REALTIME FILE

Meeting ‑ CCSWW Tacoma‑Pierce County 
Coalition to End Homelessness

Friday, June 26, 2020

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>> Hello, everybody.  My name is Rita, and I work for Wellspring Family Services, so I am here.  I live in Tacoma, and I am working with the Tacoma Public Schools to help the families for McKinney‑Vento, and also the homeless community as well to help them get into an apartment.  We assist with anything, so I thought I would introduce myself.
>> Excited to see you are here.
>> Yeah.  I look forward to getting to know all of you.
>> Wow.  Mutual.  All right.  I am going to launch us off here, as is our way, with a little bit of a video, this time about the census, and I am going to go ahead and jump in, so we will get going proper in about three minutes here.  Let me figure out how to do the stupid share screen.
>> How many people live at this residence?
>> Zero.
>> You don't live here?
>> Oh, including me?  Three.
[Laughter]
>> I am going to put you down as the primary resident.
>> Terrific.
>> How would you describe your race or ethnic origin?
>> Well, superior to Asians, but not as intelligent as blacks.
[Laughter]
>> Let me clarify.  Which of the following describes you?  White, Asian, Hispanic, Pacific Islander?
>> Oh, Pacific Islander, let's try that.  And don't skimp on the rum.
[Laughter]
>> What is your last name, ma'am?
>> [Indiscernible].
>> Can you spell that?
>> S‑m‑i‑t‑h.
>> Not Smith?
>> They changed it at Ellis Island when I was there two weeks ago on a bingo cruise.  Back in school they had to spell [indiscernible] because there was another girl in the class named Leejarmus.
>> Sure.  Are there any people living in this residence part‑time?
>> Oh, goodness, yes.  There is Fluffy, Princess, Tigger, Sox.
>> These are people we are talking about and not cats, right?
>> There is really no way of knowing.  There are big eyes looking up from my lap.  I think that's definitely a homeless guy in a fur coat.
[Laughter]
>> Honestly, the government is just trying to ascertain ‑‑
>> Oh, that used to be my stripper name.  Then they changed it to [indiscernible].
>> You know what, we are done.
>> Oh, good.  You have a good day, sir.
[Laughter]
>> Fluffy, get down from there.
>> I was chasing a mouse.
>> Oh, baby.
[Cheers and applause]
>> All right.  Welcome to the inappropriate stereotypes in there.  Not how we are going to start the meeting off.  Just a reminder, census is in full operation now.  You may not have heard, but Pierce County has officially passed our self‑report rate from 2010.  That means that more people have responded to the request to do the online census or the paper census than in 2010, which is good news, so hopefully we are on pace to count more.  As you know, folks, that haven't counted themselves or suspect they haven't, reach on out and let people know how important it is.  Usually I start off with somebody doing a little bit of an intro, and what I usually do is on Monday I ask and somebody takes a couple days to get back to me, and then it's all good, but then sometimes they just don't respond, and in a couple more days I ask someone else.  Anyway, Friday morning, and I don't have anyone, so you are going to get me.
	It's been a rough few months, and I was thinking as we look at sort of the silence resulting from too many decades of systemic racism bubbling up, I was sort of not at a point where I wanted to double down, but wanted a bit more levity.  We had nine folks come and present on systemic racism that we are working on addressing with some solutions, and a lot had a lot more to share than we had time for.  
	I was talking to Maureen a little bit about how useful it can be to focus our presentations sometimes, and that got me thinking a little bit about Ernest Hemingway and his iceberg theory.  So he was well‑known for omitting a lot from his narratives, so he would know an awful lot and just tell a few details, and he felt that that sort of strengthened the story.  So basically the idea is he knew the whole iceberg, but he only told you about the top part.
	And that's a really hard skill to do, especially for a data guy like me that likes to tell absolutely everything I know all the time.  And we were talking, Maureen and I, about how do we develop that skill set, so when we walk away from a conversation with somebody they have taken away the important parts, but they know we know the rest.  And this is something Hemingway pointed out is, if you don't know the whole iceberg, you can't just tell a little bit and omit the stuff you don't know.  You can only omit the stuff you do know.
	Anyway, kind of got me thinking.  And then I was thinking about people that present at this meeting and how they often have a poem to start off with, and I was thinking one of my favorite poems is called [indiscernible].
>> Oh, no.
>> And the iceberg theory has nothing to do with any of that, but I am going to read it anyway.  I have been doubling down myself on a lot of extra reading.  My reading list, recently I read "Citizen," I listened to it on audio books, by Claudia Rankine.  It's a good hour‑and‑a‑half read, super useful for white folks like me.  And "Jim Crow," which is like, wow, a super important read.  Can't believe I didn't put that down.
	On the lighter side, I have been doing some ridiculously light reading, and the iceberg theory fits that.  I heard this on "The Writer's Almanac," which is something we used to listen to before we found out a little bit more about Garrison Keillor.  	All the food critics hate iceberg lettuce.  You'd think romaine was descended from Orpheus' laurel wreath.  You'd think raw spinach had all the nutritional benefits attributed to it by Popeye, not to mention aesthetic subtleties worthy of Veriaine and Debussy.  I guess the problem is it's just too common for them.  It doesn't matter that it tastes good, has a satisfying crunchy texture, holds its freshness and has crevices for the dressing, whereas the darker, leafier varieties are often bitter, gritty, and flat.  It just isn't different enough and it's too goddamn American.  Of course a critic has to criticize.  A critic has to have something to say.  Perhaps that's why literary critics purport to find interesting so much contemporary poetry that just bores the shit out of me.  At any rate, I really enjoy a salad with plenty of chunky iceberg lettuce, the more the merrier, drenched in an Italian or roquefort dressing, and the poems I enjoy are those I don't have to pretend that I am enjoying.
	And as my work and the world outside is more and more complicated, it's the simple pleasure that I am going to more and more.  And with that, I am going to jump us into our meeting, and if that's not inspiration enough for somebody to volunteer to do our reflection when we meet next time, I don't know what to do.
	We are lucky enough this week to have with us a group that is providing services to folks around our criminal justice system, and I am going to hand it off to Avon Curtis of Arms Around You.
>> Good morning, everyone.  I am the executive director of Arms Around You.  We are a nonprofit reentry organization that provides resources to individuals as they are returning to community.  We are extremely, extremely excited to be able to bring our services further south to Pierce County.  This is huge.  So thanks for having us.
	Gerrit, I sent you a PDF.  I am not that tech savvy.  If you can help me out with my presentation, I would appreciate it.
>> I will put it up.  All right.
>> There we go.  Good morning.  Yay.
>> Make a little ding sound when you want me to advance the slide.
>> See, now you are starting something.  Do I have to make the ding sound or can I just say "next slide."
>> The read‑along books when I read as a child.
>> [Laughs].  I am the executive director of Arms Around You.  We formed this ‑‑ we put this together in 2017.  It was when I came back home to Washington State I found that resources for reentry was scarce.  So it was put on my heart to start an organization called Arms Around You, and the goal is to be able to support individuals when they return to society coming from incarceration and homelessness, and really help them to feel supported and a sense of a peer to peer network.  A peer to peer relationship if you will.  
	We say you can't keep it unless you give it away, so the ultimate goal is to share what we have with other individuals because it's a lived experience we really, really want to help with individuals becoming more stronger, re‑acclimated, and really encouraged and empowered about returning to community.  I guess I will say, ding, because I can't ‑‑ thank you.
	So the mission, our mission, is to provide a safe environment of community support, education and encouragement to individuals who are in the reentry phase of their life.  And when we look at that, and when we speak to that, we want individuals to feel comfortable enough to know that we are like‑minded.  We have the lived experience and it's relative for us.  So that comfortability, building that trust and understanding that in order to move forward, in order to be empowered to move forward, we want to be able to support that by education.  You know, information and education is key, and we know that.
	Some of us when we are returning we have to start all over again and we learn things.  And that's important, that's important to help individuals to know and understand that it's a learning experience.  You know, we provide resources and hands‑on programs to equip formerly incarcerated individuals with the foundational skills, the emotional healing.  Let's talk about emotional healing.  That is really, really, really important.  We want to encourage individuals to heal first.  You know, we want you to heal first from the root causes.
	And that means, you know, we know ‑‑ we got to be vulnerable.  We work with it.  We meet you at your level.  We meet the people at their level because the healing process is different.  It's different for all of us.  We want to guide and the guidance in stability to be successful is very, very, very important as well.  And bringing the Arms Around You model to the community really means that we also have to be patient in knowing that individuals are coming home, you know, they are reentering, re‑acclimating themselves, getting stronger emotionally, and we want to contribute to that and we want them to be successful in coming back to their community.
	We are grounded in values of compassion, healing and most importantly accountability.  Now one thing, for me, again, I say it's a lived experience, so responsibility and accountability is key.  We are holding each other responsible and accountable for what part they play.  It's your life.  We definitely want to be a part of that.  It's a 90‑10.  90% of the work comes from the participant, and the other 10% is really about community support.  We want to be able to build that.  We want to build that importantly through accountability and responsibility.
	Ding.  [Laughs].  Thank you, Gerrit.  So how do we assist?  We assist with the wide variety of services geared towards rebuilding the positive foundation on the path to successful reentry.  Healthy thinking patterns.  Helping individuals to learn healthy thinking patterns.  We have to redirect our thoughts.  That's one of the priorities once we reenter because for me coming back into society after coming from an incarcerated population was, okay, what do I do now.  You know.  And honestly the first thing that came to my mind is to go do what I was comfortable doing.  I had to change that way of thinking.  I had to redirect my thoughts by getting the support, by ‑‑ I wanted change, you know, so those that want change, even if ‑‑ they don't come in automatically wanting it.  It's about supporting individuals to understand what it looks like in reentry.  So we assist with those services by helping them to rebuild a foundation, or build a foundation, for themselves to be successful in reentry by helping them change their way of thinking, and that is something that we do with workshops, groups, healing circles, as well as that peer to peer interaction.
