Seattle City Council Select Budget Committee Session II 10/28/21

everyone.

Thank you so much for coming back to the Select Budget Committee meeting.

My name is Teresa Mosqueda and the time is 2.02 p.m.

The date is October 28, 2021. We will reconvene our Select Budget Committee discussion here, starting with agenda item number two.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Lewis.

Present.

Morales.

Here.

Peterson.

Here.

Sawant.

Present.

Strauss.

Present.

Gonzalez.

Here.

Herbold.

Here.

Juarez.

Here.

Chair Mosqueda.

Present.

Nine present.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Madam Clerk, we're going to get right into this.

Could you please read item number two into the record?

Agenda item two, Human Services Department.

Thank you, Madam Clerk, and good afternoon, Amy Gore.

Thank you for being here with us.

Our entire afternoon is focused on the Human Service Department, who will have a handful of central staff members joining us to walk us through these amendments.

So thank you for getting us started here, Amy.

Let's start with HSD 001.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

The first CBA is HSD.

1A1, which would add 5.3 million general fund to HSD for a one-time increase to service provider contracts.

The Seattle Municipal Code requires that HSD provide an inflationary increase every year to eligible contracts with service providers.

This year, that increase will be 3% or 5.7 million.

The CBA would add funds for an additional 5.3 million for a total increase of 11 million.

Thank you very much, Amy.

Colleagues, I am honored to be able to bring this amendment to you.

This continues the work that this council has done in the past, and I want to thank Councilmember Strauss and Councilmember Herbold for their co-sponsorship on today's amendment to support human service providers.

I see proactively Council President Gonzalez's hand up first, and I know that she was a sponsor as well of this human service I want to thank the Councilmember for her past work as well as other Councilmembers who have helped to make sure that we're securing wages and actually addressing long-standing practice that had been to not offer our human service provider wages adequate or even existing cost of living increases.

service providers.

This would be paired with an upcoming CBA and report that is being requested by Councilmember Herbold to look at the underpayment and underpayment to human By way of a reminder, the Human Services Department relies on dozens of nonprofit community organizations to provide a range of services for Seattle residents, including those who are unsheltered, those who are living housing unstable, those who are providing care for our kiddos through preschool programs and senior care, youth care, food banks, veteran services, and aiding survivors of gender-based violence.

In 2018, we added funds to the Human Services Department to ensure contracts, at a bare minimum, kept up with inflationary increases.

in 2019. We codified that through legislation that we worked on together as a council to pass to make sure that human service providers had their cost of living increases addressed and that the appreciation to their pay was not falling behind.

In recognition of both the service that human service providers provide to the city as well as the wage inequity that they're facing, the council has committed to wage studies and we're looking forward to supporting and discussing that amendment in a moment here.

In the meantime, we've seen that human service contracts have, you know, very high turnover and vacancy rates upwards of 40, 50%.

And that was even prior to the pandemic.

So I'm very excited to be able to work with you to actually address the cost of the human service provider cost of living adjustments that I believe should have been included in the budget.

This provides a one-time stock gap incentive payment to contracts to recognize the increase in costs in our area.

The increase at the state minimum wage, federal security amount was increased by about 5.8 to 5.9%.

And that is why we are taking this approach in the CBA in front of us today.

I really appreciate the opportunity to continue working with you to continue to address the underpayment here, but at the very minimum, let's make sure that the cost of living increases are addressed in this year's budget for our human service providers.

Council President, please go ahead.

Thank you so much.

Chair Mosqueda just wanted to add my name as a co-sponsor to HSD001.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Council President Gonzalez adding her name to HSD001.

Council Member Sawant.

Just wanted to add my name as a co-sponsor as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant, adding her name to HSD001.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Juarez, and then Council Member Lewis.

Again, I have some technical problems, so you might have to just look at me frantically waving my arms, which I can see that Amy is enjoying.

Amy Gore is enjoying it immensely.

I would like to add my name as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Council Member Juarez adding her name as a co-sponsor.

Council Member Juarez.

Council Member Lewis.

I would also like to add my name as a co-sponsor, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Lewis adding his name to HSD-001.

Thank you very much, colleagues.

Okay, appreciate your support and your time on this item.

Let's move on to a similar related amendment, 002.

Hi, this is Karina Bull with Central Staff.

I'm here to talk about HSD 2A1.

Add $750,000 general fund to HSD for a comparable worth analysis of human services jobs.

And it is sponsored by Councilmember Herbold and also by Councilmember Mosqueda and Lewis.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Herbold, please go ahead.

Thank you so much.

This edition has been identified by the Seattle Human Services Coalition as their highest priority.

We've heard a lot during the pandemic about the huge difficulty that our contract providers are having hiring and hanging on to frontline workers.

while working in really difficult pandemic conditions.

Human services workers who are disproportionately BIPOC and women, especially among the frontline staff, are precariously underpaid for the work that they do.

Their wages don't reflect the education required, the difficulty or value of their work, and the result is a high turnover and burnout.

causing increased costs for providers and difficulty building relationships with the people they're serving.

We really rely on these providers to be effective and the low prevailing rate of pay is a significant barrier.

This proposed study goes significantly beyond the wage and benefits survey that King County is currently undertaking because it will consider the core functions and requirements of human services jobs, including the level of authority and responsibility and required training, economy, environment, difficulty, working conditions, hours, and it would determine a value for those elements across sectors.

These funds can be used to hire a consultant to conduct a study, as well as staff time at an organization such as the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

We are committed to working with our partners to coordinate provider participation and advice and partner with the consultant.

Both this amendment and the one we heard previous from Madam Chair Mosqueda can be considered as needed and foundational investments to maintain current services and ensure that our contracted providers can deliver on the work that we desperately need them to do.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to add my name as a co-sponsor to HSD 002. Great appreciation to Council Member Herbold for bringing this forward.

Really critically important for all the reasons she already stated.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Council Member Juarez.

I would like to add my name as well.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Council Member Sawant.

I would like to add my name as co-sponsor as well.

My office had submitted the same budget amendment, but we will co-sponsor this version instead because they were essentially the same.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Council President Gonzalez, Council Member Juarez, Council Member Solan, adding their names to HSD 002. Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

I actually had a couple of questions for central staff on this.

Do we know why it would cost three quarters of a million dollars to do a study of this kind?

And what are they comparing It chooses comparable worth.

And so I just wanted to know what the comparison would be.

Are they comparing it to other nonprofits in like the San Francisco Bay Area?

Or are they comparing it to the private sector or government jobs?

And I just want to make sure that this is, this three quarters of a million dollars is awarded through a request, a competitive request for proposals and not a direct award.

Well, my understanding is that this amount, this would need to be a competitive request for proposal.

It wouldn't be a direct award.

This is the amount that was proposed as the cost for this study.

More information would need to be done as to exactly how this amount was calculated.

The King County survey, which is just comparing industry pay norms, so it does not include comparable worth, which is significantly more work.

cost about $211,000.

So my understanding is that the scope of this would be tremendously more.

And I'm not sure if it would be jobs in Seattle or outside of Seattle.

But a comparable study involves a lot more complexity than the complexity that is already embedded in a study that is comparing wages for city work and nonprofit work in the community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Okay, any additional comments or questions?

Council Member Sawant.

Thank you.

I think central staff have provided a really good response to that question, but I just wanted to add that this study compares the pay of social workers to other jobs that require similar levels of education and expertise and skills.

The study does not compare to other social worker jobs because the whole point is that social work is underpaid across the country.

Thank you, Council Member.

Any additional questions or comments?

Okay, let's move on to HSD 003.

Next item for discussion is a statement of legislative intent, HSD 3A1, which would request that HSD contract with a Native-led organization to provide services to the American Indian Alaska Native community.

This action does not add funds to the budget, but instead requests that HSD award the 1.2 million of funds designated for this purpose to an organization with the cultural and linguistic expertise to serve the community, such as Chief Seattle Club.

The prime sponsor is Council Member Juarez and is co-sponsored by Council Members Strauss and Lewis.

With that, I will turn it over to Council Member Rose.

Thank you.

Thank you for the good intro, Amy.

You pretty much said it all, but let me just add a little bit more.

As you know, it's a slide to request that the Native-led organizations, such as Chief Seattle Club, provide American Indian Alaska Native services identified in the mayor's proposed budget.

The 1.2 is included in the mayor's budget for services for the Native community.

This adds clarification language to ensure Native-led organizations provide these services.

Chief Seattle Club has proven a track record of success for providing services that had been funded previously.

And this would enable the Chief Seattle Club to continue its work.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sala.

I don't know who my co-sponsors are on this.

You have Council Member Strauss and Council Member Lewis currently.

Thanks, guys.

Council Member- My hand was- Oh, apologies.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And I appreciate Council Member Juarez that you mentioned that this shouldn't just be any organization.

There's specific relationships and specific ties that community has built over the years.

So thank you for calling that out and the importance of this being in the legislation.

Okay, let's move on to number four.

Next item is HSD 4A1, which would add $126,000 general fund to HSD for programs for gender-based violence provided by an agency serving the Native community.

This action would support culturally informed preventative and healing services responding to gender-based violence, including the missing and murdered indigenous persons epidemic in Seattle, such as the programs of Mother Nation.

The prime sponsor is Councilmember Juarez, and it is co-sponsored by Councilmember Strauss and Council President Gonzalez.

Thank you.

Please go ahead Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

And thank you, Council President Gonzalez and Council Member Strauss for supporting me on this.

It's really an honor for me to go ahead and talk about why this is important.

This is a success story that I've had the honor of watching for almost a decade when Mother Nation first started with two employees.

It's a Native-led direct service provider in crisis response to sexual assault, domestic violence, homelessness, and addiction for Native American women and families.

Mother Nation also works closely with families and native communities to navigate the immediate and ongoing trauma of loss and fear and threatened pain because a mother, a daughter, or a sister goes missing or is found murdered.

Mother Nation is the sole direct service provider in Seattle, serving families with healing, hotel support, food, gas, and cards for local missing, murdered, indigenous women and families.

The director there, Noreen Hill, who we've worked with directly also has a support from many local tribes as well as national tribes.

I mean, getting, providing money and services when people want to get home.

Like if they're like, let's say somebody is from a tribe, like my tribe in Montana, and they contact the Blackfeet tribe and say, hey, we have a mom and some kids out here.

We can provide this much travel.

And then the tribes will immediately say, we'll pick up the tab for the rest to bring them home.

so they can use those services in their community.

And we don't have that many organizations that do that.

So Mother Nation's provider team is cross-trained in several areas of multi-abuse trauma through state certification.

Their services have been funded previously through a federal grant administered by King County.

And I think they're still looking for some state money.

Those funds help serve over 21 families with wraparound services.

Over the past two and a half years, Mother Nation has served over 3,000 women and families, Native women and families.

Council added 95,000 in 2019 and 95,000 in 2020 for homelessness services provided by Mother Nation.

And I can tell you, it's gone a long way.

Mother Nation also received contracts with HSD for services delivered for people experiencing homelessness and as part of the Community Safety Capacity Building RFP in 2021. with the focus on gender-based violence.

I want to add that it isn't just, Mother Nation started out and had the support from tribes immediately, including yours truly, to have a safe place because we didn't have one for Native women who are coming out of prison, who are just getting their kids back, who are experiencing homelessness or addiction or out of treatment.

And in the last decade, it's grown to where we have the tribal support where not only do we have local tribes and national tribes, but local organizations and non-Native organizations.

So it isn't just limited to just Native women, it's their Native women, their partners, their family, their children, their grandkids.

So I'm very proud of this city council in the last couple of budget cycles that have seen the value in investing in these organic, smaller organizations that have delivered services that really make a difference in people's lives.

So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member for bringing this forward again.

Council Member Herbold, please go ahead.

Thank you so much.

I just wanted to add my name as a cosponsor.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold, adding her name to HSD 004. Excellent.

Seeing no additional comments, let's move on to 005.

Thank you.

HSD 5A1 would add 3.4 million to HSD to sustain 2021 levels of food and nutrition program funding and impose a proviso.

During issue ID, we discussed the decrease in food programs due to the end of some one-time COVID relief programs or funding.

At that time, I said that there was an $8 million reduction in the food program budget.

I've revised that number to 6.9 million.

This amendment would sustain the 2021 levels of spending for six months and would request a report on other potential sources of funding for these programs.

Councilmember Herbold is the prime sponsor, and it is co-sponsored by Councilmembers Morales and Juarez.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you so much.

As Amy mentioned, we learned during issue identification that the proposed budget includes a significant cut in funding for emergency food programs next year, despite the fact that federal emergency resources are still available for this purpose.

Demand is higher than ever, as reported by multiple organizations, and families are still struggling, and the pandemic is not over.

You heard testimony this morning.

that these resources are desperately needed to provide farm-fresh and culturally appropriate healthy food to our most marginalized communities, and that with rising costs and supply chain challenges, now is not the time to cut back.

During HSD's presentation, they indicated that new state resources were expected to become available to support these programs.

But through additional dialogue with HSD, it does not appear that we have assurances that the resources will be adequate to meet the need, and it's unclear when the additional resource from the State Department of Agriculture will arrive to help Seattle residents.

