-Well, I'm very excited to be here tonight.
It is so good to see so many people here
who understand that we all have a stake in this effort
to finally start making real, tangible progress
on bringing people inside of homelessness.
Good.
Yep. (laughter)
Homelessness is the single issue
that I hear about most often from almost everybody.
Community members ask me what we're going to do
to rejuvenate their neighborhoods.
Business owners
ask about how we're going to make the city
more lively and welcoming,
and so many caring people ask
about how we're going to make sure
that more people have a safe place to sleep at night.
And anyone walking around our city is left to wonder,
is this the best we can do?
And honestly, for a long time,
it hasn't felt like we're doing our best.
A lot of city staff and service providers
and community
members are doing incredible, valuable work every day.
But progress has been hard to see.
While we've been locked for so long in the same debates,
the fentanyl crisis
and a lack of behavioral health
supports have made things worse.
And I think a lot of people who care deeply about our city
and their neighbors
have started to wonder
whether things could ever actually change at scale.
And I understand that feeling, but I think it's mistaken.
I made my career as a community organizer
and a coalition builder.
I know the power
of working with people from different backgrounds
and different interests and bringing them together
around a shared vision for change.
And there are
so many places where I think we all agree.
In addition to frustration, what I repeatedly hear
from business leaders, service
providers, community activists and people living outside
is that we can't just keep
moving people from place to place
and calling that progress.
We have to aspire to something higher than just
pushing an encampment around the corner
so it's a problem for a different block.
That does not help
to stabilize anyone's lives, and it doesn't work
for the rest of the city either.
And we need to make sure that our parks are trails,
are public spaces that are safe,
welcoming and accessible to everyone.
And the way that we can make both of those things happen
is to actually welcome people inside and provide them with
the services that they need.
And that is a plan that can bring people together
from different neighborhoods
and different perspectives to finally make real progress.
And that's what we're here to do.
I'm committed to opening 1000 new units of shelter
and emergency housing this year when. Yes.
And when we show that this works, that shelters are open,
that people are getting the support that they need
and that neighborhoods are the better for it.
We build the public will.
We need to reach 4000 units over four years?
Or what's more important to dramatically reduce
the rates of unsheltered homelessness in our city?
The number of people
who are sleeping outside every single night.
And I know that these are big numbers, right?
Especially when the Seattle Times reports
that the city added just 13 units of shelter over
the previous four years.
So meeting this goal, I know is going to take incredible
focus from my office, from the whole city government
and from service providers and from all of us.
It will take new resources in a time of tight budgets
and we'll take the whole city
pitching in to make it happen.
When I first started talking about these numbers,
I heard a lot of skepticism from a lot of places.
Yes, there were certainly questions about the logistics
and the funding and how different departments
were going to carry out
my executive order that set the stage for this work.
But the most skepticism and was about
whether it was actually possible
to build community support for a new shelter citywide,
because the conventional political wisdom
is that neighborhoods will always say no,
that everyone wants shelter to be tucked out of sight
in someone else's neighborhood.
That is better to just work quietly and follow the path
of least resistance.
Because the politics are just too hard.
I don't buy that.
And that's not the kind of mayor that I want to be.
And that's why we're here today,
because I have also heard over and over again
from people
and from business leaders who actually want
to be part of the solution.
They just need to believe that
we're actually making progress and that they're part of it.
And I believe that all of you are willing to welcome
well-run shelters with wraparound services
in your own neighborhoods
and the places that you live, work and spend time.
So instead of letting people battle over
individual projects
without any overall vision, we are looking citywide.
This is a citywide problem,
and it's going to take a citywide effort to solve it.
So my team will be providing a more detailed briefing
of our approach to siting, operating and funding new
shelter, showing our work since I've taken office.
But before that, I'm happy to make a couple
of first announcements about where we'll be moving
quickly to open new shelter in the months ahead.
So after careful
review, we're ready to announce the first site
of many to come.
We have signed a lease on a property on Armory.
Armory way in Winter Bay
Pallet Shelter has been selected
to build a micro modular shelter
where wraparound services will be provided
for more than 75 unsheltered people with behavioral health
needs.
And I also want to thank Amy King, CEO of Pallet Shelter,
for moving quickly to help stand up this new site.
We are also expediting several shelter programs
which were already in the development process,
including the glass Yard
common site, which will serve about
90 people in southwest Seattle,
Nichols Villas Brighton Village, which will serve
about 15 people in southeast Seattle.
And thanks to my team's work, these sites could open
months sooner than would otherwise have been possible.
We are also in active discussions
with several property owners for buildings
that we can master, lease and use as emergency housing,
as well as other micro modular sites
that we will be announcing very soon.
So these are just the first sites
in what will be an ongoing citywide effort.