	It's therapeutic, it's relevant.  And when you are building a therapeutic relationship, you get a different feel.  I mean I am not taking away from the clinical side.  We are not taking away from the clinical side because it's bookends.  It's definitely bookends.  For those of us that are in reentry and successfully in reentry, it's a therapeutic model, just building that relationship, trusting and knowing that you have what you need to come through the doors and get your needs met.
	And that transitional support is offered to individuals who want to enroll in our reentry curriculum.  So you got to want it.  If you don't, I mean we don't deny you.  If you don't ‑‑ I mean some of us, it takes some of us longer than others, so we definitely want you to want it.  We want you to really, really, really get in touch with change.  What that change looks like, play the tape, rewind the tape, go back to how it all started.  Rewind the tape, press play, and hopefully ‑‑ we want to assist in this, but hopefully you will be able to have a different mindset and you want it, you know.  So we want you to want it more so than anything.
	It allows them to reidentify who they are, you know.  It takes really having to, again, go back and go through some things.  We have to touch on where we come from and the root causes, and it's a lot.  It's a lot with reentry.  It's a wonderful thing, it's a great experience to reenter when you are able to want to do the work, go back and just, you know, start over.  Or pick up where you left off.  It's a case‑by‑case basis.  Some people have been restructured while they are incarcerated, whatever, it's a case‑by‑case basis, so the story is different for everyone, but we definitely want individuals to feel like once they walk in their doors, they know that they can get their needs met, they can feel supported, and they can also be vulnerable, be you, you know.  Being able to have that peer to peer interaction and mentorship is what brings the uniqueness and the substance to Arms Around You.
	Ding.  [Laughs].  Yes.  So we offer referrals for education, therapy, life skills.  Now the life skills, we have a life skills curriculum that we are putting together and we are working on that now, and it's looking really, really, really good.  We have started putting this curriculum together so that we can instead of refer people out and outsource them out for the life skills part of it, we want to be able to take that on as an organization.
	So substance abuse treatment.  You know, some of us have come ‑‑ we have that background, where substance use was something that we dealt with and struggled with, so we want to be able to provide that referral as well.  When we do intakes, we ask different questions.  We ask those questions that are relevant and those questions that, you know, we want to know what it is we can do.  How can we help you be successful?  How can we empower you and liberate you to be able to get what you need, wrap your head around what it takes, and then put your best foot forward.
	If there is some legal assistance that you need, we have referrals for that.  Job placement assistance.  I mean, yes, everyone needs a job.  We already know the basic needs, and we don't want to send you out to a job until you are ready to confront that, deal with that.  I mean we don't want to set anybody up for failure, so we really want individuals to take care of themselves by going inside first, dealing with the stuff that, you know, kind of keeps us from being self‑sufficient.  So, yes, everyone needs a job.  You know, we want to be a part of that.
	So we do have job placement assistance, but we like to go back and look at those goals and say, okay, are you work‑ready.  Let's ask that question, are you work‑ready.  Of course most of us will say, yes, because we need the income.  We got to live, we got to pay our bills.  So we want to find a balance to where, okay, let's try to get you some assistance with finance, food, you know, medical and things like that, and then let's prepare you for the workplace.  You know, let's really prepare you for the workplace so when you walk in you can have that Johnnie Cochran about yourself where you are really strong enough to understand that it's going to work.  What I am doing, it's going to work.
	So the housing placement referrals, that goes back to are you housing‑ready.  We want to look at that.  We know that housing is key.  Housing is a right and house something a need.  You know, we want you to be housing‑ready so when you get the job you will be able to keep the job, sustain your employment and pay your bills.  So we want that.
	We just got considered with DSHS, so we can provide assistance to enrollment benefits.  We do peer to peer networking, community support.  We are working and building on our referrals and outsourcing, but the ultimate goal, what I want to say, the ultimate goal, everyone, is for us to be able to provide these direct services to individuals under one umbrella.
	Right now our capacity is for referrals.  We are a new organization, so of course we got to start from the ground.  The foundation is there.  We are starting from the ground.  We are excited that Pierce County is reaching out.  I mean the good news is yesterday we were just approved to get a permanent space in Pierce County, so I mean it's just working.  Pierce County, I never ‑‑ I was always over here, you know, in King County, so when I went to Pierce County it was like, okay, I am in and out, but Pierce County is definitely ‑‑ we are really excited to come over and be able to support the community in Pierce County and be able to allow our community to grow and heal with us.
	Strength comes in numbers, so all of us together, including those of us here on this Zoom meeting, you know, we work together.  I appreciate that.  I feel like there is no silos.  I don't feel any silos.  We work as a community in order to build.  We have to work as a community.
	Ding.  So why Arms Around You works.  We are a unique organization.  We are serving community in that we reach deeper to fix the problem from the inside out.  And I spoke to that just a minute about let's talk about it.  Let's sit in those group settings and let's get raw and uncut.  Let's have those conversations that you may not feel comfortable having in a clinical setting.  Let's have those.  Let's have those conversations that help you to be able to reflect on, you know, going forward.  You know, going forward, you got to get raw.  You got to get raw.  You got to kind of undress yourself.  And it means in order to heal, not taking away from the therapy side, but in order to heal a lot of stuff has to be revealed.  
	I mean we don't want ‑‑ I mean definitely there is a place for everything.  There is a conversation for everything.  When you are dealing with people that are like‑minded and understand and can relate, before you know it it's like you have spilt and you have cleaned your gut and you feel more empowered than when you walk in.  So we want them to understand that you got to go from the inside and then build on that.  That's really, really important.  That's really important.
	So one of our key strengths is to have that ‑‑ it's not what you say.  It's what you don't say kind of approach where we want to talk about it and then pull conversations out so that people can heal, and know that they are healing.  But at their pace, at their pace, because it's a case by case basic again.  We have built a model of approach.
	Arms Around You works with community partners who help nurture the broken piece of our mentees and fosters the dreams and goals needed to excel.  Together we are united.  We are able to come together as a community, community partners like the ones that are here on this forum, and, again, thank you, thank you so much for having us, and it's a pleasure and an honor to be able to be part of such an empowering and strong service.  And know that people really care.  You know, I am a people person, so I kind of feel like Arms Around You is moving in the right direction by coming further south, being able to help individuals further south, because the demographics are showing strong further south, and we want to follow those demographics.
	So, you know, we got some work to do.  You know, we definitely got some work to do, and I always tell the team, you know, we are the right one for the job because we are able to help those that are coming through the doors, understand what it looks like in reentry, and really help them realize and embrace the fact that there is going to be some challenges, but challenges create champions, and in order for that to be a model that one adopts, and really takes to heart, is allowing them to be ‑‑ allowing them to go through those challenges, but getting them to understand that they are not by themselves.  You are not alone.  We are here with you.  We are Arms Around You.  We wrap our Arms Around You because we care, and we have the lived experience.  So we are going to let you be you, but those challenges are going to comb in the forefront.  Instead of going back to those old behaviors, we want to help you modify that behavior by connecting you to organizations that have the strength to be able to get you to see that change has to happen.
	We are definitely excited about bringing Arms Around You to Pierce County because it's needed.  I mean to keep it plain and simple, it's needed.  This reentry model is needed, and when you have organizations that are able to help build the community of reentry, and allow individuals to really feel strong and get what they need it's going to work.  We all know it's going to work because we are not here for nothing.  It's not a void that we are here.  We are all here together as a community, and we are so grateful.  We are so grateful.  I want to say thank you to each and every one of you.  Thank you to Pierce County.  Thank you to Gerrit and his team at the ‑‑ I don't want to say it wrong.  I have been saying different acronyms.  Tacoma‑Pierce Coalition to End Homelessness?  Help me.
>> Whatever is fine.
>> Okay.  [Laughs].  Yes.  Thank you, thank you again for having us, and we are excited to be part of the team.
>> Great.  I am hoping you have some time for some questions.  One question I have is how much more need do you think there is than what you are able to assist with?  Like how many clients are you able to serve in a year, or will you in a year do you think, and like how far from that, how far from the need, do you think that set of resources is?  Like what do we need to do to get you to help all the people that need it?
>> Of course one of the greatest, biggest challenges we have is funding.  You know, funding is one of our barriers honestly.  And once the funding is ‑‑ once we tap into the funding, the sky's the limit, you know.  When they come through the door, we are definitely ‑‑ we are not counting the heads.  We are working on reaching souls, so once we get the funding we are able to build on our staff capacity, and we are able to provide what's needed.
	So I mean funding is the need to be specific to answer your question, Gerrit.  Funding is a need, so if you have any funding resources, if you can help us tap into that, please do.  Please do.
>> I was thinking the collective we as a community of everybody on this call.  So we have some questions.  I guess another question would be what's the easiest way for us to get our clients connected with your organization?
>> So you can go on our website at armsaroundyou.org, and you can schedule an intake through the website, or you can reach us directly by giving us a call.  You can send your participants, slash, clients to Arms Around You, give them our information, give them our website information.
	We prefer that, you know, we do it by appointments because we don't have an open‑door policy right now in terms of just walking in the door.  We want to schedule an appointment.  So go to the website.  You will see where it says, schedule an intake, on the drop‑down menu.  If you scan the website.  And you can schedule an intake there.  But for the service providers, just give us a call or give your participants our information, and we will take it from there.  We got you, we got you.
>> Great.  We have some questions.
>> Can you put that contact information on the chat so people will know how to reach you?