This amendment provides enough funding backfill the cut and sustain the current levels of food support just for the first six months of 2022. My hope is that at that point, we will have a much clearer sense of whether new state resources will be adequate to meet the need and can assess at that time whether additional city funding will be required.

Thanks.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Any additional comments or questions?

Council Member Peterson, please go ahead.

I'd like to add my name as a co-sponsor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

Councilmember Peterson adding his name to HSD005.

Councilmember Herbold, I wanted to say thank you for the work that you've done on this during issue identification.

One of the issues that I brought up as well was the need for food support systems to be able to have some adaptability and funding for things like food delivery, especially to seniors who we've asked to stay home to stay healthy and are missing that opportunity for engagement at community centers and social cohesion and all of the good things that come with being able to see people in person.

And in this moment, I think prioritizing getting them healthy food has been what organizations like the Polynesian Food Program have been focused on.

So I see in this CBA, in the second paragraph here, that it includes home food delivery.

And I've heard from a number of other organizations like Solid Ground that trying to identify vans to help deliver food, especially because I understand Metro may be scaling back.

I have not checked on that, so sorry.

I should have checked on that before saying it, but that there may be some transportation services that are scaling back in this upcoming year.

Would the CBA be part of that solution to be making sure that there's vehicles for delivering food to folks who are homebound or not able to go to these community centers?

I think I would want to check with the Seattle Human Services Coalition and the food advocates that made the request to see whether or not these programs, because again, this is about backfilling existing programs.

And I would want to get some more information about whether or not a backfill would address maybe anticipated future needs around vehicles.

That would be that would be very helpful and I think that if you are able to get any additional clarification or if our friends are watching helpful to know early next week and this I think is something that has been addressed or has been impacting folks in this year too so maybe it is about backfilling where they weren't able to provide the needed services to community members in this year not just in the future.

Amy I see your hand up.

I was just going to add that this funding, when we talk about the reduction in food programs, it is across a wide number of different types of food programs.

Though, I just wanted to mention that the reduction in home food delivery between the 2021 funding and 2022 is about $967,000.

So this would certainly go towards that bucket of funds.

And I'm also happy to look into this question about the actual capital investments as well.

Wonderful.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate that.

OK.

Let's continue on.

006. Great.

HSD 6A1 would add $5.8 million of one-time dollars to HSD for food banks.

The 2022 proposed budget includes $3.6 million for food banks.

and this action would increase that to 9.4 million.

The prime sponsor is Council Member Strauss, and it is co-sponsored by Council Members Juarez and Herbold.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strauss.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Amy, for that great description.

This is also an amendment in responding to Seattle Human Services Coalition request.

This is not for backfill.

This is to increase support for food banks.

And before I speak more specifically about this request, it's important to note that food banks are a bit of a misnomer.

In Ballard, our food bank is also a health care center.

It's also a rental assistance center.

It is a behavioral health and it's a grocery store.

And then on top of that, you know, they're doing food delivery, they're growing their own food.

So it's just, it's important for me to always base my comments in the fact that the name Food Bank is a bit of a misnomer with the amount of different services that are provided at one site.

So this funding increase, the funding increases what we provided during the first part of the pandemic to bring food banks and meals closer to being able to function in a more effective and equitable way.

This amendment seeks to use $5.8 million to provide the needed nutrition support to residents throughout Seattle through the end of the pandemic and post-pandemic.

Of the $5.8 million, $2.5 million would increase staffing and compensation as food banks struggle with the same hiring and retention problems that we see across the city.

$1 million would increase food purchasing power to allow food banks to buy more culturally appropriate food.

$2 million would invest in infrastructure improvements for food banks.

Not every food bank gets to have a grocery store like Ballard.

food bank does.

And 300,000 would support non-city funded food banks who lack the same financial resources that city funded food banks receive.

The economic uncertainty resulting from COVID continues today and will for the foreseeable future.

As government aid programs wind down, supporting our food banks will be critical to ensuring Seattleites remain healthy with access to food.

And while I've spoken a number of times in this commentary about the Ballard Food Bank, it is important to note that this request is for all food banks citywide.

It is not for one particular.

This is a citywide request.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Andy.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strauss.

Any additional comments or questions?

The only question I had was about the ability and I guess the capacity for the organizations to spend it in 2022. It sounds like this came from the Human Services Coalition request as well.

And so they do feel like they have capacity.

Please go ahead.

Yes, that's my understanding, because the this five point eight million dollars will be spread amongst many entities who have different needs.

It's my understanding that they can spend it all this this year.

And we're happy to follow up with them to add clarity to that.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Not seeing any additional questions, let's move on to 007.

HSD 7A1 would add $200,000 to HSD for a hybrid meal delivery program for seniors.

As you know, during the pandemic, many congregate food programs moved to meal delivery and to-go meals to comply with health regulations.

This would provide funding for a program such as Sound Generations to maintain the hybrid service delivery model.

The prime sponsor is Council Member Juarez, and it is co-sponsored by Council Member Strauss and Peterson.

Council Member Juarez, please go ahead.

Thank you.

I think you're seeing a trend here with our work with the Human Service Coalition and some of the needs in regarding food and equity and access, and particularly in the last 20 months of what the pandemic has done.

Sound Generation has been providing and operating a vital meal program for years for low-income seniors in need of food, nutrition, companionship, and community.

And for example, the Lake City Seniors Program offers low-cost lunches Cook from scratch, two seniors, four seniors on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Lake City Community Center.

And I've had the opportunity, many opportunities to sit down and have lunch at the former or the old Lake City Community Center and have lunch or dinner with the elders there.

And it's been great.

So anyway, during the pandemic, seniors who had been going to their neighborhood senior center for meals had to stay home in order to stay safe.

As a result, our senior programs redirected nutrition and meal services to deliver meals to homebound seniors.

I wish I could rattle off all the names of the community members, volunteers that use their own cars and vans to deliver this food.

It was really amazing to see people come forward, particularly sometimes in this nasty environment where people are actually kind to each other.

So in redirecting services, these programs discovered an unmet need and expanded meal delivery to more seniors.

Thus, there is now a new client base being served, seniors who are not able to come to the senior center at all, but still need food, nutrition, and support.

These needed funds would support the new hybrid model of both in-person congregate meals and the meal delivery by Sound Generations.

Additional funding will allow Sound Generations to hire staff for delivery and kitchen help and cover gas and transportation costs and supplies.

These additional operating funds would also enable these programs to pay for the increased cost of food.

The funding proposed supports hybrid services that operate out of our senior centers in Ballard, West Seattle, and Lake City.

And if I could just add a little bit to what Councilmember Strauss shared, and I've been saying this since I got elected, is that our food banks aren't just food banks.

They're multi-services besides housing, eviction prevention, signing people up for Medicaid, health services, they provide baby food formula, diapers, emergency kits for those experiencing homelessness.

So again, the food banks that we have today are not the food banks that we had a decade ago.

And anyway, I just wanna thank Council Member Strauss for his former presentation, and then I'm hoping that I have some support on this one.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member Herbold.

Thank you so much.

I want to thank Councilmember Juarez for bringing this forward.

My friends at the West Seattle Senior Center are urging that I co-sponsor this ad.

I appreciate the leadership of Councilmember Juarez in bringing it forward, and I would absolutely like to add my name as a sponsor.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Herbold.

I would like to add my name to HSD 007. item just before this.

I'm wondering if there is a way to get greater clarification if, for example, 005 does include food delivery assistance, is this duplicative or would there be extra need identified here that is not met in 005?

And we can follow up on that later if you don't have an answer right away.

Yeah, let me clarify with HSD.

As you know, they have They have funding for congregate meal programs as well as meal delivery.

This would be unique in that it would be a hybrid program.

So let me double check that the funding that we discussed previously would apply to a hybrid meal program as well.

Thank you very much.

Just making sure that there's no new hands.

Pretty sure it does, Amy.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

Okay, let's go ahead and move on to 008. HSD 8-1, I'm sorry, 8-A-1 would add $175,000 to HSD for a hot meal program serving Finney Ridge neighborhood, such as the program operated by the Finney Neighborhood Association.

The prime sponsor is Councilmember Strauss, and it is co-sponsored by Councilmembers Juarez and Morales.

Please go ahead, Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Amy.

Again, this is teeing up what Council Member Juarez and I are both saying and doing.

I want to also clarify that this isn't just for Finney Ridge.

And actually, the program will be operated out of Greenwood at the Greenwood Senior Center that, colleagues, you may remember we transferred that property to the Finney Neighborhood Association earlier this year.

And so the Finney Neighborhood Association, affectionately known as PNA, The P&A's Hot Meal Program is much more than community dining.

The P&A provides a safe environment for people to feel cared for, feel deserving, feel like they're part of a neighborhood.

And they do two things.

During COVID, they pivoted to home meal delivery.

And when it's safe and possible, they create community at the Greenwood Senior Center through this Hot Meals Program.

It remained open during COVID pandemic when many other programs had to shut down.

And so this investment would leverage additional privately provided services.

So this is not just a government, a request to government, they are partnering with private services as well, because the program is a critical first step in building bridges to service services that the diners need.

For instance, if you come in for a hot meal and then suddenly realize that you need rental assistance or another health care aspect to be provided, that's what these dinners do.

They create their magnetizing in that way.

P&A has partnered with Seattle Pacific Nursing School and Lehigh Health to offer basic health care and medical teams international for dental dental diners, if you will.

Through these engaging partnerships, they provide weekly blood pressure checks, blood glucose checks, foot care, fall prevention clinics, and a wide array of dental services at no cost.

Specifically, this funding would allow P&A to expand their hot meal program to five days a week from three days a week and expand wraparound services like free medical dental clinics, and hire two more staff members to coordinate services with other agencies.

And so think of this as not just a dinner.

This is a dinner with resources and community.

So thank you, Chair, and thank you, colleagues.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strauss.

Is there any additional questions or comments?

Okay, and just clarifying here, the reason that this isn't part of 005, for example, is that this is an expansion of existing services that are available to the community.

And that is specific to those programs.

specific about the type of program and the geographic area and the potential organization that could provide those services.

HSD 9A1 would add $500,000 of one-time funds to HSD for a prescription food pilot program.

Council Member Morales is the prime sponsor and it is co-sponsored by Council Members Lewis and Juarez.

Thank you.

Please go ahead, Council Member Morales.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

As Amy mentioned, this would fund a pilot produce prescription program.

That's a lot of alliteration.

With the Seattle Indian Health Board, and they're collaborating with the American Heart Association.

It would address food and chronic disease issues among American Indian and Alaska Native households.

The Seattle Indian Health Board program would identify households with low income and diet affected health conditions.

For example, prediabetes, diabetes, hypertension.

and would provide them a prescription via a voucher, most likely, I'm not sure they've identified the exact mechanism, but basically it's a voucher that they could then redeem for no-cost produce at food retailers, including traditional food vendors, corner stores or bodegas, farmers markets, and community-supported agriculture programs.

With the funding that's requested, they believe they could serve up to 400 households for 12 months.

And that is the proposal.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Any additional comments or questions?

I do have a question, Council Member Morales.

Love the intersection with the health prescription concept and healthy food.

Wanted to just I could ask a quick question about how fast a pilot project like this could be stood up.

Do you have any indication of how quickly this program could be created?

Are there existing policies to implement, or would that have to come?

I don't know the answer to that.

Amy, do you have any information?

I've not gotten information on the time it would take to set up the program.

Are you?

Yeah.

I don't have that answer, but we can certainly find out.

I would imagine that given all the other kinds of services that are provided by the Seattle Indian Health Board, they probably have a list of folks already identified and could, you know, with the funding in hand, set up a program.

I will also say that there is a plan to evaluate the pilot.

So the plan is to collect data on this program through their electronic health record.

And then evaluate it with the Urban Indian Health Institute, which is the research division of the health board, and provide that qualitative data through the system.

And then in addition, they plan to interview participants, especially around how they were able to access culturally appropriate food with this program.

I'm sure colleagues are aware we have a similar thing set up in OSC right now with the Fresh Bucks program.

Love the FreshBucks program.

I helped with getting that set up several years ago, but it is fairly limited.

It's only $40 a month.

The plan here is to be able to provide $80 a month.

And the FreshBucks program is also restricted by zip code.

And because of the limited funds, it is a lottery system.

So this plan is very intentionally targeting our Native American community members.

And then the plan is to evaluate and make sure that they were actually able to access the culturally appropriate food that is intended.

Thank you very much.

I see Council Member Juarez and then Council Member Hermel.

I want to help Council Member Morales out a little bit.

Thank you for the Fresh Bucks program.

A little bit of information.

They actually have a base of families and people that healthy food is good medicine for preventive for diabetes and heart and all those issues.

And I think this has been a step, what I understand from the CEO, Esther Lozada.

to more institutionalize this.

And I think you guys heard me say this yesterday, the six and seven other cities that are doing this, not only just with food, but traditional gardens and farm fresh food and food that meets the needs of a particular community and dietary needs.

So thank you Council Member Morales for bringing this.

Thank you very much for that additional comment.

Council Member Herbold, please go ahead.

Thank you.

I'm interested in adding my name as a sponsor.

