Seattle City Council Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies & Investments 4/8/20

Thank you for tuning in here for our special meeting today.

And will the clerk please call the roll?

Lewis?

Here.

Council Member Morales?

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Here.

Council Member Peterson?

Here.

Council Member Stroud?

Present.

Council Member Mozelez?

Here.

Council Member Herbold?

Here.

And Council Member Juarez?

Here.

Eight present.

We will now proceed with the approval of the agenda.

If there are no objections, the agenda will be approved and adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

So just to give a very brief chair's report because we are short on time with some of our panelists.

So first I wanna thank all of you for joining me and my council colleagues for the special committee meeting.

The purpose of this meeting is to get an update on the city's efforts to provide hygiene resources to people experiencing homelessness.

during this COVID-19 public health crisis.

The conversation is especially important given the recently reported outbreak of hepatitis A in North Seattle.

The format of the meeting is going to consist of two panels today.

The first panel is going to consist of frontline homeless service providers who are going to give an update on the hygiene issues that they are facing out in the field.

Following that panel, we're going to be joined by Deputy Mayor Casey Sixkiller, as well as Ryan Kellogg and Director Patty Hayes from King County Seattle Public Health Department, who are going to give an overview of the efforts being done to stand up hygiene resources and the response from the city and the county.

Moving on to just a brief comment on public comment, because of the technical challenges that have arisen from the council's necessity to meet electronically, we unfortunately do not have a way to solicit public comment on this remote meeting.

However, I want to assure members of the public that are listening that we welcome their comments and questions stemming from this meeting, and to please email council at seattle.gov if you do have public comment that is relevant to this committee.

I for sure as the chair get all the feedback that we get from the public on the agenda of this committee and would welcome your email.

So do please don't hesitate to reach out.

So moving on to our items of business, I'm going to move on to the first panel.

I'm going to briefly introduce the presenters.

I'm sure all of us know them by reputation for their diligent service in the community and in this field.

And I'd first like to start just by thanking Colleen EchoHawk from the Chief Seattle Club Allison Isinger from the Seattle Keene County Coalition on Homelessness, Jessica Kwan and Dawn Whitston from the Evergreen Treatment Services, and Brittany Meek from the Downtown Emergency Service Center.

I want to thank all of you.

for your service, and thank you for coming here to join us this morning to provide an update on the great work that you were doing out in the community.

I'm going to ask each of the participants, starting with Colleen, then Allison, then Jessica and Dawn, Um, and then Brittany, um, to provide a, uh, a one or two minute, uh, statement, um, at the beginning, um, just, uh, an overview of, uh, um, the challenges that you're seeing and, and what you guys, um, uh, have been up to out in the field during the COVID-19.

outbreak, and after that, I'm going to facilitate a discussion between my colleagues and the entire panel, just like any other council presentation, to give an opportunity for folks to ask questions and get further clarifications.

I'm going to ask, just because when we move on to the next panel, Director Hayes needs to leave by 10.50 a.m., and so I want to make sure that we can get to updates from her So I want to finish our first panel discussion here by 1030 a.m.

So I would ask that people hold their questions till the end.

Council colleagues, just raise your hand in the Zoom boxes or send me an email or a chat or a text if you want to be recognized, and I will keep a list.

So with that, I want to turn it over to Colleen.

Hi everybody, I'm really glad to have this opportunity and just want to say thank you to you all for your continued support of some of our most amazing, beautiful and brilliant relatives.

I'll just give you a quick glimpse of what we've been experiencing here at the Chief Seattle Club.

I was here on last Thursday in solidarity with my team working in our day center.

I was at the front door when we had to tell people that we were limiting access to our bathrooms.

Just because of social distancing, there was too many people, too close.

So we're limiting our bathrooms to four people at a time, two men and two women.

At the front door, I saw a woman push her way to the front.

excuse me and she had tears in her eyes and she was begging me please let me in the bathroom.

What she told me and confidentially and I'm sharing with you now is that she was menstruating and she was desperate to get into a place where she can get clean.

Later that day there was I could tell you many many stories of just the desperate need for bathrooms and showers and what it was like for us to have to not limit our access to those bathrooms.

Later on that day, I'm heading back to my car in Pioneer Square and I will say that being in Pioneer Square is surreal because we are only seeing our homeless community.

I don't see anyone else on the street.

I'm looking outside the window right now and it's just many of our homeless relatives out there.

I was walking to my car and I had noticed when I came in that day that near my car was a pile of human feces.

It had been raining and so it had moved down further.

And I actually ended up stepping in this human feces.

And I just want to say that in Pioneer Square, we are seeing it everywhere because we have so many people who are experiencing homelessness in this area.

If we do not have hepatitis A in this area right now, I would be shocked.

So that's just a little glimpse, and I want to make sure I give plenty of time for my other panelists to share.

I would just say that I'm really happy that City of Seattle and with the leadership of Jason Johnson, we will be getting a shower trailer and toilets here and near the Chief Seattle Club.

It'll be two extra showers, two toilets, and Chief Seattle Club will be staffing that.

We're super grateful for that opportunity.

So thank you.

Great, Colleen, thank you so much for that update.

Let's move on to Allison.

And just a reminder, if everyone could hold their comments until the end of the whole panel.

So, Allison, are you on the call?

I am.

All right, take it away, Allison.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member Lewis.

I want to thank you and Council President Gonzalez and your staff members.

Good morning to all of you, council members.

Thank you for the opportunity to give you a briefing from the front lines of what is actually happening for people in our community.

As you heard from Colleen and as you will shortly hear from Dawn and Jessica and Brittany, what we are seeing unfold in our city is truly a shocking experience.

Literally the people left outside are the people left outside.

There are thousands of people who do not have the privilege or the luxury of being able to meet their own bodily needs on a regular dignified basis.

And that is contributing to their serious health vulnerabilities as well as to presenting threats to the health of everyone.

I think everyone is aware of the fact there's nothing like a pandemic with highly contagious viral disease to remind people that the health of all of us is bound up in the health of all of us.

I want to share with you just very briefly some of the work the coalition has been doing in support of people who are experiencing homelessness and our member organizations in partnership with King County Community DCHS, we have been carrying out a survey of service changes across the homeless service sector in a little over a week.

We have surveyed up to date 53 organizations and 116 programs, and 83 of those are in Seattle.

We started by focusing on the day and hygiene centers because of our awareness of the acute issues related to health sanitation access.

And what I can tell you is with the exception of a couple of day centers in South King County that received some modest additional funding to provide additional hours, in all cases, the hours and or services have been reduced in part of course to comply with CDC and public health Seattle and King County guidelines and as you heard from Colleen organizations that have long and steadfast traditions of meeting the needs of vulnerable populations have heartbreakingly had to limit access, including to the services that are vital and life-saving.

I think everybody knows this, but I think it's worth saying.

Hepatitis A virus and the coronavirus do not care about district boundaries.

They are not jurisdictionally compliant.

These are highly contagious diseases and there are only two ways to respond.

That is through prevention and mitigation and both prevention and mitigation require that people have access on demand to toilets and sinks.

I have a number of specific recommendations, which I'll hold until later, but what I'd like to say is that we are interested in partnering with the city to a greater degree than we have so far been able to, to provide specific recommendations and to do the kind of problem solving that is needed to accomplish a very specific goal, which is to ensure that everyone in this city has access to a working toilet and a way to wash their hands within at least half a mile of where they live.

That is going to take some doing but it is vitally necessary and it is going to require doing much more than the city has so far been able to do.

We understand there are real logistical constraints on what is happening but I think it's quite evident that one of the things that must happen immediately is thoughtfully and strategically to reopen and staff public buildings because the loss of community centers, libraries, coffee shops, and other places where people could get themselves clean is posing severe health hazards to our most vulnerable folks and to the population as a whole.

Thank you.

Allison, thank you so much for those comments.

I want to move on to Jessica Kwan and Dawn Whiston from Evergreen Treatment Services.

I don't know who wants to go first or if you have a joint presentation, but I'll turn it over to you guys.

Hi, my name's Jessica.

I guess I will go first.

Hold on, Jessica.

I think Dawn was trying to talk, and she's not.

Oh.

Oh, OK.

All right.

All right.

Go ahead.

OK.

Thanks, Dawn.

So my name's Jessica Kwon.

I'm the Outreach Case Manager for Chinatown International District with REACH.

Thank you, everybody, so much for having me.

So in the CID, what I do is As of when this pandemic hit, my role now is kind of, it's pretty much beyond the front lines, assessing if anybody has symptoms of COVID, connecting them to the right resources if they do, informing them about COVID symptoms and information, informing them about changes of information with the navigation team, the cleans, the policies of the city, the governor, what's going on with the businesses and the community because they just have no way of getting that information at all.

I have partnered out with food banks or my team and I have partnered up with food banks to help deliver food to the people who are unsheltered because a lot of food banks have closed or they don't have the capacity to follow CDC guidelines and social distancing so it's just putting their health in danger when they do access these services.

And they, so, sorry, a little nervous.

There's so many people on here.

So, yeah, so with partnering with the food banks, we're still going on outreach and giving people the essential things that they need, like soap, hand sanitizers, food, water, wipes, and asking, what is it that you guys are needing right now?

And it's the same as it was before, which is they want shelter.

And I'm sure everyone knows about the shelter situations going on, the limitations, or none of that.

They want access to shower and bathrooms.

And they want to be warm.

and they want help in working towards their goal, which is ultimately housing.

But yeah, so that's why I do now.

I, I feel like this was an issue before the whole pandemic was happened, that there were no bathrooms in the CID besides, besides resources where you have to be a client to use their bathroom, or there's a public library where if you're barred there because you have behavioral health issues, or substance use issues that you're not able to go there for a month's time.

And part of my job is also connecting with the businesses.