>> I thought I had that in the ‑‑
>> My question is there are already several organizations in the county that do similar to what you are proposing to do.  Have you had a chance to get acquainted with any of those leaders?
>> I have.  We have, yes.  We have.  I know there is more, though.  I know there is more out there, and that's where we are reaching out by saying if there is organizations that you feel we could collaborate with, please connect the dots for us.
>> Theresa, what's that organization that works on folks exiting incarceration?
>> [Laughs].  Mr. Sarcastic, yes.  Actually, we already know about Arms Around You because Avon has come to the Community Partnership for Transition Solutions in Pierce County, and she knows Jessica I believe who works ‑‑
>> Yes.
>> Maybe Rosemary.  Yes, we are with New Connections, and we have ‑‑ I have not ‑‑ this is my first time to meet Avon, but I know that other folks in my organization have met you, and I wish you the best of luck.
>> Oh, thank you, thank you so much.  Thanks, Theresa.
>> One other question.  Really to all of you guys who do this work.  Have you given any consideration to collaborating together and creating a multi‑service center that you all support and see people in so that you have a working connection day by day?
>> That's one of our goals, you know.  That's definitely one of our goals as a community.  We know that having an opportunity to be present in that aspect is important.  So, you know, we are learning as we go.
>> Well, actually there is already a pretty good start at that with the Court Resource Center right down here on Tacoma Avenue.  They have done some amazing things and they invite people in, and I was going to mention them to you, Avon, off the grid, but they do have some space and they welcome people to come in during certain days.
>> Nice.
>> You can schedule it so they know you are going to be there.  And, yes, in answer to your question, Al, you always have good questions, there has been a lot of interest in collaborating, and much of that has taken place.  If anybody is interested in coming to the CPTS meetings, unfortunately they overlap these on the first Friday of the month, so Rosemary usually goes and I come here, but I would love to see that shift so that ‑‑ because there are so many people in this group who I think would be great.  It would be great to attend some of those meetings and to provide your wisdom, and also to hear from people who are working in that all the time.  So thanks for asking.
>> All right.  Thanks so much.  This is maybe a crazy idea, but maybe we could stop putting people in prisons so much and that wouldn't have so much demand for you.
>> [Laughs].  Well, you know, Gerrit, the funny thing is that we say prison, and prison doesn't mean just behind the walls.  See, that's the difference.  You know, we are in prison in a lot of ways, in society, in relationships.  A lot that wraps around being in prison.  So we also want to be able to touch on that a little bit.  
	Yes, incarcerated behind the walls and being locked up and being told, you know, locked down, chow time, things like that, med call, all those things are happening behind those walls, but then there is that other piece that speaks to being imprisoned, and that's something that we are working on to help individuals heal from.  So, you know, yes, we don't want people to be locked up, but our doors are still going to be open.  You know, if they close the prison down Arms Around You is still going to be out here helping people heal so they can be successful.
>> And to quote the new "Jim Crow" that I am reading, the whole ‑‑ I mean the whole probation system and just the way the state exerts control over people, even when they are not behind bars.  That's an element I just didn't think about the impact or the scope of either of those things.
>> Right.  And I get that.  That's why the healing process is ‑‑ it trumps anything.  If you don't deal, you don't heal, so you got to deal, you got to deal.
>> Your e‑mail address is in the agenda, and you put your website and your e‑mail in the chat, so we are ‑‑ we know how to find you.
>> Yes.
>> Which is I think going to be probably a real benefit to a number of our clients.
>> Right.
>> Thanks for coming, and let us know what we can do to support your work.
>> Yes.  Thanks for having me.  Hi, Rita!  [Laughs].
>> Did you have a question or is that a wave?
>> That was a wave.  We have been trying to connect for awhile.  It's all in due time.  It's time for everything, and now we connected, so.
>> You are muted, Rita.
>> You are muted.  That's okay.  I can read your lips.  I have to read lips, especially, you know, there are times where people won't say what they are supposed to say, so I have to read their lips and their hearts.
>> Yeah.  I was just saying I am not at Urban League anymore, even though we will be housed at the Tacoma Urban League, but I will be working with Wellspring.  I am working for Wellspring.
>> And is there a Wellspring in Pierce?
>> There is.  So what I was saying is Tacoma Urban League.
>> Okay.
>> Will be housed there, so we are Rapid Rehousing.
>> Oh, nice, and I am also ‑‑ I will be working with the McKinney‑Vento program.
>> You guys could have coffee.
>> Yeah.
>> Thank you.
>> We are going to do a quick change in the agenda a little bit.  Valeri Knight, do you mind jumping in with a couple quick announcements about the rental assistance portal and about the new contract work going on in Puyallup and then we will jump into Michele?
>> Yeah, sure.  No problem.  I am leaving my camera off because I woke up at 8:05 this morning, so I am not prepared to be on camera today, so forgive me.  I took a Benadryl last night at 7:00 and woke up at 8:05.  So Puyallup, the City of Puyallup came in for funding in our round three CARES Act.  The city was funded for hotels.  We have 13 people for hotels.  They set up the Temporary Emergency Location, back when COVID first started, back in March.  Instead of just shutting down the tent sites, they moved everyone that was in a tent site into a hotel.  They are connected with David and Daisy.  They are working very diligently to exit all of them to housed, so they have a pretty astonishing record so far of exiting people to either sober programs, they have lots of different housing operations that they are working through.  So kudos to them for working very hard on that.  And they are done to 13 and those 13 they are working to get housed as we speak.
	The second application from the City of Puyallup is for a position, and it is a position that will be a City of Puyallup position, but they will be setting up the homeless response in Puyallup, which is pretty exciting, and something that hasn't been done before.  So that is fully funded, ready to go, and they are working through who that person will be out in the City of Puyallup.  
	I can also say that person is being supported by our very own Annemarie from Pierce County, who has been stationed at Puyallup EOC as well.  They are going to hire a Human Services position, which is new information, so that's exciting.
	And agencies were also funded for Puyallup support, so Salvation Army received $15,000 for people experiencing homelessness, 10,000 for hygiene sanitation to use as they were needed, and they were funded 309,000 for rental assistance.  This is the first time Pierce County Human Services has had a contract with Salvation Army Puyallup, so we are excited to see how that grows, but that was all done, as well as New Hope was also awarded mobile outreach and sanitation services.  So definitely had a primary focus this last round of equitable reach and making sure we are in every community possible, that we aren't saying come to Tacoma for services, so we focused really hard on those aspects.
	CARES three closes at 4:30 today for round three.  And rental assistance.  The portal is live as of yesterday.  Folks can go in and actually select an agency that they want to work with, and the agency will receive the referral.  If no agency is selected they will be referred to available capacity or a location situation.  We don't want to create any barriers.  So the portal is live.  We are now serving anyone in Pierce County, including the City of Tacoma.  That is a new change as of yesterday, day before yesterday.  My week is blurring together.  I will send the link to the portal, I will send it out to the whole e‑mail.
	There is no monthly cap, and folks can receive up to two months of assistance.  Whereas some have a $1,000 cap, we don't have that.  I have six kids, so $1,000 a month is a little harder for me to ‑‑ because you can't rent a spot with seven bedrooms.  So we don't have a monthly cap.  The only caveat, they must have been affected by COVID.  Your income, your sources have to be affected by COVID.  I will send out the social media stuff as well as anything else that you ask for.
>> Awesome.  Thank you, Valeri.  We know how to get ahold of you with questions, so we are going to segue over to the Washington State Low Income Housing Alliance, coalition, consortium, something like that.
>> Alliance.
>> I knew it was one of those.  You just imagine like a five‑hour strategic planning session where they wordsmith whether they are going to be a consortium or a coalition.  But anyway, thank you so much for joining us again.  It's your last ‑‑ your last visit was a challenging experience for all of us with the Zoom bombers as they say, so it's nice to have you in a little more peaceful space at this time.
>> Thank you.  I want to introduce John, my coworker.  Many of you know him.  He is going to talk a little bit after me about some advocacy opportunities.
	So thank you so much for having me today.  Actually, can you clarify how much time we have on the agenda for this part?
>> Well, we've got updates that we can do, but if this is a super productive conversation, you can go all the way up till 11:00 if you want.
>> Thank you.  Our goal today, a couple of times in the past with similar conversation, our goal today is to get feedback from you all for the Housing Alliance's upcoming special session legislative priorities, and also our 2021 state legislative priorities.  And just a quick reminder in case folks aren't familiar, the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, we are a membership‑based organization, we are statewide.  We primarily focus or work on changing state level policy to advance opportunities for affordable housing and to end homelessness.  We work on policies and we also work onto budget.  We are increasingly working on federal policies as well.  It's always been important, but I think now with COVID and how much our state is going to need to rely on the federal government for investments in housing and homelessness, federal advocacy is more important than ever, so that's something we are increasingly doing.  We don't get involved as much on local issues unless our local partners ask us to get involved.  If there is something you feel you need a statewide voice on, or the Housing Alliance's voice in particular, on any Pierce County‑specific issues, we can weigh in in partnership with you.
	So, again, so I am Michele Thomas, director of policy and advocacy, and John is our membership and mobilization lead.  So for today we are going to ask you some questions, and we are hoping that we can have a dialogue that you all will actively participate in.  We discussed doing like breakout rooms on our polls, and we decided not to do that to keep this a little simple and give everybody the opportunity to easily weigh in to the conversation.
	I want to give you a couple of quick updates that I think will help ground the conversation and provide some context.  So I mentioned this a couple weeks back, but the state ‑‑ you probably know this anyhow, but for an update, the state is grappling with a really significant budget shortfall.  The 
Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, which is a state entity that the legislature is required to balance their budget against their proposals, or their predictions, that entity met last week and updated their projections on how much revenue the state is lacking based on what they were previously predicting, and what the legislature had created their budget on, and what they found is that between this current year, this last year of the biennial state budget, and in the upcoming one, which is a two‑year budget that the legislature will start to write when they convene in Olympia in January, that those three budget years in total have an $8.8 billion deficit.