I also want to take a moment to thank Governor Gregoire
and challenged Seattle and four of their members,
specifically Microsoft, John Stanton and Terry Gillespie,
T-Mobile and Starbucks for partnering with us,
helping us to move more quickly
and scale up this effort to bring more people inside.
And we will share more on that partnership soon.
Thank you also to Councilmember
Strauss and Foster,
who have been incredible partners in this effort.
And I don't want to leave out the other council members.
All the council members are working with us
and we're really grateful for their partnership.
Thank you also to the incredible
service providers
we've been working in partnership with,
including including the Low Income Housing Institute,
Catholic Community Services Chief, Seattle Club,
Evergreen Treatment
Services, the Downtown Emergency Service Center,
Therapeutic Health Services, Purpose, Dignity Action
and Emanuel Community Services.
And a special shout out to Alison Eisinger
and the Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness
for supporting advocacy around this work.
And I'll say just one more thing.
The fact that so many of you
are here today really makes a difference.
There's been this assumption for a long time
that it's hard to rally community support
around new shelters and that it's always
going to be a vicious fight where nobody wins.
But you being here begins to tell a different story.
It tells me that Seattle is a place
where we care for each other
and that when we have a vision to do better,
people show up to be part of it.
So thank you all for being here.
-Hello, everyone.
Welcome to our community event.
As Danielle mentioned, I'm Nicole Stafford.
I am working closely with an interdepartmental team
that is really spearheading this shelter accelerator work.
And I want to share in the spirit, as the mayor said,
in the spirit of sharing our work,
we'd like to dive a little bit deeper
into some of the activities that have been happening
over the last couple of months
and plans for the next few months ahead.
Let's go to the next slide.
So I want to step back
just a little bit and highlight
what the mayor mentioned
about the different program models we're looking at
and the different types of sites that we're looking at.
The first being a micro
micro shelter, otherwise known as tiny house villages.
And we're looking at multiple potential public
and privately owned sites to accelerate these.
We're also looking at master leased apartments
and these are multifamily properties that could be used
to house people in emergency and RV safe parking lots.
And then again, across all of these sites,
we might have different populations
and different needs, but we'll be following
best practices,
and particularly for those populations
with high needs, which will be the sort
of first priority for this first wave.
We'll have wraparound support, behavioral health,
onsite specialists
and substance use disorder treatment.
Thanks, Heidi.
And so I want to give
you also a little bit of a timeline view.
Who doesn't love a timeline view?
And it kicks off with the mayor signing her
executive order on shelter acceleration.
And very quickly,
the same day that that
announcement happened,
we got all of our department leaders together
that have some role to play in
shelter expansion and setting up shelter.
And we immediately started on site vetting and selection.
So that meant reviewing all of the publicly available
land we have at the city's disposal,
county land, land owned by the Washington State
Department of Transportation.
We also did a full effort to, you know,
look at private property that might be available to us.
And we even
got some of our
permitting departments and engineers and specialists
together for eight different site visits
so that we could really kick the tires on these sites
to see if we could set them up quickly.
And then in parallel, there was a pretty big budget
and policy development exercise we underwent.
We brought, again, all of our departments
together to lay out an end to end view
of what it takes to stand up shelter
and and really ask
the hard question of what can we do faster?
Where are we
as the city being a bottleneck in this process?
And through that,
we kind of gave recommendations
where we thought
policy could help us unlock some of these processes.
So on April 4th, there was a community event
at Sound Foundation and we transmitted
three pieces of legislation that we think
are going to be critical to helping us move quicker.
And then since then, there
have been many council committee meetings.
And I do want to highlight an opportunity for everyone
that cares about building more shelter in Seattle.
On April 14th,
there'll be a
Finance Committee hearing that you're open to to testify.
And then also in parallel, and that'll be the
theme of my talk is in parallel.
In parallel,
we are also going through a service provider matching
exercise.
So as we're finding sites,
we're also thinking about who might be a suitable
developer for the site and operator
for the site and matching with behavioral health services.
We had a if you want to go back.
We also had a roundtable with many
of the service providers that Mayor Wilson
gave a shout out to to help inform our strategy.
We know
there have been shelters
operating in the city for many years
and we can learn from from their experiences.
And then they'll also be a larger sort of provider
summit happening at the end of this month.
And then as soon as providers and sites are selected,
we get to do a robust community engagement process
in partnership with them
to make sure we're bringing along
our neighbors and our key stakeholders.
And then, of course, site development,
which is where a lot
of our permitting department expertise comes in,
that we can provide the sort of wraparound support
that we haven't necessarily had at the city
to help navigate
our often really complex permitting processes.
Next slide.
So I just want to highlight we did the exercise.
