-Mayor Bruce Harrell
-Thank you Tiffany.
Thank you very much.
Wait a minute. Is this...
Okay. Very good.
Before I talk about
what is really exciting hard work that you've all
committed yourself to, I do want to recognize that
within the last several hours, we suffered a tragedy
on downtown, on the streets of downtown Seattle.
You'll read more about it tonight or tomorrow.
It involved a shooting
and a very unfortunate situation.
We don't know what motivated it.
We do have the suspect.
We do believe at this point,
I think a life was lost.
And it's very sad.
And I don't generally try to start off
a great event
with that kind of sad news.
Excuse me,
but I think it's important to ground this celebration into
what's happening in our city, that they are relying on us.
They're relying on us for hope
to deal with these complex issues of
recklessness and violence, housing insecurity.
And we have to be rooted in love and compassion.
And I want to recognize,
we have some elected leaders here.
I see Councilmember Morales here.
I think I saw Councilmember Dan Strauss here.
Councilmember Mosqueda will speak after.
Am I missing any of your colleagues?
I don't know.
But if I'm not, I want to commend all of you
for being in this fight with me.
Thank you very much.
And our housing leaders. Okay.
Now, I'm going to re approach the mic
with a better attitude.
Okay. All right.
They know I say a lot of corny jokes, so this is exciting.
Now I'll tell you why it's so exciting. (Applause)
Nine and O vote!
These 90 and O votes
just keep coming.
Thank you, city council, for embracing
what was very challenging
to try to make sure that we calibrated this right
to build more housing for those who need it
the most, and still be mindful of the fact that even
when you're paying through
using tools like this to pay through a tax,
that it could still have regressive consequences.
Finding that balance between
always trying to develop good policies to house
and shelter people. So what does this do?
This is a great investment by the voters when it passes,
on one of our
most effective tools to reach housing affordability.
$707 million to produce and preserve
3,516 affordable apartments.
$122 million to support operations, operations
and maintenance of city funded
affordable housing and stable...
and stabilized workers, to stabilize workers
providing critical services to low income residents
and more than 1,100 new and existing permanent
supportive homes.
$51 million to create 177 new home,
home ownership opportunities, including new affordable
for-sale homes and down payment assistance,
and stabilized 90 low income home-homeowners
through emergency home repair grants and foreclosure,
assistance and $30 million to stabilize rent
over 4,500 households from experiencing homelessness
through short-term
rental assistance and support and supportive services
that will help them avoid eviction.
Now, let's clap on that. (Applause)
I have to thank.
All of our affordable housing warriors, our partners.
Some of them are represented here today.
And I'm
just going to name a couple because you'll hear
from their fine leaders in a second.
But there are so many more.
So I do apologize in advance
if I didn't call out you or your organization.
But I do want to talk about
the Housing Development Consortium, El Centro
de la Raza, the Downtown Emergency Service Center,
our own Office of Housing.
I plucked one of your advocates and asked her to lead this
with you in a collaborative way.
And again,
there's so many more that did this important work.
Now, my direction for the Technical Advisory
Committee and you all find leaders, quite frankly,
was to go big and be bold.
We can't sort of dance around.
Yes, did I hear clap-
yeah start us off with a clap on that one.
Not that stuff.
I was just this hard clap to be bold.
Be bold.
So thank you.
And I want to give
a special shout out to Councilmember Mosqueda,
your partnership in getting this legislation
ready to send to the voters,
not only the substance of what you did,
but how you went about it.
Sometimes authenticity just can't be faked.
People sense it,
and they follow that kind of authenticity.
And I recognize several of you by name, but
I was asked to stay to the script here,
so I'm not going to call you out.
But with that, I'd like to...Start
making your way to Councilmember Mosqueda.
This is your, this is your. (Applause)
And again,
you have some of your colleagues
here, your fine colleagues,
but the Council Select Committee on Housing,
on the Housing Levy,
you just did outstanding work.
And I joked earlier
by saying that, you know, another nine and oh vote.
The reason I say that with some level of humor,
and I said this earlier and I need to make this point,
that yesterday when I had a
press conference on the use of on drugs
and how we are going to go about it,
I said repeatedly,
as many of you said, we'll lead
with compassion, we’ll lead with treatment,
but I talked about, and got a little choked up
because I said that when people fought
and talked about the war on drugs,
I said for some of you is a history lesson.
