as you said, Councilmember Bersaca and Councilmember Rivera, to have these data points to help the unified care team instead of which we used to have to do, which was better, I thought.

where we could call the executive and we could find out, their unified care team, how they weighted their list of what encampments that they wanted to, how they scored them from one to ten.

We would find out, okay, there are eight unsanctioned encampments and the reason we're going to do these two first is we've had accounts of police activity, sexual trafficking, overdoses, death, murder, you name it.

So it was always, but we always had to physically or get on the phone and call and track it down from, or talk to the mayor's office and our friends up at HR, in the executive.

And so that was just done by email and phone calls.

So how, how, how great it would be if you broke it down by district.

And also this information would help us when we were having the conversations about tiny house villages and the shelters that were going to come online, I don't know, a thousand in a year, something to that degree, without particular departments understanding the landscape.

And so when I, a while ago when we started keeping track of keeping the city clean, where were the hotspots?

We worked in conjunction with SPU and Seattle City Light, as you know, and SPD and HSD, et cetera.

But again, the focus was cleaning.

And so to have the district and Council Member Saka said, and as Jennifer also shared, and thank you Cal, or was it Lish?

Lish, saying that this is like a better approach, a more scalpel, a directed, deliberate approach than just tucking Unified Care Team somewhere where we don't know and there's no, how are we going to report on this?

So those of us that are in a district can inform the other branches of government, these are hotspots and this is what the data shows.

And then after the data, you know me, show me the facts first, then let's talk about your feelings.

But I need the facts first.

So anyway, I will be supporting this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

And thank you, Councilmember Rivera Saka and Councilmember Council President Hollingsworth for your support on this.

Thank you.

Further discussion, Councilmember Rank.

Thank you, Chair Straffs.

I just had a quick question for clarification as we have been receiving reports like this on the Unified Care Team activities.

I'm just wondering for central staff, is what is outlined here in this supply and all of the different data points reporting on the same as what was previously submitted or are there any additional reporting pieces to be aware of that differ from kind of the standard of reporting we've had over this past year?

Central staff?

For this sly for HSD23SA, Councilmember Rivera did add some reporting requirements to the 2026 version of the sly, and we have been receiving those very detailed quarterly reports from HSD.

Anyone else from central staff?

Back to you, Councilmember Rank.

You still have the floor if you'd like it.

No additional questions.

I just wanted that clarification that there was additional reporting cases here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have one question for central staff.

I believe the quarterly report that we are set to receive this month or next month is the first that is broken down by district, or has that been ongoing?

That has been an element of the reports this year.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any further discussion?

Any final discussion?

Council Member Rink has sponsored the proposal.

You were recognized to close this out.

Oh, Council Member Foster.

Thank you so much, Chair.

I just had one quick question.

Looking at the slide number three by district, do we currently have the, it's three C demographics of those referred to shelter?

Is that a piece of data that we've been collecting in an ongoing basis or is that new?

Central Staff?

I will have to look at the most recent report we have and get back to you.

Okay, thank you.

I'm just interested in the, we've talked about sort of privacy data collection and just have a little bit of curiosity about that particular part of this slide and happy to take that offline and can follow up with the sponsor as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Central Staff, anything else to add from this discussion?

Seeing none, Councilman Rivera is a sponsor of the proposal.

You're here to close us out.

Thank you for the questions.

Um, council member, um, uh, Juarez, this is a broken down by district.

So it's, it's in there to, to the points that you made.

So, and thank you chair Strauss for also acknowledging that or confirming that.

Um, and then council member Foster, I believe this was in here already, but we can follow up on, um, the minor additions that we did, but to, um, central staff's point, It gives us the opportunity to add information or amend something that we've put in here.

So, yes, Councilmember Saka, I agree that it's, you know, we shouldn't have to every year have to ask, but we shouldn't have to every year ask for this.

It would be great to somehow codify this in a way that we automatically get it.

So, I agree with that.

Happy to chat to see if there's a way to make that happen with central staff.

in addition to then acknowledging during the budget process what changes need to be made for additional helpful data points as we make decisions about these investments.

So thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Colleagues, if you would like to co-sponsor HSD 20 through 23 S A, please raise your hand at this time.

I have Councilmember Foster, Kettle, Juarez, Rink.

Councilmember Foster, Kettle, Juarez, Rink.

We are not taking Councilmember Foster's hand.

That was an old hand, so I'm going to call that out again.

Councilmember Kettle, Juarez, Rink, and Lynn.

There's Juarez, Kettle, Lynn, and Rink.

Great.

I am speeding through this pretty quickly.

So colleagues, if we get to a topic and you know you want to say something at some point, it does help to raise your hand early so that I just, I'm air traffic control, some of the most important workers in our country and I'm doing a budget version of that today.

With that, HSD 24SA.

HSD24SA is a statement of legislative intent.

It would request that HSD report on outcomes when structures or encampments are removed under the multi-departmental administrative rule, often called the MDAR.

It is sponsored by Councilmember Foster and co-sponsored by Councilmembers Rink and Lynn.

Thank you.

Councilmember Foster sponsored the proposal.

You were recognized.

Thank you so much chair and thank you central staff as always and to my co-sponsors Councilmember Rink and Councilmember Lynn.

Colleagues, in brief, my interest here is in understanding our success in moving people from the streets to housing and understanding what opportunities we have to continue to improve on addressing homelessness through the current approach to the unified care team.

So this slide is intended to give us information about how well we are doing so that we can understand how we can be more effective and improve our coordination and our service delivery.

So colleagues, I ask for your support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Rink, anything to add?

Not at this time.

Colleagues, discussion?

Further discussion?

Final discussion.

If you would like to co-sponsor HSD 24 S A, please raise your hand at this time.

Council members Hollingsworth and Saka adding their name.

Council members Hollingsworth and Saka.

Thank you.

Moving right along to HSD 26 A.

HSD 26A would increase HSD by $300,000 general fund in 2027 to support an organization providing food access and family support programming.

The Council Budget Action identifies Family Works as the intended recipient of this funding.

The prime sponsor is Councilmember Rivera.

Co-sponsors are Council President Hollingsworth and Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rivera has sponsored the proposal.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, central staff.

I think many of you colleagues have heard me talk about Family Works.

They provide support.

They have a food bank in Wallingford and they have a location at one of the bellwether centers where they provide diapers and food and clothing, and they have a resource room for families and their kids to go.

They're a great resource for our low-income families living in the housing that we support in the city, and they are looking to locate another resource center at this newer bellwether building that is getting built for low-income families.

this doesn't fund entirely their ask.

but it takes some part of the way there.

They do really amazing work for our low-income folks on the north end and it doesn't just serve families in D4 and the low-income housing.

It services folks from D5 and D6 as well because folks come there, they know the resources there.

Mainly it serves families and kids so hoping to support them in this effort and I ask for your support on this one because this is an organization that actually does the work that they say that they do, and it provides such a resource, like I said, for our families and kids on the north end of town across multiple districts.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rank, anything to add?

Not at this time.

Colleagues discussion?

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Chair.

I'll be really quick.

Just want to appreciate Council Member Rivera for bringing this forward.

I think Family Works is phenomenal.

And like Council Member Rivera said, they do so much more than just food.

It's kind of like the Ballard Food Bank as well, providing all the services for the neighborhood and being the anchor.

So really appreciate that.

And yeah, that's why I support this.

If I could do two hands, I would on this one.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Further discussion?

Final discussion.

Colleagues, if you would like to co-sponsor HSD 26A, please raise your hand at this time.

I have Council Member Juarez, Foster, Rank.

Council Members Juarez, Foster, and Rank.

Thank you.

We're gonna move on to HSD 27A.

HSD 27A would increase HSD by $345,000 general fund in 2027 to support fire protection upgrades at a nonprofit organization's historic community building.

The council budget action identifies the Finney Neighborhood Association as the intended recipient of this funding.

It is sponsored by Chair Strauss, co-sponsors are Councilmember Foster and Council President Hollingsworth.

Thank you sponsor the proposal I'll speak to it which is that the Finney neighborhood association has three buildings two of which are designated landmark or have historic status what this means is that they have not had to continue to meet the upgrade requirements of our sprinkler and fire suppression services over the years the and or the but to spend it depending on how you like to use English is that to have a childcare center at the Finney Neighborhood Center, they would have to upgrade their fire suppression services despite having historic status that does not exempt them from the childcare rules, which I think makes good sense.

All that to say, for them to continue providing childcare, they need to upgrade their sprinkler system.

Colleagues, you may know that my first budget item was a food access item, increasing general fund to fresh bucks.

The first piece of legislation that I worked on was giving a density bonus for childcare, and providers.

These are some of my top two lifelong priorities.

Hope to earn your support.

Council Member Rank, anything to add here?

Nothing to add?

Colleagues, any discussion?

Further discussion?

Final discussion?

I'm gonna ask for co-sponsors now and while I'm letting people put their hands up.

What you'll hear me say is discussion, further discussion.

Once I get to final discussion, that means I'm about to ask for co-sponsors.

With that, we have Councilmember Kettle, Rink, and Rivera adding their names to HSD 27.

Councilmembers, Kettle, Rink, and Rivera.

Thank you.

Moving on to HSD 28A.

HSD 28A would provide a $2.4 million general fund in HSD to support the implementation and operation of a shelter serving families with minor children.

It is sponsored by Council President Hollingsworth.

Co-sponsors are Council Members Suarez and Rivera.

Thank you.

We've got Council President Hollingsworth.

Floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera and Councilmember Juarez for your co-sponsorship on this.

The numbers in the CBA language, you all can see that there's been a 56% increase in families with children that are unhoused and unsheltered since 2022. Currently, there are 2,000 plus families within the McKinney-Vento program in our city of Seattle who are homeless.

That's in our Seattle public schools.

And we have to prioritize these families.

And I know that Every night there's probably between 40 to 50 calls a day for parents seeking a safe place for their children.

I know we all care about kids and families, but the one thing that I think is really important, I had an amendment to the Mayor's Shelter Plan, Council Bill 121-185, that called out specific expectation for at least two new shelter projects with exclusively for families and children within the exact state of goal of 1,000 new shelters.

That was agreed upon after I spoke to the mayor's office because I was going to propose one new shelter for families and children for the first 500. And I understand that there was a prioritization for different types of shelters within our city.

And then we settled on this goal.

And I know that the 1,000 shelters, that goal has been moved to next year or about around 1,000 shelters.

and I think it should still be expected that we deliver for those families and those children.

And I know that I still don't know what that plan looks like.

However, I think because that information is a little bit unclear to me at this time and I know we're going to continue to open up shelters, I'm proposing that this proviso as kind of an accountability step to ensure that HSD can demonstrate the commitment to families and children can be met, that we can have at least one family shelter for children and families can open up within the year.

