-Well, welcome again, everybody.
Tonight, we're here to talk about public safety
and challenges to the Chinatown International District.
We want to give a shout out to Andra Kranzler,
the Chief of Staff, and Councilmember Morales.
Is she here? Stand up, wave. Thank you for all your help.
This is an official City of Seattle event,
and the councilmembers that are here tonight
are not allowed to discuss the election
or any measures on the ballot as per state administrative code.
So we want to keep that in mind.
So we're not going to be dealing with that tonight.
And we're going to break this down into three sections.
First of all,
we're going to be speaking to our folks up here on
the stage about some of the issues regarding
public safety here in the CID. I'll be asking questions
that were submitted by those from an RSVP form.
And then we're going to give an opportunity
for open questions and answers that you could ask of them.
I have a microphone.
I'll be able to come to you and get your questions,
and we'd like your participation there.
We have a translator, Alan Lai.
Lai. Hey, welcome, Alan.
He's going to keep those informed that need translation.
Thank you so much.
And he will be moderating -- as I moderate,
he'll be doing the same thing.
Here's the thing is that we want everybody to understand
that we want to have a good conversation here,
and we don't want any people acting out,
cursing, or being unruly.
If you do that, I'm going to throw you out.
Just, you know, not let you continue.
And I'm good at that. So don't mess with me.
Okay? I got the mic. All right.
So let me begin with our conversation
and let me welcome our speakers that are up here this evening.
We have a long list.
I got to find my notes for all of the folks
that are here this evening.
Right here we have Bob Kettle, Seattle City Councilmember.
We have the Council President, Sara Nelson.
Councilmember, Tanya Woo.
We also have Natalie Walton-Anderson.
She is the Mayor's Director of Public Safety.
We have Chief Amy Barden. She got married recently.
Will you give her a hand for that.
And we have Chief Sue Rahr, Seattle Police Chief.
Thank you.
Thank you all for being here this evening.
And actually, I'm going to start with you Chief Rahr,
because before we started this evening,
you mentioned to me
that you were walking around the neighborhood today.
So tell us what you heard, what you saw.
-Well, it's no surprise to anybody.
Can you hear me okay? -Yeah, I can hear you.
You're good. Just hold it a little --
-A little closer. Okay. We'll do it like this.
-Yes.
-So I will be very honest with you.
I was horrified by what I saw.
I can't sugarcoat this in any way.
It was -- I saw so many people on the sidewalks
and the alleys on the street that are in horrendous shape.
The vacant lots, the decay,
it just -- there were some areas that were just awful.
And I looked at it and I thought,
I'm responsible for public safety here.
And this is a huge problem.
So it was -- I'll be honest,
Enrique, it was a little surprising.
I can't package it any better than that.
-Well, I know that this has been a tough time.
I think since COVID, this community was really hit hard.
I personally know what it was like to be a victim
of crime in this area.
Someone stole my car a few months ago.
Fortunately, I got it back, which I was very happy about.
But let's talk about what can be done in this community,
particularly for -- we have many seniors,
in order to protect them.
And what's going on,
what's happening here that the council
and the city is doing to protect them?
Chief, I'd like you to start first
and then I'm going to have everybody else weigh in.
-Okay.
Well, at the risk of sounding like a broken record,
I think everyone knows that the staffing level
in the Seattle Police Department is in crisis.
We are short 400 officers.
And so we have a very limited number of resources,
a very limited number of officers
to place in different assignments.
And so we're being as creative as we can at making sure
that every assignment is efficient as it can be.
We're also trying to find different ways
to partner with different groups;
private groups, community groups,
to bring more safety to communities.
It's going to take us a couple of years
to catch up with those hiring numbers.
It takes about a year from the time
we hire a new police officer until they're fully trained
and on the street.
We've made significant improvements on recruiting
and the process of bringing an officer on board.
So I'm optimistic that it is going to get better.
But it's going to take a long time.
It's not going to happen quickly.
In the meantime,
we have to continue to work with all of our partners.
And I'm just so glad to be sitting next to my buddy,
Chief Barden, the other Chief Barden.
Because the public safety problem in all of Seattle,
and particularly in the CID, is going to take many,
many different disciplines to come together to make it safer.
I wish that I could assign 10 police officers to the CID
because it would take that many
to really maintain the safety on the streets.
On a good day, I might have two.
So that's part of the dilemma we have.
I also want to say there are so many factors
that contribute to the problems with public safety,
and the police don't have all the tools
and the answers to fix it.
It's going to take everybody working together.
-So I'm going to move to this then
and let some kind of ping pong here with you folks.
I'll give you the mic and you guys can share it over there.
Bob Kettle. -Thank you, Enrique.
First, I wanted to thank the Chong Wa Benevolent Association
for hosting this event and inviting me.
I really appreciate the opportunity.
And I also really appreciate the opportunity
to share the stage with so many accomplished women,
which shows the strength that we have in our city.
And I really appreciate too having Chief Rahr
and Chief Barden here,
because their departments are working this on the streets.
I'm a city councilmember. I represent District 7.
And for tonight, I also chair the Public Safety Committee.
You know, it was needed to bring a new direction to our city
as it relates to public safety, strategic direction.
And that's kind of like what the council does.
We are the more strategic 30,000-foot approach.
And what was needed was this change.
And because of that,
we've created a strategic framework for our attempts
to, you know, change the dynamics
that we're seeing on our streets.
And one of the things that we did with this
was to identify what is that common theme
with all these issues that we're feeling and sensing
and dealing with in terms of public safety.
And that is, we've created this idea of permissiveness.
We've created this permissive environment
that things are allowed.
And that kind of creates an environment
that other things are allowed,
and it cascades and it gets to the point
where our public safety posture is where it is today.
So we have our strategic framework plan to address this,
and we have six pillars.
The first pillar is the police,
because the lack of officers contributes to that.
There's nothing -- you know,
the police officers are working hard,
but the lack of officers is creating this dynamic
that there's nobody here, as Chief Rahr noted.
And so what we need to do is change the dynamic.
And one of these is to fundamentally change
the relationship between the council and SPD;
the leadership,
but also the men and women of the Seattle Police Department.
And we've done that.
I ask them across the force to give us one year.
And we're working on these pieces.
We're implementing different aspects
of this related to the question.
I'll leave some for council president.
But we put in a lot of pieces to help the police,
whether it's automatic license plate readers,
you know, the score jail, working the issues with the jail
as it relates to allowing the police to do their job
in terms of, you know, once somebody was arrested,
if they weren't diverted and items like that,
to have that piece.
We also did bills on, you know, to help the fire chief.
We talked about vacant lots,
vacant buildings and lots is a big issue.
And that is a pillar of our strategy.
And so we going through all these different elements
and we're changing the dynamic.
We're changing the approach at this more strategic level
to set up conditions where we can help our police force.
You know,
council president and I both serve on the Labor Committee.