But for me. I, I survived it.
I was a walking target, as was everyone
in my neighborhood not too far from here.
And when the city council struggled to hear
those that pain and those concerns,
that's One Seattle at its best.
Regardless of where you voted on that issue, listening.
Because I grew up in a Seattle
where those voices were not heard.
It becomes important in policy,
even if one would argue that
what happened was misaligned with what everyone wanted,
Some of us grew up in a city
where the voices were not heard. In this housing levy,
most of you here fought for voices
that are not and were not heard.
Some of them barely speak English.
Some of them are living in tents and conditions.
We wouldn't want anyone to live in.
Live in.
So this work that you're doing.
Yes, we'll celebrate it.
I'll crack some more corny jokes. We'll have fun with it.
But I can't impress upon you enough the outstanding,
humane work that you did...
under your leadership.
Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda. (Applause)
-Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor.
Well, colleagues, let's continue to talk about the
why we do this and the who we are listening to.
This housing levy
is another historic opportunity for Seattle to lead.
It's an opportunity for us to undo
the harms of past discriminatory policies like
racist lending, restrictive covenants,
redlining, exclusionary zoning,
that still persist throughout Seattle's fabric.
It is our opportunity to support
community driven housing design, to help fight
displacement, root community in place, and enable residents
to participate and thrive in our local economy.
This is part of the solution,
among many components
of how we fight the most pressing crisis
in our city, in our region, and in our nation.
And that is lack of access
to affordable housing, and stable housing.
We see this play out every day.
We ride the bus to work.
We go through our community.
We see the pressing need and we know neighbors
who need access to affordable housing for families,
for seniors, for vets, for students, for workers.
This is part of the solution, and it has been only
made possible
because of
all of the collective power and ideas rooted in community
that are present in this room.
This is your levy.
You made this happen.
This is a year and a half’s worth of work.
So thank you, community partners,
for providing the housing levy for us today. (Applause)
And as the mayor said, this was a unanimous vote.
So I want to thank my council colleagues who are here.
Councilmember Morales, Councilmember Strauss,
thank you for your support throughout this process.
To all of my colleagues for their yes vote today,
we had a strong foundation, Mr.
Mayor, in the proposal
that you sent down, led by the Office of Housing,
because it was rooted in community.
A year's worth plus of work led by the Office of Housing
with our Technical Advisory Committee,
who provided feedback for what this housing levy needed
to be over the course of the next seven years,
and how we would invest $970 million directly
into what community needs. Access to housing, affordable
units, a first time home that they can call their own,
and services,
the workers
that provide the services inside
and the workers that build the building outside.
That's what you wanted,
and that's what we created with this housing levy.
I am...(applause)
Yeah.
Let's give it up for them.
So for the affordable housing leaders, community
partners, community members who participated
in the Technical Advisory Committee,
I want to shout out the 20 members who participated
in the years worth of efforts to bring through the Office
of Housing, through the Mayor's Office,
and to council this foundation for which we built up on
Let's give It up for the Washington
State Housing Finance Commission,
Catholic Community Services, DC Homicide, Plymouth
Chiefs Seattle, Enterprise, GMD,
We are In, United Way of King
County, University of Washington,
Canon Taylor, U.S. Bank, SKIDpda,
SEIU 1199, Health Care Northwest, King County
Regional Homelessness Authorities,
Seattle Foundation, Seattle Housing Development Consortium,
and Seattle Housing Authority and Bellwether.
Give it up for that Technical Advisory Committee...(applause)
who provided feedback
and importantly to our community partners
who provided feedback
as the legislation was transmitted to us.
We worked over the course of about three or four months
prior to the legislation coming down
and receiving feedback from all of you
so that we could do exactly what the mayor said,
run a smooth process that was collaborative
and already included your input,
because that's what Seattle voters deserve.
Answers solutions to the crisis.
To see us collectively working together
and the folks who helped make this process
so meaningful, transformational and impactful
are our community partners,
who helped to receive the proposal as transmitted,
and added additional information into it.
We stood together at a press conference
as soon as the legislation was introduced,
and we heard from leaders like MLK Labor, SEIU 1199,
Seattle King County Building, Trades Laborers 242,
Northwest Carpenters, IBEW 46 who are the workers
who said ‘We want to build these housing units
and we want to work inside and we need good living
wage jobs
to invest in the health of our community
and the health of our local economy.’
