Category Archives: human services

homeless, human services

Office of Civil Rights once again monitoring homeless encampment cleanups

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Earlier this year, the city issued an update to its protocol for cleaning up unsanctioned homeless encampments. Notably missing from those rules was a formal role for the Office of Civil Rights in monitoring implementation and compliance, as it had been doing last fall when the city was accused of not following its own rules.  The Office of Civil Rights  stopped its monitoring work in January, but after public outcry the city backtracked and said that it would use the department in an “audit capacity.”

Last month, three city departments quietly signed a Memorandum of Agreement re-establishing a formal monitoring role.

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homeless, human services, public health, public safety

Bridging the Gap gets a boost from the Emergency Operations Center

Late last summer, Mayor Murray announced Bridging the Gap, his administration’s short-term plan too address homelessness while the longer-term plan Pathways Home, took its time to spin up.  Both efforts have sputtered along since then, mired in city government bureaucracy and hidden behind a maddening lack of transparency and accountability. But there are now signs that the shorter-term effort is starting to find its groove thanks to a creative idea for how to reorganize the effort.

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human services

Council once again fails to hold HSD accountable

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Wednesday afternoon in the Human Services and Public Health Committee meeting, the City Council was asked by the Human Services Department (HSD) to lift restrictions on $125,000 set aside in this year’s city budget for a contract related to human service providers in the North Seattle area.  They asked no questions, and quickly passed it out of committee for final approval on Monday. This represents their general approach to oversight of HSD, and it is a big mistake.

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budget, housing, human services, labor, transportation

Few controversies in budget votes today

Budget chair Tim Burgess’s plan for this year was to use two rounds of discussion to build most of the 2017-2018 budget by consensus, leaving today’s meeting to hash out whatever controversies remain. That is exactly how it played out, and even today’s meeting had few major conflicts.

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committee, homeless, human services

Homeless encampments meeting enters bizarro world

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I’ve been scratching my head all afternoon and evening trying to figure out how to write something coherent about what was fundamentally an incoherent, chaotic meeting of the Human Services and Public Health Committee this morning to discuss the pending homeless encampment legislation.

I’m going to give a quick rundown on what happened (ok, maybe not so quick) then share some thoughts and observations.

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homeless, human services, parks

The homeless encampment legislation impasse, or “city hall was crazy town today”

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On a day when everyone in City Hall was supposed to be working on the budget, apparently no one was working on the budget. Instead, all attention was on competing efforts to craft an ordinance specifying when, where and how to clear unsanctioned homeless encampments around the city. When the dust cleared at the end of the day, there were two separately authored versions of the bill, plus a vague promise from the Mayor for his ideas on how to reform the current process.  But equally important — and in the end probably more valuable — some people were finally willing to talk on the record about what has been happening behind the scenes since the bill was first introduced. Get ready for some serious legislative sausage-making.

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budget, human services

Understanding the Budget, Part 3: Human Services Department

The Human Services Department, often referred to as HSD, is one of the largest departments in the city with 325 full-time employees and a proposed 2017 budget of $156.7 million. Where does the money come from, and where does it all go?

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human services

Council dives deep on heroin/opioid task force recommendations

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The Council heard a fascinating presentation yesterday from Dr. Caleb Banta-Green of the UW School of Public Health, a member of the Seattle and King County Heroin and Prescription Opiate Addiction Task Force on its recent report.

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committee, homeless, human services

Council takes up homeless encampment legislation

Yesterday morning the Council had its first substantive discussion on the merits of the bill introduced earlier this month to rewrite the city’s protocol for clearing unsanctioned homeless encampments. While yesterday’s meeting was intended to be just a forum for discussion with no decisions, it nevertheless highlighted just how much work needs to be done on the details of the bill before it’s ready for adoption – and how unlikely that work will be finished before the Council’s self-imposed deadline of the end of the month.

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council briefing, crime, housing, human services, police, utilities

Notes from this morning’s Council Briefing

Here are some quick hits from this morning’s weekly Council Briefing.

Council President Harrell noted that this week’s Education, Equity and Governance Committee will have a  presentation from the FTC on combatting fraud in the African-American and Latino communities. Also, the Seattle Election and Ethics Commission will discuss their plan to roll out the Democracy Voucher Program.

Council member Sawant mentioned that there are openings on the Seattle City Light customer review panel; in particular they are looking for a residential customer and someone with strong environmental advocacy interests.

Sawant also said that at the next Energy and Environment Committee meeting on September 27th she plans to hold a vote on the proposed ordinance capping move-in fees for tenants.

Council member Gonzalez noted that she might schedule a special set of GESCNA committee meetings if Judge Robard gives his approval for police accountability legislation.

Council member Bagshaw’s Human Services and Public Health Committee will have special meetings this Thursday and next Tuesday as it works through legislation addressing unsanctioned homeless encampments. Meanwhile, the encampment task force created by her and Mayor Murray meets the next two Wednesday evenings at 6pm in the Bertha Knight Landes Room in City Hall.