We have a news spark,
the Seattle Police Officers Guild interim agreement.
That was huge in terms of changing the dynamic
in terms of trying to increase the number of police officers.
So in short, that's like our role here,
and my role as I see it,
and trying to provide that leadership,
that kind of senior level leadership to help our folks
that really doing the work on the ground do it better.
-All right. I'm going to go to Amy Barden.
And she is actually relatively new chief in the city,
but she could explain her position and all of that.
All right. -Yeah. Hello, everyone.
So I run Seattle 911, Seattle Care Department.
And in that department,
I can dispatch social workers, mental health professionals,
right to appropriate calls.
And so when you're in Seattle 911,
you learn that about half of the calls for service
really don't have anything to do with law enforcement
or criminal activity.
And they don't really have anything
to do with the fire department or a medical emergency.
A lot of the calls I get are social work calls;
somebody's having a mental health crisis
or they're under the influence.
We have a lot of overdose calls.
We have a lot of calls
when people are feeling suicidal
and threatening to take their own lives.
And so it is long past time to set up a new type
of first responder team that can go outright to these 911 calls
and get people help.
So my conviction and commitment
is to try to break the cycle of crime and crisis for people.
Because we have people
where we will dispatch the same team again and again
and again and again,
sometimes the same time every day,
rather than actually investing enough time to get them help,
to get them properly diagnosed.
Fentanyl has ravaged the city.
I know that you know that.
And so that has been my priority.
We need treatment for that. We need inpatient treatment.
We need medical support.
And I believe if we can get that in place
so that I can send care out,
care can get somebody into services.
Because if we ask people, do you want to detox?
Would you like to get on methadone?
Would you like to get help?
Very often people say, yes, please.
But too often I don't have that help, right?
I can try to call the county detox fan,
I can try to find a spot for someone.
So we need to invest more.
And when we do that and actually get someone out of the cycle,
that is when the city will start to look different.
-Sara.
-Hello, everyone. Thank you all for coming out.
This shows how much you care about the issue, this issue.
Thank you very much
for the Chong Wa Benevolent Association hosting us,
and councilmember for organizing.
My name is Sara Nelson,
and I have been living in Seattle for 34 years.
I'm a mother, a small business owner,
and I have served -- I've been on city council since 2022.
And I'll tell you when I went back here,
I remember my very first neighborhood tour
when I was running for council,
Ms. Walton gave me a walk around the neighborhood
and she pointed out all the problems.
But what kept coming up over and over
and over again was public safety, vulnerable,
elderly people, trash, graffiti,
some of the problems with the potholes.
And I have to say
that I am economic development chair focused
on helping small businesses.
But what it all comes down to the most important change
we can make is improving public safety.
And I have to echo Chief Rahr's comment
that we haven't come far enough in the amount of time
that I've been on council.
Now, council passes laws and it's up to the executive
to implement them.
So I'm not the boss of the police,
but we have to work together with the executive
and we have to get into high gear.
So in addition to -- so my first year,
I passed a resolution calling for police bonuses,
because the single most important thing
that we can do is increase the number of officers.
That's taking too long.
But we got to keep our eye on the ball there.
I also firmly believe that addiction
and the fentanyl crisis lies at the heart
of our twin public safety and homelessness crises.
And so I've been focused on providing access to
on-demand inpatient and intensive outpatient treatment.
And that's more than helping people manage addictions.
That is trying to get people who are ready into treatment
so they can put their lives back together
and get on a journey of recovery.
I feel very strongly about that.
I mean, there's a long list of things we have done
and that we want to do.
I'll just mention a couple of them.
I'm not going to -- this is not a patting ourselves
on the back exercise, however.
Just yesterday, out of the Public Safety Committee --
and I have to say, one moment,
that since the elections last year, we have reason
to be optimistic,
because we have a public safety chair
who really is committed to public safety.
And frankly, public safety was the issue
that got the candidates who are on council elected.
So I do believe that we -- the political will is there.
So that's the good news. So we've passed a law
that will be focused on getting people to stay out of areas
where there's concentrated drug and crime
activity both on Third Avenue and here in the CID.
So that is good; focused attention.
That's another tool.
We are focusing on additional jail services,
because our officers have to have some place
to take the folks that are breaking the law,
and that they've been restricted from taking them
to the King County Jail.
So there are things happening.
What I want you to know is that we're about
to enter the budget season, the budget deliberations.
Didn't I tell you?
Money is where the rubber meets the road.
And I'm approaching this budget through the lens
of public safety.
Will this investment improve public safety or not?
And so that is my priority going into these deliberations
that start at the end of this month.
I'll just spare you all of the other things
I have on my list of what we could be doing
to improve public safety here
and let you know that I share your frustration
that things aren't better yet.
But we are trying and we have to have --
take a big dose of humility
and recognize that we've got a long way to go.
-I'm sure you may be hearing a few things
to add to the list tonight.
I want to bring in the executive's office here,
and that's Natalie Walton-Anderson.
She's the Mayor's Director of Public Safety.
And weigh in on what concerns are and how you're helping.
-First of all, thank you for having me.
And before I go any further,
I really want to recognize my colleague, Cindy Wong,
who is the Public Safety Liaison.
[ Applause ]
She does deserve a round of applause.
I want to recognize her because she brings with her
a passion for ensuring that the executive's office,
that the mayor really continues to invest and support the CID.
I am new to this role.
I've been here for about three months,
but I am not new to the criminal legal world.
I've been doing this work since I -- for 28 years.
I started at the King County Prosecutor's Office
as a volunteer intern and
as a restitution investigator and victim advocate.
And I started my work listening to crime victims call
and talk about what happened to them.
So I approach this role with the goal of listening.
We have to do a lot of listening to what is happening.
But with that listening comes intentional action
to make progress.
A lot of the things I was going to name
and talk about have already been named.
We need to do more.
Thanks to Cindy and SPD,
I have had at least one ride along
and three walks through the CID in the three months
that I have been here.
It is still one of the most beautiful and special places,
but as Chief Rahr said,
there are so many areas that really cause some great concern.
One of the things that the executive office does,
obviously, is support and try and try and propose
and find funding for the things
that will actually help with some of the things
that have been named.
I think first of all, police recruiting has been named.
This is something that I work on
and touch almost daily in terms of making sure
that we can address some of the stop gaps that are,
I think, hurting us being able to get officers through.
Some of the other things that we are currently working on
is essentially trying to get CCTV.
The CID is one of the three areas
that when council makes a decision on that
would be named as one of the pilot projects.
And we've chosen this area because the data shows
that we need to support that with more investigative tools
to help our law enforcement as well.
There's been a lot of conversations
about just what the CID needs
in terms of cleaning and presence.
And I want to name a few current things within the last month
that we have been working on.
One thing that SPD --
and I don't want to speak for Chief Rahr,
but they have a much more active presence.
