I second.

All those in favor say aye.

All those opposed say nay.

The May 18th minutes are approved.

Okay.

Now, the reason why we're all here.

Staff will call the names of people in the order they have signed up either online or in person for oral and written communications.

Members of the public may speak during one of tonight's oral communications for up to three minutes per person or agency program.

After everyone who has signed up to speak has been called, staff will ask if there is anyone else who would like to speak.

Giselle, can you please call speakers for oral communication?

Thank you, Chair.

One moment, we had a quick change.

So let me make sure I have that correct.

Okay, our first speaker.

Or actually, we don't have anyone signed up for regular oral communications.

Hearing, but if anyone wants to speak for oral communications and was not here for the public hearing, you can raise your hand or come up and speak now.

Okay, I'll check online.

Okay.

And we're good to go.

Awesome.

All right.

So we'll just get to the public hearing.

The commission will be hearing from the community on human service needs in Bellevue.

The information and input will be used to inform human services funding recommendations in the CDBG annual action plan and funding recommendations.

During the course of the public hearing, there is no interaction between the commissioners and those testifying.

Is there a motion to open the public hearing?

So move.

Second?

I second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay.

The motion has passed.

And now we can start calling speakers from the sign-up list.

Perfect.

Our first speaker is Anthony Myers from Boys and Girls Club.

My name is Anthony Myers.

I'm the program director of the Boys and Girls Clubs with Bellevue.

And through those years, I was a boys and girls club kid as well.

Our mission is simple, but it's powerful.

It's to enable and uh enable all youth, especially those who need us most, uh, to reach their full potential potential as caring uh responsible and productive citizens.

Um, but also too, we get the opportunity to grow uh young youth uh and have them learn in front of our program in a safe area.

Uh for many of our youth that we serve, um, especially those low-income and moderate uh mid-income uh families, uh, the boys and girls club is a place where this is the first time they're able to uh potentially be on a sports team, um, to go on a field trip or to even uh find a passion or interest that they uh uh that they did not know they had inside of our boys and girls clubs.

Uh and we get to see that every single day in our boys and girls clubs.

Uh, one of our boys and girls club locations, we have um uh all girls uh flag football team that that was uh formed through uh our intermaral sports program.

Um, and with uh encouragement from the staff members, um, the girls came together, played, and then their friends also joined and now make up about 80% of that team.

That kind of group doesn't happen accidentally.

It's it it happens because our staff members uh engage, um they give them the opportunity.

Um they they they they push them to try new things.

Um I recently worked with two youth members uh at the middle school and high school level two that were having a conflict and um with with me being able to engage with them about the conflict, they were able to kind of come together instead of uh doing this out on the streets or at school, come together uh and talk about the situation.

Um, and the most beautiful thing that came from it was that the older kid told the younger kid Um we were friends before this, um, and we're still gonna be friends.

Um that's a life skill, that's an action, um, finding empathy for each other, um, understanding, hey, we're we are we shouldn't be going through people's stuff, right?

And learning those kind of things.

That's why the club matters.

Um, if I didn't have the club when I was a kid, I probably wouldn't be where I am today, um, also giving back uh to my to the kids.

Um at the boys and girls club, we partner with families, um, schools, um, other community members to support youth to kind of give them what it is that they need uh in the boys and girls club.

Um, and through your work in the commission shows up in every moment like this and every single day.

It helps youth build confidence, strengthen relationships, and develop the skills that need success.

Uh, thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, Tim.

Um, no.

Our next speaker is also from Boys and Girls Club, Anthony Myers.

Oh, sorry, Tim Tim Mott.

Other way around.

Uh thank you all so much, commissioners and city staff for being here this evening.

My name is Tim Motz.

I'm the president and CEO for the Boys and Girls Club of Bellevue.

Great job, Anthony.

Uh, sharing about the real work being done every single day.

I get the opportunity to share on behalf of the 18,000 youth that we serve every single year at the Boys and Girls Club, uh, why the work you all do is so incredibly important.

I thank you for putting our youth first in our community.

Um, without what you're doing, those critical services would not be able to get to those families that Anthony mentioned.

Um, I spoke to the about those 18,000 youth.

Uh, they count on us and their families for affordable, reliable child care.

Uh, our young families, young parents, this would be the first generation for child care is their most expensive bill, even beyond housing.