I work with the BIA closely with and kind of like the community liaison with the residents, the businesses, and the homelessness population to spread information, understanding, and also hear their concerns and try to um solve and help where I can um and with businesses um I like for instance um a business uh called uh Cimar he shared with me his concerns and showed me videos of people going behind his dumpster and um pooping and peeing and how in the morning when he comes to work he's the one who has to clean it up and uh for me it was just extremely sad and horrifying that people have to now seeing this person having to survive in this way, but also, also hearing the hearing how frustrated the business owner was with how it affects his business and what he needs to do and how it's affecting him and the people and the customers that come in as well.

And how he would like to go to city council and talk to you guys about this, but because he's working, he doesn't have the time to.

And how talking to me about it was super helpful and that I'm here to also advocate for the community as well as a whole.

um and um yeah I guess as a social worker and someone who goes out there and meets so many people that are experiencing homelessness and all of them not one of them um have experienced so much challenges and pain in their life and struggle um that when they ask me like where can I go use the bathroom or can I get shelter and my answer is I don't have that.

And that resource is something that I'm hired to give, and I don't have that, especially right now when there's so many people out there who have other chronic illnesses and other conditions that make them even more vulnerable during this time.

And it's just really sad.

So, yeah, I'm hoping that to really hear the needs of the population, how it's affecting our entire community on a greater scale, what social workers go through, and the secondhand traumas that we experience, and advocating for our entire community, and that I'm here to help and collaborate any way that I can to get these needs met.

Jessica, thank you so much.

Dawn, is there anything you want to add?

Yeah, actually, so I just want to echo the same basically job description.

I am an outreach case manager in the Georgetown area.

which is an area that already had limited access to community resources for hygiene.

And in fact, the Georgetown play field does have a restroom there, but at times they are like, they're just told that it's closed for no apparent reason.

And I know I've gone into that bathroom and it's not stocked with toilet paper and it doesn't have soap there.

And so I've been recently handing out toilet paper to clients.

But in this area, places like McDonald's or Starbucks, the gas stations that serve food are required usually to allow access to their bathrooms.

Those are no longer accessible to anyone.

I actually have been out in the field and have had to use the restroom in several different alleys myself.

Because even the places that wouldn't, you know, like some of the places that wouldn't allow our homeless population to use the bathrooms, but used to allow me to use it, it's not an option anymore.

And so...

What I'm hearing from the people that I'm talking to, what our clients are expressing to me is tremendous fear that the CDC, the governor has, Governor Inslee has directed people to shelter in place, to practice social distancing, to wash their hands regularly, because those are the things that are gonna save lives.

And yet these people know they do not have that option.

They have multiple people in very small tents in order to survive.

And they have zero access to water of any kind.

The police, even in the last few months, had started arresting people who were accessing water spigots on the side of business buildings.

So that's not even an option for them.

But to walk up to an encampment and have a female client come out of a tent who had not been willing to leave her tent, she said since the day before, because she had blood all the way down her pants and had no other pants or clothing available to her and no way to clean herself up.

I actually had a personal pair of extra sweats in my car, which is what I had to give her, because I couldn't even go to Goodwill to get her something else.

But I still didn't have any way to really, other than some bottled water, to give her to clean up after herself.

And these are clients that we know have compromised immune system.

This population has complicated medical conditions, and they already are very resistant to going and seeking medical attention because they get treated terribly.

So hearing that anywhere in the country or the world is triaging patients and making decisions about who lives and who dies, my clients already feel like they do not stand a chance.

And I feel like it's arguable that being able to use the restroom and to be able to wash your hands is just as valid and essential of a human right as getting food.

I know at the food bank down in Georgetown, the manager there just let me know he had signed up to have two National Guard members come and help volunteer to replace some of the older volunteer staff that are choosing not to be in that space right now.

And I don't see any reason why the National Guard, if logistically being able to staff locations for bathrooms is an issue.

I don't see any reason why the National Guard shouldn't be used in that response either if they are supposed to be, you know, American soldiers on American soil.

They could definitely be used in that manner.

I know that everyone is short-staffed right now, but it just doesn't seem like providing a means for people to try to help themselves, to empower them to be even remotely autonomous in managing their health during this crisis.

I just don't feel like it's that much to ask.

I know that the city has a whole lot going on, but I also had a woman that was out walking around in Georgetown with her dog that was complaining that she's afraid to walk her dog because there's so much human excrement that's on the streets, that's in the parks that are in that area, even in the play field.

And so the community members in that area are also seeing and feeling the threat of this lack of hygiene availability.

And it just doesn't feel like we have any excuse.

I just don't feel like there's any excuse for these human beings to not feel like they have a chance at all.

That's really all I've got.

All right, Don, thank you so much.

I wanna also just take a moment to recognize that Council Member Sawant has joined the committee.

So thank you, Council Member Sawant, welcome.

Good to have you here.

I wanna move on to our last panelist, Brittany Meek.

Just as a reminder, if you have questions for the panelists, send them my way by text or email.

So Brittany, why don't you take it away?

All right, my name is Brittany Meek.

I'm a senior manager at DESC for a handful of clinical programs.

Four of those programs are outreach programs, and one program is a step down from inpatient psychiatric care, so I'm much more on the clinical side of things.

My perspective on hygiene issues is relatively basic, and it's going to be echoing a lot of what my colleagues have said.

There are very few public bathrooms.

The ones that are open to public oftentimes don't have adequate supplies for proper hand hygiene.

We're seeing a particular need in the South Seattle end.

We've even had, like Dawn mentioned, we've even had staff not be able to locate bathrooms when outreaching in the community or businesses turning them away.

We've encountered Parks and Rec, and they've directed us to porta-potties, which is fine, but it doesn't have the capability to wash hands properly and do proper hand hygiene.

We're asking individuals to maintain hygiene.

and self-isolate, but we aren't getting adequate access and the means to do so.

The need is such that we need to find ways to getting folks indoors in non-congregate settings or the ability to self-isolate properly and tent individually instead of having to partner up.

This is a special skill set and experience needed to be able to function unsheltered in the best of situations.

And I think it's safe to say that we're not in the best of situations right now.

We have folks that are truly experiencing homelessness for the first time by living on the streets, because we see shelters, day centers, and other places closing or reducing capacity.

Places where folks previously found refuge are no longer an option, and they're forced to learn quick and hard with little to no resources.

Outreach teams are being put in this difficult spot to try and maintain dignity for our folks in our community, while also trying to support them on how to maintain cleanliness when using the restroom outside.

I am very interested in how we can collaborate and address these issues.

I won't take up more time because a lot of my colleagues have covered everything, but I am very much looking forward on how we can resolve some of these issues because I do think together we can.

All right, Brittany, thank you so much.

So I see that Director Hayes has joined us, and I intended to start in four minutes with Director Hayes.

Why don't we ask a few questions for the panel, and maybe if folks want to stick around until after Dr. Hayes presentation, we can come back and take a few more from the first panel before moving on to the executive.

So I think that's the way I wanna do it, if there is more interest after our initial questions for some of the panel members.

So Council Member Mosqueda indicated she had a question, I'll recognize her now.

Thank you, Chair Lewis, and thank you all for being on the meeting line here today.

I can't begin to explain how appalled I am that you are having to work with so little resources prior to COVID and especially now.

My big question for you, obviously, we are all trying to row in the same boat here, I hope, and that we want to get you the services and the resources that you need.

My big question is, if you could please underscore for us the ask around community centers.

As Allison Eisinger knows, I've been trying my best to figure out if we at the city can purchase hand-washing facilities and get those out to organizations ourselves, recognizing that our city is working as fast as they can.

Obviously, there's people being pulled in a number of directions.

If we were to just purchase those and get those out to the coalition, that's one question I had.

It doesn't sound like we're able to do that.

So the ask that I heard from you from various presenters was, open some of the community resources, staff those with the military personnel that are here, make sure that folks are feeling comfortable using the bathrooms, the showers, the hand-washing facilities, and have the folks who've been deployed to this area help participate in making sure that those bathrooms, hand-washing facilities, and showers are open, in addition to anything else that we can do to get more hand-washing and showers deployed across the city.

Is there anything that you would add to that or correct if that is part of the ask?

I'd love to add to that.

I think that we have to have multi-pronged solution right now.

I'm all for the community centers.

I know that, I don't know if there's enough bathrooms there.

There's not enough bathrooms there.

So we have to do other things.

I think we could do things like, I call it the Mark Lloyd solution, which is providing temporary toilets out in encampments.

We need more porter potties.

We need more of the trailers.

We need to open up other public buildings and staff those.

I just also want to acknowledge, though, that our homeless relatives have some special needs that need to be thought about.

We need to make sure that whoever is staffing them are being very trauma aware, are focused on the really significant issues of trauma that they're experiencing.

And I just want to flag that this is a crisis for all of us.

Many people feel anxious and stressed.

I certainly do.

But if you are homeless, you are experiencing a severe rates of trauma right now.

So it's very important for us to have that lens moving forward so that we can be effective.

So I agree with you Council Member Mosqueda on the community centers, but I think there has to be a much broader scope as well.

Yes, and if if I could just build on what Colleen said, I think that we have actually a list of suggested sites and buildings as well as we've done some thinking through a couple of a rubric that could be used to evaluate public buildings and potentially private buildings should private building owners like folks who own gyms want to participate.

What I think we need is multiple toilets and multiple sinks.

What I've been saying to people is that in the absence of enough port-a-potties and hand-washing stations, really what's clear is that we already have publicly bought and paid for hand-washing stations.

They're called sinks.

And when you have bathrooms that have multiple stalls and multiple sinks available.

We can do things, we can think about this creatively like there are libraries that were of course essentially the biggest day center collectively of our entire community, but there are libraries as well as community centers and other public buildings that have accessible toilets that are on the main floor.

that in some cases can be accessed without accessing the rest of the building.

There are places that also have access to showers.

I had heard from some members of the disability community that even the ADA accessible porta-potties that have been put out in some places are not fully accessible in part because of how they've been installed or in part because they are foot pedal operated.