We've asked them.
The mayor's office has asked them
to have a more active presence to support
and enforce the direct ordinance,
specifically on 12th and Jackson and 12th and King.
SPD, along with all of our community providers with care,
we have the ability to address these issues.
It's keeping consistent and it's difficult to do with capacity,
resources, and staffing. In addition to that,
we have also reached out to King County Metro
to find out what are their hours of operation
in terms of this area.
And they are staffing the bus stops between 3:00 p.m.
and 11:00 p.m.
That is something
that is really realistically needed in this area
to try and reduce some of the activity
that unfortunately follows our buses and our parks.
We've expanded our park rangers.
We recognize that having presence,
having people in the area,
having that activation is huge for community.
With that though,
there's always the challenge of some of our community members
who gather and utilize the park for illegal activities.
And that can be intimidating, I think,
for some of the community here that wants to go
and enjoy that park.
So trying to find that balance and coordination
with our park rangers,
being able to coordinate the efforts
when there are significant security concerns are things
that we are continually working on.
We have asked Seattle Public Utilities
to do additional trash pickups
and identify that for the neighborhood,
then we will continue to do that.
I know there are other coordination
efforts that we can do.
What we want to do is not to band aid
and just respond to the issues,
but actually be proactive.
And I just want to share,
there are many of the things that have been mentioned here,
but the executive's office is very committed
to continuing to invest in the CID.
It is one of the most special places in our city,
and we will continue to do that.
-All right. Thank you. Councilmember Tanya Woo.
-Thank you. Thank you for coming.
I grew up here.
[ Speaking in Chinese ]
But I went to Chinese school downstairs
and I did drill team up here,
and I grew up here in this neighborhood.
So I remember what it used to be like here.
I remember 12th and Jackson being a thriving shopping area.
I remember Viet-Wah, shopping there on Sundays.
I also remember coming here at 2:00 a.m.
at night and not being able to find a parking space
because all restaurants were so busy.
This was a safe place we could walk around when I was a kid
and not have to worry about being attacked, basically.
And that's what I'm hoping we can go back to.
We can go back to feeling safe walking to the park.
We can go back to shopping at 12th and Jackson
and having all the restaurants be able to stay open.
Right now, I know there are several restaurants
who may close at the end of the year.
There's six of them who are for sale.
I know there are four buildings here for sale too.
But I think we have a brand new council.
I want to tie this all together,
but our priority is safety, and we are -- change is slow.
It's easier to -- faster to burn something
than is to build something.
But we want to build a stronger city for our communities.
And that includes looking at things like
how are we able to hire and retain more police officers?
How do we expand the care team so there are social workers
to help people who are sleeping on our streets
to be able to come inside. And then looking at things like,
how do we help our small businesses, our grocery stores.
And, you know, we've lost our Bartell's, our pharmacy.
So how do we make sure
that we have those basic needs and services come back here.
And those are all things everyone here on this stage
wants accomplished and wants to do
and is working hard to do that. -Thank you.
So one area I want to address, you brought it up already.
Everybody, I think, knows a concern,
and that is 12th and Jackson.
Chief, can you speak to that?
Is there more focus there? What's going on?
-Well, 12th and Jackson is a complex problem
because it's not just one thing that's the problem.
We've got multiple things happening there.
We have a lot of people who are suffering from severe --
the severe disease of addiction, who make themselves --
who are vulnerable to people who are selling drugs.
And then there are people who are selling stolen property
that take advantage of this audience
that is there on the street.
And so we have all these folks coming together
in a particular area.
Now, I have fantasized that I could go through
and just scoop everybody up and take them somewhere
where the people who are addicted can get better,
the people who have mental illness can get treatment,
and the people that are preying on them
are held accountable in a jail.
That would be the dream scenario.
Our system is not built that way yet.
We still --
our system doesn't work for the present reality
of public safety.
We have -- we changed our laws four,
five years ago and it was for,
I think, well-intentioned reasons.
Theoretically, we shouldn't -- drugs shouldn't be illegal.
That's a theoretical framework.
But the reality is for that to be successful
in a public safety world,
there needs to be something else instead of jail.
And we don't have a robust enough system in place
to provide people the treatment that they need.
That capacity is building, but we're not there yet.
And so we're in that transition time
where we've got people that aren't getting the treatment
they need, and it's very complex to get them into treatment.
In theory, we would like to walk up to a person on the street
who was slumped over, they just smoked fentanyl.
I would love to say to that person, come with me.
I'm going to take you to a place where you can get treatment.
They won't go with me
because they are trapped in the cycle of addiction.
I need to physically pick up their body
and take them to a place
where they are held securely
until they can get the medical intervention
that they need to get through that crisis.
And then we approach them and say,
we have an opportunity
for you to get longer-term effective service.
That system isn't built yet.
We've had many conversations about what that would look like.
Many people in this stage have heard me talk about
we need a third place.
We have a hospital, we have a jail,
but we need a place to take people
that don't want to be taken anywhere,
but they need to be taken to a place
where they can be safe until they get through the crisis
and can make good decisions.
I hope that we continue to have that conversation,
because doing it the way we're doing it now
with either the hospital or jail is not working.
We see the result of a system that is not working.
-Let me ask --
you can all notice that there is a large group here
of elderly folks from the community
and they spend time in the neighborhood,
or at least they want to.
Or they want to spend time in the park, but they can't.
What can you do, or how can you tell them,
or what can you say to them about their safety?
Because they're afraid. Anybody, pick it up.
-I just want to address something
from the previous question really quickly.
The Navigation Center is slated to be moved in January, 2025.
So --
[ Applause ]
I know our offices are watching very closely to see
how that's accomplished.
We are also --
I know Public Safety Committee
and many community groups
are doing an amazing job reporting incidences
that they see, and that helps us with the data.
So please,
if you see something happen or something happens to you,
please talk to somebody to report it.
When it comes to things I'm looking at
are community safety teams or safety ambassadors.
It's something I will be advocating for in the budget.
But when it comes to our parks, there --
you know, we have amazing park facilities.
We have ping pong tables.
I see people playing ping pong until 10:00, 12:00 a.m.
We have movies in the parks.
And there's always people sitting in the back
who may be drinking and engaging in behaviors
that are kind of uncertain or unsafe.
And so I think the exciting thing is
from the mayor's office,
the Park Ranger program, it's getting expanded, isn't it?
Or you're hiring.
Do you want to talk more about that?
-We did expand our park rangers.
I mentioned that earlier.
And that provides a lot more guardianship to the park
and more activation.
Again, there still are significant challenges,
but we've worked on that in terms of lighting,
in terms of vegetation,
making it more open, more inviting spaces.
What I would also say is, you know,
SPD does help with the park management
when there are security concerns.
But our goal is to keep those parks open.
And the guardianship and people coming to those parks are key.