What does it take to stand up a shelter?
You'll see there's lots of
small steps that often happen consecutively.
And so our challenge was this might take like
up to a year, How can we do that faster?
We should be able to do this faster.
So if you go to the next slide, that meant
what can we do different about provider selection?
How could the city take a little bit
more ownership in site selection and development?
And if you go to the next slide,
we magically turn it into something running in parallel
and we think we can bring this down to 3 to 5 months.
But it really is an exercise in and trying something new.
And if you click the next slide,
we really need legislation to be able to unlock this
so that the city can take
ownership of site and develop it faster
and then pass it along to an operator
who has the expertise to run the rest of the process.
And then if you go to the next slide,
I want to quickly touch on the legislative package
that's going to help us unlock this new process.
The first one is a signing authority for our finance
and administrative services director.
This is going to allow us to
sign leases on private property to then
work in parallel in finding a provider,
get the site up and ready and pass it off.
And then there's a legislation around funding $4.9 million
to help expand shelter this year.
And I want to note that both the signing authority
and the funding are going to be going
through the finance Committee on that April 14th.
And then finally, we have a census limit legislation
that's going to allow us to
expand sites that are already working.
There are a lot of city properties
that might already have a tiny house village on it.
And so in order to make best use of our public assets
and to really stretch our tax dollars even further
and providing the sort of resource
we need to be able to to do that.
And that's
not to say
every model needs to be
a large model or have a certain number of sites.
It just gives us
the flexibility to use our dollars the wisest.
So if you go to the next slide,
as Mayor Wilson mentioned, we did just recently sign
leases on our 1551 West Armory Way name pending for that
location still, but it's 75 units.
Micro shelter model, pallet shelter to be developing that
and Emanuel community services in partnership
with everybody deserves housing as the operator
and it we'll be focusing on a higher needs population
so we will be having onsite appropriate onsite services
to help support
those high needs, including case management,
behavioral health support and substance use treatment.
So if you go to the next slide,
I also want to shout out,
as the mayor mentioned, we have already on our radar.
These were already planned sites, but we're also in court
like rallying our permitting departments to really expedite
the processes.
And wherever a provider is stuck on these sites,
figuring out how we can how we can work through it
and how we can get these set up.
So this is also planned for 2026.
And the next slide,
I also want to touch on
a little bit of the public safety aspect
and community partnership with regard to public safety.
You can kind of think about it through three
different lenses,
and this is something we've shared with counsel
throughout this whole process as well
is around first one around operational safety.
We're going to have 24 seven staffing
and defined site boundaries at all of these sites.
As far as community expectations.
All of our residents who join these sites will be
will agree to a resident community code of conduct
to respect all neighbors and shared spaces in the area.
And then we'll also have community advisory committees
tied to each of these sites where neighbors can come
and join monthly meetings
to give feedback and work in partnership
with the operator of developing the site.
And if you go to the next slide,
I just also want to note two pieces
on sort of neighborhood coordination.
The Good Neighbor Agreement, every site,
every operator will be signing a good neighbor agreement
to work alongside our
neighbors and address concerns in an appropriate manner.
And then around site safety design,
this is something we'll be partnering
with the police, Seattle Police Department.
And as we're even designing so very upfront over
upstream in the process,
how can we incorporate best practices from what's
called crime prevention through environmental design?
So that's September.
So how can we leverage things like lighting and increased
sightlines to help
not only
increase safety
for those living
in the sites themselves,
but also for the surrounding neighborhood?
And then we also have a fire safety review baked again
into our design process
and then as an inspection to ensure that all
sites are safe, secure and meet our fire codes.
So that was a lot of information.
But just kind of want to show you where we're at.
We're excited to soon be able to announce even more sites.
And then I will say I'll give a plug to
if you know of any landlords that have private property
that is on flat paved land that you think
might be good for this, please send it our way.
We'd love to continue to gather more options for sites
or if there's a nonprofit
organization with Underutilized land,
we'd love to partner with you
as we continue to expand our options.
-Cool.
I'm really excited to
be back up here moderating this amazing panel.
So I'm just going to ask our panelists some questions.
And then I think
after that, we're going to have
a little bit of time for for the Q&A. So,
Erika, I'd like to start with you
and maybe I don't know if you want
to tell people a little bit about your background,
but the question I have for you
is public safety is something everyone cares about.
From your perspective, what does it mean for someone
to have a truly safe place to sleep at night?
-Sorry, Can you hear me?
Okay? My name is Erika Frodsham.
I'm a senior outreach specialist with Co-lead.
And I come here with lived experience
as somebody coming with many years living outside
in the city of Seattle, north Seattle, mostly.
And decades of substance use.
I have now been off of substances
and inside for almost ten years...
and work.