And what we have, again, are public facilities that are built and designed to be ADA compliant.

So I think there's a lot of opportunity.

Again, I want to underscore libraries and community centers, but those aren't necessarily the only public buildings.

In addition, because as Colleen said, we need a multi-pronged approach.

And then just to the point of deploying the National Guard, I have actually been trying, as Council Member Mosqueda knows and some others, for weeks to propose this in the spirit of those people being citizen soldiers.

We want them not in uniform, and we want them to be deployed to supplement skilled, knowledgeable staff.

in other places because service providers are so stretched thin in terms of their staffing.

Colleen is 100% correct.

These are circumstances that are trying for people who can get a good night's sleep and who can use a bathroom whenever we need to.

And so for folks who are experiencing homelessness, we need to make sure that we are appropriately providing staffing and support.

But the food bank example is such an important one because I think it's Jessica who said, you know, people need access sort of on both ends of the human spectrum.

And we can't pretend that staffing food banks is appropriate if we're not also providing places for people once the food has passed through their digestive system.

So I think it's completely doable.

I think there are probably folks who are currently furloughed, folks from local business improvement associations, people who are not employed in the restaurant business, who have skills and heart and willingness to provide additional support.

They will need some training and they will need, just like homeless service workers need, personal protective equipment, which for the most part is not currently available.

All right, Allison, thank you so much.

So we have a few more questions for the provider panel, but since we are getting kind of close to Director Hayes being unavailable, I want to pivot to Director Hayes' presentation and then come back if our provider panel is happy to stick around.

um so they can answer a few more questions from council members um so uh if that and i'm seeing some head nodding so that's good okay perfect um so director hayes uh want to just move on um take you out of order here to make sure you can get back to the the hard work of um of leading our public health response here on COVID-19.

Thank you for coming to our committee.

I would ask that folks hold their questions for Director Hayes till the end of her presentation.

Um, and then we'll go back to the provider panel.

So, um, director Hayes, uh, with that, um, I will turn it over to you, uh, the general, uh, areas of interest, uh, as my, um, staff, uh, um, made aware in communications as, uh, uh, you know, responses to the hepatitis A outbreak.

Um, some of the general, uh, regional efforts public health has been making around hygiene and would appreciate, um, appreciate hearing from you and appreciate having you before this committee.

So take it away.

Thank you so much.

I so appreciate being here and being invited.

And in the, just preservation of time, I'll do all the presentation.

My staff, Ryan Kellogg is here for any, if there's technical questions that come up, we'll make this so that it fits with your timeframe.

So thank you so much.

And I'm glad I was able to listen to the community It's so important to hear from the community.

Let me start by saying just a moment about the outbreak, because this outbreak is causing both all the stress you've heard about, all the issues of community mitigation that have the consequences that are emerging that the council and the city are trying to deal with.

We are, thanks to all of your work and all of your help, beginning to see bend of the curve.

But I want the council to understand, even though you'll see a lot of chat in the media and a lot of debate now about when we can move off community mitigation, we are beginning those conversations with the Department of Health and nationally.

But when you bend the curve, you extend it out.

And so I think we need to be thinking about this over a longer time horizon than just the beginning of May.

So if I can just start with that.

I know many of you are looking at modeling around the outbreak.

Just remember that some of those models are based more on the best case scenario and some are on the worst case.

And Dr. Jeff Duchin, our health officer, is in the middle of those conversations.

So with that, let me pivot and go into the hygiene sanitation overview I want to give for you.

You know, I'm so pleased that our environmental health team last fall put together and we launched in January the health and sanitation guidelines that I know that I talked to you all about.

I want to remind this to the council and the community because these are the big guidelines that hold whether or not it's hepatitis A, or COVID that are so important and reference many of the things that you are talking about.

So I was grateful to launch this and the community stepped up and responded to that.

So this is still our guiding document and we're working with the city.

So special thanks to Council Member Mosqueda for the support on that.

And this guideline is the first of its kind.

I need the council to just recognize that There are no national guidelines that fit for COVID in the face of persons experiencing homelessness.

That we are now working nationally and looking at what our guidance and there are other areas of the country that we're talking with who are looking at and using our guidelines, but also looking at in the reality of COVID, What do we need to do, and how do we create guidance specifically in this area?

The document is online.

We can get that back out to council.

But right now, as you've heard and you know, we don't have one outbreak at a time.

And so the spread of hepatitis A and the novel coronavirus within the homeless population is a priority for Public Health Seattle-Kingdony.

We have a team approach to this with five strike teams that are working in the different shelters right now.

I'm pleased that we haven't had as large an outbreak as other jurisdictions have had in this area.

And I think that's a sign of the great work with the council, with the community, with other elected officials.

And I just want to take a deep note of gratitude about that.

That doesn't mean we turned a corner, and it doesn't mean that we can't do better.

The CDC guidance to reduce the spread, particularly of COVID and other communicable diseases, as you know, it really emphasizes frequent hand washing with soap and water.

And as we know, COVID is spread more through droplets.

Hepatitis A is spread through a fecal oral transmission and contamination on surfaces and food.

So on the hepatitis A, about a year, almost a year and a half ago, I came to you talking about the beginning of seeing hepatitis A.

And thanks to Council Member Strauss for the work around the needs of folks around the Baylor Commons Park.

But since that time when I first noted this threat of hepatitis A, we've had 107 confirmed cases of hepatitis A.

Since March of this year, we've identified 30 confirmed hepatitis A cases.

14 of those reported living homeless in the Ballard area.

But we haven't identified a common link to all of those at this point.

But it's a reality that they are up in the Ballard area.

As part of our response to new cases in the Ballard area, our environmental health team has been working with Parks and Rec to talk about what best practice for sanitization is at the Portland Loo, at the Seattle Commons.

And the most important strategy for hepatitis A, which we don't have for COVID, as you all know, is vaccination.

We've mobilized several clinics in the Ballard area in March and will continue to do that.

through April and beyond working with street outreach.

This is part of the broader vaccination push we're doing on this.

We see that we need to do a two-year sprint on this vaccination and reevaluate where we're at with hepatitis A.

But I will say it really complicates it because with the community mitigation, you've just heard the fallout from the community mitigation.

And so we do need to be creative in how to staff things and how to work together.

So on the sanitation piece, both these outbreaks, we have worked with the city and many of you to encourage the increased access to facilities where folks can wash their hands, use the toilet, and then showers.

Priority should be placed on access to hand washing followed by the toilets and then shower facilities.

I may often get that question.

You know, to provide this increased access, we do think that really examining where there are bathrooms and where we need to focus portables is all part of that.

And I think you've heard from the community, I think that Geographic areas where we know that there are such access points to existing bathrooms can allow the city to deploy other types of porta-potties and other methods at other areas to be efficient.

We believe it's important to work with the community just as we're all doing to get those ideas and best access.

What I'll say for the specific recommendations we're doing for the hygiene facilities, we're developing cleaning guidance and sanitation standards for both mobile and fixed facilities.

We've been in contact with other areas around the country that are trying to grapple with this themselves.

We know there's a need for personal protective equipment for cleaning staff and what kind of specific chemicals to recommend.

In addition, our guidance will include what we think for staff facilities at a level to ensure successful facility operations, which I know can be really challenging.

It is a date as to how frequently things need to be cleaned.

So our guidance is going to, with the city, look to do what we believe our best practices in different environments.

Not all of these environments are all the same.

So we will work with them dynamically on that and community partners on their ideas.

Really appreciate the leadership and the council's interest on this issue.

We want to recognize that this is an extremely challenging environment and I look forward to coming back and presenting more as we move forward.

with our guidance, testing that guidance and improving it.

So I'll go back to you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you so much, Director Hayes.

We do have a couple of questions.

First, Council Member Morales has a question.

So the chair recognizes Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director Hayes.

You began to answer my question, which is about vaccination.

Of course, we know that transmission is easy in this environment with poor access to the ability to heat food and wash hands.

And particularly in this population, you know, if they already have hep C, then they get as well, liver failure is a death sentence.

And so, so I appreciate understanding that the, you know, you're ramping up or trying to ramp up vaccination for hepatitis A.

Can you talk a little bit more about what you mean by a two year sprint and where are you in your ability to serve the community as it is?

Right, thank you for that question.

So we're one year into our two-year sprint.

So it's the epidemiology of hepatitis A that with our physician epidemiologists that have set that time frame for when a concentrated effort into vaccination needs to be done.

So we're one year into that.

We've given over 2,000 and our partners have given even more vaccines out there.

One of the things that we can use help with at all times and from our community partners is when we go out, we offer the vaccination and like was noted by our partners, folks are under such stress.

Sometimes vaccination, it's not easy to lean in and say yes.

And so I think that that can be a help that we can put those messages out as a community that this is important.

The other challenge for folks who are living homeless is that they need two vaccines.

And that's hard.

So we keep a record of who we've given vaccine to and we try and make sure we can follow up with them in a timely way.

But again, that is hard when folks are mobile and their lives are so chaotic that the last thing they're thinking about is that second vaccine.

Any help from partners and messages that the council can put out about that so that we can have welcoming environment and safe environment would be really helpful.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

OK, great.

Are there any other questions for Director Hayes?

Looking at my colleagues' pictures here.

OK, it looks like Director Hayes, that was actually pretty quick.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I'm sorry I have to run off, but I'm going to be speaking with ARP and delivering key messages to them too.

So I just want to just take a moment and thank you all again.

helping me stay the course in this so that our community, we have one of the best responses around the country with the community mitigation, and we need to keep that, and you are such a big part of it, so thank you.

Chair Lewis, may I ask a question?

Yes, Council Member Mosqueda.

Sorry, Director Hayes, thank you so much.

I know you have two minutes left.

Just very briefly, you mentioned a timeline for recommendations for getting the locations and additional requests for handwashing facilities out the door and more showers and toilets out the door.

Can you remind us what the timeline is from that so that we can then take those recommendations and run with them?

