Housing & Human Services Committee 3/26/2025

Good morning, everyone.

The time is 930, and this is the March 26th meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee, and the meeting will now come to order.

I am Mark Solomon, Vice Chair of the Committee.

The Chair Moore is unable to be here today.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council President Nelson.

President Nelson.

Councilmember Rink.

Councilmember Saka.

Here.

Vice Chair Solomon.

Here.

There are three present.

All right.

Very good.

We have quorum.

Thank you.

Thank you, everyone, for being here today.

Council Member Moore unavoidably had an unavoidable conflict this morning, will not be able to join us today.

On today's agenda, first, we have two appointments to the Seattle Women's Rights Commission.

Next, we have three appointments to the Seattle Women's Commission.

And finally, we have one appointment to the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority Governing Council.

If there are no objections, today's agenda will be adopted.

Seeing no objections, the agenda is adopted.

Now we will open a hybrid public comment period.

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

Clerk, do we have any speakers signed up today?

We have two remote speakers.

All right, very good.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

We will start with, well, our remote speakers.

Clerk, can you please read the public comment instructions?

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

The public comment period is up to 20 minutes.

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

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

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

Very good.

Thank you.

And for the record, I want to acknowledge that Councilmember Rink, committee member, has joined the meeting.

So the public comment period is now open, and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

Okay.

Just one moment.

The first speaker is going to be Kate Rubin.

And Kate, give me just a second to get the timer set up.

Okay, Kate, please press star six and...

I'm so sorry, just one moment.

Okay, Kate, thank you.

Please press star six to begin speaking.

Good morning.

My name is Key Rubin, and I am the temporary co-chair of the Seattle Renters Commission.

I'm disappointed that Councilmember Moore is not there because it's the chair of this committee.

She's really the one who needs to hear this comment.

This is now the fourth time I have testified before this committee asking them to take action on the overdue appointments for the Seattle Renters Commission.

At this point, we cannot call this an oversight.

This is a blatant disregard for the renters of Seattle, who make up the majority of this city's population.

By refusing to prioritize these appointments, you're actively harming communities that are already marginalized and unrepresented.

The absence of Black commissioners is particularly shameful, given Seattle's history of redlining, the ongoing gentrification and displacement of historically Black neighborhoods, and the disproportionate rate at which Black people, particularly Black mothers, are evicted.

You've been making decisions on critical issues that directly impact renters, like the comprehensive plan, like the housing in SOTO.

Yet we, the very body tasked with advising the city council on policies advising renters, have been repeatedly ignored and left out of the conversation.

This isn't just about filling seats, it's about fulfilling your responsibilities as public officials.

Please move forward with the renters commission appointments as soon as possible and please continue to make sure that these seats are filled.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Kate.

The next speaker is David Haynes.

David, press star six to speak.

Hi, thank you, David Haynes.

Given the fact that we have a homeless crisis, why isn't there more on the agenda?

Where is the laws that prioritize financing emergency housing and shelters?

There are slum motels used for sexploitation, a justified reason to tear them all down and rebuild something that's more positive.

There are over 100 vacant buildings that are justified to be given to a developer to build some emergency housing.

Where is the independent voices and authorizations within King County Regional Homeless Authority, who has all these six-figure salaries, yet they don't have anybody that's willing to keep those service providers honest.

I really think council has to take a hard look at using the regional resource approach and demand that the governor deploy the National Guard to set up some authorized encampments that would have low security and service providers on site.

And we could start processing people into a better path instead of just leaving them languish, allowing the predators to victimize continuously.

While we still have failed policing to this day with another job talking police chief who's looking for an easier payday and a fat retirement package, making it unsafe to be houseless.

While he thinks it's all about community policing around the law abiding residents to falsely assure us that we're safe.

Excuse me, hold on.

The cops are doing coffee propaganda outreach.

That's not effective crime fighting.

We need to help the homeless survive instead of forsaking them and racially discriminating and hating and subhuman mistreating them with untrustworthy nonprofits whose agenda is unconstitutional because of their racist skin color priority as to who they're going to help first, which we now know is repeat offenders who pretty much destroy their fellow man's life and then get housing and services first, or they're self-destructive and they get housing and services first.

but if you're an innocent White Houses person, you get racist.

That was our last speaker or last public commenter.

Thank you.

There are no additional registered speakers and we'll now move to our items of business.

Members of the public are encouraged to submit written public comment on the side of cards in the podium.

or email them to the council at council at cl.gov.

We will now move on to our first items of the agenda.

Will the clerk please read agenda items one and two into the record.

Agenda items one through two, appointments 3095 and 3097. Appointments of Amy Kate Bailey and James Munger to the Seattle Human Rights Commission for terms to July 22, 2025 for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Okay, great, thank you.