And without the boys and girls club every single day uh being there for those kids, whether it's a hot meal, whether it's homework assistance or uh sports program or STEM program, uh, those services are not available.

Um, an exciting announcement for all of you this evening in our community, recently shared uh by Dr.

Aramaki at our school district, the boys and girls club of Bellevue will be the sole provider of on-site child care next year for the Bellevue School District.

That includes preschools as well as grade school children.

That's before school and after school as well.

Um so to give you an idea on context on that, that's an additional uh 10 elementary school sites, and we're going from one to 14 preschools next year for the Bellevue School District.

That opens up another 2400 slots.

That's the good news.

The challenging news is 60% of those slots for the grade school kids are filled as of today, and 48% of those for preschool.

So we're working extremely hard to make sure that those families get those services.

But as you all know, the need always far out paces uh the availability that we have at times.

Um our expansion allows us to reach those families who need us most.

Uh, you all are most likely aware that 27% of kiddos in our school district qualify for some form of free and reduced lunch and subsidy, and that's where the boards and girls club comes in as well.

We utilize state funding as well as our own local personal funding to ensure that no child's too turned away due to inability to pay.

But that's where you all come in.

You all have been incredible partners.

Thank you for continuing to be those partners for us.

This investment next year alone is about 1.15 million dollars that we're investing to make sure that child care expansion happens.

So a huge thank you to the work you all do.

I don't think it's any secret that children need safe spaces and our school district partnership and the families deserve that cost effective, equitable and community centered child care opportunities.

Our goal will always be to not churn any child away due to inability to pay and your partnership with ourselves as well as all of our incredible community partners, many of which you're going to hear from tonight.

It takes all of us to make that work.

So I'm just more here to say thank you for your work.

I know it's an incredibly tough job, and the resources are never fully there for funding the services, but thank you for the work you do.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Rahima Sanji with Bellview Life Screen.

All right.

Hi everyone, and thank you for letting me be here.

My name is Rahima, and I'm the program's director at Bellevue Life Spring.

I'm also a Bellevue resident, and I have two sons in the Bellevue School District.

So proud mom too.

I'm joining you tonight to represent our board, staff, and most importantly, the Bellevue families we support.

We want you to know that we're very thankful for the support that we have received in the past because it has helped us achieve our vision of a Bellevue where all basic needs for all children are met so they can concentrate on school and succeed and thrive in their education and beyond.

In order to achieve our vision, we are requesting your partnership again and support for our nutrition, emergency rent, as well as our family support program.

Our nutrition program, what we call the break time meal time program, assists families with grocery store vouchers when school meals are missed during all school breaks for the Bellevue School District.

These vouchers allow our families to buy individual choices and voice when they go shopping.

It provides vouchers to 4,726 students who are on the free and reduced meal program, which is a 10% increase from last year and an 89% increase over the last five years.

We are also asking support for our emergency rental assistance program.

This program is designed to prevent children from becoming unhoused and experiencing the trauma of homelessness.

It supports families who are at immediate risk of losing their housing or families moving into housing from homelessness.

We cover up to 3,000 in rental or move-in costs, and in the past six months, our requests have tripled.

At the heart of our approach is prevention by providing rent support at the critical moment, we stabilize families before short-term crisis leads to homelessness.

This early intervention creates the stability families need to recover and move forward to long-term sustainability.

Lastly, over the past year, we developed a new family support program.

This program is voluntary, individualized case support model, grounded in trust and relationship building.

We work with families to identify their strengths and skills and secure the tools and resources they need to break the cycle of poverty.

The family support program addresses a critical service gap for parents who require assistance, navigating complex systems without the need for intensive case management.

By providing targeted targeted support, we empower participants to increase their professional confidence and workforce readiness, ultimately increasing income, self-sufficiency, and long-term stability.

We appreciate your consideration of supporting our programs.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Bavana Pawa.

Good evening.

My name is Bhavna Pawa, and I'm here today on behalf of the City of Bellevue's Network on Aging to advocate for Bellevue's older adults as you weigh upcoming funding decisions.

Bellevue is a community that cares for its older adults.

We see this every day across our city facilities where programs fostering social connection, learning, and wellness are making a meaningful difference in reducing loneliness and strengthening community bonds.

These programs are bright spot, and they show what is possible when we invest in the well-being of our aging population.

We also know from the city's own data that nearly 25% of Bellevue residents are 55 or older, and this number continues to grow.