And this is really the first time
that we've had the type of park ranger capacity
that we need to be able to keep our parks safe,
but also activated.
-Thank you, Enrique.
I just want to jump on this question
really quick just to add.
When Councilmember Woo mentioned about the Navigation Center,
it reminded me.
First thing I want to say is Tanya Woo is a fantastic,
great colleague of mine on the city council.
She's engaged. She's working the issues.
And that's what I identified in her.
I saw somebody who works issues on the street,
kind of like I did in a very different context in Queen Anne.
But I saw somebody who was a community leader on the street,
who was, you know, taking the fight to City Hall
and often banging her head against City Hall's walls.
That experience teaches you a lot.
And that's the kind of experience that we need,
you know, and that she brings.
But her point also highlighted that, you know,
the Chinatown International District should not be penalized
when they stand up
to the King County Regional Homeless Authority
regarding some of their plans. That should not be happening.
The community should be able to speak up and say,
hey, these are what our needs are.
This is what we're looking at,
and we should have a voice in the decisions
that impact our neighborhood.
Trust me, I was doing that for Queen Anne
in my area of the Seattle.
And so that's something that you as a community
should be applauded for.
And I know that Tanya is one of your leaders
and that she should be applauded
and not penalized for that action.
And so thank you to the community for standing up.
Because I think that's important to do
and something that needs to be recognized and,
again, not penalized. To the question,
tying into your question the two, the 12th and Jackson,
oftentimes you hear about 3rd and Pike and Pine,
I often then say, you know, 12th and Jackson and King.
I always say Jackson and King.
And partly because I didn't mention it earlier,
I'm a retired naval officer who had a career in the Navy,
naval intelligence.
And I'm a life member of Ballard Eagleson VFW Post 3063.
And I had the great honor of visiting
the Nisei Veteran Center on King.
And I saw what it was there on King.
It's not just 12th and Jackson.
And 12th Jackson and King, in a way
that like 3rd Pike and Pine
shows that it's not just one little area,
it's broader than that.
And I think that's important to highlight.
And to Chief Rahr's point, and as a follow up,
the first question was primarily related to police.
I have a responsibility as the Chair
of the Public Safety Committee, more than SPD,
I have nine entities under my committee
to include the care department.
And it is key to work the public health side of this,
because we cannot succeed in public safety
if we don't also succeed in public health.
So we have to have this dynamic approach
where we bring both pieces.
And that will also help with the homelessness piece as well.
And those three are all intertwined,
and we have to understand that.
Again, my role is to push and work the public safety pieces.
That's why this area is part of the SODA bill,
the Stay Out of Drug Area. That is why,
as Director Natalie Walton-Anderson mentioned
regarding CCTV and the real-time crime center,
because our committee's going to take that up
and there will be a pilot in your neighborhood.
These are the actions that we need to take from our level
to assist Chief Rahr to allow her officers to do the job
that they need to do.
And that's -- I just wanted to bring those pieces together.
And thank you, Enrique.
-Natalie, you want to mention --
-I just want to add a couple of things
that -- in terms of 12th and Jackson and 12th and King.
One of the things that I think,
going to Chief Rahr's point about
how this is really a complex issue,
is the illegal street vending.
And so we are working with SDOT
to figure out what more we can do.
One thing that I know the mayor's office is going to do
is more of a public education campaign along with SPD
to talk about other -- you know,
the illegal vending that's going on,
and trying to figure out some other strategies.
Because that does go hand in hand
with a lot of the drug trafficking that we are seeing.
Some of the other safety concerns
that have not necessarily been named,
but I do know that Councilmember Woo mentioned, nightlife.
And nightlife is such an important part of our community.
But what is difficult is
when we have businesses operating as illegal nightlife
and some of the things that come with that.
One of the other projects that both Cindy
and I are working on is reengaging with our CCT team,
which is the Code Compliance Team.
And that's where the enforcement of afterhours,
businesses that are operating without liquor licenses,
that's where that comes in.
And so we are working to look at,
at least one business in this area
that is becoming incredibly problematic.
And we're hearing that from the community.
And the data from SPD shows that we've had some concerns there.
The last thing I just want to mention
is the beautiful neighborhood project,
where we are really trying to work with our community
to identify those solutions.
I had the privilege of being able to participate
in one of the meetings
and it was truly wonderful to hear from community,
to have the community come up with some solutions
that we're going to be working on.
And there's one more meeting, I think, next week.
And from that,
we're going to have 100 days of trying to problem solve.
And realistically, this is something
that the community is doing and the mayor's office,
SPD, and others are just there to support that work.
-All right. Thank you. -I just have to say
that no one should be afraid to go to the park.
These are our -- that's our commons.
That's a place where we gather as a community.
And it is -- I'm a citywide councilmember,
so I represent all of Seattle.
I think it was last week or the week before,
somebody was killed in Magnuson Park.
So I don't know what kind of coordination
is happening between the parks --
well, the Department of Parks and Recreation and SPD.
Probably a lot, but I'm not really sure about it.
But we have got to get out of -- as a city,
as a bureaucracy,
de-silo the communication and make sure that there is --
and I do believe that as the public safety director
in the mayor's office
that you will be writing,
heard on various different departments.
So that is a positive sign.
But here's the thing; we can't keep excusing.
We have to get away from saying, well,
we don't have enough police and that's
why we have these problems.
We have got to focus our limited resources,
both law enforcement and services,
in a targeted manner
where they will make the most difference
and where they will be most responsive
to the worst problems.
And that's called place-based problem solving.
There was an audit
that was presented in my committee last week.
It means zero in.
It can be anything from emphasis patrols by officers
or targeted services on the street.
This is what we have to be doing,
because we're not going to get at
or have the resources that we need.
So we need to spend them wisely, I would say.
Other things that I would say
is that Councilmember Kettle coined a new term,
basically, the permissive environment.
And I do believe that that is really key.
So when I said that I'm going to be looking at the budget
through the lens of public safety,
that means graffiti and trash pickup as well as you said.
Council cut money from the mayor's proposed budget
for graffiti removal a couple years ago.
Let's make sure that that doesn't happen again,
and that's adequately funded.
But basically, it's about being smart and coordinated
and caring for our most vulnerable.
And I hope one day
that you will feel that you are not threatened.
That your safety is not threatened
in the parks that you love.
That should be our gold standard goal.
-Thank you.
Want to mention that we want to hear from you.
We want to take some of your questions and comments.
So all right. I will come to you in a second.
But I also want to work in Amy Barden here.
One of the things I wanted to ask you was that,
you have folks that go into the community
basically are handling people that have mental health issues
and other things.
Where are they situated?
And are they situated at all here
in the Chinatown International District?
-Yeah, this was a priority area from the beginning.
So the pilot zone included the CID.
It was downtown, primarily west of I-5.
But I carved in the CID
and it specifically have invested in Little Saigon,
because I can see the crime and the crisis data,
and that there is a great need for more support
here for more people.