	So because part of that deficit involves this year's state budget, the state legislature plans to convene for a special session.  Special sessions are just the term used when the legislature as an entire body gathers outside of the regular legislative sessions that are otherwise typically happening between ‑‑ they start in January, and then they will go to either March or through the end of April, depending whether or not it's a short year or a long year.
	So it looks like they are very likely to have that special session in August of this year.  The second week of August is what they are currently looking at.  I think we will know the exact date probably within a week or so, but that's what they are looking at.  And when they convene in August they will be considering budget cuts.
	I think many of you will remember that the Housing and Essential Needs rental assistance program, which you know is rental assistance for extremely low income disabled adults, what was put forward to the governor's budget office was for a $16 million cut.  That is not necessarily what the governor will then propose to the legislature, and it is not necessarily what the legislature will propose or agree to, but it was put forward as an example of one way to help balance the budget.
	And I just say that because I think it's important, and I know HEN is an important program in the community, every community in the state, but that's the kind of cuts we need to fight against, and that's what we could be looking at.  Both in August, but when they reconvene in January to deal with whatever remaining deficit that they haven't otherwise dealt with in August.
	So we will talk about some advocacy we are working on after we have an opportunity to talk more about legislative priorities, but I do want to emphasize how critical your voice is going to be in advocacy and moving forward.  I hope you know that Pierce County is really, really, really important for state‑level advocacy.  You have a lot of very powerful lawmakers in Pierce County.  
	Obviously you have Speaker Jenkins, who is incredibly powerful and important, but you have a lot of other important lawmakers as well.  You have a representative on the transportation budget, Senator Darneille who leads on Human Services in the senate.  You have swing district votes, like Senator O'Ban, who can be helpful on housing and homelessness, and you have a lot of other key lawmakers.  Representative Kilduff is leaving unfortunately, but she is until January the head of civil rights and judiciary, which is the committee where all tenant bills go to.  That's a short list of your powerful lawmakers, but you have a lot of them.  So your voice in particular is critical.
	So we will talk more about the budget cuts, we will talk more about what's coming, but I want to jump into our questions now.
>> Can I jump in real quick with some logistical things?
>> One minute.  I want to make sure folks know in the context of what we are talking about, we are talking about state‑level policy, so not locally‑set policy, but things that the state can do.  And it's important to remember that the state lawmakers control the state budget.  Right.  And that that trickles down to your local budgets.  So, for example, they control the Consolidated Homeless Grant and any policies that come to you.  They control the document recording fee and how much the document recording fee is, which is the largest funder of the Consolidated Homeless Grant.  They control policy on HEN.  They can make it more or less restrictive.  They control tenant protections.  You can add additional tenant protections at the local level, but they set the floor for all tenants in Washington State.  They control tax policy.  So they grant local authorities, local taxing opportunities, and they also deny local authorities taxing rights.
	So they control tax policy, and they can also set state‑level tax policy, like a progressive revenue.  Definitely one of the things on the table during this special session, but particularly when they convene for the regular session in January, will be progressive revenue, things like a capital gains tax, and stuff like that.
	So that's just some context to remember when the questions we are asking in the context of state‑level policy and the things the state‑level lawmakers can control.  John.
>> Just when we get to when folks can chime in with their responses to the questions, I want to say so I am going to be taking diligent notes and we will be trying to monitor who would like to speak next, but I am wondering if, Gerrit, you might be able to keep an eye on people who raise their hands and things like that.  That would be really helpful.  And then I also was hoping to mention that if ‑‑ we want to hear from everybody today, so if you find yourself speaking up a lot, just sort of be aware of that and make space for others who might not speak up because we want to make sure those folks get a chance to speak as well.
>> John, just a reminder, so we do record this, and we also have a live captioner, and so she kind of writes things down as they go on as well, so you will get a written transcript of everything folks say during the meeting and also an ad yo and video recording.
>> Okay.  Great.
>> That's amazing.  Thank you.  All right.  So let's go ahead and jump in, and like John said, like please feel free to weigh in.  We want to hear from everybody.  And also feel free to sort of riff off these questions.  You don't have to answer it strictly.  If something comes to you that's related, that's absolutely appropriate and helpful.
	So we often find that this question is really fruitful in helping folks think through what are the most important things they want from lawmakers.  So the question is if you could ask for one thing from state lawmakers, either policy‑wise or spending, to make a significant difference in reducing and preventing homelessness in Pierce County, what would you ask them?  It could be anything, as creative as you want.  It could be as basic as something that you have longed for for Pierce County that has never been met.  You can ask for an increase in something.  Like what do you think state lawmakers could do if they could only do one thing that could make the biggest difference for housing and homelessness in Pierce County?
>> Theresa, you are raising your hand.
>> Well, I was trying to give a pause for people that don't talk as much as I can do, but I will prime the pump bay saying SROs are my favorite idea for actually dealing with homelessness, and there is so little support for it.  I would love to see something that really pushed SROs.
>> Theresa, let's make sure we are on the same page.  So single room occupancy, you have a small room with a little bit of amenities like a burner and refrigerator, but your bathrooms and kitchen spaces are shared?
>> Yes.  And basically shared housing is doing the closest thing to that I believe, but there is so much resistance from the big developers, and even the nonprofit developers around SROs, and I think some of it comes out of the history of communities that didn't want those kind of people in their communities really killed most of the boarding houses, so now we are left with almost nothing.
>> Thank you.  Don't take John's advice too seriously.  If you are someone who speaks a lot, you can weigh in here, too.  We don't want to silence anybody.  I know you all have good ideas.
>> I feel that people should ‑‑ all the programs, all housing programs, should actually have housing vouchers for those who are able to go out on their own, and SSI and SSDI, I have noticed in my profession, and I have been doing this for 20 years, and most people they stay on programs because they can't afford to leave, because they got a limited income.  Their whole check would take the rent, you know, or they can't afford the rent because their check is so low from SSI or SSDI, or they can't afford utilities.  Then they have to choose between paying the bills or eating.  Another thing is that the food assistance.  I know somebody who actually ‑‑ their rent got raised over $100, and the food assistance went up by 20.  That's $100 they took away from their food, and DSHS gave them $20, and that's what $80 that they can't use for food, less for food for them.  And it should have been matched.  As soon as they got that $100, it should have been matched so they can still buy food.  You don't know how many people who are on SSI or SSDI that actually go to food banks to supplement because DSHS don't give them enough food stamps.  And the cost of food has been going up tremendously.
	So I think for people to be successfully housed, they should have a section 8 voucher to be on the program because they can't afford rent on their own.  They are juggling their bills so much.  One little disaster happens, one tiny things happens, it sets off the whole scale and they can't pay rent or utilities, and now they are going around trying to pay this stuff, and eventually they become homeless because they can't do it because of one little thing happening.  So I believe that if they all had a housing voucher and enough food assistance money, they would be more successfully housed.
>> Yeah.  I will just say a side note, that conversation did get started last legislative session led by Senator Macri from the Seattle area, but she is seen as the main housing champion by her colleagues in the House of Representatives, and she's been educating her colleagues, educating members on the precarious situation that many folks like you say on SSI and SSDI face because their monthly checks oftentimes in the high cost counties like Pierce County cannot nearly even cover the rent.  So I think there is a growing awareness and a growing realization that something needs to be done about that.  Unfortunately with the budget cuts a lot of law makers are saying now the most they can do is prevent cuts and not invest into new programs, but we will talk about that later, too.  If they do significant progressive revenue, they can invest in the needs of that existed before COVID.  I appreciate you raising that.  Thank you.
>> I see, Maureen, you have your hand raised, and then SMiraflor.  I don't know your first name.
>> Sheila.
>> So I think my out of the box wish is that as the economy worsens, which it's projected to do so, that we have on a statewide basis, we have a way to capture all housing units that are at risk for loss.  So because we watched ‑‑ I watched a thousand‑plus single family homes go into foreclosure and get bought up by the hedge funds, trading on the New York Stock Exchange in Pierce County in 2008 because there was no structural way to respond.  
	I want some sort of community land trust if you will, a state land trust, that would hold these properties, allow the people who are living in them to stay in them as long as the utilities, say, can be paid and the housing can be maintained, and figure out a ‑‑ so that we prevent unnecessarily movement, disruption, we insure that the properties themselves are maintained, the neighborhoods remain stable, the families remain stable, the children, and that as we begin to come out of this economic cycle there is a way for people to sort of buy back their property if they were homeowners, or to buy it if they are not.  
	Maybe the land stays permanently in a land trust, but the unit can be, you know, transferred from one entity.  It could be a nonprofit that is buying.  I don't know.  I haven't thought about it enough.  But I just know we cannot let these units go.  And this is going to be a statewide issue.  And once you move out of these really high cost areas, a lot of the housing that's going to be at risk, that I think is going to be at risk, is going to be reasonably affordable.  And what are the local governments wanting, they want the taxes paid.  So let's build in a way to pay the property taxes.
	Anyway, that's what I want.  I want a way to capture the housing units.
>> Maureen, are you thinking both single family and multifamily?
>> Oh, absolutely.  Especially if the feds start backing off on any of these contracts that they are holding, I mean ‑‑ you know, we don't know how ‑‑ I assume that housing authorities have deep reserves.  I assume that the big nonprofits like Mercy have deep reserves.  I don't know a CCS, like that.  I don't know what happens once you get into smaller nonprofits that they have reserves to carry them six months, a year, maybe two years.  We need to think differently, not how we adapt an existing program, but if we started with how do we keep these units and go from there.