Yeah, so we're finishing those up real time this week into next week, so they're coming imminently.

Thank you as well for all you're doing.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you for that question Council Member Mosqueda.

Moving back now to the provider panel, thanks for everyone's indulgence in taking Director Hayes out of order just to make sure that we could get that update and presentation in.

I wanted to go back to those questions and finish up before we move on to Deputy Mayor Sixkiller.

So Council Member Morales was next on my list to ask a question of the provider panel.

So the chair recognizes Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

I want to thank all the service providers for being here this morning.

It's really hard to hear.

We know that this is happening, but to hear about, you know, folks who are unable to get into bathrooms to do something as basic as cleanup after menstruation, who are soiling themselves in the streets, who are having a hard time meeting the most basic human need is really hard.

So I know that all of you are also experiencing trauma from having to deal with this.

So thank you for that work that you're doing.

We want to acknowledge that the need to protect public health by increasing bathrooms is critical and figure out this question of how we protect workers who are needed to clean these facilities.

I'm really interested in following up on the issue of trying to get National Guard folks in to do it in a way that is compassionate and that serves that need.

We have to do both.

So I'm interested in understanding how the city worked with you to place the hygiene stations that we do have.

And knowing that in LA, for example, they have 360 portable hand-washing stations.

If you have any sense of how many we should have for the population that we have here.

And I'll just leave that open to whoever wants to answer.

Thank you.

Hi.

Jessica from Reach for Equity and Treatment Services.

So yeah, so I sent out an email to the COVID homelessness response.

And I was really appreciative about the response I got back.

I think it was Van Bronsworth or something like that.

He responded back and a few other city officials or people from the city also responded back to me and we were able to have on the phone conversations and also at REACH in particular on our outreach team we have BIA outreach workers where we have a partnership with the BIA and each outreach worker is designated to that community.

So we have one in Ballard, Soto, First Hill, Cap Hill, Waterfront.

Georgetown and the Seattle outreach team which also hits up north and more down south and in Kent and Renton and so with that with our team we're able to really coordinate with each other and specifically get locations in those communities where we think would be best and easily accessible and where most of the population shelters at, or stays at, or the hot spots of where people like to camp at, and the need specifically to the community.

I gave a list to Allison, so Allison definitely could talk more about that as well.

Yeah.

Allison, just before you begin, I asked because Don and Jessica both mentioned that there is a greater need in South Seattle.

And so I'm trying to understand how these decisions were made and what communications you had that we're not helpful in getting what we need in the South End.

So this is Dawn from REACH.

And in the weekly navigation team dispatch meeting, the discussion or the dialogue initially was Well, I guess initially we were told that there were going to be a lot of hand washing stations that were going to be deployed around the city.

We were asked for lists of areas that we felt like would be the highest traffic areas that would get the most use out of those.

And then there was a gap in the communication of like that just the conversation just sort of stopped.

And then after repeatedly asking, like, where are we at with this?

Because this conversation started a couple of months ago, right?

And to my way of thinking, we've already managed to build a field hospital in CenturyLink Field, and we haven't been able to deploy some porta-potties.

I don't understand what the holdup is.

And we haven't been able to get any answers.

The reason that I am here today is because in those meetings, I have pointedly asked, who do we need to talk to, to try to express, you know, our concern and impress upon them that the need for this to be like now, not a month from now, not in three months, but like these are daily biological needs that every human being has right now.

And I was just, I was pretty much stonewalled with that.

Told that there was no one that I could speak to.

So at that point, I reached out to my director who forwarded that information to Allison.

We continue to ask these questions, but again, we just continue to be told, you know, I asked this morning, where are we at with deploying porta potties?

No, we just don't, like there's nothing.

And the people that we are in the room for the conversation say they're not in the room for those conversations.

So I think that there's just, I don't understand how it could seem conceivable to not prioritize something like this.

There was already a desperate need for these types of services or these sorts of things to be available to people.

But now with with things like McDonald's and Starbucks and even the bare minimum that people were able to use being unaccessible, there is nothing.

There is nothing available.

I have a gentleman who has a quarter of his skull missing right now from an accident.

where he was electrocuted and had one brain surgery.

He is waiting for a second brain surgery.

I just went and made sure he got on the bus for his neurosurgeons appointment this morning.

And he has caked dirt on his head where his sutures are from this brain surgery.

And when I say caked, I could I could cut it off with a butter knife off of his head.

That is how desperate the need is.

And these are human beings that, for whatever reason, the city is, in my opinion, not making a priority.

I know that there are shortages of things like porta-potties, and I realize that they have to be cleaned, but we can pull porta-potties from places like the fairgrounds and put those out and deal with getting them cleaned two weeks from now.

You know, that would give us two weeks to figure it out.

But in the meantime, they're at least accessing, you know, having this accessible to them.

We have a shortage of hand sanitizer as outreach workers, just to be able to offer to our clients in lieu of sinks.

So we're not giving them any means to protect themselves in any way at all.

Don, thank you so much for that.

But before we move on, we do have a couple more questions.

So I'd ask if people try to keep their responses concise so we can get through as many of the questions as possible before we move on to the next panel.

Does anyone else want to jump in on Council Member Morales' question from the panel before I move on to Council Member Herbold?

Okay, great.

Yes.

I would just say, I appreciate the question.

I think that I cannot do more than Dawn just did to express the profound frustration, the desire to partner to solve these issues and the lack of ability to move the process forward.

Among the things that I have asked for is a point of contact at Seattle Public Utilities who can be the person to interact with and problem solve on an immediate basis with around the placement of the port-a-potties and hand-washing stations which were belatedly deployed.

My understanding, I mean, I have the list.

I have shared the list.

There are multiple sites that are recommended.

But again, I just want to go back to there.

There aren't enough standalone units.

The public buildings are where the toilets and the sinks are.

We have to open them immediately.

And they're easier to clean than porta potties are.

Alison, thank you for those last remarks.

I want to move on to Council Member Herbold, who has a question, and then Council Member Mosqueda will close us out with a question and we'll move on to the next panel.

So Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

I just want to preface my question with sharing my great frustration with the conditions on the street.

On one hand, some are saying that our local response to the COVID-19 crisis is showing results and is considered to be a good and thorough response producing results.

But from what I can see, our failure to address the greatest needs of those with the least really should indict us all for not being able to address really putting our entire city at risk.

The fact that thousands of people are completely unable to follow the CDC guidance.

What is our responsibility as a city when it not only puts those people at risk, but our entire city at a risk at risk?

You know, and this isn't just about this particular crisis.

In 2018, 2018, the city auditor reported on Seattle's lack of public toilets.

And that was, you know, that was before so many of our public buildings were closed.

That was before so many businesses that typically allow people to use their baths.

Many of them who, as a practice, allow them, allow people to use the restrooms without being a customer.

By all means, they don't all, but there are businesses in our city that do.

But in 2018, the city auditor said that we needed 224 toilets to meet basic needs.

As was mentioned earlier, Los Angeles has deployed 360 hygiene stations.

San Diego, nearly 100. Berkeley, home to 813 unsheltered people, has placed more than double what we have here in Seattle with 5,200 people living unsheltered.

We funded a pit stop, five mobile pit stops in the budget in November, trying to implement the recommendations of the 2018 audit because the executive hadn't done it.

We put the money in the budget at a stakeholder meeting held in late February.

attended by multiple departments.

They were still sharing basic information about what a mobile pit stop was and were not ready to act.

The mobile pit stop is a intervention that was identified again in the 2018 audit, but a stakeholder meeting in late February this year, city staff still did not know about that particular intervention.

So I really appreciate the work that people are doing on the streets.

I can't imagine how frustrating and demoralizing and traumatizing it is to have as a job the responsibility to deliver services and help and not have those services and help readily available.

I am going to do everything I can to help implement the recommendations to open up more public buildings, staff those public buildings, to implement more porta-potties and the shower trailers that we are told that's coming.

In the interim, I have a question about outreach and how we can do a better job of letting people know what there is available now.

The city has, as of I believe yesterday, shared a list of publicly available hygiene facilities.

They went through an old list that they had been providing that had a lot of inaccurate information, had locations that were not open.

locations that I've myself visited and confirmed were not open.

So they've updated that list, streamlined it to the locations that are actually open and available.

They're saying that they're going to put together an interactive map.

I just want to know, is that a useful way for you to help people living unsheltered find places?

Is there another approach that we should be considering as well to let folks know, while we are working to stand up more locations, what we currently do have?

Thank you.

All right, so who wants to respond fairly efficiently to that?

We have to move on to the next panel, but I do think it's a very important question.

Who wants to take Council Member Kerbal's question on from the panel?

I think I can take that one.

Yeah, Brittany, please.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think that's helpful.

Like, of course, all the information that we can get is extremely helpful and having an interactive map.

I think the problem that we're at is that as you've seen thus far is that it's not exactly accurate and like we just need more of it.

Another thing that would contribute to getting that messaging out is having more people messaging out.

In general, our outreach teams have diminished substantially due to either having folks that are in their own at-risk category for COVID, or a number of other reasons.

And so having more people out and about, informing, making sure that it's accurate, and making sure that there are postings would be helpful, and increasing the number.

At the end of the day, increasing the number, increasing the number, increasing the number.

It's devastating to hear those stats for you know, California and other places and to know that our issue is so prominent and yet we have such a low number.

Also to add to that, I'm sorry, real quick.

Jessica, go ahead.

Thank you.

The Seattle, the navigation team meetings are on Wednesdays at 8 a.m.

A lot of providers go there and we go there because we want information of what's going on with the navigation team.

where is next clean gonna be held, where the policy that's gonna be changes and anything like that, because it greatly affects the work that we could do with our clients and where we can find our clients.

And so if we were able to have more information from that meeting and more transparency, when the people, city people who are leading the meeting or answer, I don't know, or they didn't talk about that, we don't have that information, all of our providers are extremely frustrated and it affects our work that we can do with our clients and ultimately their wellbeing.