The CARE team actively is expanding to 24.
So I had six responders initially.
Now, we're going citywide.
I had $2 million of congressional earmarks
that came from Smith and Jayapal
that enabled that swift expansion.
And I'm hiring right now.
You can send me your good people.
And so it is going to make a significant difference.
Sometimes I only have 58 law enforcement officers
in all of the cities.
So if I can add 24 social workers who,
again, are master's level,
they're skilled, they can triage,
and hopefully get someone into services.
About 40% of the time in the first 800 calls,
we've transported somebody somewhere.
Sometimes people are lost, or they've been abandoned,
or they're confused, they're under the influence.
Sometimes people want to go back home to Maple Valley.
They don't want to remain in the city.
Just because I overdosed here,
it doesn't mean this is where I am going to recover.
And so I think that's very hopeful to be able to expand.
And again, I will continue to beat the drum.
We have to have a system that helps people.
So I want to interrupt the cycle, not to punish,
but to rehabilitate, to change, to redirect.
This morning, I was at King County Drug Court graduation.
I go every single month.
And you have people who have committed felonies,
who have had charges brought,
who elect into this diversion court
where they actually get services.
They get their addiction treated.
They get mental health, past trauma addressed.
They are connected with employment.
They maintain sobriety.
They get reconnected with their family.
And every month I go,
and it makes me cry
because I see people actually return to community prepared
and ready to be good neighbors
and to be able to process the grief and the shame and the loss
that they feel from the crimes they committed by contributing.
And some of the best leaders in this city
have gone through that process.
And everybody should be availed of it.
People can change.
-Thank you.
Before we get other questions,
are there any of the seniors that want to ask a question?
I know that they did not have a form to fill out.
Okay. Right here. Excuse me. Can I get right back?
Pardon me? Pardon me. Pardon me. Pardon me.
Yeah.
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-Okay, thank you.
Yeah, I heard a lot of speeches from different officers,
different councilmember,
but for me, I think the problems are simple.
The biggest problems are the street people
and the biggest problems are too many guns floating out there.
-And Alan, do you want to tell them they give
you a little opportunity to translate?
Okay.
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-All right. What he said.
Okay. Where's Cindy Wong?
Cindy, come over here.
Cindy handed me something here
and I want actually have her tell it
because I can't read her writing.
-Hi.
I just wanted to --
regarding the first questions about helping seniors,
I want to uplift
that Seattle Police Department actually has
a Crime Prevention Coordinator, Barb Biondo,
who actually does training for Smart911.
And also, the 911 also has translators.
So I just want to lift that up to the community,
because we know that this is underreported community,
so we want to equip the seniors to be able to report.
-I just want to add something to that quickly
that I learned this afternoon from talking to Officer Jing Wu.
And he talked to me about there's very --
and I'm learning about there's multiple dialects in Chinese.
It would be really beneficial for a community member
or for a person, not a member of the police department,
to be a community volunteer who can help give -- be a person
for the seniors to go to that can then call the 911
and report the crimes.
There's still a problem with language barriers
and calling 911,
you may not get an interpreter that speaks the correct dialect.
And so if we can find community volunteers
that can help us with that translation,
that would be a big win because we know we're
not getting all of the reports of crimes.
-Sorry. The lady said she hasn't finished.
-Okay. All right. -My bad, my bad.
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-So for me, the street people are the biggest problem --
Lots of street people come in.
Lots of people come in the middle of the night
ringing my doorbell, pounding on my door,
and I dare not sleep at night.
[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-Yeah, I live in --
And we also suffer from the street people
coming in all the time.
So most recently, we changed our security number at the front.
And then now the street people,
to me is also the biggest problem.
We dare not go to the parks
because there's not enough police presence.
If there's more police presence,
we'll be -- we'll feel safer going to the parks.
-I'll hold the mic. -Okay. Hi.
I'm Jay.
I live in Fujisada Condos and I, you know,
talked to many of you before.
And I'd like to pick on a few things.
Like Councilman Kettle said,
there is this trend of permissiveness,
and the permissiveness must be reversed.
When you walk into Chinatown,
and like Councilmember Woo said,
there's all these restaurants that are closing.
FedEx's closed, Bartell's closed.
People don't want to come here
because there's a perception that it's not safe.
There's people lined down on sidewalks, sitting on sidewalks.
The city does have a code against that, 1548040.
It's a sit/lie law that applies to the CID.
You're not allowed to sit or lie on the sidewalk
between 7:00 and 9:00 unless you're watching a parade
or have a doctor's note saying you can do that.
If we can get that cleaned up,
that removes some of that permissiveness.
Even on 12th and Jackson, many of those people
are just sitting down on the ground or lying down.
And then we said, okay, new sheriff in town,
please move along.
Okay. We don't have enough staffing.
But if you go down to the waterfront,
if you go to Westlake, which used to be a horrible problem,
Seattle Center, around the stadiums,
you have private security, especially Westlake.
It was cleaned up over by private security
and now the Seattle Center private security moved
onto to the waterfront, you don't see problems.
We don't have the staffing,
but perhaps we can expand the budget.
The budget's probably there for the staffing,
just not enough bodies to hire.
Use that budget in the meantime to move that security
and expanding into the CID and say, please move along.
You can't sit on the ground here.
We're not arresting them. We're not citing them.
We're just asking them to move along.
But right now, there's nobody to do that.
The police won't do it. The CSOs won't do it.
The Park Rangers won't do it.
But we can mandate private security to do it.
And Chief Rahr, Chief Barden, I love -- you guys are great.
And I understand,
yes, you fantasize about picking them and moving them.
I've gone to city council, county council meetings
and I begged them, please examine Sand Point.
Sand Point, Hangar 30,
and the adjoining two-story building
that can house mental health counseling.
Okay. You have 20,000 square feet of building.
Sure, it's congregate housing, but it can be used.
Next to that --
how many of you guys know there's a 10-court tennis center
that was built for $6 million. They'll spend like four times
that to buy a motel that becomes a meth lab and gets condemned.
The city owns Sand Point because the Navy gave it to them.
They can build a facility similar to the tennis courts
for pennies, and they can use that for congregate housing.
Now, Salvation Army, of course,
was going to put 600 beds into the Sixth Avenue facility.
That would've been congregate housing,
and they did a great job there.
So it can work.
-Thank you. -So I really like you.
Thank you for that.
One thing folks know, I've been in this role.
I came back to Seattle a year and a half ago,
and it was interesting.
I'm from the nonprofit sector, from human services.
I'm used to being on the front lines.
And so it was interesting to look at the system design
of resources and realize all my -- what we call high acuity,
really profound mental health diagnoses,
really profound substance use disorder.
We saturated certain neighborhoods with those folks.
And so I have been very critical of that design.
I spent a lot of time at the Morrison.
I love DESC, I'm friends with their leadership,
but I've been level-setting.