I now work with folks that are living outside
in Seattle, houses in Seattle and bringing them
inside to our lodging program.
So that's enough about me.
It's really kind of boring.
What Public safety is something we all care about.
What does it mean for someone
to have a truly safe place to sleep at night?
I thought about this question
a lot when I found out
where exactly this meeting was being held.
So when I started doing this
work, I worked in overnight shelters
in City Hall
and I remember
being here and in the beginning and I
it baffled me that people when you once you entered,
you could not leave until the morning.
And it baffled me that people would come in
for an hour or
two and then leave.
It's out in the cold.
And I didn't get it.
I didn't understand it.
And the more I've done this work,
I understand
now that they had to make that choice
of whether they were going to be inside and safe and warm
or outside
so that they could get well or not
experience DTS because they needed a drink
or because that was the only time
that they could make money
to be able to survive the next day.
So they had to choose survival or safety.
And that's not okay.
We can't we can't have systems like that.
That's not that.
That's I think I got a little bit off of topic, but
in order for somebody to truly be safe,
they need to be able to not have to choose
which needs need to be met.
-Thank you, Erica.
I want to turn now to Dennis.
Can you talk a little bit
about the role that businesses have already played
in responding to homelessness
and housing instability in Seattle?
-Absolutely. Happy to, Mayor.
Thank you.
And also just want to recognize
many of the providers, the residents, folks
in the crowd here
who've advocated and supported these policies.
And we're grateful for you
moving forward with these three ordinances.
The businesses have been long active,
working on approaches to support,
responding to homelessness and housing instability.
Many of the businesses recently supported
the doubling of the housing levy in 2023.
That's a record level of
investment in housing across all levels of the spectrum
and really creates
an opportunity for to bring people inside.
I had the opportunity to work
for a housing provider for four and a half years
and we created over 500 units of housing, permanent
supportive housing,
and during some of that time period and really provide
an opportunity for people to get inside
the housing levy
will create 3000 new homes by 2030 and
is just a really excellent investment and use of funding.
But separately, businesses are also
a huge contributor to the tax base that creates
opportunities to develop new types of housing
and also provide services in wraparound housing,
including enhanced shelter
and permanent supportive housing.
Some of those funding sources include jump start funding,
funding for social housing and the new changed B.N.O. tax.
Those combined are many of the largest businesses
pay those costs and
that raises more than half a billion dollars each year.
And much of that funding goes
towards housing and homelessness.
You've also seen a tremendous amount of investments
from companies like Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft
that have created
thousands of units for people in this region.
Separately on the philanthropy side.
-Thank you, Dennis.
thank you, Dennis.
Awesome. Okay.
And then Margaret,
So you're you're a neighbor to a tiny house village.
What initial concerns did you hear from neighbors
when the village was proposed,
and how has that evolved over time?
-Thanks, and thanks for having me here.
And I'm glad to see so many people here
hope their other neighbors like me here.
And yeah, I live in Lake City and
around the summer I heard about a public meeting
being held about a new tiny home village in Lake City.
And I went to that meeting not knowing where
it was going to be sited. And it turns out that it's
about four blocks from my house.
And I went to that meeting
knowing that
some good things about tiny house villages,
but really having a lot of questions.
And so I heard the questions that, you know,
there were my questions
or my neighbors questions at that meeting last summer.
There have been other discussions since then.
And just recently
I helped organize a little community zoom
with people to learn more about the village
now that it's just opened up.
So, you know, one of the
one of the challenges
with this in the neighborhoods is that,
you know, in my neighborhood in Lake City,
probably not unlike many others in the city,
you know,
there has been a lot of frustration
with not seeing solutions to this problem.
So this conversation, unfortunately, kind of starts
there.
It starts from a place of frustration,
of some skepticism of concern.
Some people come in with fears and,
you know, a sense of neglect.
And the first reaction, therefore, you know,
is sometimes a hard one in these community meetings.
But what I saw happen
and what is continuing to happen
as people learn about it is once people hear
about how this tiny house village
is going to be operated by co-lead,
it's really an amazing service model.
It will be staffed 24 seven.
They have security.
They have
all sorts of services that wrap around service model
for the residents.
There are required case management meetings
for every resident every week to stay in the village.
I've now volunteered.
I got so excited about it.
I volunteered to be on the Community Advisory Council.
We're just
about to start meeting and there are going to be ways
that community members can say, Hey,
there's something going on at this village
that we need you to know about.
It needs to be addressed.
So what I've seen happen is that as people
learn the nuts and bolts of how these villages
will operate, how they're going to be staffed,
how the residents will be served,
those concerns start to fade away.
And I have seen like
like for myself,
I really didn't have more time in my schedule,
but I said I want to help more with this.