Let's give it up for our labor partners
who helped put this package together.
To our community organizations who we get a chance to meet
with on a quarterly basis through the Housing Community
Roundtable that our office convenes,
Thank you, Aaron House
from chief of staff in my office
and lead on...on housing.
We pulled together folks and ask what would you like to see?
And the folks that we talked to on a regular basis
provided input on the original proposal,
helped with the enhancements
that we added via amendment,
and are here celebrating this comprehensive proposal
for voters today because they know it's
not just enough to put money on the table
when community organizations that are led by
communities of color are often at the back of the line.
It was the work of folks like Africatown Community Land Trust,
Filipino Community Center, El Centro de la Raza,
among others
and SKIDpda among others, who said
‘Money is good, but prioritization is important.
And our community is facing
the highest rates of displacement across the area.
We need to be first in line
to receive some of these dollars
and make sure that we can go to other lenders and say,
the city of Seattle believes in us.
We have proof of concept. You should, too.’
So thank you so much to our community
organizations who are led by folks of color
and are leading the way in helping to design
housing from the community vision, not just units,
but a place to call home.
And Chief Seattle's in that group, too.
Let's give it up for those community organizations.
And finally, to our affordable housing providers
who have been at the table and as we heard from
Community Roots Housing
today, have been also allies in this call for organizations
that are trying to serve those
who are highest risk of displacement
to be part of the solution to receive that funding upfront.
Thank you so much to Community Roots Housing,
Habitat for Humanity, DESC, Plymouth Housing, and Housing
Development Consortium and so many others.
Thank you for your generous work
in affordable housing development. (Applause)
So, Mr.
Mayor, I'm going to summarize here,
because I think what we need to do
is handed over to our community partners
who really led the way so that we can
then hand it off to the voters.
But let's remember what's included in this package.
We've created thousands of deeply affordable
housing units.
The commitment to preserve housing
and to build housing services in place for neighborhood
neighbors, experiencing homelessness,
for our most vulnerable community members.
That is the promise in this levy.
The promise in this levy
is preventing and reducing homelessness
through increased investments in rental assistance dollars
and homelessness
prevention supports so that individuals
and families can stay stably housed.
And thank you to Seattle Housing Authority.
Where you at?
I know you're here.
Seattle Housing Authority, who has not only included
400 vouchers in this housing levy,
but has also complemented that with the
with the housing vouchers from the past
levy that they are continuing to build upon.
Thank you to Seattle Housing Authority
for their continued partnership in this
and for really stepping up
the promise.
The promise in this affordable
housing levy is to
create permanent, affordable homeownership opportunities,
to get out of generational poverty, to create opportunity
for our communities most at risk of displacement,
to right those historic wrongs that we started with,
and make sure
that our community is able to build generational wealth
through home building.
The promise in this levy is not just one bedrooms
or studios.
We're talking two,
three and four bedroom units, so more families can afford
to live in the city that they work in.
And we're talking about
supporting our workers, workers
who are building these buildings
with community workforce agreement and prevailing wage
for the first time. Woo! I heard a will give it up,
and, yeah,
and we're talking about supporting
and investing in the workers, the DESC workers
that are represented by SEIU 1199,
the workers within our affordable
housing units that are represented by OPEIU
Local Eight and so many more who provide the services
to our most vulnerable community.
Mayor Harrell, his team, the Office of Housing,
the community members who drafted this,
you put that in, you made that
a core tenet of the affordable housing levy.
Really, for the first time ever,
we cannot help keep people safely housed
if we don't invest in the workforce
that on a daily basis is fighting,
figuring out
how they're going to afford to put food on the table
and a roof over their head themselves.
This housing levy changes that and invests
and invest directly in the workers
who are providing these critical services.
I am. Yeah! I saw some applause for that.
Okay.
In summary, this is about what good governance looks like.
It's about responding to the most pressing crisis
in our community by listening to community,
this housing levy in partnership
with JumpStart progressive payroll tax
will help stabilize those wages
and make the three and four bedroom commitment possible.
This housing levy package is about health,
it's about resilience,
It's about workers finding a place to call home,
building from the ground up,
and investing in frontline workers
and those workers on the outside.