So colleagues would love your support, and this is to continue on the commitment that we're making to the 1,000 shelters.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Rink, anything to add?

Not at this time.

Council colleagues, discussion, Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.

If I could raise two hands, I would for this.

There are a lot of families and children who are homeless, and I don't know that we have appropriate counts.

I've heard anecdotally that their families, they fly under the radar.

They purposefully don't want to be a part of these counts.

Some of them are living in cars.

with their children and sometimes it's happening because after if they have sons after a certain age, my understanding is that the sons have to go to a men's shelter.

And so rather than split the family up, moms are, you know, living in cars with their kids.

I don't know how many that is, but I know it does happen.

And so having a shelter for families, you know, for families and their kids is really important.

So I really wanna thank you for always keeping this in mind along with your food supports to really support our families in town.

And I do think this is a prudent thing to do for us to be supporting families by creating shelter as part of the expansive shelter plan, particularly for these folks, for our families in town with their kids.

Thank you, council president.

Thank you, council member Saka.

Thank you, Chair.

I just want to also acknowledge and say kudos to Council President Hollingsworth for your leadership on this and helping to support truly some of our most vulnerable and amazing effort Love it.

Excited to be able to raise my hand in a moment to co-sponsor it.

And just for the record, I did miss the boat.

I was nose down on something else a moment ago.

I did miss the boat on an opportunity to co-sponsor HSD 026A, sponsored by Councilmember Rivera, which is totally fine.

But I do want to say for the record, I strongly support that.

And I think it's a worthwhile investment that has impacts and benefits citywide.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any further discussion?

Further discussion?

Any final discussion?

If you would like to co-sponsor HSD-28A, please raise your hand at this time.

We are adding Council Member Lynn to HSD-28A.

Adding Council Member Lynn.

Did I hear that Council Member Saka intended to support?

And we've got Council Member Saka now raising his hand.

Thank you.

Council members Lynn and Saka.

Council members Lynn and Saka.

Thank you.

Moving on to 29 S.A.

Oh, excuse me.

HSD-29-SA.

This is a statement of legislative intent.

It would request that HSD develop operational siting and cost frameworks for the establishment of a city sobering center.

It is sponsored by Councilmember Kettle and co-sponsored by Councilmember Rivera and Councilmember Lynn.

Thank you.

Councilmember Kettle, sponsor the proposal.

You're recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

I think all of us have been out on the streets, maybe in a precinct or somewhere, and you learn that of the challenges of that the system isn't designed for that second and third watch interaction where somebody's in need, somebody's in crisis, whatever it may be.

But the services are not there.

The capabilities are not there.

that the person is not really in a position to make a decision either.

I think this is something that all of us have witnessed too, having conversations with people.

I had someone one time very strongly talk to me about not being able to make decisions when he was using on Third Avenue one time.

And it's happened other times as well.

And so what's needed is a bridging function.

What's needed is a sobering center, a sober center.

center to basically allow that opportunity for that individual to make a decision, conscious decision, but also allow the opportunity to bridge to some service because the services do not run 24-7.

And by giving this opportunity, it will allow us to put people in a better and safer position, overnight usually, and to get that opportunity.

And I think that's so key.

So as stated in the slide, it's all basically listed there throughout.

And it's well written in the sense of the idea that sobering centers serve people experiencing homelessness or housing precarity by providing them an indoor place to rest, typically overnight.

They can be a last resort indoor place of refuge for individuals facing a complex set of challenges.

Individuals who are severely intoxicated cannot give informed consent to connection with substance use disorder treatment resources.

It could include assignment to a case manager, medication assisted treatment, MAT or buprenorphine for example, and entry into inpatient treatment.

So this is what's really important.

and there's opportunities to learn from other sobering centers and jurisdictions and for us to really step forward because this kind of goes to what we're doing in other areas too in terms of that warm handoff.

And so with all that said, colleagues, I'd ask for your support for this slide.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Rink, anything to add?

Not at this time.

Colleagues for discussion, Council Member Rivera followed by Juarez.

Thank you.

Do you want to go first, Councilmember Horace?

That's fine.

That was a mistake.

I was just going to support it.

I apologize.

I jumped the gun there.

I'm just going to support it.

Go ahead, Councilmember Rivera.

I apologize.

No, no worries, Councilmember Horace.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

You and I chatted your This is a revival of a HSD031SA from 2025 where I put in a request for HSD to do exactly what you're asking them to do.

I will say that we got the SLI response from HSD but it didn't really answer the SLI request which is what will it take to site a sobering center in Seattle.

at the time, there's this King County Sobering Center, and they talked a lot about the King County Sobering Center, which was mentioned in the slide, but it wasn't the main part of the slide.

So I'm glad that you're reviving this, because there is a huge need here.

And the reason I initially brought this slide for the 25 budget was because I had had a conversation with the Seattle Fire folks with of the union folks about the fact that firefighters often, you know, pick up folks or assist folks who, you know, need this type of a place for them to go sober up and then oftentimes here treatment can be offered.

And so I really appreciate you bringing this back and I hope that this time HSD will answer what it would actually take to situate a sobering center because We need that often if folks are under the influence, they're not able to give consent to treatment, for instance.

And so that is really important.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Further discussion?

Councilmember Foster.

Thank you so much, Chair.

I'm curious.

I'd like to hear more.

I had the opportunity to attend the opening of the ORCA Center.

I believe other council members were there as well.

I'd love to hear more about the vision for the sobering center and how it differs from the existing ORCA center, which is a location that people can come and where they're currently dropped off by fire and other first responders when they're in need of services.

So looking to understand the distinction.

Central staff, are you able to answer that question at this time?

I can provide some information about the ORCA Center in terms of the specific services that this sobering center would offer.

They're different from the ORCA Center.

I will defer to the sponsor.

The ORCA Center is a place where people can detox from an overdose or acute fentanyl intoxication and rest.

and have some food, maybe get a shower and learn about services and connection to other resources.

The ORCA Center, for instance, is not necessarily set up to serve people who are suffering from alcohol abuse.

That's one distinction I can think of.

I will let the sponsor describe his vision for the sobering center.

Thank you.

Council Member Kettle, I'm gonna call on you and then I'm gonna turn the floor back to Council Member Foster.

Thank you Chair and thank you Councilmember Foch for the question.

It's similar but different in the sense of it's a specialized.

ORC is very specialized as opposed to this.

What we're looking with sobering centers across the board has mentioned, you know, have the issue of like alcohol but there's other pieces too.

So it's definitely much more of a broad base.

and because of that, it may not be appropriate to try to do that within the ORCA.

I think it would subterfuge the ORCA to be blunt.

So it's about being a general service versus a specialized opiate kind of center that the ORCA...

By the way, everybody should go visit the ORCA Center if you've not been there.

It's incredible work that's being done.

I'll add that in too.

Thank you.

Council Member Foster, you still got the floor.

Thank you so much, Chair.

I appreciate the clarification from the sponsor, and I think what I'm taking from that is the intent is to have something that's a little bit more broad-based than the ORCA Center.

I am curious whether this means sort of a separate location or whether there is opportunities within this slide to look at ways that the existing investment that the city has made could be expanded to serve additional populations.

So I will be refraining from adding myself as a co-sponsor, but just wanted to share, those are some of the questions that I have and maybe that can be worked out if this does move forward.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion?

I see your hand.

Further discussion?

Final discussion, seeing as everyone who's chosen to spoke, Council Member Rivera, you're recognized to speak for a second time.

Thank you.

And thank you, Council Member Foster for raising this.

The Orca Center is post OD and this would be, you don't need to have OD'd.

That's a huge difference.

And to your point, when I first put this slide in, and again, thank you, Council Member Kettle for bringing this forward and is, you could maybe use the Orca Center expand on it to add something like this.

So it doesn't necessarily, that's part of the ask.

Like how would that look like?

Could we expand something that already exists for this purpose?

So thank you for the question.

That's an important point.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Kettle is a sponsor of the proposal.

And since we've had discussion, you can close us out.

Thank you for the discussion.

And again, this is a bridging function.

I think it's really needed.

And there's the slide goes into asking those questions that are being raised by my colleagues.

And I think, and this is something that I'll be working in committee as well.

So this is not gonna go into the ether.

It's gonna be coming back into committee.

Thank you.

Colleagues, if you would like to co-sponsor HSD-29SA, please raise your hand at this time.

All right, I'm calling the names now.

Everyone set?

I have Council Member Juarez, Hollingsworth, and Saka adding their names to 29SA.

Council Members Juarez, Hollingsworth, and Saka.

Thank you.

We're gonna move on to HSD 30A.

Tommaso Johnson, Council Central Staff.

Council Budget Item HSD 30A would increase funding in the Human Services Department by $8 million general fund in 2027 and $8.3 million general fund in 2028 for gender-based violence, supportive services, and programming.

Just to note, the 8.3-2028 figure is the result of crunching the numbers on the mandatory inflationary index applied by HSD for contracted providers.

These are services that HSD provides through contractors, so that is why it is 8.3 in 2028 and 8.0 in 2027. Thank you.

Thank you, Tommaso.

I should say, excuse me, I should say this is sponsored by Councilmember Rink, co-sponsored by Councilmembers Lynn and Foster.

Great work, Tommaso.

Councilmember Rink.

Thank you, Chair Strauss, and thank you, Central Staff, Tommaso Johnson, for your work with my office in preparing this Council Budget Action.

Colleagues, every single one of us knows a survivor of gender-based violence, whether we know it or not.

Some of us may be survivors ourselves.

I am a survivor.

Every two minutes someone in this country is sexually assaulted.

Domestic violence makes up nearly one in three cases Seattle police referred to the city attorney's office in King County and more than a third of families seeking emergency shelter are fleeing domestic violence.

Seattle has had more cases of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls than any other city studied in the country.

Gender-based violence from sexual assaults, domestic violence, and commercial sexual exploitation is invasive in our community and it has tremendous impacts on public safety in our city.

Domestic violence is the single greatest predictor of future violent crime.

And according to the Alliance of Gun Responsibility, when an abuser has a gun, a woman is five times more likely to be killed.

So we cannot be serious about public safety in this city without also being serious about gender-based violence.

And that is why this budget proposal is coming before you today.

Two weeks ago, we launched Seattle Stands with Survivors Every Step to not just announce this council budget action, but to sound the alarm on federal funding cuts and policy changes that are impacting our ability to address gender-based violence here.

The second Trump administration has proposed quitting the Office of Violence Against Women by 29%, but even before that, federal funding for crime victims to Washington fell from $74.7 million in 2018 to $17.8 billion in 2024. It has moved to terminate billions of dollars in federal grants to hundreds of organizations.