And I've seen other neighbors saying,
you know, how can we donate clothing?
How can we donate something to this?
It's gotten people excited about solutions.
I'm sure there's still naysayers
there that have to see it happen.
That's okay. But for a lot of us,
it's the solution we were looking for.
And I just add that, you know,
some of the statistics I've heard
are really impressive, too.
I had seen the maple leaf, tiny house village be created
some time back and to hear that
when last summer the statistic I heard was 59%
of the people that have gone into that tiny house villages
have now gone on to permanent housing.
That's amazing.
That's the solution we've all been looking for.
So it's going to take some time and education.
But I really believe that people in Seattle
are ready to see this solved. So thank you.
-Thank you.
Thank you, Margaret.
So, Erika, coming back to you,
what does meaningful support look like
for someone to come inside and be able to stay inside,
especially for people with complex needs?
-I think that varies
for each person, each individual person.
But really it starts with a conversation
in re humanizing
somebody, giving somebody some hope that
that that things can look different
and things can be different.
It just takes some work.
I think it takes a lot of walking alongside people
and letting, you know, just been having real
honest conversations with people about
whatever their challenges are, whatever their barriers are,
and normalizing it so that there's a level of trust.
Because once there's a level of trust,
there's open communication and open dialog.
I've seen it happen many, many times
where people come in and
have been pushed
aside for so long and pushed away
that it takes some time for some trust to be built.
And as that trust is built, they become
they become more open
and more honest about what's
really going on in their lives.
And it's through those deep conversations and
and trust that's built when somebody is ready
for some change in their life to make a change,
they know where they can go to to receive those services.
We all know that when somebody wants to like
has that moment where they want change
and they want to do something different,
you don't have very long.
And so like when you've built that trusting relationship
with somebody
that that knows the resources and can make the phone calls
and can get you to where you need
to go to make that next step,
it happens so much easier.
I can't tell you
how many times in my active use that I went to detox
and I would make it through detox
and there wouldn't be a treatment bed open.
And so then I was I would return to
where I was at and I would make it for maybe
a day or two before, like I was vulnerable.
I was a woman and I was on the street.
And so I needed something to keep me awake.
So I was safe because I wasn't safe to sleep.
And so, like being able to have that that support,
that that wraparound support that
so you have somebody working on your side
to make sure that when you you if you decide that
that's the route that you want to take
when you're done with detox,
that you have a treatment bed open.
And then when that treatment bed is open,
what is housing look like for you now?
What is going to be safe for you?
Right.
And trying to do that on your own is nearly impossible.
It's so difficult.
But when you have it, when you have built
those relationships with people
and and you have wraparound case management
and you have a community you now have
and I'm not trying to be
cliche here a village surrounded around you,
but I just came in my head.
I saw
like it just makes it
it it creates a space for hope,
which is where change comes from. Right.
Change stems from hope.
And so that's.
Yeah,
you too.
-Thank you, Erica.
Back to Dennis.
Why does this moment call for a
coordinated citywide response?
-Thank you, Mayor.
I really appreciate that question.
And I want to talk just really briefly about DSA
as a DSA is a membership organization that represents
1200 businesses and residents throughout the downtown core,
but also many of you may not know that the DSA manages
the Metropolitan Improvement District.
One of my coworkers is here.
He's an ambassador.
Yeah.
Hey, thanks for the work you do.
There are 165 ambassadors throughout the city
and many people don't know that they work 7:30 a.m.
to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday.
And a lot of us who arrive to work later in the day
see clean streets and don't see a lot of debris
and also see people who often have been helped
or have been referred to services with PDA
or with REACH or with the care team.
And that can happen in part
because those ambassadors are out there
doing wake up every morning.
And those ambassadors really understand and see the
the they're
the eyes on the ground
and really doing that work every day.
They serve from I-5 to the waterfront and Danny
to the stadiums.
And, you know,
they really experience the gaps in the system.
You know, there are times where,
you know, they face challenges,
where there may be people who are unresponsive
and it's difficult
to get to get them assistance right away.
So we try and work with speed or medic one
and get them the care that they need.
But what we realize is that we can't do it alone.
We know that it's important to partner with groups
like PTA, with REACH, with the Unified Care team
to really try and coordinated effort to get people inside
so that they have a safe place to stay.
And they don't have to be worried
about sleeping at night.
Yeah.
-Thank you, Dennis. Yes.
And yeah, I actually didn't realize
that there were that many ambassadors,
but that's such a such a successful
and important program. So thank you.
Margaret, what has your day to day experience
been like living near the tiny house village?
And I know you spoke a little bit to this already,
but if there's anything you want to add about
what have you seen that helps neighbors, helps people move
to from concern to connection with the village?