Happy that we have somebody who has expertise in public health and food programs with us here on the City Council to suggest brilliant ideas like this.

This is really exciting.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold.

Councilmember Herbold, I believe you said you wanted to add your name.

Councilmember Herbold adding her name to HSD 009. Thank you very much.

All right, let's move on.

Next item is HSD 10A1, which would add $800,000 in one-time funds to HSD for rental assistance, but it would be distributed by neighborhood organizations, including food banks and helplines.

This would be in addition to the 51.5 million of rental and utility assistance that was added in 2021, but approximately half of which has not been spent yet.

The prime sponsor is Councilmember Strauss, and it is co-sponsored by Council President Gonzalez and Councilmember Herbold.

Thank you very much.

Please go ahead, Councilmember.

Thank you, Chair.

Expanding on food banks are so much more.

This is a citywide request to address rental assistance, as we know.

Food banks and other community providers are able to provide direct assistance to landlords to cover the rent of a tenant.

This reduces debt.

It keeps people in their homes.

$300 can keep somebody in their house when it costs over $3,000 to get somebody out of homelessness and back into their house.

And so this is another amendment that responds to the request of the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

It would provide $800,000 of rental assistance, including $200,000 For neighborhood helpline 600,000 from neighborhood based community connectors neighborhood based rental assistance is needed to expedite the use of available rental assistance funds through the programs, Seattle residents are already connected to in their own neighborhoods.

Again, imagine you go in for dinner as an elder.

and you come out with having your rent covered and you might not know how you might cover your next month's rent.

This will help with the bottleneck of using these funds and to get help to a broader range of Seattle residents.

As the eviction moratoriums and other protections and assistance programs wind down, it is vitally important that we help struggling renters make the transition and prevent families from falling into homelessness.

I will also say and highlight, as we are having conversations about landlords, and all of that, this is something that also supports everyone being made whole and keeping people in their homes.

So thank you, Chair, and thank you, colleagues.

Council members, additional questions or comments?

Council Member Peterson, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Muscat.

I'd like to add my name as a co-sponsor.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Council Member Peterson adding his name to HSD010.

Okay, I had, I thought that I wanted to throw out there for you Councilmember Strauss and you have probably already begun to explore this as well.

When we were meeting with the Office of Housing to get an update on the over $40 million that the City Council has allocated to rental assistance, we did hear that the Office of Housing and The Urban League folks have been able to get funding out relatively quickly for rental assistance.

Community organizations are sort of doing an assessment as individuals come in.

They're doing more in-person, individual assessments as to whether or not somebody needs rental assistance.

So they still have quite a bit of the rental assistance dollars that we've given to community-based organizations.

I am wondering of the remaining $8 million for rental assistance that's currently contracted with community-based organizations, if there might be an opportunity for us to partner with the food banks there and to really expedite rental assistance in some way.

So I'll look forward to working with you to see if there is existing funding that maybe we can do a partnership effort with some of the organizations and food banks that are in need of connecting dollars to clients and doing that at food banks.

Terra, that would be great.

All options are on the table for me on this one.

And what is clear to me from what I've heard from these organizations is that they have a higher demand than the level of funding that they've received.

So however we get that done, I'd like to keep people in their home.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

OK, let's move on to 011.

Next item is HSD 11A1, which would add $130,000 to HSD for services and programming for East African seniors and would impose a proviso.

The prime sponsor is Council Member Herbold, and it is co-sponsored by Council Members Juarez and Morales.

Thank you very much, Council Member Herbold.

How much Amy and thank you co-sponsors Juarez and Morales for supporting this action to provide a modest amount of funding to launch cities first wraparound programming specifically for seniors in the East African community.

It builds on current food programs for East African seniors offered by Sound Generations five days a week at several locations, including Yesler Community Center, Northgate Community Center, and Rainier Beach.

These programs have proven to be a popular gathering and community space for elders, and volunteers have been stepping up to help make sure that participants connect to other services as needed, as you've heard.

during testimony this morning.

Young Generations was able to raise from private sources about half of the funding needed to support these wraparound services at these locations, including program coordination, social worker, program supplies, and other needs.

What this action does is provides the rest of the funding needed and would be, again, the city's first important investment in supporting services at a senior center specifically focused on East African elders.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Council members, additional comments or questions?

Okay, wonderful.

I'm not seeing anything.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold, for bringing this forward.

012. HSD 12A1 would add $15,000 to HSD for senior meals and activities serving Vietnamese seniors, such as the programs run by the Vietnamese Seniors Association.

The prime sponsor is Council Member Sawant, and it is co-sponsored by Council Members Herbold and Morales.

Council Member Sawant, please go ahead.

Thank you, and thank you to the Council Members for co-sponsoring this amendment.

This budget action would add as Amy mentioned, $15,000 to the Human Services Department to fund the senior meal and activity programming of the Vietnamese Senior Association through their fiscal sponsor, ACRS.

This program is important because the meals are important, but it's also crucial for providing community building activities for seniors who are at risk of being very isolated.

And as we know from sociological and clinical studies, the social and psychological isolation can have serious health impact beyond the psychological effects of it.

And so this program, even though it's such a modest sum, actually performs an important role in the lives of these senior community members.

The council passed budget amendments to fund this work for the past several years, and As I said, it's, it's very little money but it's it's important and that is why they have testified the seniors have testified in public hearings year after year.

And I know that they are planning on testifying at the November 10 public hearing, they were intending to testify at the last public hearing also but just the pandemic and the the need to electronically sign up, all of that has added complications.

And so, especially in that context, I wanted to thank Linh Nguyen and Kim for all of the work that they have put into supporting the Vietnamese Senior Association and have been long-standing advocates for the seniors.

The city first funded this programming prior to the COVID health emergency and the Senior Association is looking forward to resuming congregate meals and activities in 2022. The mayor's proposed budget includes $25,000 for this program for 2022, which has not been increased for several years to account for inflation or the growth of the number of seniors who are in need of this program.

Adding this $15,000 will provide those inflation adjustments and adjust for the need for increased capacity of the Vietnamese Senior Association.

Once again, thank you to Council Members Horbold and Morales and also to Council President Gonzalez who requested to be added to as a co-sponsor after we reached the limit of three co-sponsors.

And I would just add that I've met with the with the senior community members myself several times, and it's obvious to see how much they are making use of these dollars.

Thank you very much, Council Member Sawant, and appreciate the public testimony that folks were able to provide on this item before today as well.

So thank you for looking that up.

Let's see any additional questions.

I think Amy, my ongoing question is this.

Given the interest from Council on a number of food security programs, wanting to see if there's any way that the sort of more global look at food security can be accomplished through 005. And again, if this is specific geographic and organizational needs, how do we how do we make sure to lift that up?

But any any additional assistance on sort of the threading these various components, because you can tell that almost every council member has their name on food security items through either prime sponsor or co-sponsorship, that would be helpful.

Amy, I see, or Allie, I see you popped them in the screen too, so Amy, anything you'd add?

Well, I'm happy to look at the overlap of any of these.

I think this particular item might be covered by or supported by the sustaining the 2021 levels.

Because it's not a food bank, I don't think it would be impacted by the food bank ad, but I'm happy to keep looking and seeing where those connections are.

Wonderful, thank you.

And Council Member Sawant.

Thank you and appreciate Amy's clarification.

I was going to say something along those lines.

I definitely agree with making sure that we consolidate all our efforts for food security.

And I, obviously, because we were instructed to, I didn't raise my hand to co-sponsor every amendment, but of course support all of those amendments.

But I just wanted to clarify that, as I said before, this is more than just a food security issue.

These funds, they specifically use these funds also as a community building exercise, which is really one of the lifelines for the seniors.

Excellent.

Appreciate that.

And thank you for noting your support for exercising restraint as well on the co-sponsorship.

I appreciate that.

Council, Central Staff, Ally, did you have anything else you'd like to add?

I was just going to add, I think in these questions of thinking about like a sort of more cohesive strategy versus these, some of these individual ads, I think one of the challenges is if we, if the council wants the human services department to look at sort of food security issues generally, then it would be sort of a, a pot of money for them to sort of do that work and determine how best to allocate it versus some of these very specific or specific organizations.

So I think that's one of the questions for you and your colleagues in terms of how you want to program this funding of whether or not it's a generalized pot where there is some flexibility for the department to work with organizations to determine how best to allocate them versus specific ads for very specific types of programs or services with certain organizations in mind.

Thank you very much.

And I think it underscores the point that we started with, which is now is the time to be continuing to scale up and preserve the funding that was available for various food assistance programs.

So I definitely hear the interest from council members on that.

Council Member Morales, please go ahead.

Yeah, I would just to that point, remind Council that we do have a local food action plan, where we identified several years old now, maybe it's time to revisit it, but there's certainly several roles that as a municipality, we could play in improving food security across the city and.

you know, I'm sure we will continue to have individual requests, but I do think it makes sense for us to try to think more strategically about how we can have the kind of impact that we're looking for so that we have the kind of outcomes that we're looking for in improving food security for folks in the city.

Thank you very much, Council Member Rawlinson.

I know who we will be coming to as we think about pulling that plan back up.

Thank you again.

All right, let's continue on 013.

Sorry, HSD 13A1 would add $2 million of general fund dollars to HSD for youth pre-employment and job readiness programs.

The funding would support programs which apply to the Supporting Youth and Young Adults for Success proposal solicitation from HSD, but did not receive funding.

Just so you know, there were 74 applicants requesting a total of $21 million.

17 organizations were awarded a total of $3.7 million.

The prime sponsor is Council Member Morales, and it is co-sponsored by Council Members Mosqueda and Herbold.

Thank you.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda, and thanks to Council Member Herbold and to you for co-sponsoring.

So as Amy said, this is to help fund organizations who did not receive funding through HSD's Healthy Youth and Young Adults for Success RFP.

As I've said over and over again, it feels like we know how important it is that young people, that young adults transitioning into adulthood, receive mentorship and skill building and pre professional development that can really prepare them for their next steps in life, whether it's college or, or a pathway into a living wage career.

So these kinds of initiatives are really important and really integral to – really to that piece of our workforce development strategy.

So I'm interested in ensuring that programs like El Centro de la Raza's Youth Job Readiness Program and others like it are able to continue receiving funding because they really do provide that kind of support for young people and for their families, and they're able to do it in language.

we are hoping to get some support for continuing that funding for them.

Great, thank you very much.

Any additional questions on this item?

Seeing none, thank you Council Member Morales.

Let's move to 0-1.

HSD 14A1 would cut $1 million of human services funds from HSD for a senior center and clinic and add $1 million general fund dollars to HSD for the same purpose.

The 2022 proposed budget includes $1 million of community development block grants to support a senior center and clinic.

As you know, CDBG funds can be onerous for some projects, and this action would swap that funding for general fund dollars, which has a little bit less administrative burden to it.

Councilmember Herbold is the prime sponsor, and it is co-sponsored by Councilmembers Morales and Gonzalez.

Please go ahead, Councilmember Herbold.

So much as Amy has mentioned, the budget amendments switches out funding for this $1 million appropriation that's already in the budget.

This change comes at the request of the International Community Health Services, who's aging in place.

Washington Project intends to apply for these funds.

APACE will provide integrated, culturally responsible, responsive health care to help Asian Pacific Islander seniors live at home by providing care at home.

plus a hub of services at a day center with transportation included.

No such integrated program currently exists for the API community.

And because this project is part of a multi-project effort to reimagine the Pacific Hospital tower lot, accepting CDB dollars at this time would trigger a significant amount of additional paperwork for all of the projects and organizations represented, not just ICHS.

They've requested that CDB dollars originally appropriated be swapped out for a different fund source.

Just noting that the executive had previously pledged $1.5 million in support of this project.

This amendment would help partially fulfill that pledge.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member Herbold.

I'm very excited about this project.

I used to serve on the PDA board for the Pack Tower, and really excited to see it come to fruition.

So thanks for making this possible.

Okay, I'm not seeing any questions.

Let's move on.

HSD 15A1 would add $300,000 to HSD for one-time improvements to a community facility in Ballard serving youth, such as the Ballard Boys and Girls Club.

The prime sponsor is Council Member Strauss, and it is co-sponsored by Council Members Juarez and Morales.

Thank you.

Council Member Strauss, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, colleagues.

The Ballard Boys and Girls Club is the largest Boys and Girls Club facility in Seattle, serving 250 kids a day in grades pre-K through 12th grade.

And the majority of households these youth come from are making less than $50,000 a year.

This is a very specific request.

The ceiling at the Ballard Boys and Girls Club partially collapsed into the building earlier this year, specifically falling into the bathroom facilities.

So problem with the roof, problem with the bathroom.

We have, while the building has remained open and in operation, the collapse causes serious concerns heading into the rainy months.

We all can see what's outside the window today.

all of the rain we are experiencing.

And so this amendment would provide the $300,000 to support the roof repairs to ensure a safe and healthy environment for the kiddos who go to the Ballard Boys and Girls Club to attend pre-K, before or after school care, play sports, or participate in any of their other programs.

As we have been also discussing the school bus issues, it should be noted that the Ballard Boys and Girls Club provides transportation to and from school.