It has cut housing assistance and it is forcing immigrant survivors to choose between being unsafe at home and deportation.

Every one of those cuts and federal policy changes has an address and too many of those addresses are here in Seattle.

Clinics, including the Safe, Healthy, Empowered, or also known as SHE Clinic at Aurora Commons, which provides health care for women on Aurora, they've had to reduce services.

Transitional housing for survivors is at risk.

Legal help with refugee and immigrant survivors is drying them.

These are not distant stories.

These are our neighbors.

So I'm asking for your support on this budget action so we can both respond to gender-based violence that our community faces with the seriousness that it deserves.

Now, unfortunately, the mayor's budget sunsets about a million dollars in one-time funding for these services.

So if we do not act in this budget on this topic, we stand to lose even more ground on these services.

But I believe that we can do better than just patching up a hole.

So this council budget action would add $8 million in ongoing funding to the Human Services Department for gender-based violence survivor services and prevention programs.

This investment will be focused on the areas of accountability and justice investments survivor supports and prevention.

That means more sexual assault nurse examiners in our hospitals, so no one waits hours for care after the worst night of their life.

And those who have capacity to check in weeks later because we know trauma and healing takes far longer.

And for survivors who want to pursue accountability through the criminal legal system, it means legal aid and legal advocacy across criminal, civil and family court where survivors fight for custody, protection orders and their futures.

Housing, counseling, health clinics, mobile advocacy, flexible financial assistance to meet survivors where they are and give them the trust and dignity to decide what they need most.

That trust is the difference between a program and a lifeline.

And if we want to hope of a generation that doesn't laugh along when someone makes jokes punching down at women and girls, whether it be on national TV or in a locker room, we have to teach it and embed it in our culture.

And that is why this investment is also focused on prevention education to bring more healthy relationship and consent education into classrooms.

The national media on Epstein, Jane Doe at Cornell, Vivek Ramaswamy's disgusting campaign ad calling a survivor of child sexual abuse a liar have all sent astonishing and disturbing messages to survivors that you won't be believed, your abuser won't be held accountable, and that what happened to you doesn't matter.

And that is why I believe it is imperative that we send a different message here in Seattle and that we stand with survivors at every step.

Thank you to Councilmember Foster and Councilmember Lynn for co-sponsoring this budget action.

And thank you to elected officials who stood with us in launching this effort, including our Public Safety Chair, Councilmember Kettle, City Attorney Erica Evans, School Board Member Gina Topp, King County Councilmember Jorge Barón, and state representative, Dorothy Parivar.

And thank you to the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence and the dozens of organizations supporting survivors across our region.

This is my number one budget priority for this year.

And whatever we do not win in this year's budget on this, I'll be back next year pushing this.

So colleagues, I hope you add your name in support today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Rink.

Very well said.

Colleagues, any discussion at this time?

I don't know that there's anything that we can add to what Council Member Rink just shared.

So my lack of additional comments is for no other reason than respect to the sponsor for everything that you've shared so far.

Thank you.

I'm not seeing, I think you took everyone's breath away with the comments that you shared.

So I don't think we've got additional comments at this time.

Did you have any closing comments you wanted to share?

Shucks.

Thank you, Chair, for those generous remarks.

I appreciate it.

I hope this is something we can stand behind.

Thank you.

Thank you.

With that, I will call for co-sponsors on HSD 30A.

Colleagues, if you'd like to co-sponsor 30A at this time, please raise your hand.

I'm going to be adding Council Member Kettle.

Adding Council Member Kettle.

Thank you.

We're going to move right along onto HSD 31 S A. HSD 31 S A is a statement of legislative intent that we request the Human Services Department provide a report to the Human Services Labor and Economic Development Committee by June 30th, 2027 on topics related to gender-based violence supports funded by the city, including the current landscape of services, a spend plan for any funds added in this budget process, and identifying opportunities for increased interdepartmental coordination.

This is sponsored by Council Member Rink, co-sponsored by Council Members Kettle and Foster.

Thank you.

Council Member Rink is sponsor of the proposal.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Chair Strauss, and thank you, Tommaso, for your work with my team on preparing this, and thank you to co-sponsors, Councilmember Foster, Councilmember Kettle for supporting this lie.

This statement of legislative intent really is intended to make sure that we are not just focusing on, you know, the funding components, which is clearly very important, but also carrying the work into committee next year.

So in many ways, I'm viewing this statement of legislative intent as kind of a backbone for future planning on how we continue the work and really speaks to how the Seattle Stands with Survivors Every Step campaign is intended to be an ongoing effort as we really do work to evaluate our current landscape plan effectively and also identify need across the system.

So if you were unable to support the previous council budget action, I hope you can support this slide that I view as an important planning step to make sure that the work is ongoing and we have sustainability around this effort.

I ask for your support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Rink.

Colleagues, any comments?

Councilmember Juarez?

Thank you, and I want to thank Councilmember Rink for bringing this forward and the gender-based violence and the information.

Councilmember Rink, one component of this, and I want to thank you for your partnership and your good words and your good work, obviously, is getting down to the, I don't want to say granular, but more some of the gender-based violence that we don't typically see in a domestic violence case, including missing murdered Indigenous women and girls.

and the work that we had done with Seattle Police Department and non-profit Indigenous-led organizations, which I've been working on for well over a decade.

So I will be supporting this and I want to thank you.

I won't be around next year, but I will certainly be watching and I'm extending to you in front of God and everybody.

I'm here for you.

So I got you.

I will be supporting this.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, Councilmember Rank, for your leadership on this.

I will be supporting this today.

And I also want to lend my support, and I know this is your number one budget ask as well, for the previous item.

So showing my support there, I know it's a big ask and you plant your flag in the ground, but just wanted to, to the Chair, I know the Chair I will make sure the chair knows that I do support some, you know, trying to figure out what we can do for gender-based violence supportive services as well, because I know it's your number one ask.

So I do support that, and I will be supporting this as well.

So thank you, Council Member Rink, for your leadership on that.

Thank you, Council President.

Chair, you're back.

I have a comment, if that's okay.

Please.

Thank you, Council Member Ring, for putting this request in.

I too would like to know my understanding is we spent about 17 million on gender based violence.

I don't know if you're a woman.

I know very few women who have not been impacted by gender based violence to a, you know, to a degree.

that's just the bottom line and if you're a woman of color every step means you've experienced it most certainly and I know we all have family members who have experienced gender-based violence of one form or another including and I know domestic violence is part of that too or whether you were sexually assaulted in college or by a family member or by, you know, a friend, et cetera.

Someone we thought was a friend turned out not to be a friend.

So I do admire your passion on this and those of us women who are older have been working on this for many, many, many years and I appreciate you Councilmember Juarez for bringing attention to, you know, the indigenous murdered women and girls.

This is serious and it's really important.

It was a big budget ask.

and I think this request for a slide to understand the landscape at the city and what we're funding and what could be done if we can do more.

I know we all would certainly want to do a lot more and it's hard to do with our budget constraints but I do think it all starts with having a report about how we're doing.

with the dollars we are investing.

And so I appreciate you putting this forward and I'll be supporting this report.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Colleagues, any further discussion?

Any final discussion?

That means I will be asking for co-sponsors.

If you would like to co-sponsor HSD 31 S A, please raise your hand at this time.

I've got Councilmember Rivera, Hollingsworth, Saka, Juarez, Strauss.

Councilmembers Hollingsworth, Juarez, sorry, Rivera, Saka, and Strauss.

Yes.

Great.

Fantastic.

We're gonna move right along HST 32A.

HSC 32A would provide a $100,000 of general fund in HSD to prioritize Seattle Youth Employment Program placement for youth affected by violence.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Lin, co-sponsored by Council President Hollingsworth and Councilmember Foster.

Thank you.

Councilmember Lin has sponsored the proposal.

You're recognized.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to my co-sponsors, Council President Hollingsworth and Councilmember Foster.

Colleagues, As I've been meeting with community members and our community violence intervention partners, the one thing I have heard over and over and over is that the kids, our youth affected by violence need jobs.

Today, I actually have a number of amendments around jobs, and this is the first of three.

And the Seattle Youth Employment Program is a wonderful program.

I'd love to grow that program more, but this proposal is meant to dedicate to Proviso 100,000 to really focus on those youth affected by violence.

You know, I think about our future efforts Councilmember Rivera about if we're gonna have a focused deterrence model, we really need to assure these kids affected by violence that we can show them a better path.

And in order to do so, we need to ensure that there are job opportunities for them.

You know, I think it is not just about a paycheck for our youth.

It is about the skills that they learn, the community connections they get through jobs.

You know, we spend more time each day with our work colleagues than we often do with our families.

These jobs can be critical pathways to get our youth onto a better path.

I think about that first paycheck that I ever received as a young person and the confidence that gave me, the connections it gave me, and every youth in our community, but especially those affected by violence, deserve this opportunity.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you, Councilmember Lin.

Councilmember Rink, anything to add?

Not at this time.

Colleagues discussion?

Discussion?

Further discussion?

After further discussion comes final discussion.

Final discussion, seeing no discussion, we will call for co-sponsors at this time.

If you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 32A, please raise your hand.

I have Council Member Rink adding her name to HSD 32A.

Adding Council Member Rink.

Thank you.

Moving on to HSD 33SA.

HSD 33-SA is a statement of legislative intent that would request HSD to report on potential changes to the Seattle Youth Employment Program.

In specific, those two potential changes are the contemplated implementation of year-round application periods for the program's internship program, and number two, building stronger connections between the program and youth served by organizations that focus on community violence intervention and gun violence prevention and intervention.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Lin, co-sponsored by Council President Hollingsworth and Councilmember Foster.

Thank you, colleagues.

So following up on the Seattle Youth Employment Program, again, it's a wonderful program that primarily has a six to eight week internship program, which last year ran from July 6th to August 18th.

The SYEP program serves youth from 16 to 24. And that summer program works well for many of our youth, and it makes a lot of sense for high school students.

But again, the program is larger than just our high school students.

It does go up to age 24. And so looking for potential year-round opportunities, again, we don't know when somebody might need this opportunity.

And speaking earlier to a youth engaged in our community violence intervention programs, you know, when they might be ready to, and again, need an opportunity for an internship, for a job.

And so hoping that our human services department can really lean into this work of partnering with our CVI partners to see how this program can really be leveraged, that our investments can really be leveraged to partner with our CVI investments for our at-risk youth and for our young adults, older than just our high school students.

Thank you.

Oh, sorry.

The chair stepped away.

Thank you, Councilmember Lynn.

Councilmember Juarez, is that for a comment?

Your hand up?

Yes, it is.