>> Thank you, Maureen.  I really like that thinking.  That's really creative.
>> So in the chat SMiraflor, if you are able to unmute yourself and add what you wrote in the chat, go ahead.
>> Good morning, John, it's Sheila with Goodwill.  No.  Basically I sat in some city council meetings for the City of Tacoma and I was so disappointed to hear that the city was incentivizing market rate developments and there wasn't anything done to incentivize the low income, the 20 and 30% AMI type of units.  So that was my comment.  Thank you, John.
>> Thank you so much, Sheila.  You raise such an important issue, and I was going to actually [indiscernible] for everybody.  You are talking about the MFTE program, the Multi‑Family Taxing Exemption, and so this is a state‑level policy, that it's an example of a policy that the state creates and allows the local jurisdictions to improvise this.  No bill passed to finalize a fix, but with the program the state allows local jurisdictions to only require an eight‑year, very shallow sort of affordable small number of units be affordable in exchange for getting a very significant tax exemption as you say.  
	The Housing Alliance worked to change the state‑level policy to prevent local governments from doing this because many local governments are basically giving a significant amount of money away to for‑profit developers, and are saying it is providing affordable housing and it's not.  I think there was an article in "The News Tribune," they were looking at the eight‑year tax exemptions and found the rents were either exactly the same as other for‑profits that were not getting a tax exemption, and were actually a little higher.  They were getting tax exemption for supposedly providing affordable housing.  The properties don't have any tenant protections at all, and so the state in exchange ‑‑ and the local governments in exchange for giving this huge property tax deduction doesn't even know what they are getting in large part.
	So there is going to be a renewed opportunity to work on this city state level to require local jurisdiction toss do more to provide deeper affordability, to provide longer affordability and to provide tenant protections so it doesn't result in displacement.  I think there is really serious gentrification and displacement concerns as well that we tried to address in the legislation last year.  A lot of times developers are getting tax exemptions for developing housing that's actually even more expensive in localized communities that's out of reach of the local neighbors who need affordable housing, and so the state is actually incentivizing gentrification and displacement with tax policy.  Pierce County's voice, all of you are going to be critical in this because your lobbyist hired by the City of Tacoma is the most ardent opponent to our asks, to be deeper and protect tenants, and they are doing it in the name of Tacoma.
	So I think your voices at the local level and state level are going to be really critical in helping us win more protections and make sure that these deep tax reductions actually result in benefits for low income housing and for your neighborhoods.
	So beautiful comment, thank you.
>> Michele, thank you.  This is incredible information.  I was not aware of a lot of what you said.  All I heard is what the city council said, and that was enough to really upset me.
>> Yeah.  Totally.  I would love to talk to you more, and I would love to talk ‑‑ and we were going to say this at the end.  There is a couple of policies that are in the works and we want to get more input on.  So we wanted to just really make sure that we are as accessible to you all as possible, and so, Sheila, and anybody else who is particularly interested in helping to improve MFTE, we would love to work with you closely.
>> You have my personal contact information already.  Thank you.
>> Beautiful.  Thank you.
>> Your comments suggest we should be bombarding the city council and city manager about the position being taken by their lobbyist.
>> Yeah.
>> Randy works for the city.
>> It's not Randy anymore.  But, yeah.  So definitely having your voices heard at the local level helps to influence very much so what your cities' and counties' legislative agenda is for the state level.
	So does anybody else have any other comments or thoughts about this question?  Again, the question was if you could ask for one thing from state lawmakers, either policy or spending to make a significant difference in reducing homelessness in Pierce County, what would it be?
>> I got one if I can jump in.
>> Yeah, please.
>> So one thing I constantly notice is when we don't ask anyone to be accountable to end homelessness in Pierce County as a community, we don't ask that of our county government, we don't ask it of our city government.  They aren't resourced to do that.  The state doesn't take accountability for ending homelessness.  Somebody is homeless and don't have resources, it's nobody's fault really.  It's simply that we don't have enough resources.  And working to change that feels like an important step.  Right.  If you ask somebody to be accountable, they would need to understand the full scope of the problem, which I often feel that state lawmakers do not, and state bureaucrats do not, just like our local lawmakers and bureaucrats don't seem to understand the scope, so they put resources towards a problem they don't fully understand.  Like let's repair all the roads, but we are not going to count how many roads we have or how much repairs they need.  We are just going to allocate as much money as we can.
	And I think that would be a benefit in terms of getting an understanding of what it means every year to house people that are experiencing homelessness, the inflow, and make the appropriate requests of the federal government and state governments and local governments, like actually have a comprehensive plan, whether it's doable or not, but everybody knowing what the responsibilities are.  Basically the cheesy phrase of a state homeless czar, I was befuddled when the state decided to distribute its ESG funding from the homeless count and time in place count.  That's not the most reliable information, but that was the policy decision, was to use a lesser accurate tool.  And I just feel like if somebody actually was tasked with that responsibility, I think that there could be more impact in the way we look at how we need to resource our communities.
>> Absolutely.  That's a really good point.  You know, harkening back to Senator [indiscernible], he used to use that term exactly, he wanted a state homelessness czar.  I don't know if you have ever heard that from him, but there has been a lot of questions about why Commerce, the Department of Commerce, is housed within Commerce, which has primary responsibilities over things that aren't homelessness or housing.  If they are having questions raised to do that, would that provide more accountability.  This is something to talk more about.  Thank you.
>> Theresa had her hand raised and Laurie Davenport commented in the chat, so maybe you can go after Theresa. 
>> So just some people were acting as if the city council does not know what their lobbyist is doing, and it's actually ‑‑ the city council has heard this.  Michele says it much more succinctly and beautifully than most of us do, but a lot of us have testified about this and they absolutely know what they are doing.  It's more about putting pressure I think on the city manager and the city council to change their policies so they have the lobbyist asking for what the community really needs.  And I want to say, Michele, I would love it if your group would do some training for city councils throughout the state.  I think that could be a place where there absolute ‑‑ when I say they know what they are doing, there are loud voices in every city council who know what they are do, but a lot of people who are just sheep.  If you give them the information they need to make the decision that is could help us when we go and speak to them, that they are not just hearing from the developers, so I don't know if you have ever thought of developing city council training, but I encourage you to consider it.
>> Thank you.  Yeah.  We have considered it and thought about it.  Yeah.  It would be great to pick your brain a little bit more on what that should look like.  I think that's a great idea.  And then, Laurie, did you want to say more?
>> Yeah.  I wanted to put in my prevention plug for the state continuing to make a really strong investment in civil legal aid.  They have stepped us with the emergency defense, which is great, but it's really an area where the state is just kind of beginning to catch up.  We are not there, and these are issues which, bang, can all of a sudden make someone homeless, not being able to get things ‑‑ getting an eviction off your record, to deal with financial issues to, get help with bankruptcy or debt, forgiveness of legal financial obligations.  This is stuff we can do, it's simple, but it needs to be funded, and our funding is just too low.  It's not usually ‑‑ it hasn't been considered a really important piece of preventing homelessness.  It's kind of a ‑‑ it's been a systemic issue because people don't ‑‑ people in power don't want poor people to have lawyers, period.  And particularly for these nasty little civil issues like eviction and things like that, that want to be able to take care of it, and they don't want people represented.  It hasn't been popular.  I think it is a great opportunity to say, yeah, let's put this piece in there.  We need it to prevent homelessness.
>> Absolutely.  Thank you.
>> Thanks.
>> Michele, it's Amanda with the consortium.  How are you?
>> Good.
>> We had a quick ‑‑ well, I don't know if it's a question or more of a suggestion.  One of the gaps we have noticed is homeless prevention, and I know it's kind of a sticky subject, but we have the county now with the CARES Act funding actually providing rental assistance to folks they know are going to be unable to pay their rent when the eviction moratorium comes up, and it's not something that we have done as a county before or even in the City of Tacoma.  
	So I guess I would be interested to hear the alliance's thoughts on that.  Yeah.  I guess that's kind of what ‑‑ I am on the fence about it.  I hear some people say it's not a good idea, but then I also see how it helps people, especially people of color.  We have the SPARC Report done, and one of the biggest things for people of color is they don't have that ‑‑ what's the term?  Like the network of resources that white people do.  If I were to run out of money to pay rent, I could rely on my mother, but it couldn't be the same for the majority of people of color in Pierce County.  I would like to hear your thoughts and if anybody else has any suggestions.
>> Gerrit, you might have a suggestion or a thought?  I'm sorry.
>> Work impoverishment was the word, network impoverishment from the SPARC Report.
>> Yes.
>> So, Amanda, if you are talking about the need like right now to invest deeply in rental assistance, 100% agreed.  And we have been pushing the state to use their federal funds, a significant proportion, for that.  When I was on a couple weeks back I was sharing some preliminary information we were getting.  It does look like the legislature ‑‑ excuse me.  The governor is going to appropriate $100 million for rental assistance from their federal CARES Act dollars.  They received like 1.7 billion.  So the Department of Commerce is currently trying to figure out how that amount of money can get out the door and get to communities without ‑‑ while meeting certain principles.  Insuring that people hardest hit by COVID and the economic crisis are first in line for those funds, namely communities of color and immigrant communities, and that the lowest income folks are first in line because as we all know low income folks who don't have savings are experiencing network impoverishment, if they experience homelessness, will likely have long‑term experience of homelessness and it would be hard for them to exit it.
	Additionally I think a principle that we have been pushing and I think is shared by Commerce is that we want the rental assistance to sustain the tenancy.  We don't want to simply pay off the arrears and have the tenant still get evicted and lose their home.  That would do nothing.  And so there is some creative thinking going on around that.