Let's help patch the roof.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strauss.

Any questions on this item?

Given the urgency of the fixes that it sounds like are needed, have there been capital campaigns?

I think, am I still having technological problems?

Okay, great.

I believe the question was, have there been capital campaigns or private fundraising?

I know that there has been some, and I believe that this is a portion I'm happy to follow up with more specific information.

I think our chair might be frozen.

Yes, I was kind of- Council Member Herbold, do you want to jump in?

I will do my best to fill in here in the interim.

Let's see here.

Would you like me to move on to the next item?

Yes.

It doesn't sound like there are any additional questions on HSD 005. And so with that, we can move on to HSD 016.

Great, HSD 16A1 would add $250,000 of one-time funds to HSD for the expansion of a community facility in Lake City, such as the North Seattle Family Resource Center, which is run by the Children's Home Society of Washington.

The prime sponsor is Council Member Juarez, and it is co-sponsored by Council Members Sawant and Strauss.

Thank you, Amy.

Council, Madam, Madam,

Budget Chair, you're back.

Madam Vice Chair, thanks for stepping in.

Please go ahead, Council Member.

Just going to ask Council Member Juarez to speak to her proposal.

And I will.

Thank you both.

So this is an incredible opportunity to assist a statewide nonprofit that has a big impact in the City of Seattle, the North End, and the State of Washington.

Children's Home Society of Washington has for 125 years focused on creating a solid foundation for today's children, developing strong families, and building engaged communities.

The organization deliberately chose to locate its base of operations in Lake City.

because this is ground zero for them.

At least that's what they've shared with me.

They serve 450 families in North Seattle every year out of their North Seattle Family Resource Center.

So that's just in the north end.

95% of which are low or very low income.

They are now ready to expand their operations and have identified the Chase Bank Building on 125th and Lake City Way.

They have entered into a purchasing agreement with the owners.

Those of you who are not familiar with District 5, 125th and Lake City Ways, where we had the mini park and we had an unsanctioned encampment, we have a bunch of things that go on in that corner.

So this was very strategic in our conversations, at least in the last three years, with the Children's Home Society of why they chose that building.

And they could have chose any building.

So big thanks from us to them for investing in Seattle and particularly North Seattle.

This Children's Home Society intends to use some of the organization's reserves, grants, governmental, and I can never say this word, philanthropic support to build their new headquarters at the site at a cost of about $14 million.

And yes, they are having a capital campaign.

And they are looking at the national organization in the state as well.

So if this is a $14 million project, this is an investment into Seattle's safety social net, not just for the D5, but for all of Seattle.

Part of this cost includes much needed building maintenance, repair, and renovations.

If you recall, this is a former bank.

I should just add a side note that Children's Home Society, along with Sound Generations, Boys and Girls Club, and a couple other social service organizations, were planning on headquartering our new Lake City Community Center with housing, but because of COVID, we've had to set back all capital programs and projects.

So they've just decided to go forward and just buy the building and do it themselves, which is great because I'm sure we'll be using some space from them.

As I shared, the costs include building maintenance, repair, and renovations, in addition to providing a permanent home for Children's Home Society.

The project will also include space for organizations focused on child welfare or providing basic needs to families in North Seattle, the North Seattle area.

This is similar to the hub model we had envisioned for the Lake City Community Center.

The CEO has notified me that they are in conversation with other nonprofit organizations interested in joining at the site.

And you can bet we will be part of that conversation.

Children's Home Society is confident that they will see a 20% increase in individuals served once the site is fully operational.

So this is a $250,000 investment to support the design and planning of the new Family Resource Center.

And I want to thank Council Member Suant and Strauss for your co-sponsorship.

Thank you.

And I should add something quickly back on my last item.

the hybrid one, the meal one.

Amy, I spoke too soon.

What I meant to say is that it was not duplicate, so I apologize.

My staff was lighting up my phone, so I spoke too soon, so thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Any additional questions or comments on 016 here?

Seeing none, thanks so much, Council Member.

Let's go to 017.

The next item is HSD 17A1, which would add $53,000 of one-time funds to HSD for a childcare facility improvements in the university district, such as at the University Temple Children's School located at U Heights.

It would also impose a proviso.

The prime sponsor is Council Member Peterson, and it is co-sponsored by Council Members Juarez and Strauss.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

Thank you, Amy, for your work on this.

For this council budget action, it's a one-time investment of just $53,000, and it's for required physical improvements to a child care facility in the University District, such as the University Temples Children's School, which is located in the University Heights building.

As many of you know, the U Heights building is in the heart of the U District, and the building hosts many nonprofits and social services.

That early learning and child care organization had to relocate to University Heights after being displaced from their former location in the U District.

The funding would enable the installation of a required voice fire alarm and could also be used for other physical improvements such as ADA and heating upgrades to meet state requirements to maintain and expand early learning slots which could serve up to 175 children, at least half of whom would be from low-income families.

I thank you councilmember Suarez and Strauss for signing on as co-sponsors.

And I'd like to thank Maureen Ewing, the executive director at U Heights for her leadership and advocacy.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate you bringing this forward.

Council member Peterson.

I also want to thank you Heights and the team at, um, at the community center there for all of the work that they've done and appreciate your work on this to continue to make sure that they have the capital investments to make the building accessible.

Any additional questions on this item?

Okay, great.

Let's move on.

HSD 18A1 would add $5 million to HSD to expand, develop and support childcare facilities.

The 2022 proposed budget includes $200,000 to expand and build new childcare facilities.

And in addition, there are some funds remaining of 2021 budget ads for childcare facilities.

This is sponsored by Council President Gonzalez and is co-sponsored by Council Members Mosqueda and Strauss.

Thank you very much.

Council President, please go ahead.

Great, thank you so much.

I will keep it really short.

On Tuesday, I had an opportunity to speak about some of the challenges that child care providers have to just open their doors.

And again, just to refer to Hagan Child Care as an example, once again, what was supposed to be in that instance, an $800,000 facility upgrade ended up being a two million dollar facility upgrade and we also heard this morning during public comment from U-Heights Center that they have nearly a half million dollars of upgrade costs and once they are funded and construction is complete they will be able to go from a 105 to 175 child care slots facility with much of that serving low-income families in the area.

And there are very few funds at any level of government that childcare providers can tap into to get help with these project costs that are really critically important to allowing them to continue to serve as many families as possible throughout our city.

And of course, this pandemic has made it clear how crucial childcare is to our workforce and access to childcare continues to be at crisis levels here in the city of Seattle and across the region.

So in addition to the challenges that providers have with capital and facility costs, we know that the wages in child care industry remain very low.

which means that fewer workers, that there are fewer workers to meet the high demands of these important jobs.

So I know that there are some promising conversations happening at the state level to address wages specifically for child care workers.

Of course, if there is room for us to include some kind of additional compensation for Child Care Stabilization Fund, through this particular budget item, I would certainly be interested in continuing conversations with the budget chair around modifying this particular council budget action to be for both childcare facilities and additional support for our childcare workers.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Are there any additional questions or comments?

Council Member Morales, please go ahead.

Thank you.

I'd like to add my name as a co-sponsor to this, please.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Council Member Morales adding her name to HSD 018. Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Any additional votes?

Okay, let's move on, 019.

HSD 19A1 would add $3 million to HSD for mobile advocacy services with flexible financial assistance for survivors of gender-based violence.

The 2022 proposed budget includes 4.6 million for this purpose.

So this action would increase that to 7.6 million.

The prime sponsor is Council Member Herbold and it is co-sponsored by Council Member Peterson and Council President Gonzalez.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Herbold, please go ahead.

Thank you so much.

This budget amendment is the top request of the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence, several of whom testified this morning, and this measure is also endorsed by the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

It would add $3 million to the Human Services Department to fund a significant expansion of the mobile advocacy services for survivors of gender-based violence.

We know that one of the most insidious effects of the pandemic is its impact on our mental health.

Each day, many of us are struggling with pain, anxiety, isolation.

resulting from the impacts of the pandemic.

Inevitably, that is leading to spikes in gender-based violence.

King County Sexual Assault Resource Center is reporting that they're hearing from about 30% more Seattle survivors so far this year than in 2019. Several research studies, including our state's nationally recognized Domestic Violence Housing First program, found that mobile advocacy as a model of domestic and sexual violence services promoted long-term stability, safety, and well-being for survivors and their children.

The flexible mobile advocacy model is particularly suited to smaller, culturally specific by and for providers, allowing them to add capacity, provide housing and other forms of assistance without requiring significant capital infrastructure.

Funds can be used for any program needs, including staffing or flexible funds to directly support survivors as currently proposed here.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

And I see a number of hands.

Council Member Morales, please go ahead.

Sorry, I would like to add my name to this as well, please.

Thank you very much Council Member Morales.

Council Member Morales adding her name to HSD 019. Council Member Selwyn.

I would like to be added as a co-sponsor as well, thank you.

Thank you very much Council Member Selwyn.

Adding her name to HSD 019, Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

While I said that Councilmember Peterson got my last co-sponsorship, I had already had this one and one more on my list, so happy to request to sign on to this important budget amendment.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

Councilmember Strauss adding his name to HSD 019. Any additional comments or questions?

Wonderful.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Herbold.

All right, moving to 020.

HSD 20 A1 would add $4 million to HSD for the Seattle Community Safety Initiative and impose a proviso.

This program supports four organizations working to reduce gun violence through violence interruption, community safety hubs, and neighborhood safety teams.

They operate in West Seattle, Rainier Valley, and the Central District.

This initiative was supported with one-time funds through the end of 2021, but it is not included in the 2022 proposed budget.

The prime sponsor is Councilmember Herbold, and it is co-sponsored by Councilmembers Morales and Lewis.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Herbold, please go ahead.

on an ongoing basis.

We heard from a lot of SCSI leaders this morning about how important this program is and its promise for community safety.

This initiative is a people of color-led partnership between Community Passageways, Urban Family, the Southeast Network Hub Boys and Girls Club, and the Alive and Free program for the YMCA.

aims to decrease interactions between black and brown communities they serve and the law enforcement and criminal legal system to reduce the harms that they have historically experienced from those public systems.

In 2020, the council provided $4 million to establish and operate the community safety hubs in the Central District, the Rainier Beach, and West Seattle.

That funding was carried forward in 2021 and is currently supporting those hubs, which provide an alternative to traditional policing, again, led by and for Black and Brown communities in Seattle.

These hubs were a foundational investment in Council's early work to reimagine public safety and a top priority of decriminalized Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Herbold, are there any additional questions on this item?

Please go ahead, Council Member Morales.

Well, I don't have a question, but I just want to indicate, you know, I'm excited to be a co-sponsor here.

Our office has been working closely with the folks from Urban Family and Southeast Network, Boys and Girls Club, along with King County Council Member Zahalai.

And the two I mentioned are just two of the organizations, but it's a really important network of groups that are providing the service to support young people in the Rainier Valley.

And I'm happy to be a co-sponsor here.

Council Member Morales, thank you so much for your comments and for already being a sponsor.

I appreciate that.

And I just wanted to ask central staff I think that there was a lot of surprise and a lot of frustration that this amount wasn't included in the budget that got sent down.

So I appreciate the effort here to correct that.

As we have talked about earlier this week, there's also some concern about the lack of spending from our earlier Seattle Rescue Plan Act efforts and earlier COVID relief efforts.

So can you remind me, the $4 million that we had already allocated, did that go out the door as the council had intended?

Yes.

Thank you.

It's good to know.

All right, let's continue to do that good work.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Herbold, please go ahead.

021.

All right.

HSD 21A1 would add $2 million general fund to HSD for restorative justice programs.

The 2022 proposed budget includes just over a million dollars in funding for restorative justice, both through the Community Safety Capacity Building Program and from the 2022 reentry rerouting RFP, which focused on services to the Native community.

This would increase funding to $3 million for the year.

The prime sponsor is Councilmember Morales, and it is co-sponsored by Councilmembers Lewis and Solange.

Thank you, Amy, um, I, uh, let's see.

Sorry, I'm trying to decide if I should ask.

I'm going to ask a question first, and then I'm going to say what I want to say.

That sounds great.

Let's do it.

I thought that we were writing this as a proviso.

I'm not actually sure if that's appropriate, given this particular pot of money.

But I would like to ask the question if that is a possibility, if it's something we can do later.

I don't have to have an answer to that now.

But I say that because we know that there is a lot of important work happening in the restorative justice space.

And we do have a couple of organizations funded through HSD right now.

They provide conflict resolution, mediation for really specific needs, such as addressing gender-based violence, helping people heal from trauma, engaging black men and boys to address some systemic causes of violence that could then prevent future violence against women and girls.

So these are all some currently funded initiatives that are rooted in very community-centered priorities and a very community-centered healing model.

So the restorative justice work itself really intersects between mental health, public health, public safety, and just sort of holistic health and well-being.

And we know that there are organizations using this model to address systemic issues that impact the lives of our neighbors, that really help build community, and that just do the work of healing lots of different kinds of trauma.

So I just want to give two examples.

We know I talk about these all the time.

You shouldn't be surprised.

But for example, Rainier Beach Action Coalition leads a community healing space at the Rainier Beach parking lot every Friday evening, a safety park.

