HSD Providers Contracts

We did it! After over 10 years of your advocacy, human service providers finally won an inflationary adjustment every year to their contracts with the City of Seattle. It’s not right that inflation occurs almost every year, yet our most vulnerable organizations don’t get an automatic increase so they can adjust. They are being asked to do more with less every year. These are non-profit organizations that contract with the City to provide some of our core human services, services for youth to serving our seniors, domestic violence response to sexual assault prevention, running food banks and meal programs to running homeless shelters. For these critical organizations, without an inflation increases, it makes it hard to pay bills like rent and utilities, let alone pay their (already underpaid) staff to do some of our City’s most critical work. 

The legislation we passed last Monday with the unanimous support of council and the Mayor ensures that HSD providers can keep up with rising costs in our City.  But our work isn’t done yet – we need to work on the historic underfunding of human service providers. For example, we heard stories of workers with master’s degrees in chemical dependency only making around $33,000 a year—it’s hard to survive in Seattle on that wage alone, which is why many of these workers end up being eligible for the same housing and food services their clients qualify for.

As we recognize and work on addressing the historic underfunding in this area, we are also thrilled to celebrate what was passed and honor the hard work and advocacy of the workers and organizational leaders that made the passage of this landmark legislation possible.  Advocates spent months working with my office to make this happen – thank you to: the Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness, the Seattle Human Services Coalition, DESC, Youth Care, SEIU 1199NW, OPEIU 8, Plymouth Housing, West Seattle Helpline, Catholic Community Services, Ballard Food Bank, Muslim Housing, SEIU 775, MLK Labor, my colleague, Councilmember O’Brien, for all of your work and leadership, and so many more! More to come! 

NOIS!

We be passing legislation weekly now! Yesterday, my legislation to update the Seattle’s Notice of Intent to Sell Ordinance (NOIS!) passed unanimously! We all know that Seattle’s current hot real estate market means tenants and affordable housing developers often struggle to compete. Many buyers come with cash in hand and buy up properties within days of being listed, and sometimes buildings are sold without ever being listed at all—leaving few opportunities for lower-income buyers and our non-profit community partners to even make an offer.  

This legislation sharpens a critical tool in our toolbox to expand the ability for tenants, community organizations and non-profit developers to make an offer on multifamily residential rental buildings with at least 2 units or more. In addition to notifying the City and non-profit entities, the property owners will also be required to notify tenants of the building by posting a notice—including information on City resources for first-time homebuyers and renters—in a visible place within the building where tenants can see, which would provide more opportunity and self-determination to renters who may be interested in securing ownership of their buildings. 

The legislation helps connect prospective buyers with resources and technical expertise to make the step towards ownership through workshops facilitated by the Office of Housing. These workshops will bring together renters and tenant groups, community organizations, non-profit affordable housing developers, housing financing entities, realtors and commercial brokers, and owners of rental housing to discuss how to facilitate the sale of buildings to these entities, including technical assistance to prospective buyers so that they are prepared to submit offers to purchase when opportunities arise.

I am super excited about this bill as it’s also a policy highlighted in a recent report by the National League of Cities Housing Task Force to help give cities additional strategies to increase homeownership opportunities and preserve affordable multiunit buildings that come up for sale. I was proud to head to DC to unveil this report with the Mayor of DC (check out this Washington Times story), and even more excited to now be passing this NOIS legislation to put these affordable housing ideas into action!

Let’s Respond to the Homelessness Emergency with Urgency!

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Tacoma Homeless “Stability Site” with Councilmember Ryan Mello HSD (Tacoma at-large, Position 8). I was blown away by the success rate that places at least one-third of the residents into permanent housing from homelessness. In 2017, Tacoma declared a State of Emergency, and then they acted with urgency and stood up the Stability Site within a couple of months. The City of Seattle has been in a Homelessness State of Emergency since 2015, and the number of people sleeping outside has only increased.  

A model like Stability Site gives me hope and a blueprint for Seattle on how we can create more enhanced shelters quickly. The Tacoma Site includes 24 pallet shelters on site as well as a larger tent that has individual spaces inside for a warm or air conditioned place to temporarily call home, as people access health care, counseling, and housing services. During my walk through the shelter, I saw individuals who can maintain a sense of dignity, privacy, safety. People have a sense of community, they are allowed to keep their belongings, and they are not asked to leave a 6 am and line back up at 6 pm. People have 24/7 access to counseling on-site, they have the stability to keep their job, access to transportation to go to job interviews and their medical appointments. We need more of these enhanced shelter options in Seattle.  I’m looking forward to our city including at least 40 pallet shelters in Seattle so we can add to our list of temporary housing options as we BUILD MORE HOUSING!

#TeamTeresa is heading out to Detroit tomorrow for the Local Progress meeting, a yearly convening of progressive local elected officials across the country committed to advancing a shared vision of shared economic prosperity, equal justice under law, livable and sustainable communities, and good government that serves the public interest. Yesterday I learned that we’ve been nominated by the Local Progress network for this year's Ady Barkan Progressive Champion Award. What an honor to be nominated alongside one of my sheros, Minneapolis Council President Lisa Bender, who has been leading the effort for affordable housing and led the effort to reform outdated zoning in Minneapolis.  I am honored! Members attending the convening vote for a nominee and the winner will be announced at the Local Progress reception on Friday, July 26th. It’s a win for progressive values no matter who is selected!

Hasta la Victoria Siempre!