Okay, go.

Thank you.

It's Madam Pro Tem Chair for four minutes.

First of all, Councilman Ritalin, thank you for bringing this because, and I used to volunteer in a lot in the day with the Seattle Indian Center and Roots.

the transitional homeless shelter.

And that age gap between 16 and 24 is often a gap that nobody seems to, I mean, they kind of get lost in the shuffle, particularly after 18 and they age out of group homes and foster homes.

There's never that support and that safety net or no one has eyes on them.

so I really want to commend you for this proviso to prioritize youth employment because that is so important to see this and I don't want to say completely invisible but kind of overlooked we really focus on K to 12 and then kids that are in in foster care, then they age out after 18 and then they just kind of disappear.

And we work with young folks that would age out a group home foster care, whatever, and were basically just sent on their way with $100 and a hefty bag with their clothes.

So to have this and to have the proviso where we can look at this for employment is really inspiring to me.

So I will be supporting this and I wanna thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

Colleagues, any other comments?

Okay, we're on HSD 033SA, a requested HSD report on potential changes to SYEP.

Who would like to, would anyone like to sign on?

Councilmember Juarez, Councilmember Rink, and Councilmember Saka.

Councilmembers Juarez, Rink, and Saka.

All right, thank you.

All right, we'll move on to HSD.

HSD 040A.

Tracy Ratzliff, Council Central Staff.

HSD 040A would increase HSD by $750,000 of general fund in 2027 and $776,000 and change in general fund in 2028 to expand services at city-funded senior centers that may be feeling the crunch of demand for services.

This is sponsored by Council Member Saka and co-sponsors are Council Members Hollingsworth and RINC.

Thank you.

Councilmember Sacca, as sponsor, you're recognized.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

First off, I wanna thank my co-sponsors, Council President Hollingsworth and Council Members Rink for your leadership and co-sponsorship of this very important city-wide strategic effort.

Colleagues, we know that senior centers enable older adults to remain connected, independent, and engaged in the community, providing a vital community building facility for people to age in place.

Seattle's senior population continues to increase, and senior centers play a key role, again, in meeting the demand by offering nutritious meals, health and wellness programming, case management, and opportunities for social-emotional connection.

This amendment would invest this money over two years to the department specifically to enhance all 14 city-funded senior centers.

would be remiss if I didn't call out the two in my own council district.

So this would definitely include supporting the South Park Senior Center and the Center for Active Living in West Seattle.

But again, all 14 across the city would benefit from this generous investment.

The additional investment would strengthen the capacity of all of Seattle's senior centers to meet increasing service needs and maintain program quality.

Thank you and would ask for your support.

Thank you, Council Member Saka.

Council Member Rink, anything to add?

Over to you.

Just briefly, thank you, Chair Strasson.

Thank you for bringing this forward, Councilmember Saka.

I'm signed on as a co-sponsor because I think this is a really critical investment for seniors and older adults, our elders, and I wanted to briefly uplift just a couple of points to bring some committee context into this and also share a little bit for the broader human services system.

As I understand it, this is one of the priority requests from the Seattle Human Services Coalition that they have a cohort within the Seattle Human Services Coalition who work on senior programs and too often our senior and elder programs don't always get the attention and support that they need and deserve.

We had an opportunity to daylight and discuss this when we brought in HSD's Area Agency of Aging.

into committee to talk about their work.

And so I really wanna thank Council Member Stocker for bringing this forward.

This would be a really important citywide investment to support seniors, older adults, or elders.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Rank.

Colleagues, discussion?

Discussion?

Further discussion?

After further discussion comes final discussion.

Seeing no final discussion, we will call for co-sponsors on HSD 40A.

If you'd like to co-sponsor, please raise your hand at this time.

I have Councilmember Foster raising her hand.

Adding Councilmember Foster.

Thank you.

Moving on to HSD 41A.

HSD 41A would increase HSD by $200,000 general fund in 2027 and $207,000 of general fund in 2028 to support health and wellness activities, including recreational and mentoring programs for Native youth.

The Council has identified the Rise Above organization.

for this funding.

The sponsor is Council Member Juarez.

Co-sponsors are Council Members Hollingsworth and Strauss.

Thank you.

Council Member Juarez, as sponsor of this proposal, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's always hard to go after Councilmember Saka because I can't really get that energy going that he gets going, but I'm going to try.

First of all, thank you Council President Hollingsworth and thank you Councilmember Strauss for being so supportive and good partners with our Indigenous led non-profit organizations.

I have some written statements that I want to put on the record because we do have Indian Country and tribal organizations and indigenous-led organizations listening in today.

The Native youth in Washington State are disproportionately affected by challenges such as chronic poverty, poor educational attainment, addiction and suicide.

And we do know, along with our Black children and our Black babies, that they also have the highest level of not graduating from high school.

I also want to point out recently, thank you to Eric Belgaard, who is the Executive Director at Chief Seattle Club, when we learned that our neighbors, our relatives who are unhoused were severely undercounted.

And we hope to correct that and remedy that soon.

For 12 years, Rise Above, led by CEO founder Jackie McCormick, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe, has partnered with schools, tribes, community leaders to provide youth with culturally responsive support, positive adult relations, and safe places to thrive.

And I cannot stress any more about safe spaces to thrive.

This City Council and past City Councils have been great partners with Indigenous-led organizations like Rise Above, United Indians, Daybreak Star, Chief Seattle Club, Mother Nation, I could go on and on, and I want to thank this council and prior councils for their support, hand in hand, showing up and being an ally.

Every dollar spent, which we've learned, on early intervention programs like Rise Above, saves almost $19 on treatment-related costs.

and we know this from our long-time partnership with Indigenous-led organizations and the data that we receive because they also work with tribes and of course the federal government and we rely on that data to inform us what kind of programming the City of Seattle can do to our First Nation Indigenous folks here that live in this city.

The programming activities offered, all the programming activities offered to these type of organizations are at no cost to these families.

I would like to highlight a few of those outcomes.

250 unduplicated Native youth served through Seattle Public Schools and the community-based events.

Weekly Mentorship and Native Advisory at Nathan Hale High School.

A big shout out to our friend Jolene, a member of the Macaw Nation, who was the principal there.

We have had partnerships, well over a dozen, with K-12 schools, universities, nonprofit organizations, and professional teams.

Huge shout out to Seattle Storm, Kraken, and the Mariners.

And we've been in discussions with the Seahawks as well.

Well over 1,500 youth and families have been served in the Seattle Basketball Weekend on the waterfront in conjunction with United Indians and their cultural activities including the powwow.

Free Sunday Wellness open gym for youth and families year-round.

Believe it or not, that is a big thing in Indian Country.

It's a big thing here.

Basketball, getting your kids there, following the basketball circuit and the powwow circuit, those things go hand in hand.

So I'm grew up around that, so I'm happy to see that go on and particularly be supported by the city.

We have the increased cultural connection, community engagement, and family participation.

And when I say family, we go beyond the standard Western concept of a nuclear family.

I think Councilmember Rink had shared this as well.

We talk about cousins, aunties, elders, all of those folks that are our quote-unquote tribe, our people.

I have a different opinion about using the word tribe, but for me it's a good thing when you belong and you see something bigger than you that you contribute to and that you understand that you're a part of.

So that's what these type of organizations bring to not only Native American youth, but to our city, our great city of Seattle.

And all of this increases youth confidence, belonging, and a connection to trusted adults, trusted carekeepers, trusted aunties, uncles, and mentors.

So colleagues, I'm asking you today to please join me in supporting this organization and many others, I have a few more coming up, providing health, wellness activities, including recreational and mentoring programs for Native youth.

This again is an example of supporting programs that we support, that we fund, that we lead with love and support, and we see results not just on paper, not just in data points, because every data point is a story, but in the young lives that we save, support, and love.

So thank you.

Well said, Council President Emeritus Juarez.

I'm going to turn it over to Council Member Rink if she's got anything to say, but we've got one public viewer here in the audience today, and since you can't necessarily see him, he was giving you some good claps, silent claps, which we appreciate the silence, yep, thank you, but giving you some good love there, and we can't move forward without honoring the amazing Jim Thorpe who started almost all modern American sports, track star, basketball star, baseball star, and started the NFL as an NFL or a football star too.

Hey, I just got to add something real quick.

I got to go to the Jim Thorpe Museum in Oklahoma and it was amazing, but they didn't have a gift shop.

We'll have to fix a number of things we've got to fix with Jim Thorpe's legend.

They've got to have a gift shot, dang.

With that, Council Member Rink, anything to add?

Yes, just I wanted to take this moment to express my excitement and enthusiasm about this budget amendment and to thank Councilmember Juarez not just for bringing this budget action before us, but just all of your work across the years for support for our community.

Just truly thank you for your leadership.

It's so appreciated.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any discussion?

I see Council President.

Thank you, Chair.

I'll be quick because Council Member Juarez said it best, but really happy to co-sponsor this and the work that Rise Above does.

They just use basketball as a vehicle.

That is the vehicle that gets the kids and the families there, but it's so much more.

It is the mentorship.

It is the life skills.

It is the It is the connection.

It is the positive affirmations.

It is the healthy lifestyles that they do.

And their camps are free.

They're down at the waterfront.

They had one at Garfield.

They had one at Rainier Community Center.

They're literally all over this.

There was one at Chief South High School.

They have them all over the city.

and they're free for kids.

They host them at the Seattle Storm place.

So I really encourage people to go and experience the type of activity and engagement that they do.

And they also partner with other nonprofits to put on those camps.

So it's not just, you know, They don't ever hoard all the resources, they literally share them with other nonprofits and people that they partner with, Rejoice Academy, they partner with FAST, they partner with a lot of public schools.

So really happy to support this programming and thank you Councilmember Warris for your leadership on this.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion, Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you chair and thank you council member Juarez for bringing this and for always putting our native communities at the forefront.

It's so important.

And like I said about council member Hollingsworth yesterday, some people talk the talk, you walk the walk.

So I really appreciate you for that.

And I appreciate you in particular in this CBA keeping our native youth at the forefront.

It is so important to support.

to support them and really appreciate you putting this in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Further discussion, final discussion.

Council Member Juarez, we've had quite a discussion.

If you'd like to close us out.

I'll just say something very quick.

I want to thank all of you.

It's been an honor working with you.

I'll be gone on November 20th, but I will still be around.

I'm not dying.

So I hope you continue.

I have all of you as brothers and sisters continue this great work.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you.

Colleagues, if you would like to co-sponsor HSD 41A, please raise your hand at this time.

We'll go for everyone co-sponsors it.

All council members.

Thank you.

With that, we'll move on to HSD 42A.