	I actually encouraged ‑‑ I will encourage them again ‑‑ the Department of Commerce actually reach out to you all and to actually see if they could even give a presentation at one of your meetings about what they are thinking.  I think that getting your input on their design of this rental assistance program would be really important.  So I will encourage them again.  I am going to be talking to them a little bit later today and sending them an updated list with recommendations of people they should be reaching out to because they are doing stakeholdering right now because they want input to make sure they design this in a way that hits the communities as clearly as possible.
>> That's helpful.  I am thinking in terms of long‑term.  If we thought back to before COVID happened, we don't really have rental assistance in the county.  I guess more so ‑‑ I understand the need for it right now, no doubt, but I am thinking longer term after we run out of CARES Act funding or COVID isn't as big of a crisis.  Is there ‑‑ I don't know.  Like a longstanding rental assistance program.
>> Yeah.  I mean I think the tension is rental assistance costs a lot over the long run, and we know that investments in affordable housing it's a bigger upfront, but it's cheaper over the long run and provides a safe harbor for folks that is not attainable in the private rental market.  That's constantly the tension, we are always in environment, even during the beautiful years we had over the past couple of budget making conversations, of there is still limited amount of money they are going to be putting into housing and homelessness.  With that limited amount of money, how would we get the best investments for the community that sustains protections for the long run.
	The biggest problem with rental assistance, you can always cancel it.  Let's say we got a hundred million dollars program set up.  They can always cancel it.  Even if we were able to get a dedicated fund source, they can outlaw the fund source or transfer it to a different use or reduce it.  The document recording fees, they could change that.  They could rededicate those funds to something else entirely.
	So it's always this program of like how do we invest state dollars in a way that produces the best protection and the longest term protections for folks in our communities.  You know, if we were a state that had rent control, rental assistance would start to look a lot more interesting because it might become a lot better investment for the state.  But since landlords raise their rents all the time, the rental investments also become more and more narrow in terms of populations they can reach.  They have not kept up with the cost of rents.
	So we have seen time and time again, we have done the math in a bazillion different ways, and the trust fund actually goes a lot further, protects a lot more people, and that protection lasts for a really long time because that housing has to remain affordable for minimally 40 years, but oftentimes it's required to be affordable for 50.  Right.  So that's a 50‑year commitment to your community.  There is some comments in the chat from Theresa again saying ‑‑ I am saying this in the chat because I have said it so many times before.  Rental assistance is a short‑term stopgap, not possible to sustain.  We need long‑term established campgrounds and safe parking.  Then, again, and permanent low income housing and land trusts.
	I will also note that somebody in the chat also privately chatted me and ask that we make sure that we give some time for shelter updates at the end, so just I am noting that some folks may want shelter updates and feel that's important, so trying to keep an eye on the time.
	With that in mind let's move to the next question because we have a couple more.
>> Are you giving any attention to tax policy and revenue side of this whole issue?
>> Yes, very much so.
>> On tax breaks and taxing people who have lots of money, a little more than they get taxed?
>> Yeah.  We are going to talk about that a little bit later, but, Al, I will actually note that is something that you are saying would be helpful for the legislature to consider, it sounds like is what you are saying.  I will just plug the Housing Alliance is getting more and more involved in efforts to pass progressive revenue, so fixing our tax structure in Washington State so that the lowest income folks aren't paying the most.  I mean it goes without saying how unfair that is, but also when the state legislature is looking at budgets cuts, the cutting programs, it's grossly unfair and unjust.  An example of really racist policy that's structured.  We are looking hard at progressive at the state level, but John is going to need your help.  You can be really hands on and helpful with that.
	For the next question, I will ask two questions at once so we can have more people jump in.  So this is two questions.  One is what makes it hardest for people in Pierce County to get out of homelessness?  That's one question.  The second question is, what should state lawmakers know about Pierce County?  Either in terms of what makes you unique, either in terms of examples that they should understand about what's working in your community and things that are going really well that should be more deeply funded, for example, or replicated at the state level?  You know, what should they know, if anything, that they may not already know, and what makes it hardest for people in Pierce county to get out of homelessness once they have experienced it?
>> I would say rising rent.
>> You said rising rents?
>> And liveable wages.
>> Yeah.  Thank you.  I was going to call on you to see if you had a comment from a legal services perspective, Laurie.  Oh, you are muted.
>> Yes.  Repeat the question, please.
>> Oh, what makes it hardest for people to get out of homelessness in Pierce County?  The other question is what should state lawmakers know about Pierce County?
>> I think, yeah, one thing is I think there are really specific things that make it hard for people to get out of homelessness, things like having an eviction on your record, which is something that can be solved.  Having a criminal background, which is something that can be solved.  Having legal financial obligations out there, all these things can be solved and they are simple to solve, and they get in the way in all different kinds of programs, when people are trying to get housed, trying to get a place to live.  So these are things that it's really an important part of prevention, and money well spent.  It's a huge bang for the buck, to fund civil aid to do that kind of thing.  And the other thing about Pierce County, we have ‑‑ I have lived in other places and been in other courthouses.  Our court is more crowded, needs more resources.  We have one courthouse, King County has two.  Our county files more protection orders every month than King County, not percentage‑wise.  More in number.  I mean we are crowded.  We are ‑‑ we really need services.  We need investment in our courts and investment in more services provided by the county through the courts.  They have done some stuff, but this is not ‑‑ we need to keep reminding everybody that Pierce County, Tacoma is a big city.  There is a lot of diversity, a lot going on, and it's ‑‑ we are just kind of chronically underfunded throughout our whole justice system.
>> Thank you.
>> Rob, I saw you unmuted yourself briefly a little bit ago.  I don't know if you were intending to speak.
>> No, I wasn't.
>> Oh, okay.  Sorry.
>> A pretty significant amount of folks who have not spoken yet.  Somebody just unmuted with just a phone number.  Were you planning on speaking?
>> No.  Sorry.  I bumped my phone.
>> [Laughs].  That's okay.  I see a Pamm Silver, a Bibiana Van Dyk, Mendosa, a Janet, I don't think you have spoke.  Rita Lawrence.
>> I do have something I could say.  I think a little bit unique about Pierce County, besides the political dysfunction that ‑‑ or actually partially because of the political dysfunction in our county, I think Pierce County is a bit unique that services end up being focused in just one city in a County of 800,000‑plus people, but homelessness is not focused in just one place.  So I think statewide it's very known that there is a dysfunction in Pierce County, and that's why we have exceptions for things like the mental health sales tax that Pierce County still doesn't have, and imposed at a county‑wide level, but it is imposed at the city level in Tacoma.  And that actually exacerbates the focus of services for those who are homeless in Tacoma because that's where dollars are.
	But I do think that becomes a significant barrier if you are homeless in Puyallup, Orting, any of the outlying communities, Lakewood.  It creates a larger need for transportation to get to any services because the services are focused in Tacoma, and it also just puts a lot more of the responsibility for taking care of people in need on Tacoma.
>> Yeah.  You are right.  I will say from my experience in Olympia, Pierce County Council sort of dynamic with the City of Tacoma is very well‑known by lawmakers across the state.  That's absolutely true.  
	So I see Maureen sort of shaking her head and laughing about that.  Do other folks have comments?  I see a new face, NWilson.  I can go through and read everybody's names.  [Laughs].  I see a Courtney, Alexandra, Jeff, Luiz, Valeri again.  There is a Rachel, Faatima, Rich, Michael, Yuni, so many folks that have a lot of wisdom.  Do any of you want to unmute and share some thoughts?  We asked specific questions we thought would be helpful, but if some other thoughts on state‑level policy, you can riff off the questions or unmute and share other thoughts as well.
>> Naomi Watson.  Hiding behind me is my daughter.  Sorry I am joining late.  I was in another meeting, so I wanted to say hi.
>> Hi.  While you are unmuted, do you have any thoughts about what you think Pierce County needs from state‑level lawmakers to help you do more ‑‑ make more progress on ending homelessness and building affordable housing and protecting renters?
>> Wow, that's a huge question.  Not specific to COVID, but in a long‑term strategy?
>> It can be specific to COVID actually because special session they are going to be dealing with COVID related stuff, and in 2021, both COVID and long‑term, so either.
>> Yeah.  I think ‑‑ I guess I would say that from my own personal kind of Health Department perspective, I think I would appreciate more of a statewide policy and guidance on congregate living, homeless shelters specifically, that would need a statewide policy versus county by county.
>> Yeah.  Definitely.  Thank you.  So, Michele, hi, I'm Rita.
>> Rita.
>> Hi.  I would like to say I think it would be very helpful if we could break down the barriers for homelessness, and people who are trying to get into apartments or get into housing.  I would suggest maybe, you know, when people have past evictions, if they reach out to the past landlord or property with even a promise to pay at least $50 a month, can that be like a green light to get them into another apartment?
>> Yeah.  That's a really good point.
>> I mean I just see a lot of people who have a job and had a past eviction, it makes it extremely hard to try to get them into another place.  So that would be really easy and helpful.
>> Yeah, absolutely.  What are the other kinds of barriers you are seeing with folks when they are trying to get into housing?
>> Just dealing with the criteria to get into housing.
>> Mm‑hmm.
>> Some people, I had a client that worked as a waitress, and her money, she makes money out of her tips, so how do you calculate that?  You know, it's not actually a document that shows that this is going to be your tip, so it makes it very hard to pass the criteria to get into housing.
>> Yeah, that's a really good point.  Thank you.
>> Mm‑hmm.
>> Anybody else have any last points you want to share?  I want to leave time for that shelter conversation that somebody asked for.  There were a couple of comments.
>> A couple comments in the chat.