-Okay.
Well,
so the Olympic Hills Townhouse Village,
I think it might be the newest one in the city.
So it just opened in February
and my understanding is that all of the 44
units are already,
you know, designated assigned
for people that are going to come in off the street.
Some people have already come in.
Other people are moving in.
So we're still pretty new. But,
you know, I took a walk down there today
on a nice sunny midday day.
And, you know, it's a very nice looking village.
It is tucked into an empty lot and it's got
a security fence around it.
It's got great facilities inside.
So it was all quiet and tidy there.
And then I was really excited to see a public health
Seattle King County van outside.
So I'm I'm a public health professional myself.
So I got all nosy and went up and talked to them.
And they are the street medicine team
and they come up to Lake City every Wednesday.
They'll be regularly stopping
by the village every Wednesday, and
they were helping a resident with some foot care.
And it's great to know about them.
Great to know that they're coming up
and helping neighbors.
And so these are the services
that we're seeing and it kind of comes back to that.
You know,
what will help people feel more comfortable with that?
And then what I will say, it made me feel comfortable
and I think is helping neighbors
feel more comfortable is,
you know, if you're someone that has concerns about this,
try to find some time, get out and go to an open house.
Like going to the open house for the tiny house
village was great because you go in and you
I talked to co-lead staff.
I could walk through the village and see facilities there.
It changes it from being like,
you know, maybe a little bit scary
or just unknown place in your neighborhood to like,
I know what's going on in there.
I see. I see what it is.
I had a similar experience
with Tent City for that is still in Lake City
and I'm glad they're staying in Lake City
because they've been good neighbors with us.
But you know, going
going to one of their community
open houses and talking to some folks that live there,
I help them move a year ago and discovered that
that the lights go off and somebody needs to move
more maybe or
okay, well, we're saving energy.
Okay, here we go.
Okay.
So, yeah, I think what can help people
move to more comfort is is getting involved in some way.
When I went to help tent city for move
first of all I what I heard
is that the residents and the staff plan the move
and it's like they were so efficient
that by the time volunteers like me showed up,
they'd already moved most of the stuff.
But I got to help that, help some folks there
reassemble a big community tent,
which was like a huge jigsaw puzzle of PVC pipes.
And we actually had a really good time
working together, figuring it out.
And I walked away wishing that all of my work teams
would be as collaborative as the folks in Tent City
for when we were figuring out
why there weren't enough of this piece in that piece.
And so and then also through those experience is
I think what will
help us all feel more comfortable is starting to
really put those human faces on things,
maybe figure out ways that we can learn more stories
about these neighbors of ours and the different ways
that they are working to get their lives back together
and the struggles that they have gone through.
Because, you know,
when I think about times, these
I mean, times are hard for all of us
in different ways. Right now,
we're all struggling with something, right?
Everyone's just struggling with different levels.
And the more we can kind of see each other on that level,
I think that's where our comfort level changes
and that's where the progress really starts to be made.
-Thank you, Margaret.
And yeah, big shout out to share.
Really know how to operate a tent city.
Okay, let's come back to Erica.
What do people most often misunderstand
about being unhoused, particularly for folks
facing substance use or other barriers?
I think the most common misconception
is that people choose to be homeless.
homelessness is not a choice that somebody makes.
It's, it's a
that's I'm trying to choose the right word.
I don't want to be read this later.
it's cause and effect.
Something like any one of us
is subject to
circumstance.
I know many people that are
one poor choose choice away from being outside.
One lay off
not enough to pay their rent.
So I think that the the misconception
misconception that people choose to be homeless is,
well, I can't say what I really want
to say B.S. but,
and then another one that came to mind
when I read that question was
I just recently heard this and I and it's and it's like
embedded in my mind is that people talk about
service resistant clients, and I don't believe
that we have service resistant clients.
We have client resistant services.
That's not mine.
But I took it.
I think I think that
most thoughts that we have without having
a conversation with somebody and asking them the question
of why they're homeless
is a misconception
because everybody's story is different.
But what I do know is that they didn't
choose to be that way.
It's yeah,
Thank you.
And I think we're going to give Dennis
the last word real quick answer here,
because I know we got to get to the question.
So how does housing stability connect to the health
of our business districts and local economy?
I'm I'm going to say that,
you know,
businesses really care deeply about their environment,
about people that work with the businesses, but also
about their neighbors.
We recognize that this is such an important time
to really make this investment.
And I think businesses also
want to communicate that we recognize that this needs
this is these ordinances are a great first step,
but really consistent wraparound services
are what's needed to provide stability and really
address individuals on a case by case basis.
And I think DSA and our members are committed to
working with PTA, with REACH, the Unified Care Team.