HSD 42A would increase HSD by $750,000 of general fund in 2027 to fund the crunch for on-demand residential and intensive outpatient substance abuse treatment services.

It also imposes a proviso.

The council has identified the Lakeside Milam organization for this funding.

Councilmember Foss Rivera as sponsor of the proposal.

You are recognized.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Tracy.

Colleagues, last year council put into the budget some money, $500,000 for Lakeside Milam, but that's only because I believe there was an RFP and they were the only ones that were really came forward for this particular offering, which is basically on-demand treatment.

so that is if folks like WeDeliverCare are out there or the CCRs are out there and someone needs treatment, they can offer them treatment on demand and connect them to those services.

That 500,000 was used in full.

In fact, toward the end of the 500,000 HSD had to hold back about 33,000 to make sure that the treatment could be completed for the folks that got connected to treatment.

So all that to say that these dollars actually were very well spent and people did get treatment with these dollars.

with this particular offering, like I said, it's on demand.

So if folks are interacting with folks, maybe even UCT are interacting with folks and can offer these services, they were well utilized.

So I thought it was important to bring this investment back and add a little more money so we could have more folks be able to participate and be able to get treatment.

We know folks are not gonna stay housed if they don't get treatment.

You know, there's a lot folks can't do in their lives if they're not treated for the addictions that they have.

And this is really important.

And I'm really passionate about this.

So, so much so that as you know, I put this as an increase.

I knew we didn't have a lot of dollars coming out of the forecast office, so you'll see colleagues that a lot of my provisos were because I knew we didn't have a lot of money coming in.

And my strategy was just to divvy up the funds that I knew existed and then be able to prioritize what I would like to see in the budget.

and this was one of those things.

And my provisos were simply because I know we don't have all the money and I really feel strongly about the number of things I put, the smaller number of things I put into the budget as provisos themselves.

So all that to say this is really important and I hope people will support it because this is really an opportunity for people to get the treatment that they need.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Council Member Rink, anything to add?

See nothing at this time.

Colleagues discussion, Councilmember Foster.

Thank you so much, Chair, and thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

I do have a couple of questions about this proposal, but I really appreciate Councilmember Rivera hearing that this is a priority for you and your intent behind it, so thank you for that.

I wanted to know, just because this was a contract the city had last year, what can you share in terms of the success of the previous investment?

I'd have to get back with you on that, Councilmember Foster, unless Councilmember Rivera has some information she's been provided by the...

Sorry, Chair.

All right, dear friends.

Councilmember Foster, you are really great at asking questions.

I am going to ask for everyone, central staff colleagues, Councilmember Foster included, please just wait a beat and I just say that because sometimes the question seems like it could be answered by many people and so I just wanna keep things flowing.

So Council Member Foster, I'm gonna have you repeat your question then I'm gonna call on Tracy Ratzliff and I may call on Council Members and then I'll come back to you.

Thank you so much, Chair, and thank you for reminding us of the importance of air traffic control here.

And I will say, despite the fact that I was a little bit out of order there, I do really appreciate your facilitation, so thank you for bringing me back.

And with that, my question is, I would love to hear more about the impact of this contract, given that it was a contract we had last year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Tracy?

I don't have any information.

I would have to get back with you, Councilmember Foster.

Great.

Council Member Rivera, do you want to add anything?

Yes.

Thank you.

And if Anne had been here still at the table, she could answer this because she is aware of this investment that we did last year.

And it was from Anne that I got that.

we really did spend those 500 on treatment, folks did get treatment, we ran out of the money.

And so it is something that was utilized and we could get more information from Anne off the rec, I mean, you know, at another point in time, but I know it was something that was well utilized and that ran out.

So we know the need was there for more.

Thank you.

Council Member Foster.

Thank you so much, Chair, and thank you for that response.

I'll just state my interest is, and I appreciate that the resources were spent, my interest, and I will take this as a follow-up, is to understand about the, how do I want to say this, the alignment between folks who were referred to this treatment center and the ability for this treatment center to provide those services for folks who were referred there.

So I'd love to learn more about the referrals, the completion rate.

We know obviously relapse is part of recovery.

And so there's no intent on my behalf for faulting any of the clients for that kind of relapse.

But what I do want to ensure is clarity between our investments and the to ensure that those are appropriate for the folks who are most in need of services.

So happy to take those to central staff offline to learn a little bit more.

Thank you.

Chair, can I ask a question?

Can you raise your hand?

Yep.

So colleagues, any further discussion at this time?

Any further discussion at this time?

Any final discussion at this time?

Councilmember Rivera, as sponsor of the proposal, I'll give you the last word to close us out.

Thank you.

Council Member Foster, Chair, would you mind asking Council Member Foster whether, I'm just trying to understand what the question is.

Are you saying who got the treatment?

Because this was for the folks that were on the ground, you know, when service providers have touch points with the folks that are on the street, that's who the services were offered to.

I just wanted to clarify that, if that was your question.

Councilmember Foster, would you like to share more or should we keep moving and have the conversation offline?

Sure.

Chair, what I'd love to do is provide a final clarifying statement and then respect the fact that we've got a lot of items to get through.

And then Councilmember Rivera, I'm happy to discuss more with you and to bring central staff into that conversation as appropriate.

And so my question is coming from anecdotally, hearing sort of stories of folks who were at this particular treatment center who maybe were not able to be served because they were particularly high need clients.

And so ensuring that we are making an investment in treatment services that are the strongest match for the highest-need clients is something that I'm really passionate about.

And so what I'm wanting to learn more is how well this particular provider aligns with that goal, as that's a goal of mine.

So that's the intent behind my questions.

I see the chair wanting to move us along.

So, Councilor Rivera, I hope that's clarified my intent.

And thank you so much, Chair.

Thank you.

Councilor Rivera, last word.

No.

Again, this was an RFP investment and this is who got selected because they could meet the treatment that was being sought after with this RFP and always open to continuing to have more conversation.

for folks that service providers come into contact with in the streets who need the treatment.

That's what this is intended for.

And I appreciate your questions and happy to work with central staff to make sure we have those questions.

But my understanding from Anne who was working at HSD was that this was a good investment.

So that's why.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 42A, please raise your hand at this time.

All right, I'm gonna call the names.

I've got Council Member Juarez adding her name to HSD 42A.

Adding Council Member Juarez.

Thank you, moving on to HSD 50A.

Jennifer LeBrec, City Council Central Staff.

HSD 50A would increase the Human Services Department by $350,000 general fund one time in 2027 in order to provide medical debt relief for Seattle residents.

Sponsors are Councilmember Foster, Councilmember Strauss, and Council President Hellingsworth.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster.

You sponsored the proposal.

You are recognized.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Colleagues, I'm really excited to bring this forward and I'm going to try not to get emotional discussing this because it's something that I'm just really passionate about that I think is impacting a lot of our residents and has also impacted me personally.

Before I get into that, so that I do not forget, I want to express my appreciation to a couple of people who have worked really hard to make this proposal possible.

It's something that my office has been working on for the last several months.

So just a huge shout out to my chief of staff, Nusheen, as well as to Chair Strauss's chief of staff, Jesse.

There's just been a really strong amount of collaboration between our offices on this proposal, and I'm really grateful to that.

I also got a chance to talk to Vice Mayor Dan Wu of Lexington, Kentucky.

Don't always get a chance to talk to folks from across the country about their work, but this is just a great opportunity.

So wanted to get those appreciations out up front.

So, colleagues, this proposal is for a one-time investment in a partnership with undue medical debt in order to resolve debt for Seattle residents.

We know that medical debt is an issue for so many people, and it's something that doesn't just impact people's financial health, it also impacts their emotional health.

If you've ever had a bill collector call you repeatedly, you know what that feels like, you know what that strain is like.

If you've ever had to make a decision between paying rent or paying down a bill that is past due, you know what that feels like.

And unfortunately, too many people across our city know that feeling.

We actually had the opportunity to look at the amount of debt by council district.

And I can tell you colleagues that in each council district, there are residents with hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical debt.

that would be wiped out by this one-time $350,000 investment.

We know that undue medical debt has proven to be successful.

They have already eliminated more than $12.7 billion in medical debt, helping nearly 7 million people through partnerships with government agencies like the one that I'm proposing.

What is really exciting about this model is that it offers immediate proven relief and an approach that removes barriers for residents and minimizes administrative burden on the city.

Residents do not have to apply for relief, complete paperwork, or navigate another government program.

Eligible residents are instead notified that their debt has been forgiven.

There are no applications, no enrollment fees, and no additional hoops for families to jump through.

Based on the government partnerships identified by Undo, this would be the first city or state government partnership with this organization in Washington State, which positions Seattle to lead on what I believe is an innovative strategy on affordability.

I want to be really clear that eliminating existing medical debt is only one piece of the puzzle.

We need to continue working with our public hospitals and other providers to strengthen charity care and better understand how we can prevent medical debt before it accumulates.

Colleagues, I will say again, this is something I'm just really passionate about.

In a study statewide here in Washington State conducted in 2025, 35% of respondents reported significant financial burdens from medical debt.

16% of them had exhausted all or most of their savings, and one in 10 struggled to afford basic necessities because of medical bills.

Most strikingly, 78% of respondents who incurred medical debt had insurance when that debt originated.

As we look at the impacts that are coming down the pipeline from HR1, This is an issue that's going to continue to affect working families in Washington State.

And we can do something about it today for a relatively small investment.

So colleagues, I ask for your support.

Thank you.

Council Member Rink, anything to add?

Yes, thank you, Chair Strasson.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster, for bringing this forward.

I'm really excited about this.

I appreciate the kind of novel approach here.

Until this work was coming before us, I was not really aware that we could be able to take action like this to help you folks be able to relieve medical debt, so I think this is a really innovative approach.

I will be supporting it today and signing on as a co-sponsor.

and I want to thank you for bringing this forward and for sharing a bit about your story too.

I know medical debt is one of the many reasons that people are destabilized in our city and may ultimately become unhoused and so I think that this is a really imperative step that we can take to create some meaningful financial relief for families across the city.

So thank you for bringing this forward.

I'm excited to sign on as a co-sponsor.

Thank you.

Council colleagues, discussion.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Chair, and I just want to thank Council Member Foster for her leadership on this.

I will say this is probably one of the most, if not the most, creative budget line items that we have in the entire budget because of the impact that it will have.

Like my grandma used to say, and you can squeeze a nickel so hard, you can make the buffalo holler.

And so that is what we are doing now.

We're squeezing that nickel, making the buffalo holler so we can be able to wipe a medical debt away from people.

And I couldn't be more happy to join you on this and support.

And I just think this is a really, really great opportunity for us to do something great for the people of Seattle.

So thank you, Council Member Foster.

Thank you, Council President.

