CITY OF SHORELINE
SHORELINE CITY COUNCIL
The purpose of these minutes is to capture a high-level summary of Council’s discussion and action. This is not a verbatim transcript. Meeting video and audio is available on the City’s website.
Monday, April 25, 2022 Held Remotely via Zoom
7:00 p.m.
PRESENT: Mayor Scully, Deputy Mayor Robertson, Councilmembers McConnell, Mork, Roberts, Pobee, and Ramsdell
ABSENT: None.
1. CALL TO ORDER
At 7:00 p.m., the meeting was called to order by Mayor Scully who presided.
2. ROLL CALL
Upon roll call by the City Clerk, all Councilmembers were present.
3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
The agenda was approved by unanimous consent.
4. REPORT OF CITY MANAGER
Debbie Tarry, City Manager, reported on various City meetings, projects, and events.
5. COUNCIL REPORTS
Councilmember Mork said she went to a King County-Cities Climate Collaboration meeting and said they spoke about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and the City of Bellevue’s Vision Zero Plan to eliminate fatalities from traffic accidents and how the plan relates to climate change initiatives.
Deputy Mayor Robertson reported her attendance to the King County Regional Transit Committee and shared that they opened a charging facility for the Metro electric fleet vehicles in South King County and will be working on producing additional facilities.
6. PUBLIC COMMENT
The Council heard comments from the public from approximately 7:06 p.m. to 7:23p.m. Written comments were also submitted to Council prior to the meeting and are available on the City’s website.
Jackie Kurle, Shoreline resident, spoke regarding the Enhanced Shelter and advocated for regular reports on operations.
Nancy Morris, Shoreline resident, spoke about the trees removed on 5th Avenue Northeast and stated she wanted to see more details in the Shoreline Area News article about the incident and she said the removal of the trees references a lack of oversite by the City.
Rodrigo Celis, Shoreline resident, brought up issues in Richmond Beach that his family has been exposed to which include several incidences of offensive behavior, illegal vehicle activities, and littering, and he asked Council for help resolving the problem.
Heidi Shepherd, Shoreline resident, spoke about The Oaks and her experience with their programs as a Volunteer Navigator with the Community Court and she stated that she is proud to be a Shoreline resident.
Kathleen Russell, Shoreline resident, spoke on behalf of Save Shoreline Trees and said we will lose most of the efforts to save trees unless there is a major change with the City’s vision and planning. She discussed issues with the tree removals on 5th Avenue Northeast and asked more information and transparency in advance of public tree removal.
Derek Blackwell, Shoreline resident, spoke about the construction to replace Garden Park Apartments and discussed six issues with the development emphasizing too few entrances as the main challenge. He insisted City intervention will be needed to ensure cooperation with the developer.
7. CONSENT CALENDAR
Upon motion by Deputy Mayor Robertson and unanimously carried, 7-0, the following Consent Calendar items were approved:
(a) Approval of Expenses and Payroll as of April 8, 2022 in the Amount of $1,627,467.58
8. ACTION ITEMS
(a) Update on Lake City Partners and Regional Homelessness Authority
Community Services Manager, Bethany Wolbrecht-Dunn, introduced guest presenters Walt Washington who is the outgoing Executive Director of Lake City Partners, Mark Dones, CEO of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA), and Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Sub-Regional Planning Manager with KCRHA. Ms. Wolbrecht-Dunn stated that in 2015, Council passed Resolution No. 379 to support the King County Declaration of Homelessness Emergency and since then Council’s goals to address the issue have been realized through the siting of the 60-person Oaks Enhanced Shelter, activating the Severe Weather Shelter, and funding a Homelessness Navigator in partnership with Lake City Partners in addition to other collaborations with St. Dunstan’s Church, North Urban Human Services Alliance (NUHSA), NE Funders, North King County Shelter Task Force, and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. Ms. Wolbrecht-Dunn shared key data on The Oaks Enhanced Shelter and said 96 people were served in 2021.
Mr. Washington announced they just celebrated one year since the opening of the Enhanced Shelter and stated that they are making connections with people who have not been established with the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). The staff then work to prepare residents for housing readiness and placement into communities familiar to them with built in support networks and they follow up with individuals after they are housed to check on their placement success. Mr. Washington said they are now focusing on community-based case management and outreach through a contract with the City to have the Homelessness Navigator meet those who need assistance wherever they may be and help them identify resources. He reported success with their diversion program which he said is funded through United Way to help place people from the Severe Weather Shelter into housing directly and he said they have a nurse on staff to provide health services and help to ensure operation and safety protocol are being followed. Mr. Washington said they are facing challenges including capacity at The Oaks, limited housing inventory, and diversion program funding.