Safeway parking lot in partnership with the Southeast Network Boys and Girls Club.

This particular space is in response to some of the shootings that happened last summer, but they have community restorative healing circles that are open to anybody to drop by and participate, and they activate space to deter crime in the area.

It's part of the neighborhood engagement strategy.

But restorative justice work has been happening in Rainier Beach since long before last summer.

We also have WABLOC, which is Washington Building Leaders of Change.

They've been doing this work in schools to expand the restorative justice movement by training teachers and students to be practitioners.

And so this summer, for example, they held the first Circle Keeping Academy, which was a summer program dedicated to training local high school students in restorative justice principles and practices so that they could use that knowledge as kind of a change agent among their own families and with their friends and in their kind of social groups.

So all that to say, this amendment is about supporting the social and emotional learning of young people and young adults so that they have different tools to be more connected to one another and to have better communication options that they are familiar with as well.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

And yes, if your intention was to do a proviso instead of an ask for additional funds, absolutely, I'll make a note of that.

And that is not a problem to to note at this point, this is exactly when we can do that.

Let me clarify.

My intention is to add and proviso.

Oh, OK.

All right.

And we can sort that out.

If it's not appropriate, that's OK, too.

So I just thought if you have anything else you'd like to add on the process there.

Oh, sorry, I thought you said Council Member Swann.

Yeah, I'm happy to add a proviso to that.

Please go ahead, Ali.

Yeah, I would just add it if it is included in the initial balancing package, whether there's a proviso at that stage or if it's brought as an amendment to the balancing package, since it doesn't affect balancing either way process-wise would work, but there's a lot more that has to happen between now and then.

I thought you were helping me scale, scale Council Member, but appreciate the flag that you're interested in the proviso there.

Council Member Sawant, please go ahead.

Thank you.

Sorry, I meant to say this earlier, but forgot.

I wanted to add myself as a co-sponsor to HSD 020 for the Community Safety Initiative.

Excellent.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

I'll add you here, Council Member Sawant.

added to HSD 020. Okay, I think that that brings us to 022.

Good afternoon, council members.

Asha Venkatram, Council Central staff.

HSD 22A1 would add $750,000 of general fund to the Human Services Division for prefiling diversion contracts with community-based organizations.

I'll just note that you heard the CBA Law 1A1 yesterday that would have added the staffing side of these funds to the city attorney's office.

This portion of the funding is to go to the community-based organizations that do a lot of the pre-diversion, excuse me, pre-filing diversion work.

Sponsored by Council Member Herbold and co-sponsored by Council Member Lewis and Council President Gonzalez.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Herbold, please go ahead.

Thank you.

I want to thank both Councilmember Lewis and Council President Gonzalez for their sponsorship.

Councilmember Lewis has had a lot of professional involvement in a prior life with the existing version of this program for people under 25. And Council President Gonzalez has been a leader in working to ensure that we express to the city attorney's office, our interest in expanding this program to folks who are over 25. And I just want to note that a key part of the success of the Pre-filing diversion program for younger people is the involvement of a community partner.

The pre-filing diversion RET, racial equity toolkit for expansion to 25 and over identified a need for $750,000 to fund at least five organizations.

This RET is a RET that we requested the city attorney's office do as part of a proposal for expansion.

And so, We ask for the information and I am proposing that we fund the resource at the level resulting from the racial equity toolkit analysis.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Any additional comments or questions?

Thank you very much, Councilmember Customer Herbold, I do have a question, I think on the next one, so I will hold it for the next one.

Let's go ahead and continue.

And do you see this one and the next one connected as well, customer Herbold?

Related to housing services.

It's completely separate programs.

Yep.

The city attorney's pre-arrest diversion program is what we often refer to as Choose 180. That is the program that exists for younger folks.

This is to expand that diversion program to folks who are older than the current program.

And I'll leave it to Council Member Lewis to describe his proposal, which is a separate proposal.

working to address the needs of a different cohort of folks going through a different program.

Thank you.

Very helpful already.

Thank you very much for that orientation.

Okay, so on 022, any additional questions or comments on the pre-filing diversion contracts with community-based organizations like Choose 180?

Okay, seeing none, let's go ahead and move on to 023.

HSD 23A1 would add $1 million of general fund to HSD for community court housing vouchers.

These are housing vouchers for individuals that are going through Seattle Municipal Court's community court.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Lewis and co-sponsored by Councilmembers Herbold and Strauss.

Thank you.

Councilmember Lewis, please go ahead.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

You know, like a lot of us here on the council, I have occasional meetings with the leadership of the Seattle Municipal Court, which, as many of us are aware, has been engaged in a process of dramatically reforming under the policy of Judge Gregory, lots of traditional things that the court has done.

That has included a dramatic reduction in the resources that are put into probation with a realignment of those resources toward supporting the community court program and other sort of diversion-focused and diversion-based programs that aim to give people the support and assistance necessary to be successful and be diverted out of the criminal legal system without significant entanglement in long-term stints at probation or other things that historically the court has done.

One of the big bottlenecks since community court has been reestablished has been the instability of community court clients because of a lack of an option to enter into some kind of housing placement.

And that has been very determinative of people who do tend to not have as much success in community court, because as we're all aware, it has to be a policy that's based on housing first and housing stability.

So it's really important that we do what we can to come forward here as a city council to fill that service gap, like in so many of our systems, and make sure that judges have all the tools possible to achieve effective diversion.

I know that there's going to be a lot of criticism of giving the judge an ability to make a referral into housing.

This is not designed as something to be a contingent offer of housing or an offer of housing that could be revoked for failure to comply with a court sentence.

That's not, strictly speaking, exactly how the community court system works.

And I think it's also just important that we acknowledge that that while we do want to engage in a long term process of focusing more upstream in the pre file diversion stage, which we just discussed in which I do believe really is a key cornerstone of the future of.

ebbing away from the criminal legal system.

I think that we do also need to make sure that judges that are trying to do the right thing, especially under the leadership of the current community court, have the ability to divert someone into housing when they want to.

They currently do not have the ability to do that.

This is something that would go a long way toward closing that goal and reducing the endless cycle of to the street, back to the court, back to the street.

So this has been requested by the court, or this is an idea the court indicated they would be able to take on board over the course of last year in just talking to the municipal court prior to the budget cycle.

and I think it closes a really big loophole.

Thank you, Councilmember Lewis.

Any additional questions or comments?

Councilmember Lewis, I want to thank you for bringing this forward.

This is something that I'm also interested in addressing, especially when you look at the data that's provided in the CBA.

As you noted, that the Seattle Municipal Court identified housing as a high priority needed for about 28% of the individuals in community court and that there are currently no housing slots set aside specifically for court-involved individuals.

I also wonder if there's been policy conversations that you're aware of or that the court's maybe been involved in to try to look at how we prioritize people impacted by criminal legal systems overall to ensure that we're setting aside slots or prioritizing housing for individuals who have been impacted by the criminal legal system.

I ask that because I just want to make sure that we're also not necessarily sort of creating an unintended consequence of creating a system where you can only get access to those housing options if you are then involved in the criminal legal system.

So I'm just wondering if there's been any conversation about prioritizing slots more generally instead of having the entry point from the courts?

Yeah, I mean, you know, ideally, I think the way it would be structured is that you could have a set aside where one point of entry could be from a judge making that referral, but that there could be other places as early as, you know, like if you're working with a, like a lead caseworker, or if you're working with other folks that are further up the stream, I think it could definitely be structured that way.

The thing to sort of focus this attention is a real sincere desire from the court to be able to have, like another way to think of this might be, you know, if you have a judge in a position where someone's been diverted to community court and it's clear that a big barrier to that person's success is the inability to be in some kind of housing placement, the judge currently doesn't have the power to do anything to remedy that.

And I would just remind people, too, that community court is, you know, I mean, generally speaking, you know, it's not a court that, to my understanding, requires any kind of like formal arrangement in terms of like a like a plea bargain or a plea guilty or anything like that it's structured in a way to be a uh...

like a a pre a predispositional court so there's a lot of leeway in how things are structured and uh...

that don't emphasize uh...

car serial car serial or surveillance based uh...

outcomes and it would basically be if you completely fail out of community court then you know, at that point, a criminal proceeding could potentially start depending on the circumstances.

So, you know, a way to stop those dominoes from tumbling would be a way to give the court a tool to stabilize people in community, and this is one of the ones they're requesting.

How it's structured and how generalized the resource is, I'm totally open to suggestion.

Excellent.

Thank you so much for that perspective.

I'm not seeing any additional comments or questions.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Let's move on to 024.

Good afternoon, Anne Gorman, Council Central staff.

HSD 24A1 is also sponsored by Council Member Lewis, and it is co-sponsored by Council Members Herbold and Morales.

This item would add $3.1 million of general funds to the Human Services Department for a pilot program to dispatch a city-contracted, community-based provider response to low-acuity 911 calls that have a medical or a mental or behavioral health component or both.

Low acuity calls are generally those where a response does not require emergency medical treatment or transportation by ambulance.

The funding for this program would be an HSD and the pilot would be coordinated by the Office of Innovation and Performance and the City Budget Office with the participation of the Seattle Fire Department, the Seattle Police Department, and the Community Safety Communication Center, as well as the input of community.

Thank you, Anne, and thank you, Council Member Lewis, again for this one.

thank you madam chair i'm really really excited about this proposal because i i really think that to fundamentally redesign our local system of first response is going to require standing up and deploying and testing alternative responses throughout 2022. My office has been talking about this idea really ever since we did a town hall on this that is available to the public if people want to go view it on my website.

with people from the STAR program, Support Team Assisted Response, in Denver, Colorado.

You know, there's multiple ways to deliver a service like this.

There are several advantages to doing it through a provider-based platform.

We've received a considerable amount of community feedback that this is a highly desired way to deliver the service, both for the credibility of the responder and also for creating a certain unique ethos to the response culture.

and to just, in some cases, make it more culturally relevant.

And that has certainly been the case with the STAR program, which has been wildly successful and is undergoing significant expansion now in Denver.

So I do not see this as a competing service to some of our other response platforms that we're creating.

I see it as complementary.

There are a number of ways the executive could implement this idea to be complementary by constraining it by call type, constraining it by geography.

in order to see how effective a provider-based response can be.

We have a number of community providers who have expressed interest in writing on an RFQ for something like this, including Community Passageways, the Defender Association, and the DESC, which runs sort of some similar response programs So this is something that could really provide a big additional service in 2022 that we could look at, that we could track, and that we could then scale in the 2023 budget based on the result of what we're seeing.

And other cities are doing it.

This isn't like a scary, novel, untested thing.

This is something other cities have been doing and where we can learn from and emulate their success.

and I think that we should get it out there because we definitely have a gap in first response capability right now and this could be part of the solution to that.

Thank you.

Council Member Herbold, please go ahead.

Thank you.

I really appreciate Councilmember Lewis bringing this forward.

I'd really hope to see more in the mayor's proposed budget in this area, given the years-long work of the reimagining policing IDT and the Nick Jr. call response.

So again, really appreciate his bringing this forward.

You know, we, many of us have also participated in a several weeks long workshop around community response models and appreciate Councilmember Lewis saying that this is not an item that is competing.

with other items that I'm also sponsored to.

But would love to hear a little bit more because from my perspective, it's not just that other cities are doing this, that we are doing this already.

And the mobile crisis teams that DESC runs is a great example.

And perhaps there's a population that those teams need to be expanded to, but I'm just I'm trying to get a sense of if these aren't if this is if this is not.

a replication of another budget proposal that we're going to be hearing later.

What is – I just would like to understand a little bit – again, I'm signing on as a cosponsor here, so this is a friendly inquiry.

I'd like to just really understand what the – what is unique about this vision that is not something that could be accomplished with an expansion of the mobile crisis teams or something like this.

So I'm happy to jump in that first.

And maybe, Anne, if you want to provide your analysis on that too, that'd be great.

But I mean, I think just the first thing is kind of a threshold matter.

The DESC team, as it's currently constituted, is not a direct 911 responder.

They're gatekept by other people who arrive on the scene first.

They also are equipped to respond to, in some cases, a higher acuity than necessarily what this team would respond to initially.

This team would be a gatekeeper for that DESC team the same way that the police are currently a gatekeeper for that DESC team or the fire department.

I mean, that's the first thing, is this team responds first before that DESC team would arrive on the scene.

Now, that said, you know, there could be a way for DESC to potentially write on this proposal where they do just find something that would be a primary responder that cuts a gatekeeper out entirely.

But I think that that's the first thing that differentiates it.

I think the second thing that differentiates it, and Council Member Herbold, I appreciate you bringing up that workshop we participated in for several weeks, but it was really, really emphasized that the different culture, approach, and focus that develops in these entities that are provider or community-based response platforms versus one that is based in a uniformed government service.

And that is not at all to devalue the really critical work that our uniformed first responders are doing and similar programs like health one which is a uniformed fire department, low acuity response program.

But it is clear that there are clients and populations and people who view who have viewed these services differently when they're delivered as a provider based one in a way that is more perceived as more culturally appropriate or conceived as more approachable or more trustworthy and that there's something that goes with.

being in a government bureaucracy that has led to a history of skepticism from some populations and some people regarding if they can trust the responder they're working with.