And if the United States Army hadn't killed off all the buffalo, we would still have more buffalo around.

Would that cause further discussion?

Further discussion?

I will just say, I wanna give a special and direct thanks to Jesse Franz on my team who brought this idea up.

Jesse and I brought it to Council Member Foster under a different conversation and I just appreciate you bringing it to budget here.

It's creative, it's novel, it is, impactful because of what everyone said about affordability.

When you have debt and you have to pay your debt every month, that reduces how much you can spend on groceries, can spend on childcare.

It's an affordability issue, number one.

And then number two, if you're not able to cover all of the debt that you are incurring, you're just gaining interest, putting you further and further and further and further.

down into a place where you can't come back from.

And what that has ultimately led to, I've heard stories of couples married for 50 plus years getting divorced right before death because they don't want the debt to transfer.

In what world is this okay?

It's not okay in my America.

And I'm excited to put this forward.

Council Member Foster, I'm gonna give you the last word and then let's rock and roll.

Thank you so much, Chair Strauss.

I just wanted to thank you for your partnership.

I thanked Jessie, but I didn't thank you.

So I just want to say I really appreciate your partnership and your support of this.

I know that as chair that there were only a few things that you signed on to co-sponsor, and I really appreciate you supporting this, and I appreciate the leadership coming from Jessie and from your office on this issue.

I know that this is going to take care of almost a million dollars of medical debt just in your district alone.

and I am just, it's gonna be so meaningful for all the people that you represent.

So thank you so much for your leadership on this.

Thank you, council member Foster.

If you would like to co-sponsor HSD 50A, please raise your hand at this time.

I'm adding council member Lynn and Rink to HSD 52A, 50A, 50A.

Council members Lynn and Rink.

Thank you, moving on to HSD 52A.

Okay, I know we're crunched for time, so gonna keep this quick.

HSD 52A would increase HSD by 3.5 million general fund in 2027 and 3.6 million general fund in 2028 for a new safe lot for recreational vehicles and other vehicles and impose a proviso.

Oh, sorry, sponsors are Council Member Strauss, Council Member Lynn and Council Member Kettle.

Thank you as sponsor of the proposal.

I'm here to talk about all of the vehicle funds that we have put into the budget over the course of many years.

The mayor, without any conversations with us, decided to direct how the existing funds were used.

that was very challenging without having conversations when my door is open and I'm attempting to be a good partner.

And so what I'm doing here is I am putting forward and making it very clear that this is the funding for the next safe lot and that it needs to open.

And we know that there is another safe lot that could be opened with this funding secured.

So to take the drama out of the world, I'm putting forward this proposal because everyone, I believe, agrees that we need another safe lot open in the city.

Council Member Rink, you are chair of the committee overseeing this department.

Anything to add?

Seeing nothing there.

Colleagues, any discussion?

Any further discussion?

Further discussion leads to final discussion.

Any final discussion?

If you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 52A, please raise your hand at this time.

I've got Councilmember Saka, Hollingsworth, Juarez, Rink.

Councilmember Saka, Hollingsworth, Juarez, and Rink.

Thank you.

Moving on to HSD 53A.

HSC 53A would increase the Human Services Department by 8 million of general fund in 2027 and 8.3 million general fund in 2028 for a 3% wage equity increase for human services contracts.

Thank you.

Councilmember Lin is sponsored the proposal.

Excuse me, you are recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

And I'm going to speak to this for a little bit because it does have a long history, as many of you are aware.

And first, I just want to thank co-sponsors Rink and Foster.

But again, there are many folks who, I think, have a connection to this work.

Back in 2022, city council allocated 600,000 for a study analyzing human services jobs and wages compared to other jobs in similar fields that require similar education and difficulty.

This investment resulted in the University of Washington wage equity study, which council was briefed on in March of 2023. At a high level, that study found a 37% wage gap between nonprofit human services workers and workers and other non-care industries, a gap that would require a 59% increase in those wages to close.

The study concluded the gaps revealed in the analysis between human service workers and workers in other industries are not reflective of the work being easier, less skilled, or less demanding than other jobs.

and indeed the work done by our food bank workers, case managers, child advocates, service coordinators, transitional encampment workers and many others are some of our most complex and challenging.

and without them, Seattle could not function.

To address this wage gap, the wage equity study proposed short and long-term recommendations.

Study recommended that by 2025, these workers should receive wage increases of at least 7%.

And critically, the study recommended that any wage equity increases should be separate from inflationary increases.

To further ensure the continued critical work, the study recommended that by 2030, substantial wage increases for these workers should align with those doing comparable work in other industries.

In tandem with those wage equity increases recommended by the study, the study identified racial and gender equity impacts implicated by the lower pay.

The study noted that women compromise almost 80% of workers in the sector and that black workers are nearly three times as likely to work in human services as they are to work in non-care industries.

Not surprisingly, the lower wages burdening these human services workers were highlighted by the study as continued manifestations of historic gender and racial discrimination.

Discrimination associated with cultural devaluation of skills and commitments of people of color and women that result in lower wages.

Responsive to those findings, City Council passed Resolution 32094 by an 8 to 1 vote, in which this council, and this was in 2023, acknowledged its inherent responsibility to make a meaningful contribution towards achieving wage equity for nonprofit human service workers who perform critical and essential work serving Seattle's most vulnerable.

and I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge Council Member Strauss who voted in favor of that resolution, Council President Juarez who voted for and signed that resolution.

And so I just really wanna honor that this is longstanding multi-year work and I wanna thank you all for leading that.

In light of that resolution, Council has twice voted for wage equity increases at a total of 4%.

And while these are important, they are still short of the identified 7% wage equity goal for 2025. So as we are considering the many different proposals before us, I just think, again, it is critical that we to honor the work done by our human services workers, not only to recognize them, but who they serve.

The most vulnerable in our community are being served, and when we pay workers the wages that they deserve, it results in better retention.

It allows them to focus on that work rather than living in crisis.

There was a Seattle Times article a year or two ago that highlighted a DESC worker who was supporting some of our highest needs, permanent supportive housing residents, and she was on the verge of homelessness herself because of the low wages.

Earlier in a public comment, we heard someone say, money talks, sometimes money sings.

We need to put our money behind our values.

and so I would urge your support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Lin.

Councilmember Rink, anything to add?

Yes, thank you, Chair Strauss.

Colleagues, we know that a livable wage is fundamental to a thriving workforce and we as a community depend on the work of our human services workers.

And earlier this year, we had a briefing in the Human Services Labor and Economic Development Committee on this topic to better understand the history that Councilmember Lynn just really thoughtfully laid out, did an excellent job kind of laying out the data points, what we're seeing regionally, and we brought that discussion into committee while also bringing some of our provider organizations at the table to highlight and talk through how some of their wage equity efforts and also staff retention efforts how that funding is being put to use and kind of the results that we're seeing from that.

But it's clear that we have a long way to go.

I think I'd just add two data points to some of the points that Councilmember Lynn raised, one of which being that the most recent City Workers Union contract included a 5% annual wage increase retroactively applied for 2023 and a 4.5 annual wage increase for 2024 totaling to nearly 10% adjustment over two years.

Additionally, in the retroactive union contract Seattle Police Officers Guild FOG members saw a roughly 24% increase in compensation across three years.

And I bring those things up because I think it's important for context when we're talking about parity across sectors.

The market analysis work that was done on really evaluating wages for human services workers highlights that we're already in a discrepancy.

And when it comes to paying city employees and folks who do work on behalf of the city, just looking across the city employee contracts and what we pay our human services workers, there's a parity issue.

And I think we can all agree that, again, the work that human services workers is incredibly important.

So I want to thank Councilmember Lin for bringing this forward for a part of our budget deliberations this year and I'm proud to be a co-sponsor.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any further discussion?

Any further discussion?

I'll just state, not only was I around a vote in affirmation of the original resolution, I've been able to add some money along the way each year.

I know each year there's been a request for a 6% parity gap closure, is what I'll call it, not a raise, but a parity gap closure.

And I appreciate as much as we've been able to do year by year, even though there's still more work to do.

with that, Council Member Lynn, anything to close?

Yeah, thank you, Chair.

And I do just want to acknowledge that 3% is not nearly enough to close that gap.

It is just a step a small step in the right direction.

And I want to thank Council Member Rink for her point that the work done by these outside agencies is just as essential as the work done by our city employees.

They shouldn't be paid less just by nature of the fact that they aren't directly employed by us.

And we have great unions that are able to fight wage equity or wage fairness as city employees.

And so we need to acknowledge that these outside agencies also deserve wage equity increases.

Thank you.

Really well said.

Colleagues, if you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 53A, please raise your hand at this time.

Seeing no additional co-sponsors, we are gonna move on to HSD 54.

HSD-54A would increase HSD by 1 million general fund one time in 2027 for El Centro de la Raza to purchase community center space on the first floor of an affordable housing building in Beacon Hill and make tenant improvements.

And co-sponsors are Council Member Foster and then Council Members Lynn and Rink.

Councilmember Foster sponsored the proposal, you are recognized.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Colleagues, this budget ad is a one-time $1 million ad to support El Centro de la Raza in purchasing the community center space in a new affordable housing building that is across the street from an existing center that is set to open next year.

As we all know, El Centro works to build a social, cultural, and economic opportunity for Seattle residents and our most marginalized communities.

Their center on Beacon Hill is no exception.

They have 43 programs that benefit over 25,000 people each year.

This new space will be used by El Centro to expand their onsite programming, particularly for youth and seniors, and is designated as a multipurpose facility with flexible meeting rooms, a commercial kitchen, and an office space.

They also intend to have the space available for community use outside of programmed hours from El Centro.

I believe these are the types of programs that we should continue to invest in as a city and through making this investment we can help make this future possible and doing it through a one-time budget ad.

Colleagues, I ask for your support.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster.

I always like to lift up when we are providing budget CBAs regarding the legacies of the Gang of Four.

Their legacies are living today through folks like yourself.

Councilmember Rink, anything to add?

Nothing to add.

Colleagues, any discussion?

Any discussion?

Any further discussion?

Any further discussion leads to final discussion.

Any final discussion?

Seeing none, if you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 54A, please raise your hand at this time.

Council Member Juarez.

Adding Council Member Juarez.

And Council Member Rivera.

And Council Member Rivera.

Okay.

Moving on to HSD 55.

HSD 55A would increase the Human Services Department by 100,000 general fund one time in 2027 to support the work of the Silent Task Force.

This organization provides ambassadors to outreach to trafficked sex workers and sexual assault survivors in areas such as Aurora.

Thank you.

Council President, you are recognized.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss, and sorry, thank you, Chair Strauss, and really appreciate everyone's time.