Mr. Dones gave a background on KCRHA from its origin as a special jurisdiction government agency, with one sole staff member, with a mission to provide a meaningful response to homelessness through a regionally coordinated solution. KCRHA now has a staff of 55 with 220 contracts and a $180 million budget and he announced that they will soon be focused on developing their 2023 budget as well as their 5-Year Plan that will be published in September. Mr. Dones then shared their Theory of Change which states if the homeless response system centers the voices of people with lived experience, then we can meet the needs and eliminate inequities in order to end homelessness for all. This is a sentiment that is also reflected in their core values along with the belief that it is possible to end homelessness, achieve race equity and social justice, and collaboration. He stated that their staff is made up of 50% of people with lived experience so they may approach their work with technical expertise. Mr. Dones spoke about the scope of their work including the establishment of an Ombuds Office to ensure those experiencing homelessness have a resource to express concerns, and he said KCRHA has a responsibility to measure success as a homelessness crisis response system through clear metrics and milestones and to help communities develop the infrastructure necessary to support people experiencing housing instability. Finally, Mr. Dones stated that they operate inside an equity-based framework that guides hiring, procurement, and community engagement to identify and proactively eliminate inequities and advance equity.
Ms. Rinck explained her role in regional planning and discussed the regional landscape made up of seven sub-regions that include 39 cities and over 150 organizations that collaborate to provide updates, review feedback, and conduct deep engagement mapping activities. Speaking about North King County specifically, Ms. Rinck said they regularly engage with NUHSA and the North King County Coalition on Homelessness as well as other providers servicing North King County such as Response Awareness, De-escalation and Referral (RADAR), The Center for Human Services, King County Public Health, and public libraries. Next, Ms. Rinck spoke about their Understanding Unsheltered Homelessness Project and said that it was a qualitative research project to understand homelessness around the region and she reported that they collected data from over 600 participants throughout the county and said the Lived Experience Coalition hopes to publish a community report over the summer. Next, Ms. Rinck spoke about service metrics in North King County stating that there are 143 emergency shelter beds, 18 beds for transitional housing, and 63 supportive housing beds that are serving veterans. She announced that as of early March, 410 individuals accessing homelessness service reported North King County as their last residence with 210 of those individuals identifying Shoreline specifically. Lastly, she explained KCRHA’s key bodies of work to implement sub-regional services.
Several questions came from Council regarding tracking metrics for the homelessness and homelessness response and when data will be available, and Mr. Washington explained that Lake City Partners has not been funded to do the work but hopes they procure the resources to start doing it. Ms. Wolbrecht-Dunn added that the King County regional Housing Authority is working on conducting a count but the City can track incoming communication regarding issues related to homelessness through the customer response team. Ms. Rinck said more data will become available in September when the 5-Year Plan is published.
There was an inquiry regarding the services provided through the hotels purchased by King County and what Council could do to help support homelessness response efforts. Ms. Rinck explained that they are following King County’s progress as they are working towards the same goal and said the service is considered permanent supportive housing and likely includes case management, substance use recovery, and behavioral health counseling. Mr. Dones stated that housing availability, including various housing options such as permanent supportive housing will help the effort as well as an additional enhanced shelter and vocal support from elected officials.
It was pointed out that funding has been a problem and, as it stands, most of the funding comes from King County and the City of Seattle. It was asked if Shoreline would need to start paying into it to get more equitable treatment. Mr. Dones answered that the seven sub-regions are analyzed individually in their resource distribution planning to identify the current state of the region and goals are developed for each space. Ms. Rinck said they would like to explore the potential of pooled funding among agencies and further develop relationships in North King County. She said in trying to pursue more equitable outcomes, they are committed to infrastructure development and helping work with communities to equip every community to be able to provide adequate services to keep people stable.
9. EXECUTIVE SESSION
At 8:40 p.m., Mayor Scully recessed into an Executive Session for a period of 20 minutes as authorized by RCW 42.30.110(l)(i) to discuss with legal counsel matters relating to agency enforcement actions or litigation and stated that the Council may potentially take final action following the Executive Session. Staff attending the Executive Session included Debbie Tarry, City Manager; John Norris, Assistant City Manager; and Margaret King, City Attorney.
Mayor Scully left the meeting at 8:40 p.m.
At 9:00 p.m. Deputy Mayor Robertson emerged to extend the session for a period of 10 minutes. The Executive Session ended at 9:09 p.m.
10. ADJOURNMENT
At 9:10 p.m., Deputy Mayor Robertson declared the meeting adjourned.
/s/ Jessica Simulcik Smith, City Clerk