I don't believe that you can have 190 people
with these types of diagnoses all co-located
and not have a lot of 911 calls.
And the good news is everyone is agreeing with that.
And so now with the new KCRHA and other leaders,
we need to go back and redesign this.
We need small little communities.
There are sites that work beautifully for high diagnoses,
high needs people,
but it should be about 38 to 40 people dispersed
all throughout Seattle, all throughout the county,
not saturated in the CID, in SoDo, in Pioneer Square.
That was never right. We should not have done that.
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-I'm a resident of Eastern Hotel.
And in the alleyway,
a lot of people would be sleeping there, napping there.
And so in response to that,
the government built a lot of chain link fences.
I don't think that solved the problem.
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-And even with the gate, the street people still sneak in.
And then I live on the third floor.
More than once, twice, three times,
the street people left feces on the third floor.
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-So I can tell you I'm living in Chinatown.
I feel very unsafe.
-All right.
-So I wanted to ask problems
that I'm seeing in the neighborhood.
I live what will be a half block outside
of the proposed SODA zone.
And every day for three months,
I hear an ice cream truck music coming from a van
that has people coming to it.
And I can tell you they're not selling ice cream from there.
So why can't the police do something
when we obviously know they're drug dealers?
There's a souped-up lime green truck that sit there for hours.
Why can't the police arrest those drug dealers?
I mean, know our drug dealers.
And to the councilmembers here,
you just heard the police chief say there's not enough cops.
So you're going to pass the SODA bill,
pat yourselves on the back,
and there won't be enough officers
to actually make your virtue signaling bill actually work.
So then what are you going to do when you pass the bill
and nothing changes?
But I would like to hear Sue Rahr first;
why aren't you actually going after drug dealers?
-I would love to go after those drug dealers
and I would like to have officers
and send them down there to make those arrests.
I would love to get more details from you
about that particular truck.
If we can get there at the time it's doing it,
I will absolutely send officers.
-He has a van right outside of this.
So why can't they appear,
they see this they just know
that the lime green truck is there.
Why do you need a community member to tell you that?
-Sir, I can't answer your question.
I don't know.
I'm not sitting in the van you're describing, I'm sorry.
-Take a picture. Send it to the police.
-But to the councilmembers what about --
-Okay. Do you want to respond to that?
-The number one thing is that it's not virtual signaling.
It is part of the strategic framework plan.
It shows action,
it shows intent,
and it looks to address the permissive environment as noted.
You know, I got a lot of pushback.
Why do we have a street racing bill?
Why? Just let it go. And that enables the next thing.
And so we passed the bill, you know,
because it goes to the idea that anything happened.
When you see on the news an officer in his car
and he's being spread around,
you know, they're doing donuts around him,
that shows the impotence of the system and of the government,
and we can't stand for that.
So we're pushing on that.
And to your point, it's about disruption.
It's about disruption.
And it's going to disrupt too.
Because my team,
we're working closely with the Seattle Police Department
and other entities, and we're working these things.
It's not going to be perfect.
And the other thing too is we don't legislate for six months.
You know, we lay this down and we do this for the longer term.
And this is one of the things that we're looking to do;
we're going to be engaging.
I connect West Precinct with people in belts
on a regular basis.
So Captain Strand has that information.
And we look to do that with these other areas of the city.
And we will continue to do that. And it's not virtue signaling.
And that's your opinion and you can have it.
-So I also want to address that really quickly
and then I'll pass this to council president.
I'm out there, Tilton Jackson.
I know what you're talking about.
I see who does what. I know who the drug dealers are.
I know where to go to buy EBT cards.
I know who does what and I know who the people
who really need help.
But when I'm out there,
I don't see, unfortunately, our officers,
because, I think,
they're understaffed
and it would be great to get the department to a point
where we could have officers on the ground and community
again and more detectives and, you know, a graffiti unit.
But everyone's in control now.
And I think it's tough when we are massively understaffed.
I also want to address community members'
questions regarding security and safety in their housing,
in their building.
I really hope you're reporting this
and I hope that there is somebody you could go to
when you see this happen.
Because I don't know how they're getting inside.
Are they following in? Are they sneaking in?
Are they breaking a window and going inside?
But that needs to be addressed
and there has to be more safety precautions
so people are not going into the buildings.
Also, someone had a question about gun violence.
There was a shooting at Hing Hay Park two weeks ago,
a innocent bystander, a 36-year-old Chinese person,
I heard, Asian person was shot.
That was not part of the original argument.
Guns are a huge problem.
Unfortunately, that's something -- you know,
they're modified, they're dangerous.
I know the police department has a gun buyback program,
and I'm hearing you've bought back 960 guns so far this year,
or maybe even more.
But I think it's a larger problem
that the entire city is facing.
-I just have to say that I completely --
I understand your anger and your indignation,
and I get a lot of -- that's what people ask me all the time.
There's obviously a dealer in this RV.
We have a law on the books.
You can't park there for more than 72 hours.
Why don't you tow that away? Et cetera.
And all I have to say is I recognize
that enforcing laws on the books would go a long way.
And, you know, we can talk about officer shortage.
We've talked about saturation of resources in certain places
where they're most needed.
But I just want you to know that I am --
I will let our chief answer,
but I completely empathize with that question.
And as for -- you're right, we are not virtue signaling.
We are --
but it does matter that we move people along
and disrupt behavior that is occurring,
you know, in the moment.
-I think we also have to recognize that we,
as a broader community in the state,
in the city,
made decisions four and five years ago to change laws
to make laws more permissive, to defund the police,
to do all of those things.
One of the problematic pieces of legislation
that went through when we talk about gun violence --
and I want everybody to listen carefully
so that you can reach out to your state legislature;
are people aware that if a juvenile is arrested,
charged, and convicted of illegal possession of a gun,
the maximum sentence
they get for the first violation is 30 days.
The maximum sentence
they get for the second violation is 30 days.
The maximum sentence for the fourth
up to the fifth conviction is 30 days.
When they hit that fifth conviction,
they get eight months in prison.
So I can continue to go out and seize guns and arrest people.
For 30 days, they're going to be out of the community.
We have to get back to looking at the bigger system.
I can keep arresting people, pulling them off the street,
they're coming right back out.
We have to reassess our system of accountability.
-Can I just add one more thing.
I just want to talk --
I want to say a couple of things
just about the SPD's efforts to address drug trafficking.
Within the last 30 days,
I've been paying attention to the incident reports
that come in every day from SPD.
And over the course of the last 30 days,
there is no shortage of every single day getting reports
from SPD that they have arrested four
or 10 drug traffickers with guns,
with vast amounts of fentanyl.
So it's difficult because we don't publish what SPD does
on a daily basis for our city.
But what I will tell you is it is constant in terms
of the amount of arrests and the amount of emphasis
that has been in this area in terms of drug trafficking.