So that would be super helpful moving forward.

Yeah, well said.

One last point is that like one thing that is not aligned with what we do is we want to make sure that we're being trauma-informed and saying that something's coming and yet it never comes is not trauma-informed.

And so we want to make sure that that information that's getting out is actually accurate because it is not fun, right, or you know, It's not justice for us to go out and say, it's coming, it's coming, it'll be there, and then yet it's never there.

And so that would be a key component to that is we're not trying to deliver false hope for folks who rarely have a lot of hope, okay?

In fact, it undermines the effectiveness of public health messaging overall.

And there are a whole bunch of other things that we could say about that.

All right, well thank you everybody for coming in and participating.

One other thing that I do want to say going to Council Member Herbold's statement, you know Jeff Stimms, I want to give a shout out to Jeff on our staff for the great memo and summary of hygiene stations that have been confirmed to be opened.

that he did distribute to the council.

I, this morning, my office created an interactive list of those that has all those hygiene stations as well as the hours that those hygiene stations are open.

That can be accessed on my website.

If you go to my council website, there's a hygiene facilities map that is now in the navigation tab.

So I just wanted to flag that resource in response to Council Member Herbold's question.

So with that panel, thank you so much.

Thank you to Allison, to Brittany, Colleen, to Dawn.

It was really great having you guys here.

Jessica, stay in touch and thank you for your service out there in the field.

Really appreciate it.

All right, so now we're gonna move on to the next panel.

And similar to the last one, if everyone could hold their questions until the end of Deputy Mayor Sixkiller's presentation.

I am gonna hand it over to him to give an update on the city's efforts.

And I would ask that folks continue to text me to get on the question list.

That system has been working well, and we will go through it once Deputy Mayor Sixkiller is done with this presentation.

So with that, Deputy Mayor Sixkiller, take it away.

All right.

Good morning, Council Member and Council Members.

I do want to flag that I am supposed to be in my next set of meetings at 11.15.

So I'm going to try my best to get through some of my presentation and get to a few questions before I have to move on to my meeting with the mayor.

First, I think as you heard from Director Hayes earlier today, you know, a large part of our COVID-19 response is assisting those in need.

And in fact, the entire structure of the city's response of our emergency operations plan is based on just four categories, operations, public safety, community needs, and human services and homelessness.

And I would add that I am personally overseeing the human services and homelessness work as part of our COVID-19 response.

I want to also take opportunity to publicly thank all of our city employees who are literally on the front lines as we speak, doing everything we can to provide services to those who are living unsheltered.

That includes not just HSD, but SPU, SPD staff, and many others.

who have continued to work seven days a week and 24-hour shifts.

We may not talk 24-hour shifts, but 24-hour cycles to make sure we are responding to those who are in need.

They are putting their own lives at risk to help others, just as many others are as we heard from the previous panel.

But I want to thank our city employees for their ongoing work.

and for continuing to put the needs of others above theirs.

I know this is a very important issue for the council as well.

I wanna thank you for your partnership and your resolution in March, affirming the state of emergency request the city make investments in hand washing station and hygiene services.

And that's just what we're doing.

So maybe I can give a quick overview of that.

First of all, our approach has several components to it.

One is getting people inside.

So hygiene can be assessed there.

I think as all of you know, we recently announced our partnership with the county in creating 1900 new spaces that are being set up throughout the county and many of them in Seattle to get people inside.

We are working very closely with the county and DCHS in particular so that we have a coordinated approach and strategy.

One of the components that we are leading on is our shelter de-intensification effort.

which began back at the beginning of March when we activated Exhibition Hall.

Today, Exhibition Hall is operating in partnership with DESC on a 24-7 basis and serving over 150 individuals.

This was key to helping DESC begin to achieve social distancing within their DESC shelter network.

In addition, we've activated both the Garfield and Miller Community Centers to serve as 24-7 shelters.

Today, they are staffed by Parks and HSD staff in partnership with Catholic Community Services, YMCA, I'm sorry, the YWCA and WEAL.

Garfield currently serves 50 women and Miller is serving 50 men in partnership with Compass Housing.

In addition, as I think you all are already aware, we've expedited, been able to expedite delivery of new shelter spaces at Bitter Lake, Cherry Hill, and Lake Union.

These Cherry Hill and Lake Union beams.

Just to jump in for one second.

I'm sorry to interrupt your presentation just because we are short of time.

You know, I think just to maybe zero in and focus on the hygiene investments rather than the shelter de-intensification work, which the committee has also been following, but just to make sure that we get to the hygiene comments and if there's time left over, revert back to an update on the de-intensification.

And I do appreciate the city's efforts and I have walked by the what's going on at the Seattle center spaces that are being used to do that.

But I just think that just to make sure that we address the hygiene issue, I just wanted to flag that and prioritize that so we can maybe deal with that issue first.

I'm happy to make that pivot now.

I was planning on it, but I do think it's important to make sure that this is a multi-pronged effort and it's not just focused on hygiene.

The last thing I would mention is we are currently working, and my next meeting is working with the Salvation Army to site a shelter tent here in the city for 180 individuals.

So, you know, we have a lot of things going on here, but again, creating spaces for people to come inside, as many of the previous panel mentioned, is a critical component of our work.

Moving on to hygiene access to people who are still outside, though, Council Member, as you requested, I want to emphasize that, you know, as of today, we have at least 127 parks restrooms that are open.

I want to, you know, acknowledge that there has been some confusion about that number as it's fluctuated.

Part of it was been, you know, we have a number of parks bathrooms that typically are not open during the winter.

So we've been working to ensure that those are open.

The second thing is this number is going to continue to fluctuate.

based on our staffing and based on our ability to maintain each of these facilities.

But rest assured that we are doing everything we can and our parks maintenance crew is working incredibly hard to maintain each of these facilities.

And I would say of those 127 parks restrooms, we have 26 community centers, 11 of them have restroom access that remains open.

And where we have not had access, we are looking at augmenting that as well.

So we're doing our part to keep those restrooms open.

In addition, we have kept our showers program going, which continues to operate at Dell Ridge, Green Lake, Meadowbrook, and the Rainier Community Center.

We have been providing, as our teams do outreach, is making sure folks understand where those shower programs can remain and make sure that folks have access to them.

On the SPU side, we've talked a lot, the previous panel mentioned, we have two weeks ago now announced six new locations for port-a-potties and sinks, that is 14 toilets and six sinks.

One of the original locations was at Cal Anderson Park and that has now been moved to 12th and Weller near the Navigation Center.

That was to sort of decrease redundancy in Cal Anderson.

Just earlier this week, the mayor gave us direction to add eight more sites, and we will be finalizing those locations tomorrow.

I would say that those sites, locations, as I think Jessica mentioned from REACH, have been developed in partnership with not just REACH and other stakeholders, but SPU, Parks, HSD, and DAWN, using the following criteria.

I think this is important.

Number one is highest need.

So that's informed by the NAB team, Parks, Encampment team, Department of Neighborhoods, and other outreach teams, including Healthcare for the Homeless.

Two, no other access to toilets or sinks.

Three, are adjacent to city property.

And four, will not pose issues either the facility used or private property and make sure that the vendors have the ability to maintain the cleaning protocols that public health has given us.

So those eight new locations, eight SPU is coordinating that work.

with a vendor.

As I said, we are learning as we go here.

These six sites have proved to be both successful in the sense that individuals are using them.

The site at City Hall Park in particular has been very highly used.

We actually added an additional toilet last weekend.

But it does not come without challenges.

And those challenges include our ability to maintain cleanliness.

There has been vandalism.

and theft related to hand sanitizer.

But we are problem solving those in real time.

We also have added a sharps collection to each of these sites, recognizing that sharps continues to be an issue that individuals are experiencing.

So we're working through that.

One thing I do want to add, and this is by no means a limiting factor for us right now, but each of these sites, Our current projections is each site is costing $35,000 a month to operate.

So that takes into account the cleaning and all of the other supplies necessary to maintain these sites.

So once we stand up all 14, we'll be burning through half a million dollars a month in operating costs.

That does not include staffing.

So as many of the members in the previous panel mentioned, these are not staff sites.

So if we do move into a staffing model that requires more onsite supervision, the cost of that goes up dramatically, as does the ability for us to operationalize that program.

But we are working through it and obviously acknowledge that more work is to be done.

It was mentioned earlier that we have rented two portable shower facilities.

One of those facilities, one of those trailers will go to the Seattle Center.

We are coordinating with both Seattle Center staff and DESC to have that on the ground here over the next few days.

Again, that's to support both the shelter that is at Exhibition Hall and the shelter that is at the Fisher Pavilion right now.

The second, as Colleen EchoHawk mentioned earlier, we'll be going to Occidental Park in partnership with the Chief Seattle Club.

And I really want to thank Colleen for jumping at the opportunity to partner with us there and for staffing that shower trailer.

I would mention that in Occidental Park, you know, we've been working very closely with the MID and SPU and the NAV team to ensure that Occidental Park is ready to receive the trailer and also to support Chief Seattle Club's meals program, which has moved outdoors as a result of the challenges for them in providing meals consistent with social distancing.

On the Clean City Program, SPU has continued those efforts on hygiene.

You know, obviously our RV wastewater pilot program continues.

We've pumped out 70 wastewater tanks to date.

Our goal was to double that by the end of April.

We've partnered with REACH to offer pump outs to their clients in Soto, Rainier Valley, Georgetown, and we've increased outreach to the RV community with service to RVs known to be leaking and contacted 39 RVs primarily in Ballard to arrange a wastewater disposal.

Our encampment trash program is continuing.

We've identified two additional encampment trash locations at Colorado Avenue South and Hine and 8th Avenue and South Othello.

SPU now collects trash from 16 unsanctioned homeless encampments and RV camping hotspots.

SPU has been distributing their purple litter bags to encampment residents.

Last week alone, SPU distributed 628 bags and collected 5,265 pounds of trash.