The Human Rights Commission serves in an advisory capacity to the Mayor, the City Council, City Office for Civil Rights, and other city departments.

Amy Kate is excited about the opportunity to bring her research and experience to the Commission.

James is eager to commit his talents for public service through this commission.

These two commissioners have been selected as outstanding Seattle residents who are dedicated to serving the city, to advise on human rights and social justice issues, and I want to thank both of them for the willingness to serve on the Seattle Human Rights Commission.

Are there any questions or comments from committee members before we move to a vote?

Okay.

Seeing no further questions or comments, I now move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 3095 and 3097. Is there a second?

Second.

All right.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of these appointments.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendation to confirm the appointments?

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Rink?

Aye.

Councilmember Saka.

Aye.

Vice Chair Solomon.

Aye.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Okay.

All right, the motion carries and the committee recommendation to confirm the appointments will be sent to the April 1st City Council meeting.

Will the clerk please read items three through five into the record.

Agenda items three through five, appointments 3096, 3098, and 3099. Appointment of Julie Chu to the Seattle Women's Commission for a term to July 1st, 2025. Appointments of Tally Mills and Nardo Stola as members of the Seattle Women's Commissions for terms to July 1st, 2026 for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

All right, thank you.

Seattle Women's Commission serves in an advisory capacity to the Mayor of the City Council, the Seattle Office of Civil Rights, and other city departments.

Julie hopes to bring positive change to our community through the work of this commission.

Talia is delighted to find this opportunity to serve in a role to make positive impact on her local community, and Nardos is deeply passionate about advocating for gender equality.

These three commissioners are all committed to empowering women and advancing gender equality, and I am so grateful for their willingness to dedicate their time and talent to this cause.

Are there any comments or questions from the committee members before we move to a vote?

I do have a question on Julie's appointment.

Is this a new appointment or reappointment?

Can you tell me?

It is a new appointment, I believe.

For the record, it is a new appointment.

All right.

Because the matrix or the plan of the commission does say that the appointment started in July of 2023. Oh.

Yes, this is, she's gonna fill out this term or complete this term and then I think reapply for the next.

So she was never confirmed for it?

I don't have the answer to that question.

Okay, yeah, I'm sorry.

I should, I will, and the same was true with the previous appointments that we just did.

So I will talk to the chair and maybe somebody in the departments.

Yeah, these are short-term appointments.

They may be filling in for somebody who was previously confirmed and left, and they're completing the term, and then we'll go on to the next term.

Okay.

Possibly.

A detail I can learn more about later.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for the question.

Any other further questions or comments?

Okay.

Seeing no further questions or comments, I now move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 3096, 3098, and 3099. Is there a second?

Second.

All right.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of these appointments.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendation to confirm the appointments?

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Rank?

Yes.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Vice Chair Solomon?

Aye.

And can I confirm, I did just receive confirmation that they are filling in the term for someone who left early.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Okay, great, thanks.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

Motion carries.

And the committee recommendation to confirm the appointments will be sent to the April 1st City Council meeting.

All right.

Will the clerk please read the final agenda item into the record.

Agenda item six, appointment 3100, reappointment of Nancy Kathleen Sug as a member of the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority governing council for a term to December 31st, 2026 for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Thank you.

The Pacific Hospital Preservation Development Authority funds efforts to improve health equity in King County.

The governing council helps oversee the body of their work.

Nancy Kathleen is currently serving as a board member and has been nominated for reappointment by the PHPDA governing council.

Colleagues, are there any comments or questions before I move for a vote?

Okay.

Seeing no further comments or questions, I now move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointment 3100. Is there a second?

Second.

Okay.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointment.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Vice Chair Solomon?

Aye.

For in favor, none opposed.

All right.

Uh, the motion carries and the committee recommendations to confirm the appointment will be sent to the April 1st city council meeting.

So, all right.

Well, actually this concludes the March 26th meeting of the housing and human services committee.

Uh, the next schedule meeting is April 9th, 2025. Um, are there any items to be discussed before we adjourn?

All right.

Yes, Council Member Rank.

Thank you, chair of chair for today, vice chair.

Appreciate you stepping in to facilitate today's meeting so we can get appointments through.

Colleagues, I just wanna name, I'm really appreciative of the quick turnaround on these appointments for these commissions, but wanna also name, I'm a little concerned that we were able to make these happen, but we haven't had some appointments for the renter's commission.

So I do have some questions about that, where things stand on that matter, and would welcome a discussion on how we can make sure that we're getting appointments for all of our commissions through on time.

Thank you.

Cool.

All right.

Thanks.

Any other comment or questions?

If not, the time is 946, and the Housing and Human Service Committee is adjourned.

Thank you very much.