And so SPD is doing and targeting that,
and they are working alongside
with King County Sheriff's Office.
There was an article in The Times related to that.
That work continues to go on daily.
And there's just more
that we need to do because we have an influx of drugs and guns
coming into this area, and we have to stem that tide.
And we are doing that alongside with a lot
of our regional partners and our federal partners.
But I don't want the community to walk away thinking
that this work is not going on daily,
and the number of arrests that are going on daily to try
and address the drug trafficking.
There's just an influx and we have to get on top of it.
-All right. -Thank you.
-And they don't stay in jail forever.
They come back out. It's not a one and done.
-I hear you. Hi, everybody. My name is Esther Lucero Dine.
My mom's side Latina, my dad's side,
and I serve as the President and CEO
for the Seattle Indian Health Board.
Yeah, I serve as the President and CEO
for the Seattle Indian Health Board.
I know you don't want me to hold the mic
because you don't want me to hug it, and I'm not going to.
But it's very important
that you understand we are at 12th and Weller.
I've heard a lot of talk about 12th and King, 12th and Jackson.
And I do recognize that we have a new team up here,
with the exception of Councilmember Morales,
who's not here tonight.
So I'm just going to acknowledge her staffer.
And I'm going to take you down a little history,
because we haven't talked enough about the Navigation Center.
Only Tanya Woo has raised that concern.
And so here we are talking about 12 -- King and Jackson,
and we're not talking about the origin of permissiveness.
So hear me out.
That Navigation Center is run by the city.
That Navigation Center is purposefully partnered
with the Seattle Indian Service Commission
because that building was bonded by the city.
So they had direct access and a monetary reason
to be able to utilize that service.
Now, I'm bringing that up is
because that was in the Murray administration
and it was Lisa Herbold's brilliant idea
that she pulled from San Francisco,
where that model failed. Forty-five days shelter,
where you can actually use. Forty-five days shelter,
where you can have pets and you can congregate on the lawn.
Nobody has talked about 12th and Weller's lawn,
about the drug trafficking that's happening there.
Because what happened as a consequence
of that Navigation Center
was that the drug traffickers camped out right on Lane Street,
which is a city responsibility.
It is a city street, Lane Street,
where that encampment keeps coming back
and coming back and coming back.
It was featured in Seattle is Dying,
which I don't entirely agree with.
And at the same time,
our building is right above Lane Street.
And I want you to know, we witnessed human trafficking,
we witnessed drug trafficking. We call the police.
I understand that you're understaffed.
And for the most part,
your officers have been really trying to be as helpful
as possible, but you have to remember.
I mean, during the Durkan administration,
the council and the mayor were not working together at all.
At all.
So what we would hear from our police officers is,
sorry, talk to your legislators.
What we would hear from our legislators was silence.
What we would hear is you can't move encampments
and permissiveness. Do you see what I'm getting at?
And so now, we're sitting here talking like this
is a new issue
and like we're trying to manage it from the backend.
But this is a city issue. The city caused it.
And I need that to be spoken.
Now, I need to carry us forward, right?
So now we're talking about, again, working with the county.
And there's always -- I've said this over and over and over,
there's an incestuous relationship
between the city and the county.
And what happens is,
is we get earmarks from the federal government
or we get state allocations to actually do services
that community health centers like ours already do.
Now, I'll tell you way back
when Chief Best was put in her position,
she never met with the community health centers.
Never.
Captain Diaz, I knew him,
but we still never developed a strategy.
And I get worried when you say to me,
I want to take your social workers
because I'm going to pay them a ton of money.
And all of a sudden, our 11 native social workers,
mental health workers, are going to go work there.
And it bottoms us out without even intention
around collaborating with community health centers.
Now, I'm going to tell you the most successful -- Thank you.
The most successful community policing models center
themselves on health
and work with the community health centers.
You've got ICHS, you've got Neighborcare,
you've got Country Doc,
you have Seattle Indian Health Board
just waiting for a conversation.
Just waiting.
Please, do not inflate these salaries.
Please, do not hoard the resources.
Please, invest in programs like ours.
Now, I'm going to tell you one more thing,
and Sara knows this because we've had this conversation.
We're about to open a 92-bed residential treatment facility,
right?
It's on Vashon Island,
but readily available to Seattle residents.
There has been no investment from the county.
There's been no investment from the city on this program.
It is going to increase the bed capacity for King County by 62%.
If you want to know why there are no detox beds,
it's because we have made the billing mechanism,
so it's unreasonable to sustain those programs.
Otherwise, we'd run one.
What I am talking about is stop behaving
like you are in a scarcity mindset,
you don't have enough resources,
because your community is the best resource you have.
And that's what I want to see change.
-Anybody want to respond?
-Thank you so much for what you were saying.
That point you made is the reason why I ran last year.
And here's the issue.
I may agree on the goals, like, hey, we need to get here,
but we can't rely on a wish strategy to get there.
And that's the problem.
We've had too much wish strategies implemented
and we need practical strategies that look at,
you know, facts on the ground
like what you have in your background,
you know, and that information and then employ it.
And I will admit I'm not strong on public health.
That's why, you know, Chief Barden,
I'm working with her and others and including council president.
But the public safety side,
I've been working left right and center
since I retired from the Navy and I came to Seattle.
And these are the points that we need to address.
And it goes to the permissive point that I make
and the strategy is to work it out.
And we are changing the direction,
and we're changing the attitude,
and we're changing the approach
as we look to address these issues.
And, you know, thank you for your comment.
-Just one last data point.
We spend $1.2 million a year on armed security.
We spend $1.2 million a year
as a community health center on armed security
24 hours a day to keep our relatives safe.
And guess what?
The folks in the encampment who are preyed upon
and I'm so glad you're talking about that intersection
between homelessness, mental health disorders,
substance use disorders, and beginning to deconstruct that.
But I'll have to tell you,
the folks who experience homelessness
were grateful for that security and safety.
And we're not going to be able to afford that forever.
We're not.
-I just want to acknowledge that was brilliant.
It was brilliant. This is my first government job.
You know, I've got a day job
and then I've got 20 or 30 hours a week
that I'm spending in community.
Now that I know you, you will not be able to shake me.
I mean, there was a day where I realized,
oh my God, do we think this gets solved
in government buildings?
It doesn't.
And if I'm doing my job well, I should be invisible.
I should be invisible to community,
fanning the flames of what works,
and knocking out barriers that are holding you back.
It was brilliant what you said.
Thank you.
-All right. -Good evening, everyone.
I'm Beth.
I'm living in CID for at least 16 years.
So my neighbors, all my neighbors,
and I collect their question.
We are worrying. Sorry, can I speak Chinese
because my English is not that good?
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-Me and my neighbors in Chinatown,
we want to know how come the city councilmembers seem
to be advocating more for the street people than for us?
And we want to be protected.
We want to be advocated for.