Since January, SPU has distributed 71,269 bags and collected over a million pounds of trash.

SPU also provides weekly bag, bulky item, and litter pickup at 14 sites around the city.

On sharps in particular, SPA has arranged sharps collection at all of our port-a-potty sites.

In addition, in March, SPU collected more than 14,000 syringes from city public rights away in sharps boxes located around the city.

And since the program began in August of 2016, that's over 327,000 sharps have been collected.

Um, uh, lastly on HSD, uh, I think, as you know, we all, the city funds, um, 11 different day centers and urban rest stops for hygiene facilities, including showers are located across the city.

Uh, those have remained open throughout this period.

That's a $6 million, um, investment that the city makes.

In addition, the NAV team has distributed hundreds of hygiene kits to date.

The navigation team has distributed close to 1,500 hygiene kits.

Kits are being handed out by the NAV team system navigators and SPD officers as they engage with individuals as part of their outreach efforts.

Those kits contain hand hygiene supplies, COVID-19 and HEPA information suppliers from public health, as well as a map of hygiene stations that are available.

are working with suppliers, excuse me, working with providers and ensuring that they have the supplies that they need.

Both the city and the county have been engaged with shelter operators and other providers to try to fulfill their supply needs.

That includes over $100,000 of supply procurement that we've been working through over the past few weeks.

As you can imagine, we are not the only municipality looking to fill supply needs, but we are doing as best we can and working through that and working with FEMA and others to try to augment those efforts.

Before I move on to Ballard Commons, which I know is one of the other topics of this council meeting, Council Member Lewis, I would just comment also that a lot was commented earlier about the National Guard.

And I would just say that, you know, the mayor herself has been engaged both with the governor and the head of the National Guard for well over a month asking for support and resources, not just in sheltering, but other services.

And those conversations are ongoing, but the National Guard has yet to fulfill those requests.

But I did want to assure everyone that we are doing everything we can to request additional assistance from both the feds and the state and the National Guard to assist us.

The other thing I would just, I would like, I really want to emphasize that was said from the previous panel, You know, all of our shelter and operators and other partners in this work are stretched very thin.

And, you know, that is an operational constraint that we cannot ignore.

We are doing our best to do that.

We have stood up this week a new reassignment hub here, a talent reassignment hub for city employees to try to help meet some of those needs.

But I just want to be very clear.

Normally these efforts we do in partnership with community partners who are not able to support us right now because they are engaged in all of the, they are stretched just as thin as we are.

So that is an operational challenge for us that we are trying to work through.

The other, the last thing I mentioned just on general access is You know, while a number of sort of places that individuals could normally use, restrooms that are not city facilities, you know, are closed.

And we fully acknowledge that.

We know there is a great need and we are working to fill it.

At the same time, there are a number of essential businesses that have been allowed to stay open across the city.

And I would encourage council members in your individual districts, if you could work with those essential businesses to help ensure that their bathrooms are available.

And for us to be able to provide, I think Brittany mentioned it from DESC, to provide that information to our outreach teams, both the cities and other outreach teams, that would be incredibly helpful.

With that, Council Member, I'll move on to Ballard Commons, if that's okay.

Yes, thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Valor Commons, as Director Hayes referenced earlier, has had an interesting confluence of events going on both with HEPA, our COVID-19 response, the library being closed, and a number of individuals living unsheltered.

We have over the last couple of weeks spent quite a bit of time trying to get more coordinated in our work there.

And I want to thank Council Member Strauss for bringing folks together last week as well.

I'll just give you a real quick update and then I'll be quiet and take a few questions.

SPU's RV pump-out was up there on Monday.

There was still one RV that was present.

Others had dispersed, but that RV did refuse pump-out services.

The Portland Loo remains open.

The parks had brought in a couple of additional porta-potties while the loo was closed, but we've decided to leave those porta-potties there.

In addition to the Portland loo, we've adjusted our cleaning protocols based on guidance from public health.

The NAV team has been out there several days this week engaging with the individuals who are living unsheltered, trying to get an assessment of their needs and interest in coming indoors.

And so we are, uh, and then public health has now been up there at least twice, uh, offering voluntary vaccination services.

So, uh, we are as a, as a, as a city family, uh, being more coordinated in our efforts there, uh, and we'll continue to, uh, to work through, um, through that in partnership with council member Strauss.

Uh, with that, I'll, I'll turn it back to you council member.

Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor.

There are definitely several questions.

I hope that we can get through as many of these as possible.

I want to recognize first Council Member Morales, who has two questions.

Council Member Mosqueda, Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Deputy Mayor, I want to ask a couple questions.

The first is, how is it possible that we're seeing a spike in hepatitis A in the Ballard area, considering that HSD and SPU are supposed to have shifted toward outreach and cleanup that is really geared toward creating more healthy living environment for encampment residents?

That's one question.

And then the other question is, Erica Barnett reported recently about King County and how they started purchasing mobile showers and restroom facilities at the end of February.

I'd like to know why we haven't done that yet and when we will be purchasing the mobile pit stops that council authorized in November.

On the HEPA piece, public health is not my area of expertise, so I'm not going to to be an expert on HEPA.

I would say that the data from public health, however, suggests that HEPA across the city, not just in Ballard, but across the city, we currently have more cases of HEPA in Seattle through the end of March than we did in all of 2019. So I don't know that it is entirely related to our COVID-19 situation right now, but obviously we are doing what we can in coordination with public health to make sure that we are maintaining all of our facilities to try to stop the spread of HEP A. Again, one of the things that we are also doing is making sure that we have more sharps collection available to individuals.

That isn't to suggest that anyone's told us that is a cause, but certainly making sure that there is access or contributing factor is making sure there's access, to SHARP's collection I think is something that we are doing, and again, in coordination with public health.

On the other question, again, we have begun to sit up and deploy portable hand-washing stations and porta-potties.

As I said, we have two shower trailers that are now on the ground and are prepared to be deployed.

So we are moving forward.

I would say that this is a little bit different model than I think some council members had been engaged with us on prior to COVID-19.

But we are in close contact with our counterparts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland, learning from them about how they are operating these facilities in our COVID-19 state and are trying to to mirror their work with the guidance we're getting from the state and public health.

You mentioned that you are renting two facilities.

And my question is, when will we be purchasing the ones that council authorized?

Well, as you can imagine, everyone across the country is trying to purchase porta potties and other things.

The best we could do right now is get our hands on two rental units.

All right, thank you.

Council Member Mosqueda, your question.

Thank you, Chair Lewis.

Building off of Council Member Morales' point, we allocated $1.3 million in the 2020 budget.

This is something that I and Council Member Bagshaw supported.

This was prior to COVID.

The question is, what are we doing to redeploy the $1.3 million to get hand-washing facilities and porta-potties in light of the fact that there are concerts that are not happening, fairgrounds that are not being used, retailers who usually rent these out, what are we doing to deploy these now?

The second part of my question is, if I had come into this presentation, and I respect that you are being pulled in a million different directions, but I would have frankly said, I have a presentation that I'm happy to email you later, I want to respond directly to the questions that were asked earlier.

And the three questions being, can we open up our public facilities and have these hand washing and shower facilities open to those who need it?

and how are we working to staff those up with trauma-informed people?

How are we also working to make sure that the beds that were promised, the 1,900 beds which I've emailed about, are actually being deployed and open because as you saw in my email and as was just heard from the panel before, saying something is coming online and then not actually having that exact number be new beds is just as dangerous as making it just as dangerous as not even having the beds available because people might not trust us.

So on beds and hand washing facilities, I would love for you to directly respond to not just what has been purchased so far because we appreciate that, but what is going to be done in addition and in response to those questions that were put out there right now.

And then lastly, I want to make sure that before a call is put out to any private restaurant owners to open their bathrooms where people aren't even supposed to go past the front desk at this point, that we have talked to public health about that strategy.

My gut reaction was that that was not a sound public health strategy to ask restaurant owners to allow people to use their restaurants again in this time.

It was a bad public health policy before COVID, and I don't believe it's the right strategy now.

I think we need those hand-washing facilities deployed, those public buildings open with trauma-informed individuals to help people get in.

So please respond directly to the questions that were asked in the earlier panel so we can move beyond what's already been purchased.

Okay, so I want to make sure that I have all of the questions you just listed off.

I'm sorry, Council Member, my brain does not go that quickly anymore.

One was the $1.34 million, second was opening of public facilities, third was the 1,900 beds, and the fourth was the public health guidance on essential businesses.

Did I get that captured mostly?

On the $1.34 million, I would say that the color of money is not the thing that is driving us right now.

We are trying to get our hands on what we can get and deploy them expeditiously, both porta-potties, hand-washing stations, and as I mentioned, the two mobile shower trailer units.

One of our challenges is our ability to procure those things.

But we also want to make sure that we have a program in place that can maintain them.

We do not want our best intentions here to come flying back at us.

And we are having challenges maintaining what we have already put out.

That is not to say that we are not doing or not recognize the need or the opportunity for us to continue to expand that program, but we are experiencing some challenges.

As I mentioned, once we have those 14 sites set up, the current cost of those is a half a million dollars a month to operate them.

So with respect to the one, that's why I'm trying not to get into the color of money situation because that doesn't buy us very much in our current environment when we're competing for everybody else, for these resources.

The good news is we are working with FEMA and we do have a public health order that is allowing us to try to get as much of this funded or reimbursed by FEMA.

So we're trying not to let cost be the driver here.

because it shouldn't in this current environment.

But it is, but that is just our situation.

So I'm trying, that may not be a satisfactory answer, but 1.34 million in our current environment is not gonna get us very far.

On the opening of public facilities, closing public facilities was one of the hardest decisions the mayor had to make.

And there are a number of reasons and factors that went into that decision.

We continue to assess whether or not that is something we should maintain.

But I think for libraries in particular, and it was an acknowledgement that their workforce, a lot of them fit the bill for vulnerable, over 60 or have some type of underlying health condition.