So I am leery of having a response system that continues to be, as was presented in the budget that was proffered to us from the executive, completely based in government-controlled first responses.

That is the thing that's different here and that I think is culturally appropriate to Seattle.

I think that we are a city that something that works in Eugene, Oregon or that works in Denver, Colorado could work here as well.

And I think that it's something that this is the opportunity to try and to see how it works on the ground as a response system.

Thanks, Council Member Herbold.

Any additional follow-up questions?

Okay.

Council Member Lewis, thank you for bringing this forward.

I am, just a few technical questions here.

Any additional comments from the sponsor about why the placement would be at performance and innovation versus The new SCCC, I know that you noted here their extensive work with data analysis and the use of performance metrics.

Anything else in terms of why housing it there?

I just think based on expertise and some of the contracts that currently live there, it seems to be the most appropriate place.

I am open to feedback from other executive agencies if they think it would be a more appropriate place to house it, to do what we want to do, which is get something contracted and set up.

So I'm flexible on where it goes.

Okay, great.

Well, I join you in thanking the folks who are on the front line doing similar work right now, both within the city family and our external partners.

And I think bringing programs like HealthONE to scale, bringing programs to scale that helps you invest in additional, not just first responders, but making sure that they're able to provide that connective landing place for people.

That's what I continue to hear is the need.

This is a little bit of both.

I also was interested if we might be able to hear more from...

community partners like REACH.

My understanding was that REACH had provided HSD with an opportunity to fund them when we had allocated up to $13 million for those community safety response systems, those alternative systems that we invested into the tune of now $13 million for community safety capacity grants.

And I think that they had a similar proposal that they were putting forward, but it didn't get award for it.

So I'd be interested in hearing more from them about the proposal that they had put forward that I think very much aligns with what your request is here so that we can hear more about what some strategies might be that people are already thinking of.

Obviously, this would be a competitive contract.

As you noted, there's a number of organizations thinking similar strategies in terms of improved first response and then connecting people to services.

But I'm looking forward to hearing more about what the vision was there.

Council Member Lewis, please go ahead.

Yeah, I mean, just to close out, I appreciate you mentioning reach.

I mean, I'll just say generally, we have a long list of legacy provider organizations who do incredible work, who would be eager to write on an RFQ for this.

And we can see what the creativity, what the vision for implementation is in unleashing this energy we have in our provider community to do something fundamentally different and respond to the crushing need that we see on the streets.

And if we're not doing that this year as a city council in a lot of these budget ads, I don't know what else we could be doing.

So I appreciate you lifting up the work REACH is doing, because I think they're a great example.

We have a lot of great folks who could write on this, and we should give them the opportunity.

Excellent.

Well said.

Thank you so much.

All right.

We're going to move on to the next one.

HSD 25A1 would add a $100,000 general fund to HSD to contract with an organization to survey national best practices on interrupting gun violence.

The intent would be to focus on how the city can work with the community to interrupt gun violence.

This is sponsored by Council President Gonzalez and co-sponsored by Council Members Herbold and Lewis.

Thank you, Council President.

Good to see you again.

Thanks so much.

This is a pretty self-explanatory.

Thanks to Asha for the good work on this.

We know that gun violence is continuing to rise in our community and communities across the country.

So in an effort to better understand what national best practices and interventions may be enacted here in Seattle, I'm asking for support for this particular budget item that would add this $100,000 to be able to contract with an organization to do the survey as described by Asha.

This will help to further inform the investments that the city can make to continue to fight this epidemic, both in our local community and across the country.

I will say that the organization that is chosen, or that could be chosen will need to make a strong commitment to include engagement of members of our BIPOC community who are most negatively impacted by gun violence and have high confidence that we will be able to find an organization to shepherd this work through and to produce the report necessary to help the city better understand both the strategies related to more deeply and holistically addressing gun violence, but also how the city can best structure its work organizationally to achieve the intended outcomes.

All said, no questions from me, Council President.

Any additional questions from colleagues?

Seeing none, let's move on to 051.

And for the record, Jeff Sims, Council Central staff.

HSD 051 would add $14.6 million to HSD to expand a pre-arrest diversion program and would also impose a proviso.

The envisioned program would be let everyone advance with dignity, formerly called the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program or the short hand is lead.

The prime sponsor is Council Member Herbold with Council Members Lewis and Council President Gonzalez as the co-sponsors.

I'll turn it over to Council Member Herbold to say more.

Thank you so much.

This is another one that's got a lot of history with it.

Back in November 2019, the council passed Resolution 31916, in which we acknowledged the city's responsibility to reduce unnecessary criminal justice system involvement, and we declared our commitment, ensuring that law enforcement pre-arrest diversion programs, such as LEAD, receive public funding sufficient to accept all priority referrals citywide, with the goal of doing so by 2023. In 2020, council mandated a change in how LEAD program accepts referrals.

This change removed the requirement that LEAD referrals come from law enforcement, although they still do and they can.

They don't have to.

We requested that LEAD accept referrals, which the referred individual chronically violates the law.

Accepting the referral is consistent with racial equity, and the LEAD case management teams believe that their resources are a good match for the individual's known needs.

Last fall, the council adopted a statement of legislative intent that I sponsored, the HSD, to provide a report to the city council determining the funding needed to meet the city's commitment that was memorialized the year before in Resolution 31916. In response, HSD and lead to the public safety and human services committee last month.

And it was, we refer to it as the lead scale study report and included estimates of the number of people who would be referred and qualified to serve the lead instead of by law enforcement.

Central staff member of CIMS analyzed the funding that would be required to allow LEED to scale up and serve all of those referrals, landing on a $21 million price tag for 2022. Current proposed budget includes just $6.4 million for LEED, which is actually a $3 million cut from current levels of funding.

This budget amendment restores the funding and adds an additional $11.6 million, which would bring LEADS funding up to $21 million in 2022. This is a level that would allow them to accept and serve all qualifying referred individuals next year per council stated in print.

Currently, LEAD receives referrals for far more people than it can serve, as you heard during public testimony this morning.

Sarah Dearbone, the program director for LEAD, spoke of the difficulty of these choices when they are forced to choose between serving, for instance, pregnant IV drug user or a wheelchair bound.

Without services, both are likely to be swept up into the criminal legal system instead of receiving support they need.

Because they are operating at capacity, they are essentially turning away everyone right now, except for the few folks who squarely hit all of the priority populations.

BIPOC, significant unmet behavioral health needs, or a true-blood case requiring legal coordination and frequency.

contract with law enforcement.

My office circulated both the LEAD scale study report and a one pager from LEAD that describes the individuals that they'd like to serve, but cannot.

The upshot is because of their capacity limits, they have denied 155 community-based referrals, all are people who are committing public safety issues due to extreme poverty and unmet behavioral health needs.

These referrals come from community members, family members, social service organizations, Department of Public Defense, Seattle Fire Department, and more.

And so the upshot is that people can be eligible for their services, but because they have to create prioritization criteria among the eligible recipients of services, not everybody that we would like to see get served under this program is getting served.

So if we provide additional funding, they can adjust their prioritization criteria in order to serve more people who they've already determined are eligible.

There's a sort of a two-part test.

There's first eligibility, and then after somebody has been determined to be eligible, then there's this determination of whether or not they are considered a priority population.

So that helps and really appreciate the co-sponsorship of Councilmember Lewis and Councilmember Gonzalez on this one.

I think that's all I have to say.

Thank you very much.

Thank you Chair Mosqueda and thank you Council Member Herbold for bringing this forward.

You spoke very in a focused manner about how LEAD right now is only able to provide services for certain individuals because we have not provided them the ability to scale up.

And I can tell you we desperately need more of their services in Ballard, Fremont, and Green Lake.

They are able to assist on a case-by-case basis and we need much more.

So Chair, this is my last raising of the hand.

I'd love to co-sponsor this amendment.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Strauss adding his name to HSD 015.

Council Member Sawant.

I would also like to add my name to 051.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant, adding her name to 015. Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

Any additional comments?

I did have one question and this could be for the prime sponsor or it could be for the central staff.

In the summary of the CBA notes as a result of the work that we had done in early 2021 and the then gap that existed because the foundation grant ceased to the council authorized in June 2021 an additional $3 million for LEED through Ordinance 126375. So is it accurate to say that in June the council authorized these funds, but the RFP still has yet to be awarded?

It says proposal not yet awarded, but expects to award it soon.

There was no RFP because they're expanding the existing contract for these services as directed by the council.

I believe they may still be in contract negotiations.

I don't think it's because of any.

shortcoming on the part of HSD or the mayor's office.

It's just an ongoing discussion.

Maybe it was a little bit late getting started, but I do believe that there is a sort of day-to-day exchange about finalizing that contract now.

Okay, that's good news.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

All right, appreciate your work on this.

Council Member Peterson, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

On the previous item, 025, for the gun violence study, I wanted to add my name as a co-sponsor.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

We'll get you added.

Council Member Peterson.

Council Member Peterson adding his name to HSD 025. Okay, if there's no additional comments on 051, we will go ahead and move on.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

We are on now to 052.

HSD 52A1 adds $1.5 million to expand mental and behavioral health services for the Duwamish tribe.

The prime sponsor for this is Council Member Morales.

With Council Member Herbold and Council Member Salwan as co-sponsors.

I'll turn to her for more description.

Thank you very much.

Please go ahead, Council Member Morales.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I do want to thank Council Member Herbold and Council Member Salant for their co-sponsorship.

It's pretty straightforward.

This amendment comes directly from the Solidarity Budget that requests prioritization of mental and behavioral health services for members of the Duwamish Tribe who are often unable to access the support they need.

because of lots of institutional barriers.

So this funding would provide an opportunity for a behavioral health service provider to contract with Duwamish Tribal Services to provide access to critical services for their members.

And we are looking for support to provide this assistance.

Excellent, thank you Council Member Morales.

Any additional comments or questions?

I believe your hand is a carryover.

These are services that are offered in my district and we had a family emergency in our team Herbold family and a staff member down and just did not have any capacity and ran out of time and just really appreciate the generosity of both Council Member Morales and her staff in taking the lead on this one.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Not seeing any additional comments or questions on this one, so let's go ahead and move on to the next one.

HSD 53-A1 adds $13.9 million in general fund to HSD to expand mental and behavioral health crisis system responses.

This would really provide three different buckets of interventions that are all coordinated.

$8.5 million would go for the operations of a voluntary crisis stabilization center.

$3.9 million would go towards the existing mobile crisis teams to expand those teams.

And then $1.5 million would go to the behavioral health response teams, which are kind of similar to MCTs, except they come the next day and for some period of time afterwards to ensure follow-up.

The lead sponsor on this is Council Member Strauss, with Council Members Herbold and Lewis as the co-sponsors.

I'll turn to Council Member Strauss.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Jeff, for that great explanation.

And to piggyback off on the conversation that you were having a little bit earlier with Councilmember Lewis's STAR proposal, I do think that these are complementary.

I think that these are for higher acuity.

Mobile crisis team would be for higher acuity.

STAR would be for lower acuity.

And I do think that both programs should be hardwired into 911, understanding that some procedures would need to take place to get there.

As by way of background, last year I secured and with everyone on this calls in this meeting support.

We as a council invested $1 million for the mobile crisis team, a DEFC run team of mental health and substance use disorder professionals who respond to people in mental health or chemical dependency crisis and provide that person with whatever they may need in that moment.

Shelter, medical care, connection to a mental health provider.

This was the first time that the city provided direct funding to a county program, and it kept their program fully staffed rather than resulting in budget cuts in a time when we need this program the most.

Sorry, this budget amendment that is before us today provides 24-7 citywide mental health crisis response, and this is my top priority this year.

You may have heard me be very excited about Seattle Conservation Corps.

I think that there's great work for us to do with Ballard Avenue redesign.

In this proposal that we're speaking about today, it is the last proposal that I'll speak to during this process and it is my top priority.

This is the most important and largest request that I'm bringing to you, colleagues, it puts forward $13.9 million to expand the mobile crisis team citywide.

and pair this effective community-based crisis response with post-crisis outreach and adequate shelter resources they need to be successful.

We've also partnered with Councilmember Herbold to ensure that there is another place for them to go on the continuum of care.

Specifically, this amendment provides 3.9 to expand the mobile crisis team with three additional teams operating 24 hours a day, $1.5 million to expand the behavioral health response team, also operated by DESC from 4 to 19 FTE, and fund $8.5 million to operate a new crisis stabilization center to increase capacity.

From that crisis stabilization center, they would then need to go to a longer term shelter, emergency housing, and that is what Council Member Herbold has put forward that I've partnered with her on.

So again, thank you, Council Member Herbold.

I need to focus on that having behavioral health professionals provide services for people experiencing distress means more opportunities for stabilization that prevents crises from escalating, harm from occurring, and over-reliance on jails.

It also allows our other first responders to focus on incidents that a mental health professional alone cannot do.

It is critical that we have immediate follow-up to post-crisis work and connect the individual to their communities of support.