We're happy to have been working
with your administration
to try to find a way to not only support the
creation of these shelters, but also create an environment
where people can build trust and be ready to,
move into them once they're made available.
So we're ready to work with you.
We recognize that that investment is significant.
The $4.9 million has been referenced is just the start.
We've been advocating to lift $11.1 million proviso
that was put into the legislation last year.
But I think we need continued growth and investment
to be able to provide
that wraparound services and deliver on your vision.
So thank you.
Awesome.
Thank you.
So Okay,
so we're going to go to some questions,
but let's
let's give a round of applause for all our panelists.
Thank you, Erika, Margaret, Dennis,
we're going to run through as many questions
as we can in a short amount of time
for those
who still have questions or if you're watching
you can send them to Seattle
dot gov sigma, you can find the contact your mayor button.
So I'll kick this first one over.
How will you ensure that folks placed in emergency shelter
will have opportunities for sustained housing beyond
the World Cup?
I have I have a feeling that a lot of these questions
are going to be for me to Pamela,
but feel free to ask questions of the panelists.
Yeah.
So, I mean, you know, we're we're focusing right now
on expanding emergency housing and shelter
to help people off the streets
out of unsheltered homelessness.
And we recognize
how important it is
to be creating pathways to permanent housing
so that people aren't stuck in our shelter system forever.
So that's another thing that we are working on.
And I just want to acknowledge that we're in
a challenging time for that right now where, for example,
you know, permanent supportive housing is under threat
by the federal government.
So we're having to make sure that we're able
to sustain our existing permanent supportive housing
and the the kind of pipeline
of new permanent supportive housing
is facing some real challenges right now.
So that's
just as they were in a challenging moment for this.
But we're going to be doing everything that we can
to expand the housing that is available to people
coming out of our
shelter system to make sure that people aren't
stuck in shelter forever.
And we're going to be creative, right?
We're working with our affordable
housing providers on strategies
to make sure that we're making the maximum
use of our affordable housing stock.
And, well, yeah, we're going to
we're going to keep working on that, too.
What kind of oversight will be provided?
I hope the new shelters will have sufficient caseworkers.
Yes. So I think as you heard in the earlier presentation,
the focus on these initial 500 units of shelter
that we're trying to stand up are going to focus on
the kind of
high acuity
people are,
people who are have complex
needs coming out of homelessness.
And so these shelter sites are going to have 24 seven
staffing and case management and other services on site.
So we're we're being
intentional about making sure
that people have the support
that they're going to need on site.
Curious what the opportunities might be for including safe
parking for cars, not just RVs in expansion plan
since about half of homeless people are in regular cars?
That's a good question.
I don't know that I have a good answer to that.
I also just I know there's members
of my team here who've been working on this.
So if anyone wants to step up and provide an answer.
But yeah, I that's a good a good point.
Maybe that's one we're going to have on our facts page
soon to come on the Shelter expansion website.
What will be the funding mechanism?
What will security, public safety look like?
So we've identified,
I believe, about $17.5 million to stand up these initial
500 units of emergency housing and micro shelters.
So the smaller amount that you mentioned is
what's going through council.
But there's other funding in the city budget
that we've identified that we're able to
use without council action.
And we're going to be working as we work
toward the city budget process this fall to make sure
that we're allocating ongoing operating funds, to make sure
that we can continue operating those sites
with with the services that that they need.
So that's a little bit
about how we're thinking about the funding at the moment.
We're also as I kind of alluded to,
working with philanthropic partners.
So we're going to be probably making some announcements
soon about that.
But we're welcoming money from all directions too,
to help with this a team effort.
We have many empty apartments now.
Seattle Times says 10% of affordable housing is empty.
Why don't we use what we have first before building more?
And so there are a
complex reasons why there have been
higher than ideal vacancy rates in
some of our affordable housing buildings.
So part of this is a little bit of a mismatch between
the kind of units that we've focused on building
so that we have a lot of especially studios and.
Then just because of the way that the housing market
has developed,
we have a situation
where often the kind of a private market
studio is not that much more expensive
than a quote unquote affordable studio.
So that's part of the reason.
And then there's there's also been a lot of
factors coming out of the pandemic
that have affected affordable housing providers ability to
to keep their buildings full, including sometimes
mismatches between the tenants who are in a building
and the kind of support that they need
and their behavioral health needs and a building
that's not able to accommodate that,
that doesn't have the services that they need.
So anyway, that's just to say that
the problem is not that people
don't need that housing, obviously.
And so that that is something that we are working on
in partnership with affordable housing providers
to figure out how we can address
some of those problems.
And some of that might mean,
you know, one idea that we've been talking about
is basically the city
buying down rent in some of those empty units
so that it's affordable to people
at a at a lower income level.