Their ability to maintain library facilities while maintaining social distancing and all these things, and they are not trained, for trauma-informed, providing trauma-informed services.

So, you know, that is, again, an operational barrier for us that we are trying to problem solve.

And again, on the community center side, you know, we have 26, 11 of the 26 community centers have their bathroom facilities already open.

And as we continue to push out other portable solutions, you know, obviously we are looking at how we augment where they are closed.

One of those sites that's in the current list of six is Lake City for exactly that reason.

On the 1900 beds, you know, I don't want to get in the semantics of announcements.

The reality is there are 1900 new beds that are coming online.

And so in partnership with the county, we're doing that.

Deputy Mayor Sixkiller, that is not correct.

Allison, so only council members can interact with the panelists.

Sorry, I just wanted to throw that out there.

I'm sure that the council member will raise that question, but I just wanted to say that we're at the phase where council members will interact with the panel and just to appreciate your uh your acknowledgement of that.

So sorry.

Oh yeah um but I but I but I but I do but I do uh council member I do want to say I I do I do acknowledge the worst the word use of the word new uh and I I will I will note that and and um make sure that going forward we are more careful about that word.

And just that means that Individuals were moved from existing beds to de-densify existing shelters.

And so I think that the concern we're hearing and the concern I think we're having is that there weren't 1,900 new beds.

They were beds that had been filled by individuals who were in places like our Seattle Hall that had to be de-densified.

And so I think that's where the frustration is coming from.

When we hear the word new, I appreciate you acknowledging that.

but we I think need to be honest with folks about how many new beds are coming online, and then when those new facilities open, I think a lot of us think great, that has access to hygiene centers.

I know that's the purpose of today's discussion, and when we're then having to kind of clarify that these aren't new beds, that's problematic, and I think as an earlier panel member said, translates into when we announce new hand-washing facilities and we're not meeting the needs, we're losing the public's trust.

Council Member Lewis I probably have time for one or two more questions.

All right so Deputy Mayor Sixkiller, Council Member Herbold has the next question so I'll turn it over to her and then I have just a I have a closing quick question for you so Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Strauss it looks like has a question too so Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

I, too, have a multi-part question.

Back on March 27th, when you, Deputy Secretary, gave me a heads-up that the hand-washing stations and third parties were going to be deployed, you had mentioned that SPU planned to put in a monitoring regime and that each facility would be visited regularly, multiple times a day, by SPU staff.

At the time I'd asked for more detail about that schedule, and I'm still waiting on that also as it relates to The maps that have been put out the most recent version of maps that have been put out I just want to mention that there are as it relates specifically to my neighborhood there are three three different entries for West Crest Park.

And the one says that it's open or two of them say that they're open 7 a.m.

to 7 or 9 p.m.

And then one of those two indicates that it is new.

I'm not sure what new means because it might be one of the existing bricks and mortar buildings that has been reopened, but there are two bricks and mortar buildings, and I've just recently visited just in the last.

48 hours, and only one of those two bricks and mortar buildings are open.

And this map indicates that, seems to indicate, map, list, seems to indicate that two are open.

Then in the section where it talks about SPU comfort stations, and I'm presuming that those SPU comfort stations are the new porta-potties and hand-washing stations, because that seems to be the six that have been recently announced.

It says open 24 hours when I was out there when those were first deployed the sign Says 7 to 8 p.m.

Not 24 hours.

So I want to flag that Also would like to know a little bit more detail about the cost that each one of these locations cost $30,000 a month And it does not include any staffing costs.

I'm really interested to know Whether or not we are experiencing price gouging in this in this time of great need As it relates specifically to the mobile pit stops, there was a lot of due diligence done on the cost of five mobile pit stops with $1.3 million, including staffing.

And if we are seeing a different scenario right now in this crisis, There may be a situation of price gouging both for shower trailers as well as the port-a-potty and hand-washing stations, and I'd like to know more about that as well.

And then finally, last week's weekly update that we received through the EOC said that SPU had installed, they're talking about it as if it had already done 27 port-a-potty hand washing stations at parks throughout the city.

I'm trying to figure out whether or not those are new locations that have already been installed and where they are, if that's the case, or if this is an error and they are reporting something as having already happened that is yet to happen.

And then finally, I want to flag one of the first prototypes for the mobile pit stops that we talk about is something called the Lava May.

And it was begun, I believe, in Los Angeles.

And when they first started that prototype, they didn't go and buy something that was ready-made.

They made it, and they worked with their pipe fitters and plumbers unions to retrofit old buses.

If we can't buy stuff right now, just like we've worked with our carpenters unions to build tiny houses, we need to, I think, make these things as soon as possible.

There are plans on the Lava May site that describe their open source plans for how to do this, and I know we would have partnership in providing this desperate need.

Thank you.

Okay.

So council member, I'm going to try to see if I can remember all of this from memory.

Um, one is, uh, the, on the, on the map, uh, itself, we will, I, you know, it is, it is suffice to say, continues to evolve.

And I appreciate you pointing out where there might be some inconsistencies, uh, and we will continue to refine that and follow up with you and the rest of the council on that.

Um, We are certainly not trying to mislead anyone.

I think, you know, I really want to be clear.

I want us to be as accurate and reflective of the evolving situation as we can, and importantly, make sure that our outreach teams, both the cities and others, have information, have the information they need when they are out engaging with individuals.

The SPU, the port-a-potty and hand-washing stations, originally, we had, the program was to have set hours every day.

Very quickly into our program, we found that that was not possible for us to maintain that.

So those facilities are now 24-7.

That was a change in program based on the early experience that we were having.

And again, I think that just sort of emphasizes that we're learning as we go.

We're not experts on this right now, but I think that was a good change.

And I said earlier, these stations, they are being used.

not without challenges.

You mentioned, I think, on the mobile side of things, I would just say two things.

I don't know that it's price gouging as much as it is just a reflection of market conditions.

You know, it's kind of simple supply and demand.

My hope is, I don't set the prices, so I'm not going to speak for other people, but I So my hope is that over time that these costs will come down.

But that said, with all due respect, I think as we began to dig more into, again, pre-COVID, the program and model that you and others, NHSD, have been working on is the estimates were low and the costs are actually greater, and I'm happy to chat offline about that.

But once SPU began to operationalize that plan, the cost did escalate quite considerably.

So, but we can, I'm happy to follow up with you directly about that.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

One question that I didn't get the answer to, the update that we received last week that says that SPU had installed 27 porta-potties and 18 hand-washing stations.

I need to I don't I need to check on that.

You know, these sites are not all two and one.

So I might be just a reflection of they may have taken the aggregate number, but I don't want to let I want to get your real answer and not not speculate.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Deputy Mayor Sixkiller.

I'm sure you will get a follow-up email from Council Member Herbold about that.

I want to recognize Council President Gonzales has a couple closing remarks or a question, rather.

And so I want to make sure we get to her.

Thanks for being generous with your time, Deputy Mayor.

I know we're holding you well past when you said that.

I want to make sure that we can get you out of here soon and appreciate your taking the time.

Council President Gonzalez.

Thank you, Chair Lewis.

I want to just, you know, first, I think, acknowledge that this is a very difficult space for us to all navigate and operate in.

And I think, Deputy Mayor, I think what you are hearing from many of my colleagues is what I hope is a shared frustration and being able to really operationalize what I hope is a mutual goal and intent of standing up appropriate public health trauma-informed strategies and tools to really meet the hygiene needs of folks who do not have the ability to shelter in place as many of us are currently enjoying.

I think I want to first start off by acknowledging the efforts that have been done to date.

And I want to also recognize that we are still falling short on our on our absolute moral obligation and duty to meet the hygiene needs of those who are currently experiencing homelessness.

And, you know, I just want to acknowledge that the fact that the city's pre-COVID strategy, so before COVID, our strategy in this space was unsatisfactory.

And the COVID emergency has made it even more unsatisfactory.

So before the COVID pandemic hit our community, we relied on the graciousness of local businesses to allow bathroom use by people who are experiencing We had some community centers that were available to people experiencing homelessness.

Our public libraries were readily accessible to people experiencing homelessness.

But with the closure of businesses and virtually all public facilities, that means that thousands of people in the city of Seattle have nowhere to shelter during the day or at nighttime.

And they certainly do not have access to toilets and sinks.

So we're talking about a significant amount of people.

And so when I think about what I'm hearing from the executive about what has been made available, it sort of pales in comparison to what the true scale of the need is.

And so I really want us to have a conversation in reality that's based in emergency response principles, that is rooted in public health concepts, and that is truly going to at least attempt to rise to the occasion to meet the scale of the need.

So when I hear that we have 14 port-a-potty somewhere, Two toilets over here and maybe we'll get some mobile.

I mean, I appreciate that, but it's when we're talking about potentially 14 or 2 toilets for upwards of 6000 people.

I just feel like we aren't having a conversation based in reality in terms of what the actual.

need is.

So I want to be able to have that conversation.

I want it to be productive.

I think this is an important opportunity for us to not point fingers, but to collectively come together to meet the critical public health needs of this community.

And I also want us to make sure that we're not conflating COVID-related issues with the realities of the Hep A outbreak that brings us together here today, that is primarily about a lack of access the toilets and sinks in order to engage in handwashing.

And yes, there are some other issues that could be sort of tangential to that related to the COVID crisis, but I want to make sure that we're staying focused on the current need of the population that is emerging, which is a outbreak on top of the risk exposure to this deadly COVID-19 virus.

And so I want to make sure that we're staying focused on that.

And I guess what I want to hear from you, Deputy Mayor, is how we are going to be able to effectively engage with the executive in identifying real solutions that aren't going to be caught up in bureaucracy to be able to roll out some of these important hygiene services to those who need it the most.

And I want to encourage us to really think about the most creative ways that we can do that.

And finding partners that we wouldn't ordinarily think about help us deliver on our obligation to meet the basic hygiene needs of folks who are relying on us as their only safety net.