Having a behavioral health response team provides outreach to the individual who is in crisis within a short period of time, and that can increase the likelihood of the individual not returning to crisis.

This is why this amendment includes the resources to expand our behavioral health response teams as well.

And finally, our community has a scarcity of brick and mortar places for people in crisis to receive immediate support.

We need to expand capacity by opening voluntary centers for people in stages of behavioral health crises to truly interrupt the cycle of crisis.

That's why this amendment includes operating dollars for a secondary voluntary crisis diversion and stabilization center.

And again, this amendment proposal is complementary to CM Herbold's amendment with hers will bring forward the capital dollars and this proposal funds the operational side for that crisis diversion and stabilization center and so again we have relied on police officers to be our mental health professionals We need to ensure police officers' time is focused on crime, and that we have the right first responder to respond right away.

And in moments of behavioral health crisis, the right team is the mobile crisis team.

There is a larger continuum of care, as Council Member Lewis brought up, and I really want to thank Council Member Hermold for her partnership in this.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much.

Council members, are there any questions here?

There's a lot to unpack.

Any questions for Council Member Strauss on this proposal?

Council Member Herbold, please go ahead.

No, I'm just coming off in preparation for the next one.

Okay, sounds good.

Well, I did have a question and forgive me for not knowing more about the details on this compared to the conversation we were having earlier about the need to make sure that there is a place and services for people who are very high acute needs and I'm not trying to muddy the waters here but trying to better understand the connection between a proposal like this and the request that we also saw from the Regional Homelessness Authority Councilmember Lewis was the prime sponsor.

We know that there is a need for individuals to be able to go somewhere.

And I recognize this is a shorter term stay, 14 days.

We also heard that there is a need for peer counselors and for folks to be able to have the right person able to sort of meet people where they're at and help get them to the services they need.

I'm wondering if there is any overlap.

And I'm glad to see Jeff on the line as well.

An overlap with this ongoing conversation we had yesterday about high acute needs beds and peer navigator system.

Because I can see where there might be concentric circles, but perhaps I could use some more education on the difference.

I'm happy that Jeff has something to say.

Go for it, Jim.

Yeah, I'm happy to take the lead on that response.

Madam chair is that we're receiving advice from a lot of our partners that have expertise in this area.

And so both proposals are informed with similar staffing directions where there would be, for example, like, a psychiatric nurse practitioner on site.

and very low staffing to client ratios.

You, I think, adequately captured already the differences, that there's a length of stay.

The proposal here would cap the initial stay at 72 hours and then a 14-day follow-up after that, similar to how the existing crisis solution, whereas a separate proposal would have a number of beds that could be used for a longer period of time.

there is a substantial amount of overlap in the types of services and what is being envisioned here.

In many ways, they are arising from advocacy to address the need in the community.

Thank you.

Anything else to add, Council Members?

Yeah, and I realized I misspoken some of my comments, a moment ago, whereas I'll be this amendment provides the operational dollars Councilmember her bolds amendment provides the capital dollars.

for the stabilization center.

And so if somebody is in crisis, they're met by the crisis response team, they're stabilized for 72 hours and then have the opportunity to stay for 14 days.

And so that's meeting somebody who's, you call 911, you need a place to get them right then and there.

And then the request from King County Regional Homelessness Authority is that next step.

So being able to have that longer duration of stay, being able to then pass through to permanent supportive housing or another permanent housing location.

And so without an emergency place to stay, we're not able to intervene in the moment.

And without a more permanent shelter, we're not able to keep them stabilized.

And without permanent supportive housing, we don't have a place for them to go.

And so another really important part is that if the throughput from a shelter is not occurring and that shelter becomes full, we still need to have an expansion of what is our most immediate response?

What is the response to the crisis before us?

And that's this 14-day stay here at the Crisis Solutions or Stabilization Center.

Thank you, Council Member.

Very helpful.

For all of those reasons, that's why this is my top priority for the year.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member.

Okay, Council Member Peterson, did you have a comment, question?

Yes, thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

And I want to, I know all of us want to support more of these interventions for mental and behavioral health.

And I really appreciate Council Member Straus' explanation here.

I'll go ahead and co-sponsor this one and also appreciate I appreciate chair Mosqueda asking the question about how do we reconcile all the different efforts in a way, you know, so that they're synthesized and appreciate councilmember Strauss is pointing out the different stages of intervention and, and this, this sort of gets back to the spirit of my slide from yesterday about, we want to do something immediately for this, and also.

look at a 24-7 system so that we synthesize all of our different efforts, but I want to co-sponsor this one.

Thank you.

That's wonderful.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

Councilmember Peterson adding his name to HSD 053. Excellent.

Okay.

I think we're ready to move on.

HSD 54A1 adds $32 million in one-time funding to HSD to create a voluntary crisis stabilization center.

As council members Herbold and Strassel have already noted, this is the complementary proposal to what we just finished talking about.

This would be the capital dollars to create a location or acquire a location and renovate it for the operations that would be a component of HSD 53. The prime sponsors here are Council Member Herbold with co-sponsors Council Member Strauss and Council President Gonzalez.

I'll turn it to Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

So I know that many of you are aware that a large number of behavioral health providers led by Dan Malone at DESC recently hosted an emergency summit with elected leaders in the city and the county to call attention and discuss the compounding effects of the pandemic on top of under-resourced behavioral health systems.

producing more frequent and more severe psychiatric and behavioral health crises among residents across the region.

I was a participant in a study, President Gonzales was a panelist, and I've had additional conversations with DESC to ask for their priority budget requests coming out of that summit to address this urgent crisis.

The first recommendation was to expand places for people in crisis to receive immediate support by opening voluntary crisis diversion and stabilization centers in available facilities such as hotels.

This would be similar to the current crisis solution center with between 50 to 65 beds staffed by a medical and non-medical behavioral health team.

In addition to simply expanding the number of beds available, it would also accept referrals from a broader number of partners than currently is permitted.

Currently, the Crisis Solution Center accepts referrals primarily from law enforcement.

A new facility could accept referrals from community partners, such as Crisis Connections, meeting the goal of helping people in acute behavioral health address their crisis needs without requiring law enforcement involvement.

My office has met several times with DESC and King County to discuss this proposed new facility.

The county has expressed their enthusiasm for this project and their willingness to search for an appropriate facility that could be quickly renovated and to partner with the city on the capital costs, either through already appropriated dollars or through their own biennial budget.

They have acknowledged that the county's leadership and their role in behavioral health services is important to continue to center in these conversations.

We are not trying to make changes to the status quo as the county being responsible for the delivery of these services, but we are trying to increase our investment in them and look for more opportunities to partner with King County.

So it's really clear from all of the budget amendments this afternoon that many council members are seeing the need to prioritize increased investments in behavioral health to respond to the urgent crisis we're seeing.

The city needs to really step up, I believe, and prioritize these investments, but we also need to acknowledge that the city and state have access to significantly more resources in this area, and they lead in contracting for those services.

I appreciate that Jeff Sims on central staff has proposed an approach that I wholeheartedly support.

Should these budget items move forward and that the approach would be for the council to put forward some amount of funds to boost behavioral health spending in 2022, including for this facility, and that we would pass an accompanying resolution.

that ask the county and the state to do the same.

In my walk-on, which I'll talk about later, there are some school district-related investments that I'm proposing that I would really like to look at folding into a resolution like this.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Additional questions or comments?

Council members?

I'm not seeing it.

There we go.

Okay.

I was like, this is a big, this is a big important piece that we're all talking about.

So Council Member Lewis and then Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Lewis adding his name to HSD 055. Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, I think Council Member Herbold wrapped this up very well.

We should partner with the state and if they are able to help us, that is great and we can't wait.

We need to have, and so these are the capital dollars that would assist the previously mentioned CBA that provides the operating dollars for the continuum of care.

Thank you.

Thank you very much to you both for these complimentary amendments.

I'm not seeing any additional comments or questions.

So we're going to go ahead and move on to 056. Hi, this is Karina Bulligan.

I believe that the next item is HSD 55A1.

And it is sponsored by Council President Gonzalez and also sponsored by Council Member Herbold and Council Member Morales.

It would add 500,000 general fund and one-time funding to the Human Services Department to coordinate a request for proposal for a community-led process to create a community health center addressing the ongoing health disparities in the BIPOC community.

Thank you very much.

Council President, please go ahead.

Hello.

Well, thank you so much.

I am excited about advancing this particular council budget action in as described by Karina bull.

Thanks Karina for doing your for doing good work on this.

So, colleagues over the last 19 months of the coven 19 crisis, long standing inequities within.

within the black community and other communities of color have been brought to the forefront from vaccine distribution to preventative treatment to access to healthy food and unpacking years of institutional racism and trauma caused within our healthcare system.

We can see clearer than ever the need for place-based community health clinics that respond to the needs of the communities they serve in real time.

We do have examples of culturally appropriate community health clinics in our community.

And as you heard during the public comment, that kind of infrastructure, health care infrastructure does not currently exist within the black community.

So this would be an opportunity to correct for that.

And this budget action would invest $500,000 in the formation and design of a community-driven, culturally responsive health care center whose providers are reflective of those communities' needs, which, according to recent research, is a burgeoning and leading national best practice in the area of public health and community health delivery systems in particular.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Council President and Council Member Sawant.

I just wanted to add myself as a co-sponsor on this one.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Sawant adding her name to HSD 056. Council Member Lewis.

I similarly would like to add my name.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Lewis adding his name to 056 HSD.

Are there any additional questions or comments on this?

Wonderful.

Okay, thank you very much.

And let's move on to 057.

I believe, Madam Chair, we're on 56A1, HSD 56A1, which would add $200,000 in one-time funds to the Human Services Department to support a survey to inform the design of a new behavioral health facility, such as the Thunderbird Treatment Center, operated by the Seattle Indian Health Board.

This is sponsored by Council Member Juarez, with co-sponsorship from Council Members Morales and Strauss.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

So I'm just confirming Council Member Lewis and Council Member Sawant just added their name to 055. Okay, thank you very much.

Okay, please go ahead Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

So, The Seattle Native Health Board has, as I've shared before, has provided health services to Seattle for well over 50 years and is now in the process of expanding health services through two new projects currently underway.

This amendment specifically addresses funding needs for a new expanded inpatient behavioral health facility.

I'll speak to its other project to expand a broader array of health services to Seattle under the next amendment, which is 57A001.

But currently, the Seattle Indian Health Board operates the Thunderbird Treatment Center, a 64-bed inpatient behavioral health facility.

Thunderbird Treatment Center provides culturally attuned, integrated, patient-centered behavioral health services to Seattle with services designed to address health inequities experienced by American Indian and Alaska Native people.

Seattle Indian Health Board plans to relocate and expand bed capacity from 64 to 95 beds, which is pretty big for the inpatient area in the area of indigenous people addiction recovery.

With specialized services and space accommodations for pregnant and parenting adults, which is also a new critically, well, I shouldn't say new, it's been needed for a while, but it's finally happening, so I'm glad to see that.

This study will support the pre-architectural design process of the new facility, including conducting a professional assessment of the needs of patients and their families, as well as the community needs to inform the design and construction of the new facility.

So they will be doing community involvement, community discussion on the design.

Thunderbird is a specialized inpatient facility that will serve in partnership with the Seattle Indian Health Board's medical clinic, which currently serves 5,000 patients annually.

72% of patients access care through Medicaid and or Medicare.

I say this because it's really important, but for the indigenous practice, the Seattle Indian Health Board in the city, because they can bill at a higher rate under the Indian Health Services.

I'm sure you're familiar with this, Madam Chair.

Tribes and Native American organizations and IHS clinics can bill at a higher rate than normal other agencies providing the same services.

And that actually brings in more services, which brings in more money, which means that they can give services to not just Native folks, but their spouses and their children.

Total cost of expanding Thunderbird Treatment Center is expected to go between $67 and $82 million.

State funding in the amount of $309,000 has already been committed for pre-architectural design and engineering costs.

And I should add that the new Thunderbird Treatment Center, we have been talking about this for at least a decade, when Ralph Ficura was the chair of the Seattle Indian Health Board.

So with that, I would hope that I would have my colleagues' support.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Lewis, please go ahead.

I would like to add myself as a co-sponsor, Madam Chair.

Okay, thank you very much, Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Lewis adding himself to HSD 056. Excellent, thank you very much.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

You're welcome.

Moving on to 057.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

HSD 57A1 would add $100,000 in one-time funds to the Human Services Department for a new health clinic in the Lake City neighborhood, which could be operated by the Seattle Indian Health Board.

These funds would be used for tenant improvements and betterments to modernize the leased commercial property.

The 2022 proposed budget does include $200,000 for this purpose.

The CBA would increase the total appropriation to $300,000.

This is sponsored by Council Member Juarez, with co-sponsorship from Council Member Morales and Strauss.

Thank you.

Council Member Juarez, please go ahead.

I want to thank Council Member Morales and Strauss for their support on this.

There's a little bit of history here, but I'll kind of follow that up at the end.

Again, the Seattle Indian Health Board is expanding services to Seattle by opening the first Indigenous-led medical clinic in the North End.

Seattle Indian Health Board is an urban Indian health program and a federally qualified health center open to all people with services that will help reduce health inequities experienced by American Indian Alaska Native people and their families.