It is about
a transformational approach to creating new homes,
homeownership opportunities,
and creating generational wealth.
It is about childcare
and community hubs, and creating cultural hubs
and small business opportunities.
It is about families, seniors, kiddos and the individuals
who are our neighbors but need a place to call home.
This is a historic moment.
Thank you for all of your work.
Now we hand it off to you voters.
Thank you so much. (Applause)
And it's my
pleasure to introduce the person
at the helm of the Housing Development Consortium
who has helped to lead us to get to this historic moment
today in deep collaboration.
A thought partner,
and truly an innovative and visionary housing leader,
Patience Malaba. (Applause)
-Today is the day, folks.
Congratulations.
A round of applause for all of you. (Applause)
As introduced, I am Patience Malaba,
and I have the honor and privilege of serving
as the Executive Director
of the Housing Development Consortium.
We are a membership association
that is represented fully in this room
by affordable
housing developers across the King County region,
by community based organizations
and advocates across the region.
I also got to serve on the Technical Advisory Committee,
working alongside with many of you who are in this room,
in shaping and developing the housing levy proposal
that we've seen across the finish line.
So together here, alongside...
someone that I confidently call
a warrior and champion for affordable housing,
Mayor Harrell,
Seattle City Council...
member who has been leading and championing
affordable housing and shepherded this process
to this moment and deliver to us, Councilmember Mosqueda,
all of the city councilmembers who are here,
our HDC
board members who I see here, I see my board of directors
across the board, see my board chair
right there alongside other board of directors.
To the coalition of HDC members
who have shown up above and beyond,
and the partners
from the labor community,
from the business community who've worked with us
together in this moment while making a significant
milestone for affordable housing in Seattle.
This is a crucial step
in our collective commitment
in building an affordable and equitable Seattle.
We all have that commitment, and not only are we talking
big about it, but we're delivering.
The housing levy proposal,
it's big,
and it is bold.
And I can call it a generational investment,
in desperately needed affordable homes.
It is an investment in the people,
and this is for the first time in the life of the levy,
the people who work in the buildings and make them homes. (Applause)
So often,
it's very easy for the wonky among us,
I see all of you, to talk about numbers,
and policies, when we talk about the housing levy.
But it's at its core,
the housing levy is about people.
It is about the well-being and stability
of our most vulnerable neighbors who need support.
It is about the vibrancy of our community.
It is about building a future that is equitable
for the city of Seattle.
Personally, I know every day at the end of the day,
after long meetings, all I want to do
is to go to a place
that is safe and I call home.
And I firmly believe
that every individual,
and every family in Seattle
deserves a safe place that is affordable and stable,
to call home.
And today, we're taking a stride as a community
toward that goal.
Through this effort.
We’re building,
we’re leveraging,
on the successes of levies that have delivered above
and beyond, levies that have built thousands
of permanent, affordable homes.
But it's important for us as leaders to acknowledge
That while we've made that progress,
the need for affordable housing in our community
is greater than it's ever been.
Skyrocketing rents
continue to displace people
in one of the wealthiest corners of the world,
people are being displaced and don't have housing security.
And disproportionately,
the people are most impacted
are low income.
They are black.
The are Indigenous,
and people of color communities.
And as daunting as that sounds,
with the brilliance and the excellence
in this room and the great work that I know all of you do,
we know what works,
and it is to scale investments in affordable housing,
while duly changing our land use
policies. (Applause)
I've lost my train of thought here.
But let me say this.
The work we're doing today
is just one milestone
It’s the beginning of the work.
It is time now beyond the glamor
of the great cameras that are with us today
and the beauty of this room to roll up our sleeves
and talk to our neighbors in Seattle.
That's the work, folks, to get the levy across
the finish line.
Your support
is not only vital.
It is absolutely necessary.
So today we celebrate,
but tomorrow demands that we get out there,
and continue
to dedicate ourselves to educating,
to have an unwavering commitment
to ensure that affordable housing is a reality
for all the residents in Seattle who need it.
I am glad to be working with all of you...
because together we're doing the work of building
a future for my daughter,
and many of our sons to grow up in a community
that is affordable, equitable, for us all.
And with that, thank you.
I would like to...(applause)
Without further ado,
I would like to introduce a community partner
and HDC member
who has worked alongside us
and has been a true community champion.