>> Oh, I wanted to say that affordable housing is not considered affordable housing.  For instance, that my mom lives in a senior apartment complex, and she only gets $900 for her retirement.  If she was not on Section 8 she would not be able to afford to live there because they raise their rents so high that people had to move out that was on Social Security retirement.  They had to move out, and it's considered to be affordable housing.  They raised their rent just at the top where it is still affordable housing, which people end up ‑‑ I don't know where they went really, but they raised the rent so high that my mom told me several people had to move out because they could not afford the rent.  Where they went, I don't know.  But affordable housing has to be really affordable.  I have seen people say, oh, just have them move to affordable housing, and it's like they can't afford affordable housing.  They can't afford to pay the rent and utilities and pay ‑‑ I know several people who is on limited income.  They don't have Internet.  They don't have cable TV.  All they have is a radio because that's all they can afford, you know, even with a Section 8, that's all they can afford.  But affordable housing should be what it says it is, affordable.  It shouldn't leave some people out, which it does.  It leaves the poorest people out, and those who are elderly and disabled.
>> Yeah.  I definitely hear you on that.  That's a really good point.
>> Sorry.
>> Go ahead, Rita.
>> I completely 100% agree with you.  I think in Pierce County, the living wage is so low for employment that it makes it incredibly hard to get into an apartment.
>> Mm‑hmm.
>> And affordable housing is not just not affordable housing, so I agree with you 100% on that.
>> These are all really good points.
>> Yeah.
>> And there is a rich conversation going on in the chat if folks can see that as well.  I am cutting and pasting that into our notes so that we are capturing it all.
	Does anybody else have anything else they want to add, though?  We have a couple quick announcements, and then John is going to give an advocacy update, and we will turn it back over so you can have time for a conversation on your local shelter updates.
>> It's Amanda again.  Just real quick.  Any news about the Housing Trust Fund or plans to advocate for dollars for the Housing Trust Fund next year? 
>> Yeah.  So I mean not really news or updates.  I guess like this is very, very tentative, and I can come back and ‑‑ or give ‑‑ I know Maureen provides advocacy updates.  We can follow up on folks once we hear if this is going to happen or not, but it is possible that in this August special session there is about a 50/50 chance they will have an additional capital budget with some of the unused capacity that's left over, and so the state has three budgets.  We have an operating budget, and that's where a lot of the cuts will come from.  If you hear the state using the term general fund, the general fund of the operating budget where Human Services lives, and that's something I was saying earlier where I said structurally our budget really puts investments in our communities at great risk during the recession because it's the general fund they can cut from because it's not an entitlement or constitutionally protected, but that's where a lot of housing and homelessness services budgets live.  The capital budget is the budget that the Housing Trust Fund is invested through, and that's ‑‑ it's capital investments and it's bonded against.
	Anyhow, in that budget state has there is excess capacity that was appropriated that isn't going to be used, so they may have an additional $60 million during to appropriate during the special session, and we have having some of those investments into affordable housing.  There is a 50/50 chance that's going to happen right now at this point in August, and ifs going to happen they are going to have to fight really hard because there is not a lot of money and there is a lot of capital needs across the state.
	With that John, can I turn it over to you?  One quick plug, some of the policies under consideration because they were introduced last legislative session, that we are considering for our 2021 priorities, includes continuing the conversation to ban no‑cause terminations, and instead require what's either referred to as just cause or good cause requirements to make somebody move.  So it would require a landlord to have a legitimate business reason in order to terminate tenancy.  
	So that's definitely something that's going to be on the table next year, and we would love your input and involvement in that.  There is also the Fair Chance Housing.  This related to much of the conversation you started out with today.  The Fair Chance Housing bill that was introduced last session would prohibit landlords from discriminating against tenants because of their criminal record.  So it would ban the ability to use a prior criminal record as the reason to deny tenancy to tenants.  That's a really important issue, but the devil is in the details in terms of how that bill is crafted to make sure that it's expansive, and that it truly provides the protection that the concept promises.  
	So a lot of advocacy needed on that, and I think that Pierce County voices, because of the work you are all doing to get people into housing, your experiences are going to be really important in that conversation.
	Again, I also mentioned earlier that there is going to be the multifamily tax exemption program that will be on the table again.  We are working to improve that to require real affordability, going back to some of the themes today, that affordable housing isn't actually affordable.  We want to add tenant protections.  Again, your voice in that will be really important.  Amanda, to your point, Housing Trust Fund investments are going to have to be something we are going to fight for.  Anyhow, we want to continue to engage with you all on all of these issues, as we both craft our policies and get into the sessions where lawmakers are going to make decisions.
	On that note progressive revenue is critical, and, John, do you want to unmute and talk about that?
>> Sure.  One of the things that I really love about this group in particular is how active you are in terms of taking action and doing advocacy stuff.  I have been part of a couple meetings where we have done some actions together and it's great to see you all participate.  I want to point out a couple opportunities that we are pushing right now related to kind of what's coming up.  Michele was talking about the special session and how big of a budget shortfall we are potentially facing and how do we fight those cuts and make sure in the long run we are setting ourselves up structurally through the revenue and tax code to be stronger than we were coming into this.  
	One of the major policies we should be looking at is progressive revenue rather than continued revenue that sort of like taxes the lowest income people way more than it does tax, as was mentioned earlier, all of the very many wealthy people we have in our state who could easily contribute towards ending homelessness in our state.
	So we have a couple ways that you can get involved in helping out with this, if it's something that's interesting to you.  So the first thing I will mention is we have a campaign, and it is our Board Resolution Campaign, and essentially if any of you are either a board member of an organization or an employee, a staff person, of a nonprofit organization or any kind of model of an organization that has a board of directors or like a leadership board, you can participate.  
	And essentially what it is is you can introduce a resolution at that board meeting, at the next board meeting that you have, sort of saying we are in support of generally moving towards more progressive revenue at our state level, and the Housing Alliance has drafted a sample resolution that you can literally copy and paste, you can tweak it a little bit if you would like, but we are trying to make it as easy as possible for you all to sort of introduce this resolution, have a discussion as a board, which is probably a really good thing to do to just sort of say, hey, this is something that's really important and we need to talk about how we as an organization are going to set this value within our organization that we are going to push for going forward.
	And so if you can pass it, let us know, but we are going to be kind of compiling all of the organizations that have done this across the state, and you can also share out once you pass it, once you pass the resolution, share it out on social media and say, hey, we have decided that this is a priority for our organization.  Other organizations can get involved in this campaign if you want, and just sort of like spread the word around.
	So if you are interested in getting involved in doing that, I will plop a link here in the chat, and that is to sign up.  It's just like a little brief interest form, and I will follow up with you directly, and send you all of the kind of materials that we developed for you, and I can work one‑on‑one with you if you have any questions about how to go about doing this.  So that is one thing that we are really pushing right now.  The goal is to have as many organizations statewide as possible adopt these resolutions.  
	So the next thing I want to sort of plug, especially for this group, is we are doing a Letter to the Editor Campaign as well.  Many of you have been taking action by sending e‑mails or calling lawmakers or the governor, and many of you can take action through this Board Resolution Campaign as well, but one often overlooked, and which is actually a great opportunity, is write a letter to the editor in your local papers.  Lawmakers often actually read these and you may not think it, but they do.  So a good way there to get a short snippet of what people in their constituency are actually thinking about and willing to write to their paper about.
	So really like 200 to 250 words, two paragraphs, and we have sample examples of those if you want to work on those as well.  "The News Tribune" in Tacoma is a hot place to get something published, and we haven't had anybody submit something to that publication yet.  If anybody is interested, please reach out to me.  I will put my contact info in the chat there so you can just send me a quick e‑mail and say, hey, I want to write a letter to the editor.  So, yeah.  Those are the two kind of big advocacy opportunities.
	The final thing I will say I know there is a few legislative district leads on the call right now.  But our legislative district leads program at the Housing Alliance is a more long‑term way for you all to get involved in advocacy.  If you are one of those people who have been doing a lot of work over the years, this is a way to stay a little bit more involved with what the Housing Alliance is doing in advocacy work, an and you would be a point person for your district, and Tacoma has I don't know how many districts, like five or six, or more.  Maureen is like, no, it's more, it's more.  Several.  And I won't name them off the top of my head.  I would highly encourage anybody who is interested in taking a next step around advocacy to consider joining as an LD lead, and I can tell you all about it.
	So, yeah.  I will just leave it at that, and feel free to reach out to me directly as well about that.  Or if you have someone in mind that you think would be a good LD lead, feel free to recommend them, too.
>> How about churches, governing boards, as bodies that might endorse that situation?
>> Yes.  I think so, yeah.
>> And, Gerrit, why don't we try to invite the editorial board of "The News Tribune" to come to one of our meetings to talk about this whole thing? 
>> I can do that.  Either that, or go to them.  As long as I get to fact‑check anything before it's published.  [Laughs].
>> So that's it for me, and I will pass it off to Michele, if you any final words, or if we can pass it off to Gerrit.
>> Yes, thank you.  You guys are amazing.  This is a favorite state coalition to come visit.  You are all active and well organized and you bring a lot of expertise and important insight.  We really appreciate the time you give us and the partnership, so thank you very much.
>> And thank both of you.  You are both rock stars, and really appreciate the way you make sure to come and have this conversation with us every year, if not more often.  They are both very responsive to e‑mail.  I am sure they are more than happy to hear any other suggestions.
	Let's go and try to do a power round.  We have nine minutes.  Let's see how many updates we can mitt in that amount of time.  Somebody mentioned The Coffee Oasis had some updates, so Coffee Oasis, anybody here?  Hmm.  Well, I don't see Greg.  I don't see [indiscernible].  That's 0‑2 for my quick name recognition.  Faatima.