Well, Council President, I really appreciate your comments, and I hope you're hearing from me not obstinance but a shared frustration.

The needs are great, and the needs have been exasperated by the fact that we have so many businesses closed, so many areas that folks who are experiencing homelessness normally turn to.

And even when those businesses are open, it's not enough.

So I do want to acknowledge that but also I think is important for us to also sort of be in agreement that we are never going to be able to, in this moment, replace that capacity in that scale.

There are too many challenges for us.

That does not mean we're not trying.

It does not mean that we do not want to work in partnership with the council as we go about trying to fill this need, and I agree that we need to think creatively, and we are going to need uh, help in people power, frankly, uh, in order to, in order to advance this, um, you know, and, you know, director Hayes and I have, have spoken about this several times about what our, uh, how we have a program that works, um, that is, again, is, is meeting people's needs and while also protecting them.

And so that gets back to, you know, just the operational, um, decisions we have to make around staffing and cleaning, uh, locations.

And we are methodically working through that as best we can.

But I think today's discussion has been very helpful to me and to all of the executive staff that are also listening in.

And we're open to having that creative conversation.

So Deputy Mayor, I do wanna just give Council Member Strauss an opportunity to jump in.

I'm sorry, I had recognized him earlier and he is in the queue.

And then at that, I'm gonna close out the questions just in respect of the time.

We're almost at the two hour mark for the committee.

So Council Member Strauss.

Chair Lewis, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Deputy Mayor Sixkiller, I look forward to our conversations tomorrow to follow up on the meetings that I have, either coordinating or requesting, as you and your department know, I have not been able to speak about pretty much any other issue than the Ballard Commons Park and the hepatitis A cases for the last number of weeks.

And so I use this time to call on the urgency of this issue.

When I look at what the public, the bathroom facilities that are available on a typical day pre-COVID, just with the Starbucks and the library, that allows for 12 stalls in each location, and currently we only have the Portland Blue and two Santa cans available.

I want to just also signal my appreciation to you to bringing a handwashing station to the Ballard Commons Park when that was not on the original list of locations, because we know that Hepatitis A is a preventable disease virus that We need to have the appropriate hand washing stations appropriate and also thanking you and other departments.

I'm looking at my notes here for the increased sanitation for the increased outreach by the navigation team and also highlighting the fact that we need to be opening bathroom facilities that utilize soap and not not sanitizer.

We need to be.

I've heard reports that people are drinking the water that is being provided for handwashing, and that calls out the attention amount of drinking water food.

Many of this much of this you've already heard from me many times already.

Look forward to our conversations.

I just use all of our conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

All right, so David Miller, Sixkiller, I don't need answer to these immediately.

I just want to flag a couple of things from the presentation earlier with the providers, as well as comments from council colleagues, and we can follow up offline, and I'm sure some of my colleagues will as well.

A couple of things that I thought were raised.

that were interesting and that I'd like to possibly work with the executive on.

It was raised that we have a number of gyms that have been closed in the city due to the public health crisis.

You know, gyms are sort of, you know, all of them have pretty comprehensive locker rooms generally that are well suited to providing hygiene, especially on a big scale.

Typically, there's a lot of folks that are in a gym, so there has to be a lot of shower and hygiene facilities.

That could be a potential area where maybe there are some gyms in the city that'd be interested in contracting and providing hygiene services and might be an interesting area to explore.

Another thing I want to flag earlier, you know, we got an update from our reach folks about a really moving story where she had to provide a pair of her own pants to someone that was on her caseload, just because a lot of resources that do provide uh, uh, help outreach and assistance to folks experiencing homeless, also experiencing their own, um, uh, uh, shutdown or lack of ability to get out there and provide those resources.

I know that the Court Resource Center at the Seattle Municipal Court, um, does have, uh, a, um, a store of clothes that are readily available for members of the public that are, um, uh, that are indigent and in need of, Um, having, um, new clothes provided, uh, and in a time when an issue that I hadn't really considered until this presentation is possibly out there just in having basic access to fresh and clean clothes.

That might be a city resource that's been underutilized during this crisis due to the municipal core being closed where maybe we could tap into that source of clothing and give another resource to our outreach workers.

I wanna circle back the comments around public buildings.

You know, like I said earlier on my council website, I've created a map of the available and open stations, some of which are public buildings that were provided to Jeff on central staff.

Yes, I believe that are open and with the posted hours.

If there's ways to work together and expand that list with more public buildings that could possibly be open, I think that is an area where we could collaborate and work.

on figuring out the feasibility of opening, at least in a limited way, more public buildings for hygiene facilities.

Those are just a few of the things I wanted to flag.

You know, no need to answer now.

If you need to get off, we can follow up offline on this.

But Deputy Mayor, I will give you the last word before you leave, and then we will close out the committee meeting.

Thank you, Councilmember.

We're happy to follow up with you on that and any other questions that the Council has.

And as Councilmember Strauss mentioned, I'm also happy to speak individually with Councilmembers.

You know, again, I think today was a very helpful and insightful conversation.

I'm glad we were able to hear from Colleen and Allison and Jessica and Brittany and Dawn and the first panel.

I'm truly happy that Director Hayes was able to join us as well.

you know, I guess in closing, I would just say, you know, on, on sort of mapping out the existing facilities, again, that's something that we're, we're working very closely on.

I'm really happy that you've put something on your website council member, and I will take a look at that as well and see if there are ways for us to amplify that work as well.

You know, I just want to really emphasize though, that to remind folks, we are, we are working to be responsive, but we are in an incredibly dynamic environment and where the guidance It continues to evolve.

The CDC issued new guidance last week.

Public health continues to refine its guidance.

Our staffing challenges are not just staffing here at the city, but across all of our providers.

So our go-to group of folks and partners are experiencing the same staffing challenges that we have as well.

As I said before, we have requested additional support from the feds, from the state, and from the National Guard.

That is yet to materialize.

So, you know, this is not about us not acknowledging needs or wanting to fulfill those needs, but it is a reality that we have some barriers in being able to do so.

But we are working through those and I want to assure the council that we are doing that and we are doing it in coordination with King County as well, especially within our sheltered and unsheltered homeless population.

These are all issues we're continuing to work through and make sure we have coordination, not just on hygiene, but testing, quarantine and isolation, new housing units.

There are a number of ancillary but related components to this that are complicating factors, but we're leaning in and trying to bring as many solutions and creative ideas forward, and we're happy to continue to engage you and your colleagues as we go here.

So thank you very much for your time.

I really appreciate the opportunity.

All right.

Thank you for the updates.

I appreciate it.

And I know it's a really challenging time for all of us, so I appreciate you being more generous with your time than originally anticipated to answer all the questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Casey.

Thanks, Captain.

Okay so I don't really have any additional closing remarks to the closing remarks that I just made to Deputy Mayor Sixkiller.

I'm sure that we're going to be working together with Fon Central staff here and all of our council colleagues to continue to respond to a lot of the issues that were discussed in this meeting around ongoing hygiene challenges around making sure that those assets are being purchased or being deployed and that we're doing outreach to make sure that people are aware of these assets.

I mean, like I've mentioned a couple times in the presentation, I have mapped that list that was provided to Jeff.

earlier in the week.

I do think that that's a good way to start in being able to look at the distribution of assets.

I mean, to go to Council Member Morales' point earlier, it really does show that there are places in the city where we do have a gap of hygiene services.

So I think that by putting it all out there, by mapping the resources that are available, it helps us to identify where we should be using our advocacy and oversight options to increase, protect, and expand those hygiene investments.

So with that, I just wanted to ask if any council members wanted to make closing remarks or make some comments based on the presentation today and related, if there's any other business for the committee.

And at the conclusion of those comments, I will formally adjourn the meeting.

So anyone who wants to be, any council members who want to be recognized to make some closing remarks.

Okay, seeing none, I will say then that this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you so much for all of you question if that's okay.

Hello.

Oh, yeah, I I just want to put it out there that as providers, we are here to support any information or any of this.

And with the whole process and everything, I know that, you know, there's always risk and concerns and problems that come with with resourcing this large community that has so so many complex challenges.

But as providers, like we are here to give the knowledge of how to minimize those challenges because we work directly with these people that have substance use issues, trauma, behavioral health, and stuff like that.

So instead of like 86-ing, like an idea if it doesn't go well, like the port-a-potties, like destruction or anything like just putting out there that feel free to and please talk to providers to help with those issues.

And that could be also a way to refer people to us and help those people who need it.

And yeah, we're here.

Well, Jessica, thank you so much.

And all the providers on our first panel, we all really appreciate the work that you guys are doing on the front lines at this time when interaction out in the field can have public health implications to it.

And you really are first responders providing a very valuable service.

And I think I speak for everyone on the council where we thank you profoundly for that service.

Uh, council member Morris, did you want to make some remarks?

You're the only one I can't see.

So I just wanted to.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Um, first of all, I join you in saying thank you to the panels and to the mayor's office for coming down and engaging in this conversation.

And, um, I just want to thank those of you, as you said, chairman who are on the front lines.

Um, and I do want to make one quick comment though.

And I think council member Strauss can understand this as well, that I don't want to get into a, some districts have more needs than others, but one area that we're concerned about in the North end, of course, is Lake city and Aurora and Aurora commons and a bunch of other issues that have to do with half a.

Hepatitis.

And so, um, I've learned a lot in today's discussion and I want to thank my colleagues for asking the hard questions.

And I want to thank the mayor's office, particularly Mr. Six killer for trying to respond to some of that.

Most of my issues I can get answered offline.

I also wanna thank Colleen Echo Hawk and her work in Indian country and with native communities.

We've worked closely with her office and the Seattle Indian Health Board.

So we will stay engaged and thank you for your leadership, Chairman.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Okay, with that, hearing no further business and no one seeking to be recognized to make additional comments, I will say that this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you all so much.

Yeah, you're on TV for a second.