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-And we feel like the city council -- we love the city,
but we feel like the city council
and the police have not helped us, with the exception of Tanya.
The last few years, nobody spoke for us.
And there are so many of those smoke houses in Chinatown open
till 12:00 midnight.
People, the criminals,
are hanging out in the parks and we dare not to go out.
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-And we see the government investing a lot of money
in building houses and housing many of the homeless.
And then the last -- 10 years ago,
we never saw those car racing in the middle of the night,
creating a lot of nuisances. We love the city.
We hope the city council will help us.
-Hello, my name is Mary and I'm a neighbor of this area.
I live on Capitol Hill about three blocks
from the East Precinct.
I was there during the fun days of Chop, they were not fun.
Let me tell you about that.
But I'm here because you're doing this Tanya
and you're running for citywide -- oh, thank you.
And I want to support you
and I want to thank you for what you're doing.
But briefly, I also want to capture this audience.
I report encampments every single day.
They are related to everything people are saying here.
And I understand also,
Chief, what you're doing with the CARE resources
and Chief Rahr with SPD. Everybody has limited resources.
So what can we do strategically about the goals
of the city council and the mayor?
Let's develop something like mash units
where people that need the help
have access to wide swaths of land, tents,
wraparound services, food, health,
mental, spiritual counseling.
Drug addiction is a spiritual ailment
as well as everything else.
But get people out of these encampments; they're dangerous.
They're dangerous to neighborhoods.
Drug activity is going on there.
Trafficking is going on there. Dealing is going on there.
Guns are going on there. We know it.
And I report them all the time.
And I've also talked to Joy Hollingsworth,
my council representative,
and I go to as many of these events as possible.
But I also want to hear -- tell you,
I hear you guys are really working hard.
I know how hard it is,
but I'm here in support of my neighbors here.
And I'm just heartbroken at these stories
and what's going on. And we do need help.
You just gave an eloquent example of
why things aren't working.
We have the resources are in the community.
Please use us and figure out how to get a dollar out of a dime.
Figure out how you can get people off the street.
We know they shouldn't be camping.
We know they shouldn't be doing this.
I live in a building that's constantly graffitied
and we have to clean it up.
It cost us thousands of dollars.
Property damage.
We had a home invasion,
because somebody jumped on top of a Metro bus shelter.
King County does not listen to us.
And the people -- and Chief Rahr,
I was there in Madison Park
when you were there for our neighbor
who sadly lost her life to a carjacker.
And this is not our Seattle. This is not us.
And that guy probably got on a Metro bus for free
because people can just walk on.
The other thing I want to point out, and Chief Barden,
maybe this might help you too.
Instead of letting people get on our
King County buses and transport for free,
let them go get a card through the services that are out there
so at least we get them in the system.
Right now.
people just walk on like they're entitled to,
and that's where most of the problems
are coming from on the buses.
They're not paying for their bus pass
to go smoke their fentanyl or to beat people.
I've seen it all. Thank you. So sorry.
-Thank you. For the back here.
-Hi. My name is Daniel Rivera.
I've lived in this community for 19 years, all my life.
And I'm young,
but I talk a lot to my fellow peers
about the problems we have in this community.
And, you know, it's the common; homelessness,
gun violence, graffiti, street racing.
But there's an underlying theme underneath every single one
of these problems, which I hear in their voice,
which is the loss of hope.
Constantly, I hear how frustrated they are,
how fearful they are that nothing's being done
in this community.
And yeah, I think this fear turns into hate
and this hate turns into division
where we, the people of the CID,
are separate from homeless people,
but we all are Seattle people. We're all one people.
And I think that's what this community needs; hope.
And I think hope only comes from action.
-Thank you. Okay.
We're going to take about two or three more questions
and then we're going to -- I got the microphone.
-Hi, everyone. My name is Jon Grant.
I'm the Chief Strategy Officer
with the Low Income Housing Institute.
Our office is just down the way on just on Jackson and Rainier.
Almost every other week we have staff going outside
and resuscitating people who are overdosing,
and we're using Narcan to save lives.
But we know that it's not enough.
We are one of the larger
enhanced shelter providers for the city.
And something that really stuck out to me today
was listening to Chief Rahr about where do we people go?
Where can we send people,
even if we have somebody who wants behavioral health support,
who wants substance use disorder counseling?
And I just --
you know, I think what people want to hear today
are solutions, not just that there are plans in play.
And I want to thank the city council
and I want to thank everybody on the stage
who has supported our Tiny House Village program,
because we have behavioral health specialists on site.
Last year, we had 120 formerly
homeless folks enrolled into substance
use disorder counseling for the first time in their lives
a little at the time.
We had 20 more people enter mental health counseling.
If you're asking how do you get the folks on 12th and Jackson
into treatment, get them into shelter.
Get them into shelter and enhance services,
and we will stand with you to expand this program.
We have four other locations all throughout the city
where we could build more Tiny House Villages
and get more people into treatment.
And we would love to partner with you
to expand the program so that it's not all
concentrated here in the CID,
but it's something shared by the whole community,
because we need more solutions that work.
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ] -Okay.
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-Okay. I live in apartment -- street number 202.
And then on the 16th or 17th of July,
the street people came into our building wandering around
on the 18th floor -- the eighth floor, seventh floor.
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-They came in every day.
They urinate, they leave feces behind.
They feel like that is their home.
That is our home.
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-It is causing us fear during the day and the nighttime.
We call police three times.
The police ask me, what does the person look like?
What is that suspect?
And we cannot tell, and then the police did not come.
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-Yeah, I call three times, police did not come.
Yeah. -Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay.
-[ Speaking Chinese dialect ]
-Do we have to say the person has died
and before people will come? -Thank you.
We, unfortunately, are out of time.
I got to wrap things up here.
I appreciate everybody that was able to ask questions tonight.
I know that you probably --
a number of people didn't get to ask questions,
and I know that they wanted that opportunity.
I'm going to let Tanya wrap things up here.
Go ahead. -Great.
So thank you so much for coming here and sharing your stories.
Many of us have been taking notes.
We have our staff members taking notes,
and we're definitely going to bring this back.
I hear that there are a lot of concerns regarding security
within our homes. And so I think that's something
we're really going to have to think about.
-Quiet. Go ahead.
-And so budget is in three weeks,
and this is the time where, as Council President Nelson said,
rubber hits the road.
We're really going to be looking.
And for me,
I will be advocating for safety teams here
to help come if a business needs help.
Very similar to the Third Avenue project.
I think we need that here too to be able to address
peoples' and residents'
and small businesses' concerns and issues
and be ready to go when called.
And so I wanted to thank everyone for being here today.
Thank you for my colleagues here.
And please, this is not -- please, reach out to us.
We have business cards at the front,
and we are accessible and available
if you have anything else you would like to tell us.
-Thank you, everybody, for joining us.
[ Applause ]