So I agree that we need to be
using our affordable housing as effectively as possible.
And also we need way more affordable housing.
So, no, we should not stop trying
to build affordable housing in the meantime,
can the empty gravel lots at Swedish Cherry Hill
potentially be used as a site or other major
institution owned properties
that don't have plan development and expansion?
Yeah, I mean, we're we are open to ideas so sense
and those ideas our way
and we can chase them down and see what's possible.
How will you ensure that shelter bed sites
will continue to receive appropriate operating funding?
How do you plan to ensure this continues to be funded?
That's basically the answer I gave before.
This is a matter of how we design our city budget.
So that's obviously something that's
going to be very important
as we into this fall's budget budgeting process.
And we welcome advocacy, pushing from all of you
to make sure that we have the funds
necessary to keep operating these sites
in the manner that they need to be operated.
Everyone just had questions for the mayor.
Now, the panelists.
All right.
What is the role of the King County homelessness
Authority now?
Is so they King County
Regional Homelessness Authority.
Right. Is basically
a contracts that previously were operated
or were run through the city
and the county are now run through the King
County Regional Homelessness Authority in this initial
500 unit,
500 units that were standing up the city.
We're actually doing this in-house at the city.
So we're not doing this through the King County
Homelessness Authority.
And a lot of that had to do with
the King County Regional Homelessness
Authority kind of already has its budget
and plan for this year.
And so
because we're doing this additionally
to what was already planned
and we have found money within the city budget
and we're doing all of this kind of in-house also
for reasons of speed and right.
The process that Nicole
went through in in the slide presentation.
Right.
We had to do a lot of work internally at the city
to compress all of this into a few months.
So we're not going through the authority.
I'm now a new board member, the King
County Regional Homelessness Authority.
So that's going to be
an ongoing conversation over the rest of this year of
the role that that authority will play in this effort
as we move forward beyond this initial 500 units.
I've got the same funding.
QUESTION
So to close us out, I'm
going to offer a different question to the panel.
Anyone who may want to speak to this,
but what does it look like
in practice to be a good neighbor?
Okay, I'll take a look.
All right.
Yeah, that was one of the questions that I got
in advance.
And I was thinking about that. And,
you know,
in any of my experiences with neighbors
and neighborhoods, it's got to work both ways, right?
So I think part of being good neighbors is that
we should all try to be welcoming
to these new shelters, these tiny house villages.
And then we should also help them be successful
by communicating back when there is a problem.
And, you know,
one of the things that I'm
glad of with the village in my area is,
you know, we are going to have we have contact information
so that if there is a problem,
if someone's sensing a problem
in the community or they have a concern,
there's someone to go to to talk to.
And what I'm to be encouraging all my neighbors
to do is to use that, you know, communicate back
and see if the problem can be solved.
You know,
let's resist the urge to just go
rant on social media,
because I can pretty much guarantee you
that will not solve any problems. Right.
But there are systems that are going to be set up
to communicate both ways.
And what I also hope that we can do,
and we've already been doing
in my neighborhood with the folks
that live at Tent City for is,
you know, their community members.
When I see them at public meetings or,
you know, at the farmer's market,
say, hi, welcome them.
You know, they're folks that live in our neighborhood.
And that may or may feel funny at first, but it's not
once you get used to talking to these folks and realizing
they care about the neighborhood, too. So
thank you again to our panelists, Erica.
Margaret Dennis,
again, if you have more questions,
please send them to Seattle.
Dot gov slash mayor a contact the mayor
and we'll be putting together
a facts page on the shelter extension website.
And to close this out, Mayor Wilson will share next steps.
Thank you all.
Okay. I'm
not sure how many next steps I'm actually going to share,
but I'm going to say thank you to everyone for being here.
So my team launched this effort
out of a deep belief
that we really can bring people together
from across the city to join in and make progress
in welcoming new shelters across the city
so that we can bring more people inside
and today we're proving that to be true.
It's a really heartwarming thing
to see service
providers, neighbors, formerly homeless people, businesses,
the whole city coming together to address this crisis.
I'm really looking forward to sharing more specific
location details
just as soon as those lease agreements are signed.
And, of course,
providers will be announcing
neighborhood community meetings
after that to discuss the details
of each of these locations before permits are filed.
We will make sure that that information is out there.
And I want to thank our partners on the city council
for being a part of this effort in every way.
And my ask to all of
you is to stay engaged, stay involved
and make your voices heard, because we need you
at every step in this process.
We need you at those community meetings.
We need you at city council,
and we need you there to welcome new neighbors
into your neighborhood. So thank you so much.
I feel really confident
that together
we can take on this enormous challenge
and we can accomplish big things.
And ultimately, it's going to be because of all of you.
So thank you.