Miguel Maestas from El Centro
de la Raza, over to you.
-Thank you, Patience.
Good afternoon, everyone.
On behalf of El Centro
de la Raza, the Center for People of All Races,
and our executive director,
Estella Ortega, we are honored to share a few words.
And so wonderful to see so many friends and colleagues.
First,
thank you, Mayor Harrell.
Thank you, Councilmember Mosqueda,
Councilmember Morales,
Councilmember Strauss, all of the council members for
for the unanimous vote on the levy.
Thank you for your leadership to move the Seattle
housing levy forward.
Perhaps at no time in our history is the levy more
needed, as is the leadership to get it done.
So thank you.
It is great to be here to celebrate the passage
and signing of the Levy legislation.
And now as as has been said, begins the hard work
to make sure that this cornerstone
of affordable housing
and this cornerstone funding continues to be supported
by the Seattle voters as it has for decades.
Looking back, we know
there has been so much done by so many to advocate for,
to fight for, and build affordable housing,
to make sure that it is part of the future of Seattle.
Now, let
us honor that past by rolling up our sleeves
and working to get this levy passed in November.
The affordable housing crisis continues
to be exacerbated by rising costs
and gentrification in our neighborhoods.
And during the pandemic, we all saw the role
of essential workers play, play out.
The levy will allow thousands who work in our city,
many in essential jobs, to afford to live here.
So many are stressed by spending more time,
and more money to get to work, to make this city run.
If you work in Seattle,
you should be able to afford to live in Seattle.
We know this levy is about advancing racial equity.
People of color disproportionately experience
homelessness and displacement.
It supports community-based organizations
like El Centro de la Raza and others in this room
to develop housing.
And when I say develop housing,
I mean be the developer, not just offer up the land
or partnering with a developer, a developer.
It means being the developer of affordable housing
and directly addressing the crisis of our communities
and that our communities face.
It supports building assets
for our communities for generations to come.
I am happy to share that.
Tomorrow at 11 a.m.
is the groundbreaking event for El Centro's new mixed use
development in Columbia City, which is named Four Amigos
Beloved Community. (Applause)
Thank you.
Everyone is invited, of course.
We all know how vital, safe, quality, affordable housing
is for our most vulnerable people.
It is critical to improving health outcomes
and employment and economic opportunity,
and just doesn't, just as important.
And the mayor said this,
it is the hope that it provides that lower
income and working families and their children
do have a future in Seattle.
Mayor Harrell,
honorable council members, and everyone here today,
thank you for your leadership, and for supporting that hope
and that future for our city and its people.
Thank you so much.
Mil Gracias. (Applause)
-Now we're going to
sign the bill. (Cheers)
If you would like to be in the picture,
you guys know how this works. You're not new.
This is the moment.
If you want to be in this. Photo, which you do,
because this is the biggest and best levy
that the City of Seattle has ever seen,
please position yourselves in the
position at this time. (Multiple speak, indistinguishable)
-It’s on now.
-How you doing
(Laughter, indistinguishable conversation)
-What I will say is, after all of those very
eloquent and inspirational speeches,
this will probably be the shot right here, and (laughter)
and I was very inspired by what I heard.
Thank you.
It's obvious, as I said, about Councilmember Mosqueda,
it’s obviously authenticity is coming from the leadership
group, the housing leaders.
We are very fortunate in Seattle
to have this set of housing leaders in our community.
We are very blessed to have that.
So let me sign this and pass out some pens.
All right. That one.
Where’s Councilmember Mosqueda?
I'm a skater.
Okay. You're going to be the, you’re going to be the pen distributer.
-Oh, my goodness. -Okay.
(Indistinguishable)
And I think it’s Patience’s...(indistinguishable conversation)
Patience says the work begins tonight and tomorrow.
(Indistinguishable)
Brianna, do you put enough pens out here?
My goodness gracious.
-Never enough pens.
-Okay, I'm going to have to (indistinguishable) out.
(Indistinguishable conversation)
If you don’t have enough,
I have a couple pens.
(Indistinguishable)
These are going to be our magic pens! (Cheers and clapping)
All right.
One Seattle.
We got it.
-Congratulations.
-Thank you, everybody.
It's been a great day and it's going to be a great victory.
And we'll see you on the other side of this thing.
(Cheers and applause)
All right.