HSD has a lot of amendments, and I have the next four, so thank you for your grace.

Silent Task Force provides a wide range of services to our community, but I wanna highlight the critical work that they do, particularly on Aurora, and I do wanna thank Councilmember Juarez and Councilmember Rivera for your sponsorship on this.

and I don't want to play the violins here but I think it's important that we have the data and information.

Black women, excuse me, women and girls account for 4% of the population but they are 44 to 52% of identified children that are sex trafficking victims on Aurora.

and unfortunately, 71% to 73% of those buyers arrested for attempting to purchase minors are white men.

And that is troubling.

This group does a phenomenal job of doing ambassadors and outreach on Aurora.

And I think what's important is also because these are people that used to be women that were on Aurora, and they have come back to work at this organization.

The reason why they're called the Silent Task Force is because they're not flashy, they're not out there, they're not, you know, constantly promoting themselves, that they are, they really, really do the work.

And I think it's really important for us to support this organization.

I do want to highlight that the one thing that this funding would potentially be able to go to is the ambassador program that they do with youth.

So their ambassador programs is in schools to help people identify people that are trying to take some of their their schoolmates to be able to be trafficked on Aurora.

So they have youth ambassadors to try to figure out what signs they need to be educating some of their colleagues on or if they are advocating, if they see people hanging out or trying to groom folks.

they're blowing those whistles, so they're educating a lot of their, and it sucks that they actually have to do this, but this is just the reality.

And so I think a lot of this funding will go to the advocates, but also to get the young girls that are on Aurora right now off.

Right now, there's not really a plan for Aurora that I have not seen.

I know that there's a lot of energy that has been focused, and I do know that Councilman Ruarez has been working on this for a long time.

and so I know she's gonna tell us about her work on this but I think it's important that we're gonna have to change our outreach, we're gonna have to change our focus and we had a press conference earlier this year talking about some of the things that we were gonna implement as a city directive from city departments on Aurora but unfortunately I have not seen improvements and so I'm trying to use my legislative power with the power of the purse to be able to drag funding towards organizations who are doing the work.

So really appreciate your time and hopefully I have your support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Rink, anything to add?

Yes, thank you, Chair Strauss and thank you, Council President Hollingsworth for bringing this forward.

I will be signing on as a co-sponsor and I want to thank you for your advocacy on this and also just for speaking with clarity about the reality of the dynamics happening on Aurora, the reality of specifically how black women and girls are disproportionately impacted in sex trafficking and so I'm excited to be able to sign on as support for this.

I gave a long speech earlier in this meeting already about the importance of really having a concerted effort and advancing our services and supports and outreach for survivors and being able to tackle gender-based violence.

So I think where I stand on this matter is clear and I will be supporting this budget action today.

And I thank you again, Council President Hollingsworth.

Thank you.

And Council President Meredith Juarez.

Thank you, Councilor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Again, of course, thank you, Councilor Hollingsworth for bringing this forward about the silent task force.

and Council Member Rivera and your hand in hand work with us and being a co-sponsor and of course you too, Council Member Grink for sharing.

I'm going to speak and I have some prepared notes because the Council President and I have been talking about this for a while, well before the June press conference.

and I want to get these statements on the record because I hope that these words last well after I'm gone.

As you know, the silent task force began in 2017, nine years ago.

And as Council President stated, I thought that we had come to some meeting of the mind and heart at the June press conference, have not seen anything yet.

The executive director at the silent task force, CP, please correct me if I'm wrong, is Latonya Dubois.

The silent task force is an organization that is closest to the problems faced by the black community and closest to the solutions as those who experience those problems.

Their goal is to heal the impact and effects of the systemic violence that occurs historically and currently in the lives of black families and communities and of course not just black but of course a lot of young women of color and of course women not quote unquote of color.

The young women experiencing sex trafficking on places like Aurora need support services.

The silent task force offers those very necessary services such as hotel vouchers, connections to mental health services and housing referrals.

The silent task force currently has 12 FTEs and nine part-time staff members.

This funding will support an additional, we hope, three to four ambassadors in places like Aurora and across the city.

And as you know, for sex trafficking right now, King County only has two King County prosecutors dedicated to this for the North and the South.

And I also wanna give a shout out to council member Kettle who worked with me on the supplemental to work with city attorney Evans for the cross deputized city attorney that will be housed in the city attorney's office to work with the King County prosecutor's office to locate and prosecute people who are sex trafficking, our daughters, our girls, our relatives.

As we are all aware, North Aurora has some of the highest rates of sexual exploitations in the state.

We know that it's called the TRAC, starting up in Canada, through Seattle, through Tacoma, all the way down to Portland.

This has all been laid out with the King County Prosecutor's Office and the data that we have received and the briefings that we have received.

On a personal note, I want to thank Council President.

She doesn't share this a lot.

but I'm gonna do it to her anyway.

Our council president has met with some of the families and the mothers of these children.

She has coached some of these young women, some of these children who are now out there.

She has helped save and retrieve working with the families of some of these young women and children, and she has allowed me to be a part of that, so thank you, Council President.

At the beginning of October, the SPD Human Trafficking Unit deployed more than 20 Seattle Police personnel to Aurora in response to community concerns and a high level of prostitution-related activity.

As previously noted, I'm not gonna go into the stats again that council president shared with the data, but I will say something that I've learned from my sister, Abigail Elkohawk, and Missy Mudd, indigenous women and girls, that every data point is a story.

It is a long story in an unfortunate chain.

And I think we need to know that, recognize that, but more importantly, for the city of Seattle and us as legislators, dedicate those resources, dedicate our time, to making sure we address it in an honest, and I don't want to say that dishonest, but in an honest way where it's actually meaningful, that it is not just performative.

And I want to thank you for those that stood up to say their story and to support and to continue to support the sex trafficking that is going on, not just here, but of course, nationally and everywhere else.

This is why the services of the silent task force provides, as I was sharing, an important critical service to our city and why I chose to co-sponsor this amendment and work shoulder to shoulder.

And as we say in Indian country with good medicine and a good heart, for those of us searching for a way to protect our children and our women.

And I think I've said this before and I'll say it again.

I've heard it my whole life.

You can always judge a society about how they treat their women and girls.

And with that, I hope you support Council President and Council Member Rivera and Council Member Rink in supporting this increase.

Thank you, Council.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Warriors.

Colleagues, any further discussion?

Any further discussion?

Final discussion, I will just say that this work is incredibly important and I just wanna, I don't need to add anything because both Council President and Council President Emeritus said it best.

The council is leading on addressing this gun violence on Aurora and across our city and we would like the executive to help.

With that, if you would like to co-sponsor HSD 55A, please raise your hand at this time.

Might have bingo.

All council members.

All council members.

Thank you.

Moving on to HSD 56A.

HSD 56A would increase HSD by $200,000 general fund in 2027 one time for Bird Bar Places program to address racial disparities in maternal health outcomes.

and the sponsors are Council President Hollingsworth and Council Members Saka and Juarez.

Thank you Council President Hollingsworth, you're recognized.

Thank you Council Member, thank you, sorry, thank you Chair Strauss and I also want to thank Council Member Juarez for your co-sponsorship on this and also Council Member Saka.

Let me sit up.

Okay, it's a well-known fact that the United States maternal mortality rate for black women is approximately approximately 3.5 times higher than average.

Bird Bar is a legacy organization that is within the Central District, and they have a program called Good Black Birth Initiative that brings community organizations like University of Washington together to achieve better birthing outcomes focused on systemic barriers in healthcare.

They do Black Maternal Health Week.

They distributed over 1,000 diapers, prenatal bags, and over to 30 to 50 parents every single year.

This is a program, colleagues, that started as camp in the Central District, and now it's named after Roberta Bird Bar.

They also have different programs with their Utility Light program.

They also do food access, they have a phenomenal food bank as well, but this particularly will go towards their Bird Bar's Good Black Birth Initiative that they partner with other organizations as well, not just them, just kind of like Rise Above where they partner with other organizations to be able to do a different type of outreach and informational sessions for people so we can help move the needle on black for black women maternal, excuse me, maternal rates for births.

So would love your all support on this.

And I know I have a lot of asks in this HSD bucket.

So I know everyone supports everything.

All right, so thank you, colleagues.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Rink, anything to add?

Seeing nothing to add, colleagues, discussion?

Further discussion?

Final discussion.

Seeing no discussion, if you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 56, please raise your hand at this time.

I have council member Foster, Lynn Rink.

Council members Foster, Lynn and Rink.

Thank you.

Moving on to HSD 57.

HSD 57A would increase HSD by 200,000 general fund one time in 2027 for the Atlantic Street Center Summer Academy Program.

Sponsors are Council President Hollingsworth and Council Members Saka and Lourdes.

Thank you.

Council President Hollingsworth, you are recognized.

Thank you, Chair, and again, thank you to Council Member Juarez and Council Member Saka for holding it down on the co-sponsorships.

I really appreciate y'all.

The Atlantic Street Center has a variety of programs for families and children through direct services and advocacy.

They have four main programs, but this particularly is for early learning and youth development programs, like their Summer Academy.

Their Summer Academy is a five-week educational program for children entering grades between third grade and eighth grade.

It's free, it's been going on for over 40 years.

In the last few years, they had to cap their enrollment at 40 students.

If they were able to receive this funding, they can increase that enrollment because they just don't have enough resources I think the biggest thing why this is so important is because they do reading, writing, math, STEM, and we know that disproportionately impacted communities south of I-90 at that third grade reading level is not good.

And when you start having kids that can't read at third grade and you have lower rates, for different communities of color, it's harder to get them back and for them to be able to be on a path where they can learn in school.

And so this is the preventative piece of prevention, intervention, and enforcement of PI, public safety, This is a double down investment in our preventative piece.

Again, this is a free summer camp for kids between third and eighth grade, and they do reading, writing, math, STEM instruction for certified teachers.

They receive free meals.

They do field trips, cultural activities, and access to mental health counselors as well, which I think is important.

They also reported that demonstrated that the knowledge from kids in all those levels, reading, writing, math, and STEM, rose from 40% to 80% at the end of the summer academy.

So it prepares them well for the next school year.

And we'd love your support.

Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you, council president.

Council member Rink, anything to add?

Nothing to add.

Council colleagues, any discussion?

Discussion, further discussion?

Further discussion leads to final discussion.

Seeing no discussion, if you would like to co-sponsor HSD 57, please raise your hand at this time.

adding Council Members Rink, Foster, and Lynn.

Council Members Rink, Foster, and Lynn.

Thank you.

Moving on to HSD-58.

HSD-58A would increase HSD by 100,000 general fund in 2027 one time for the Central Area Parents and Coaches Association, better known as the CD Panthers.