>> Not any new updates.  We are kind of slowly bringing people into our shelter, but that's on a very strict basis, besides respite, so we do a really strict screening, but it's kind of ‑‑ we go by some referrals, but a lot of our case managers bring those referrals to us, and then we do a strict screening on that, and we are just kind of waiting to see what the next phases bring and trying to figure out how we will be going about opening up to full capacity again by September.  That's what it seems to be, so that's about it.
>> Thanks, Faatima.  She just took on the position of Director of Health services at Catholic Community Services.  So congratulations.  So her old job is looking for applicants, so you want to look at a stellar individual in Faatima, that's an opportunity.
>> Thanks, Gerrit.
>> Yeah.  I think Luiz has stepped away, and anybody else from the Rescue Mission on?  I don't see Nate.  I don't see Allyson.  Anybody else?  How about Comprehensive?  Any other shelters I missed?
>> Gerrit, this is Allyson with the city.  Can I give a quick update?
>> Yes, please.  I would love to hear about TEMS, among other things.
>> Yeah, that's exactly what I would like to talk about.  So the development of the microshelter site at 60th and McKinley is well underway.  We are expecting to transition folks from the village at 8th and MLK by the end of July and be fully operational by mid‑August.  So there will be 50 shelters on that site, up to 65 individuals able to be served.  
	So as we get kind of closer to that move‑in date, we will be able to give a little bit more information, but I did want to touch on that.  Since Luiz stepped away, I wanted to alert everybody that the Rescue Mission is under kind of soft opening for that new facility, so they did have ten individuals on site last night there, and so I think they are going to slow roll that opening is my understanding from Luiz, that we are excited that they are starting to get increased capacity there at TRM.
>> You are talking about the single adult women's shelter that will eventually have a 40‑bed capacity at their Men's Shelter?
>> Yes.  I am nodding my head, but my camera is off.
>> I will nod for you.
>> A question for Allyson.
>> Please.
>> Allyson, thanks for posting the Q&As from that town hall meeting.  I sent the link out to everybody this morning.  But a couple things.  One, how do you actually get into the new TEMS Shelter?  And who is doing case management?
>> Yep, Maureen.  Thanks for the question.  So we are still under contract negotiation with Low Income Housing Institute for exactly how their referral process will work, but the primary referral will be coming from our homeless outreach team, actually doing direct placement from encampments, and we want to work with our permanent shelter partners to help alleviate some of the issues we are facing with necessary social distancing requirements and that kind of thing, so we will be looking at what is the referral process for that.  The second question, can you repeat it?
>> Who is going to do the case management?  
>> Low Income Housing Institute will do the case management on site. 
>> Great.
>> All right.  Thanks, Allyson.  We know how to get ahold of you if we have other questions.
>> Well, we've got her.  So more TEMS‑type shelter as possible, different parts of the city, or ‑‑
>> Maureen, yes.  Thanks for the question.  If you all read "The News Tribune" this week, you will see that Matt Driscoll was certainly advocating for additional shelter locations throughout the city.  We remain open to any conversation if folks have sites or thoughts in mind, so, yes, that is definitely something the city is still considering.  It's of course a matter of funding availability as well.  He can talk offline because I know, Gerrit, you are trying to get to the end of the meeting.
>> It's probably time for a significant update for the city maybe on the 10th or the 17th.  I would love to here your $2.6 million plans with the ESG money.  Obviously we would love to see an RFP process around that so we can have a Goodwin doe to how all that's happening.  But it would be great to have that update.
>> Gerrit, let's aim for the 17th just because we have things going on here is he city, so we could aim to the 17th.
>> That's totally doable.  I continue to be really bummed that key neighborhood and community services staff are getting temporary layoff.  Those folks, we need them in the community doing the work now.  If you have a chance to harass your city council members or city bureaucracy staff members, the fact that like half of the homeless folks are currently on temporary layoff is I don't think the right group at the city to be on layoff, so that's not something that Allyson necessarily has much I think say in, but just wanted to say they are working with less than they need to to get the work done.
	Naomi, do you have time for a quick Health Department update?
>> Yeah.  I am going to tag team here with Manu, who is also activated with us.
>> Yay!
>> So I wanted to give one, which is just a general information, which is that yesterday the CDC added pregnant women to high risk category, so that is not ‑‑ that's regardless of age, so now pregnancy is added to an underlying condition because they are at higher risk for going into ICU, so as a general FYI.
	And then we do have some updates in terms of testing and plans moving forward, which unfortunately at this point we don't have any scheduled testing at shelters moving forward, but I am going to hand off to Manu who has some updates on what we are looking at.  So I am going to hand that off.
>> Yeah.  This is Manu, and Naomi and I have been working hard to advocate for folks experiencing homelessness in our community, and engaging in these frustrating conversations, and just as far as ‑‑ yeah.  As far as we know, like I said, or like Naomi mentioned, there is currently no set or confirmed date for testing in the shelters.  That said, we will continue to prioritize any outbreaks, any cases that we do identify in the shelters, we are ready to investigate those cases when they come to our attention.
	We are also working hard to expand the testing.  Pierce County has purchased and put two testing contracts in place because that seems to be the biggest limitation is the staffing folks who can provide that testing.  But we are starting to build a list of locations to meet those testing priorities.  So we are working on just reaching out to providers, shelter providers, and folks on this call, who would be interested in being added to that list.
	And that conversation we had with ops at the Health Department earlier around testing at shelters also included some conversation around how we can leverage kind of existing ‑‑ how we can leverage staff at shelters to oversee some self‑administered testing.  And so that's in development as far as what those credentials are, as far as clinical credentials as to who can facilitate those testings.  We will keep you updated as soon as we find out more.  We are still prioritizing COVID‑19 in our settings or contexts, so we will keep you all updated.
>> And I will be supplying you with a constant stream of requests to continue to prioritizing testing shelters.  Congregate living is an inherently dangerous thing.  The Veterans Administration and some of its congregate living in Washington is testing all of its residents every two weeks, which is probably more Q‑tips up your nose than you really want, and yet something super valuable.  So excited to see that work continuing, and we as a coalition will continue to be advocating for testing at homeless shelters on a regular basis.
>> We are also, again, expanding those contracts.  We do know there are partners in our community, Multicare, CHI, Sea Mar, who do have drop teams, so, again, as the Health Department tries to expand their own capacity, we are trying to make sure that shelter providers have access to those other drop teams, so that that isn't just a reliance on the Health Department when we are strapped in terms of capacity.  
	And I don't know if you guys could hear what Manu was saying, but we are also exploring really kind of out‑of‑the‑box thinking in terms of self‑administered tests, so the kind of credentials someone might need to be able to observe someone, a shelter guest, who would be swabbing themselves with a kit, so that we could empower shelters with test kits and the ability to do that yourself.  So we are exploring as many options as we possibly can to make sure that we are increasing that capacity.
>> Yeah.  Much appreciated, and, yeah, we understand that the Health Department can't be every instrument in the orchestra, but they certainly need to be the conductor in much of this.
>> Yeah.
>> And random testing and mixing samples to do testing, like all of those options are reasonable when we don't have enough resources.
>> Yeah.  Gerrit, please, we will put both my e‑mail and Manu's e‑mail in the chat, but please reach out to us and make sure that if you have needs, if you have questions, that we are available to answer as many of those as we possibly can.  Obviously we are inundated with a lot of requests, so a little bit of patience is appreciated, but we will definitely get to those as quickly as we possibly can.
>> And we try to ‑‑ we will send the notes from our meeting to the coalition as well, just to be transparent, and keep a written document of the conversations we are having, the meetings we are having.
>> Yeah.  Al, you have a question?
>> Yeah.  Walgreen's, we accidently discovered they are doing COVID‑19 tests on the Pearl Street, and got tested and were negative.  If you haven't reached out to them, they are potentially another resource.
>> Yeah.  This is actually listed on our Health Department website, and I can also share that.  I will say, too, in terms of the expansion of testing across our community, there are just multiple sites that are going up, and actually we are trying to get as many of those added to our website as possible.  I just heard from someone else that they might be doing some testing at Sprinker, so that isn't even listed on our Health Department website.  So there is definitely an increased amount of those testing resources in the community, so we certainly appreciate our healthcare partners being able to stand some of those up, and it's really making sure, as Gerrit as mentioned, that the access is there for people who don't have a consider and can't drive, to be able to test pools, so multiple people, to be able to come to the shelters and do universal testing.  So, again, as Manu said, this is on our radar, and we just want you to know that in the background we are still continuing to advocate for all of that.
>> All right.  It is 11:06.  We have slid past our planned end time.  Thank you, everybody, for all of your participation, e‑mails and all of that are in the agenda.  Let me know if you got other items.  Al, you have one thing you want to close us out with?
>> Three things.  I agree on the power station, except for the fence around it, that's a wonderful thing.  Two things, one is the mayors of Pierce County are meeting and talking about how to develop affordable housing.  They had a report from UWT that I am trying to get ahold of, and I think we should invite them to come and talk.  
	The Human Rights Commission was informed at the last meeting the city has laid off its investigators and is terminating its contracts with HUD, and I forgot the state organization, to do discriminations investigations, and those will then have to be referred to the state, which is six months behind schedule.  So when this ends, rent supplement, housing, and people can't afford and get evicted, there is going to be a huge wave with not much resources to deal with it.  But good week, everybody, on that pleasant note.
>> Thanks, Al.  Could have done without that news.  All right, everybody.  We are not meeting next week because it is July 3rd, and we will hopefully be taking that time off to what we have been doing, which is to sit in our room.  Ha‑ha.  And otherwise I will see you on the 10th if I don't see you virtually sometime before.  Thanks, everybody.  Great meeting.
[End of meeting]