These inequities were identified recently in the 2021 King County Community Needs Assessment.

Services are culturally attuned and patient-centered.

The benefits of this culturally attuned model of care has lasting impacts for other historically marginalized BIPOC communities and will improve health equity across the city.

So we're not just all concentrated in the South End.

Currently, the Seattle Indian Health Board serves 5,000 patients annually, as I shared before, of which 72 access services through Medicaid or Medicare.

The new clinic located in Lake City, adjacent to North Helpline, anticipates serving an additional 1,200 patients in 2022 and 3,000 by 2024. So I am very happy that I was honored to connect the CEO Kelly Brown of North Helpline with the CEO Esther Lucero of the Seattle Indian Health Board to make this happen.

And I think this is why representation matters, district representation matters, because I saw a clinic and it empty, and then I saw a need in the South, and I had dinner with both of them, and we kind of worked it out, and now we have a lease in place.

conversation started about not even a year and a half ago, and it's finally coming to fruition.

So I'm really happy about this.

So the services would include traditional health services, preventive and primary care, behavioral health services, so we actually have a room for counselors for mental health services, dental services, pharmacy, and access to wraparound social services including gender-based violence case management, homeless prevention and response services, and youth elder programming.

And it's wonderful because Kelly Brown of North Helpline is helping Esa Lucero of Seattle Indian Health Board with all of her relationships like the pharmacy at Fred Meyer.

So Kelly Brown already having a footprint in the North End with two food banks and everything they provide.

Seattle Indian Health Board will be able to leverage those same social service organizations and services.

City funding will support needed tenant improvements to the site, including fixtures, equipment, furniture, and operational supplies to ensure high-quality care for patients.

Total cost of these improvements is expected to be between $300,000 and $400,000, with services being offered within the next six months.

So we know the lease is signed.

We've got some artists lined up for what the side of the building will look like.

And right now, we're just waiting to get more money in the door to get it open so we can start providing these services.

Supporting Seattle Indian Health Board's capital needs with these modest requests will expand critical health services to our city's most vulnerable, marginalized populations and will serve us all.

With that, let's see.

This is the kind of synergy that is truly exciting, and I am proud at moments like this to be an elected leader.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member.

Are there any additional questions or comments?

Not seeing any on 057, so let's move on to the walk-on amendments.

We have two colleagues.

The first walk-on amendment is proposed by Council Member Herbold.

It would add $1 million in one-time funding to HSD to expand mental and behavioral health services.

In particular, this would envision either school-based mental and behavioral health services or city support for programs that are currently operated by the county, many of which we talked about with some earlier additions.

I'll turn to Council Member Herbold for additional comments.

Thank you very much.

and just check in to see if we had any questions.

Hi there, Council Member Emerald.

That's okay, we're on walkout number one.

Really appreciate it.

So, let's see.

We've been talking a lot about behavioral mental health and I think our focus has been really on some of the high acuity needs.

And I know folks have heard me speaking throughout this year about the impact of the pandemic on our mental health.

And I just feel like there's some populations of folks that are really important that we need to, in this budget cycle, also focus on.

It's my belief in borne out Conversations with other experts on the front lines that the unprecedented anxiety, pain and isolation surrounding the impacts of the pandemic are leading to negative mental health out impacts and occasionally interrupting.

erupting into abuse, self-harm, gunfire, assault, and other forms of violence.

Yesterday, my office distributed additional information from the National Association on Mental Illness that indicates in February 2021 43% of, I'm sorry, 46% of adults in Washington reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, 30% were unable to get needed counseling or therapy, and more than half of 12 to 17-year-olds in Washington have reported having depression, and they did not receive any care in the last year.

and Grossman of the Southwest precinct indicated that they are in the Southwest precinct, and we know this is happening throughout the city, seeing an increase in domestic violence.

When we think of domestic violence, I think we primarily think of partner care, But we know that from sort of the anecdotal information that I get from my regular meetings with Captain Grossman, that domestic violence increases also include violence between parents and older children who are struggling to find non-physical ways to cope.

I also reached out to Seattle Public Schools who are just beginning their assessment, students and staff, with the recent return to in-school learning.

They have been responding to suicide ideation and attempts, self-harm, threats of violence, and assaults requiring medical attention, substance abuse, and more.

They believe that returning to in-person learning has presented challenges that they're not prepared for, such as having students in the physical community with others.

where there was possibly conflict with their students during remote learning.

They don't have the access to the capacity to the staff capacity to manage situations.

Some students did not have access to mental health services during COVID, which caused students to regress in their mental health treatment plans and goals.

And students are bearing witness to significant grief and loss, violence and tragedies in the community and carrying their trauma into school.

There's an increased need for mental health and wellness support, including expanding evidence-based interventions.

While this amendment is my least flushed out of budget proposals, it is also a very, very high priority for me.

It's been difficult to gather the information needed from our own Department of Education and Early Learning to specify the specific investments that we make through the levy in school-based mental health.

And we know that we can't use the levy to increase those investments without guidance from the Levy Oversight Committee.

And so this proposal is to do so using general fund dollars.

And I've also had a lot of difficulty on, I'm not talking as much about it here, but we also, through HSD, through an MOU with King County Public Health, we also make mental health investments in community mental health clinics throughout the city using an MOU with public health.

And I've also struggled to get information from HSD about those investments in mental health services in our community health clinics.

And so that's another area where I'd really like to add some funding.

So this amendment proposes adding $1 million to the Human Services Department with the idea that we would increase school-based mental and behavioral health services and increase the city's investments in some of the county's mental health services, including community mental health clinics, and perhaps some other funding-based programs that we haven't already discussed.

I understand that in order to send the resources, again, to school-based interventions in particular, the funding would need to eventually go through DEEL instead of HSD, so that's a change I will probably be requesting in the next round.

I really want to thank Council Members Strauss and Morales, who previously agreed to co-sponsor this item, but his names are not reflected in the walk-on amendment.

My apologies to both of you.

Could you repeat the two co-sponsors?

Morales and Strauss.

Okay.

Morales and Strauss, just for the record, had indicated support for HSD walk-on number one.

Thank you.

And Kathleen Herbold, I appreciate you bringing this forward.

I also appreciate your note that this is maybe one of the areas that needs a little bit more work or massaging to get the ask or the policy right.

I absolutely agree with you in terms of the need and have been borrowing your language around the shadow pandemic as we talk on you know, the local and the national stages about what we're trying to do with our ARPA funds.

So thank you for all of your attention that you brought to this issue.

And I think I will absolutely be working with you and central staff to make sure we fully understand how this is additive to some of the other areas that you're investing in or that you'd like to invest in and that we have a full sense of what the policy direction is via the budget here too.

But could not agree with you more in terms of the need.

Thank you, and as mentioned earlier, if these mental health investments move forward, particularly those that require partnership with the county, with the school district, or with the state, I think the vehicle that Jeff Sims has suggested, a resolution that identifies sort of what those investments are, what those partnerships are, and what our expectations are for joint support would be very useful.

Wonderful, thank you very much.

And Council Member Strauss, I saw you coming off of mute a second ago.

I should have probably just had council members confirm for themselves regarding the co-sponsor item here.

I know you've been judicious with your sign-ons, but it sounds like I should double check with council members specifically.

Council Member Strauss?

Okay, I see a thumbs up for the record, for the viewing audience.

I got a thumbs up, great.

Any additional comments or questions?

Council Member Morales, are you able to give an affirmation as well?

We can always follow up with you afterwards.

I'm on board.

Alrighty, sounds good.

Colleagues, we have one more amendment.

Walk-on amendment number two.

Council Member Sawant.

The final item for discussion is HSD Walk-On 2. It would add $200,000 to HSD to expand a food program serving the Central District, such as the Clean Greens Farm and Market.

It is sponsored by Council Member Sung Wah.

Thank you.

Please go ahead, Council Member.

Thank you.

This budget amendment, as Amy said, would add $200,000 for capacity building to expand the free local produce program in the central area, which is called Clean Greens.

Clean Greens volunteers grow vegetables at local farms and directly distribute that fresh organic local produce free of charge in Seattle's central area from a stand in the parking lot of the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.

They are currently supported by funding from a city grant.

Adding $200,000 will allow them to hire staff to increase capacity and add youth programming on the farm.

Clean Greens reports that they receive far, far more requests for the produce than they are currently able to fulfill, which shows a proven need to that's worthy of expanding the program.

And I would also add just on a personal note that the church itself and where the Clean Greens program operates is very much where I often go in the district for a walk and I can see the impact they're having and the fact that many community members depend on the produce that Clean Greens And I know there are many community members who would like to get access to it, but they will need the expanded funding in order for Clean Greens to be able to accomplish that.

So that's the description.

And I will also thank Council Member Juarez, who has informed my office of her intent to add her name as a co-sponsor to this amendment.

Great.

And for the viewing audience, we got a thumbs up from Council Member Juarez as well.

affirmation that Council Member Juarez is signing on to number two here.

Council Member Sawant, thank you for bringing this forward.

Similar to the other questions I was asking central staff about all of the food security related items, I'll be looking to see where there's overlap or potential opportunities to do a a hybrid, or I don't know what the right word is, to combine efforts and make sure that we're doing our due diligence to see if there's any overlap at all.

But I appreciate you flagging this.

And then, is this a program that we've had in the past been able to use sugary sweetened beverage tax dollars for, if you were a central staff member?

No, go ahead.

I hadn't heard from I'm Ted and your office council member that this organization has been funded with a smaller amount of money previously from the city.

It wasn't an HSD that I could find, but I'm still searching around to see if they've received city funding in the past.

And if so, how much?

Yes, and we'll also ask the people who run the program themselves.

Perhaps we can get information from them as well.

Excellent.

Well, that would be wonderful.

I definitely see the connection to some of the investments that Sugary Sweetened Beverage Tax was intending to serve as well.

So thank you for bringing this forward.

Sorry, just one thing I was going to mention in terms of, you know, there's been sort of this running theme of trying to consolidate the efforts around food security, which of course, I support that to the extent that it actually allows us to get a big picture view of what the needs are for various communities in the city.

I would just make a caveat there in the sense that In the process, we should make sure we don't lose the site of where there are specific pockets of need.

And so, for example, I would say the central district is very much there.

It's a rapidly gentrifying area where obviously the housing, it's been sort of almost ground zero, Capitol Hill and Central District have been ground zero of just the fiery rent increases and housing quickly becoming very unaffordable for most people, let alone low-income people.

And so I would just make sure that we prioritize the funding for these communities I'm not saying Central District is the only one, obviously in the South and the North as well, where the need is the greatest.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

Appreciate that.

And I do not see any additional comments or questions.

So with that, I want to thank, and please join me in thanking everybody who made this possible.

I see celebrations from central staff.

Thank you to the central staff team, to our city clerks, to the city technology team, our communications team, all of which who have been on the line here with Seattle channel to make sure that we were streaming this and providing the ability for the community to engage and provide your Public testimony and to follow along with us.

We see you all out there live tweeting.

Thank you for carrying this message out to everybody about the three-day deliberations that we've had here on the city's budget amendments as we craft our I appreciate all the work that you Council members have done with community.

All of the staff in your offices and my team.

I think you've to fight a day to Laurie to Aretha to Aaron to say Jill.

We have a lot of work still to do, but we will be coming up on 6 of 8 here next week and our next committee meeting will actually be not until November 10th at 5.30 PM.

We will have the opportunity to have a public comment period for a lengthy part of the evening.

So thanks for getting yourselves ready for that.

It'll be a long evening presentation.

That will be the day that we will release our draft budget here as a city and then get some feedback so that we can then be prepared for any additional amendments that are needed.

Please make sure to provide yourself with time to sign up.

The sign up sheet goes live two hours before our public meeting.

So at 3.30 PM, you'll have the chance to sign up on November 10th for a long public hearing and engagement opportunity to tell us what your thoughts are about the draft budget.

I also wanted to note that if you do need any accommodations, such as translation or interpreter services, please let us know by next Friday, Friday, November 5th.

You can send that to my office, theresa.mosgata at seattle.gov.

Anybody in our offices, if you receive requests for accommodations, please let our team know before the end of Friday, November 5th.

And then with that, I want to thank you for all the work to come.

In the upcoming week here, we'll be working with you, individual council members, prime sponsors of the amendments to finalize the details.

So if we have any lingering questions, we will be working with you to make sure that we fully understand your proposals.

And thanks to Central Staff for all the work that they've been doing around the clock to help get us prepared for these deliberations so that we can have a draft budget for your consideration on or before November 10th.

We will then have the balance package available for the presentation and possible amendments that we will be building on starting on November 12th.

Allie, did I get all those dates right?

Is there a date I missed?

I think those dates are right.

On the 12th, we'll just be discussing the initial balancing package, and then amendments and votes will occur on November 18th and 19th, and then final vote on November 22nd.

Okay, great.

So the presentation of the draft budget on the 12th and then the following week amendments is possibly to that package.

if there are no further questions.

Huge round of applause to all of you.

We're at the end of day three of three.

Have a wonderful evening and we will see you next week.

Take care, everybody.