Thank you, Council President Hollingsworth.

You are recognized to speak to your proposal.

Thank you, Chair.

CD or see me.

That is the slogan of our CD Panthers.

I want to thank Council Member Waters and Council Member Saka for your support on this.

Colleagues, the Central Area Parents and Coaches Association, called the CD Panthers, serves over 150 youth participants per season, welcoming children across all skill levels, socioeconomic background, through football, and they also have a phenomenal chairing program.

This organization has existed for over 30 years.

It's all volunteer-ran.

It's community-based.

sports programs and it serves Seattle youth between ages 5 and 14. This funding will go to help offset some of the costs that they have with equipment, uniforms, colleagues.

They play on one of the worst fields in the city.

I know this other council members probably have other worst fields as well, but their field is pretty bad and hopefully looking to change that.

But they still go out there and they play.

and they give youth opportunities and things better to do.

Again, this is more the preventative piece on the pie because I believe this prevention is public safety and it's a strategy.

Last year, they did receive funding from council and I just wanted to continue to keep this going because what it does is if you cannot pay to participate with this team, they do not deny you access.

They still fundraise, they still figure out how you're able to participate with the program, whether you want to cheerlead, whether you want to play football, all the things and so that's why I love this organization because it's not a barrier to play if whoever can pay pays and if not they're able to fundraise and they have been able to use some the city funding to be able to do that with equipment a cost uniforms and other pieces it's a great organization and I do invite everyone to come out no matter I know everyone supports this organization, whether you co-sponsor or not, but invite everyone to come out to watch them play.

It's really fun to watch the kids be able to get life skills and continue to play.

So thank you, colleagues.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Rink, anything to add?

Nothing to add, any discussion?

Council Member Foster.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Really excited to raise my hand in just a second to support this.

I just wanted to say I know this is listed as a one-time ad, and Chair Strauss, I appreciate all of your leadership.

I would love if we could find a way to make this ongoing, not to add things to your growing list of items, but really excited to support this.

I know Council added it last year, and I'd love to see this as ongoing, just so I know what kind of certainty that provides for organizations.

So just adding that to the pie.

Thank you, Chair.

No problem at all.

Adding things to be ongoing increases the structural budget deficit unless we can get our construction industry going again, or if we can get downtown office space filled, or if we can increase public safety downtown and get more folks down here making this economic engine run.

Those are the three ways we could do it today.

With that, colleagues, any further discussion on CD Panthers funding?

Council President, you wanna close this out?

I love this one.

CD or see me.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Thank you.

If you'd like to co-sponsor CD Panthers, please raise your hand at this time.

We got a bingo.

And I know that Larry Gossett and the Black Panthers weren't necessarily the ones that started the CD Panthers, but this falls adjacent to the Gang of Four.

So I appreciate everyone supporting those living legacies.

With that, we're gonna move on to HSD-59.

HSD-59A would increase proposed appropriations to the Human Services Department by $390,000 in general fund.

in 2027. It'll be a one-time appropriation for the Tubman Center for Health and Freedom for Integrative Medicine for Medically Marginalized Patients and Operating Support.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Juarez and co-sponsored by Councilmembers Lynn and Foster.

Thank you.

Warrens, you are recognized.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to start, of course, like we all do.

I want to thank Council Member Lynn and Council Minister Foster for supporting me or being a sponsor on this.

Council Member Lynn, my ride or die in D2, in case you're all my favorites, Council Members, but right now it's Council Member Lynn and you too, Council Member Foster.

Let me say this about Tubman Center for Health and Freedom.

It was founded in 2020. by six black, native, and queer community trailblazers with humble, beautiful, and organic beginnings with one simple principle, that healthcare is a human right.

We've worked closely with the CEO and the founder.

Now, fast forward six years, Tubman Center is now up to 25 folks, staff.

The Tubman Center, as they say, turned soil on the Rainier Beach Health Center in June, 2026. and plan on opening in 2027, which was ahead of their planned October date.

So they're within budget and they came in early, that's awesome.

Next, I wanna lift my hands to former council member Solomon, who sponsored along with myself, and I can't remember who the third sponsor was, somebody will probably correct me, in the budget last year for the Tubman Center in which they received 6 million in capital funding.

as I said in 2026 and the new clinic will have the capacity to serve well over 12,000 primary care patients let me say that again 12,000 primary care patients they're right up there with the Seattle Indian Health Board in treating our relatives for health care and medical and addiction and all the issues that we need and I cannot be prouder and I also want to add that Council Member Foster on your former budget proposal Regarding the medical debt, hopefully we can have some synergy here and adding to and this underscores why we need health care for all is a national priority as again as health care is a human right.

Tubman currently has the capacity to serve 500 primary care patients.

The Tubman Center currently operates two clinics.

One is the Healing House, which is a retreat light space designed for community members to receive integrative primary care services.

And then they have the Freedom Clinic, which is a school-based health clinic out of Rainier Valley Leadership Academy.

They also have the Black Elders Wellness Program, which I like to call Good Medicine, and also a Movement is Medicine program and are active in research, policy, and advocacy.

This budget ask proposal amendment, whatever we're calling it, is to protect the continuity of care for medically marginalized community members experiencing cut and limitations on care due to federal healthcare changes.

And I think we know what those are.

That was House Resolution 1 in which over 200,000 King County residents will be impacted.

House Resolution 1 was signed in 2025. My understanding is that it will begin in 2027. And to shout out to my policy advisor, Kimmy King, who hated typing out big, beautiful bill, but that's where this came from.

And I think we are all responding to that now.

In any event, the Tubman Center for Health and Freedom budget request will support and sustain and expand critical health services for black, brown, LGBTQI+, and otherwise again.

And it's so sad in this day and age, as you're saying, Mr. Chair, that we've come to the point of having to say and coin the term medically marginalized residents in this day and age, in this country.

So with that, I ask all of you for your support for the Tubman Center for Health and Freedom.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President Meredith Juarez.

Council Member Rink, anything to add?

Nothing to add, colleagues, any discussion?

Any discussion, final discussion?

If you'd like to co-sponsor Tubman Health Care Center, please raise your hand at this time.

Adding council members, Rink, Rivera, Hollingsworth.

Rink, Rivera, and Hollingsworth.

Thank you, going to HSD 60.

Hello, Councilmembers.

Jasmine Waroja, Council Central Staff.

Closing out HSD, the final crunch, the last two CBAs.

We have HSD 060A.

The CBA would provide $167,000 in HSD for child care navigation and support for unhoused children and their families, with Mary's Place identified to provide these services.

This Council Budget Action is sponsored by Councilmember Rivera and co-sponsored by Council President Hollingsworth and Councilmember Saka.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rivera is the sponsor of the proposals.

You're recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Jasmine, for presenting this.

Colleagues, I think most of you know Mary's Place.

This is to support their Allen Center.

They do navigation for childcare.

That means that they connect the folks that they serve, which are the homeless families and children, to childcare services.

They also have a sibling playgroups for sibling caregivers, and they support family events and strategic service planning.

This is something that we've put into the budget almost every year, and I'm bringing forward this year as well.

It supports unhoused children and their families.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you, too.

Sorry, my co-chairs.

I mean, my co-chairs, my co-sponsors for putting this forward, Council President and Council Member Saka.

Thank you.

Council Member Rink, anything to add?

Nothing at this time?

Colleagues, discussion?

Further discussion?

Final discussion.

Seeing no further discussion, if you would like to co-sponsor HSD 60A, please raise your hand at this time.

I have Council Member Kettle.

Adding Council Member Kettle.

Thank you.

HSD 61A, please.

HSD 61A, this council budget action would increase HSD by $50,000 general fund one time in 2027 for a gun violence victim support fund.

The CBA is sponsored by Councilmember Lin and co-sponsored by Councilmembers Foster and Rink.

Thank you, Councilmember Lin is sponsored the proposal, you are recognized.

Thank you, colleagues.

This came out of a meeting with families who have been impacted by gun violence and it was being led by Davida Briscoe and just hearing about, we do have resources, but they are clearly not enough.

listening to what families have to go through, just the incredible emotional toil, the financial impacts, whether it is a death or a serious injury, whether it's having to put on a funeral and have family members fly in from out of town to take time off work, to get mental health care for the family.

Those are just a few, and if it's not a death, if it's gun violence, the survivor has to deal with long-term medical care that we were just hearing about, medical debt, disability, The list goes on and this is about supporting victims, supporting their families.

And thank you to colleagues, Council Members Foster and Rink for supporting this.

This is a relatively small ask and there's a huge need and I would love your support.

Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you.

Council Member Rink, anything to add?

Nothing to add.

Colleagues discussion, Council President Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Chair, and I'll be quick because I know I'm standing between us and lunch.

I want to thank Councilmember Lynn for his leadership on this.

I know that his district is impacted most by the gun violence and shares a lot of that and the families that live in that district, and this can and will go a long way to show support for gun violence victims, so I'm happy to help to add my name to the co-sponsorship of this as well.

so just wanted to just say that for the record.

Thank you, Council Member Lynn.

Oh, and then also too in the mid-supplemental with everyone's support that we were able to be able to support some programs that do this as well and I think I'm just happy to support this as well so just wanted to say that.

Thank you, Council Member Lynn.

Thank you.

Well said, Council President.

Colleagues, any further discussion at this time?

I can just say that there is no room to do less to prevent gun violence.

Gun violence is preventable.

We have to do more.

This is not a territorial space.

This is an everybody space and we need to put more momentum through it.

Any last words, Council Member Lynn?

Seeing no further discussion, if you would like to co-sponsor HSD 61A, please raise your hand at this time.

Got Council Member Hollingsworth and Saka adding their names.

Council Members Hollingsworth and Saka.

Thank you.

That does bring us to the end of HSD.

Praise God.

At this time, we're at 12.03, so we're making slightly better time than yesterday, but...

We have more to do this afternoon.

And from what I've heard from colleagues, you all have a lot to say in the next department.

So I'm going to, I'm not gonna quite give us an hour lunch.

I'm gonna bring us back at 1 p.m.

That does mean that we need to stay on track because with 33 CBAs remaining, if everyone speaks for 10 minutes or each item takes 10 minutes, that will take five and a half hours keeping us until 6.30 or, making us end today at five and coming back tomorrow.

Or if each item takes in five minutes, that's two hours, 45 minutes getting us out at 345. So that's the Google Maps right now.

Those are kind of the choice points.

And so we will come back this afternoon and take up proposals in Seattle Police Department, CARE, CBO, Ledge and Mayor's Office.

With that, If there is no objection, the Select Budget Committee will be in recess until 1pm.

Hearing no objection, the Select Budget Committee is in recess until 1pm.

We'll start promptly at that time.

Thank you.