Divesting $16M from King County Jail for Housing and Health

The American criminal legal system disproportionately harms members of our communities of color by perpetuating grave injustices such as disproportionate arrests, biased policing and punishments. This is why in 2017, I took action. During the budget I directed the City’s Budget Office to review the City’s contract with King County Jail. It has always been my goal to reduce our reliance on incarceration, and instead direct investments into housing and health programs that will benefit communities that are too often overpoliced and most harmed by the carceral system.

As a result of our advocacy, earlier this month King County and City of Seattle announced an agreement to repurpose $16M of jail operating funds towards community-based health and housing programs instead.

These investments will positively impact the lives and communities of those who are too often criminalized for their race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status.

Seattle’s Recovery & Revitalization Update: 
$18M of 2020 CARES Funding for Health, Food, and Families

On Monday, April 26th, Council adopted Council Bill 120041 which delivers $18 million of COVID-19 relief with 2020 CARES federal funds. Together with Mayor Durkan and Councilmember Mosqueda, I co-sponsored a spending plan that increases food access for families and children as well as at shelters, food banks, and for permanent supportive housing residents. The $18M will also provide grants to childcare providers, enhance COVID-19 vaccine outreach for hard to reach communities, and extend funding for the Clean Cities Initiative. I am heartened to know that the many individuals and households hardest hit by this pandemic will see additional relief in 2021.

With this work completed, my focus is now shifting towards developing a spending plan, with Councilmember Mosqueda and Mayor Durkan, for the initial $119M of American Rescue Plan federal funds. I have been busy meeting with downtown and neighborhood constituents to hear directly what they believe is needed for Seattle’s pandemic recovery.

If you have any thoughts you’d like to share with my office on revitalization, please email my Senior Policy Advisor, Vy Nguyen, or participate in a public hearing of the Finance and Housing Committee on May 4 at 5:30 p.m. You can register to submit public comment to all of council or email us at council@seattle.gov.

Calling on Congress for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

For this International Workers Day, I am announcing a resolution that I am introducing to call on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Today and always, I stand with community leaders, such as OneAmerica, Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, and more to call for this action now. We have over eleven million undocumented individuals who call this country home. Our neighbors, family, and friends deserve a pathway to citizenship.

This resolution asks Congress to act on our values as a country and restore our standing in the world by improving our refugee and asylum systems and increasing refugee and asylee admissions. We need more family visas granted to support family reunification. Punitive enforcement programs that feed the deportation pipeline must be reformed because of the harm and trauma they cause. Other governments across the country should follow Washington State's lead and ban private immigrant detention centers.

Finally, with COVID-19 relief still needed in every community, we must ensure immigrants and refugees are included in safety net programs. The City of Seattle is proud to serve every resident, regardless of immigration status, in our COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts and for any program or service we provide.

I join community in calling for Congress to use any tool at their disposal, including the budget reconciliation process, to meet the asks of the immigrant justice movement. It is my hope, as the daughter of once undocumented immigrants, that we finally see progress towards comprehensive immigration reform in Congress by 2022.

Vaccine Appointments Available Now

The City of Seattle has received a significant surge of vaccine supplies. That means that we have many appointments available for 16+ year olds who wish to receive a vaccine!

You can sign up for your vaccination appointment TODAY at any of our City-affiliated sites at Lumen Field, North Seattle, Rainier Beach, and West Seattle. 

Details are below:  

• Registration link for the Lumen Field Event Center, Rainier Beach Vaccination Hub, and West Seattle Vaccination Hub: https://seattle.signetic.com/home  

• Registration link for the North Seattle Vaccination Hub: https://schedule.seattlevna.com/home/3880509b-53a4-eb11-b1ac-000d3a1fea9b  

A very big thank you to the many volunteers, City employees, and healthcare workers who have made our vaccine efforts an enormous success.

Small Business Stabilization Awardees

On April 27, the City of Seattle announced the awardees of rounds four and five of our Small Business Stabilization Fund. This round was supported by legislation I sponsored with Councilmembers Mosqueda and Morales in December 2020. Over 1,000 small businesses received grants in this round, including 647 restaurants and bars that were awarded funds with 66% of awardees in highly disadvantaged or at high-risk displacement neighborhoods.

For additional details on the demographics of grantees, please visit the SBSF dashboard. To view the full list of SBSF awardees and recipients of the restaurant and bar grants, please visit the Stabilization Fund Awardees page.

Washington State’s Immigrant Relief Fund

Washington State’s Immigrant Relief Fund has re-opened for applications! This fund was approved by state legislators thanks to the tenacious advocacy of immigrant leaders. Immigrants who are not eligible for federal financial relief or unemployment insurance should apply for one-time $1,000 funds.

Applications are due on May 15th. Visit https://www.immigrantreliefwa.org/ for more information.