At the same time, the 2025 Human Services Needs Update highlights that nearly one third of our senior renters are severely cost burdened, spending more than half of their income on housing.

This is more than a financial challenge.

It is a mental health challenge.

Housing instability and lack of affordability directly impact emotional well-being, social connectedness, and a person's overall sense of security.

This financial strain can intensify behavioral health needs, particularly for older adults who may already be navigating isolation, chronic conditions, or limited support networks.

To meet these interconnected needs, I respectfully ask, or we really respectfully ask the commission to prioritize the following areas in the upcoming funding cycle.

Integrated behavioral health in housing.

We support continued investment in models which use resident service coordinators to provide on-site referrals, social support, and proactive engagement.

Targeted mental health outreach, culturally and linguistic specific behavioral health services remain critically under-resourced.

Many BIPOC and immigrant elders experience higher rates of untreated depression and anxiety.

Yet past data show only 43% success rate in accessing culturally relevant care.

Expanding these services is vital to equitable health care and access.

Homelessness prevention for seniors.

We encourage the expansion of the housing stability program to include specialized case management for older adults on fixed incomes.

Tailored support can help seniors navigate rising rents and reduce the emotional strain associated with potential displacement.

Lastly, addressing the loneliness epidemic.

Bellevue's community centers already play an important role in combating isolation.

We ask for continued and expanded funding for community-based peer support, social connection programs, and outreach to homebound seniors.

Approaches proven to reduce cognitive decline and mental health crises.

A Bellevue where everyone can thrive must ensure that our oldest residents do not have to choose between paying for their home and accessing the mental health care they deserve.

With strategic investment, we can build a strong foundation and create a safer, healthier, and more connected future for all older adults in our city.

So you probably have them, and it's been signed by the entire Bellevue Network for Aging.

Thank you for all the work that you do and for the time today.

Okay, thank you.

Our next speaker is Katya Woshik with Project Be Free.

Good evening, Commissioners.

My name is Katia Wojik, and I am the co-founder and executive director of Project Be Free, which is located in Renton, Washington.

I'm here today to speak to Project B Free's programming needs and what we are seeing from Bellevue residents.

At Project Be Free, we serve the full spectrum of domestic violence.

That means not just intimate partner violence, but family violence, generational harm, and the complex dynamics that show up in real life.

Many of the individuals reaching out to us don't fit neatly into one category.

But we they still need support, safety, and someone that understands their situation.

What's important to name is that we often separate issues like homelessness, mental health, and substance abuse.

But in our work, we see how closely those are all connected.

Although we are a relatively young organization moving into our sixth year, Bellevue residents are actively seeking us out.

The demand is already here.

Families are calling us, referrals are increasing, and we are often stepping in where other systems are unable to respond in a timely or culturally relevant way.

A big part of trust comes from us as a team.

Our staff reflects the community we serve in culture, lived experience, and in language.

Our team collectively speaks 23 languages.

That matters because access is not just about availability, it's about being understood and seen.

In 2024, we applied for funding for our domestic violence advocacy program.

In our first year of funding, we surpassed our advocacy goal by 275%, which speaks to both the demand for our services and the need to build capacity to sustain it.

This year we are also applying for Project Be Fit, our youth programming, because we are seeing the need not just in crisis, but in prevention work and long-term support for our youth.

It's important to know that and understand that domestic violence is complex and in its full life cycle, we need to look at prevention, crisis response, and also thoughtfully looking at long-term healing.

But with that growth comes a clear challenge.

Right now we have staff that are ready to be hired.

We have the infrastructure, partnerships, and programming in place.

What we need is the capacity to support and sustain Project B Freeze programming so we can better support what is already happening for Bellevue residents.

This is not about starting something new.

It's about strengthening and expanding something that is already here in our city.

My ask to you today is to support capacity building for Project B Free's programming so we can continue to meet the needs of Bellevue residents in a way that is culturally responsive, timely, and effective.

Thank you for your time and for your commitment to the residents of Bellevue.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is online, Troy Christensen with Porch Light.

One minute to get him on.

And I am the executive director of Porch Light.

Thank you to the Human Services Commission, both for your volunteer work assisting the city of Bellevue as well as taking the time recently to tour Porch Light and learn more about our services.

As you probably know, we provide all the men's shelter for the east side of King County as well as a day center.

That includes up to 150 beds a night and up to 450 meals a day, as well as showers and laundry, whether you're using our shelter services or not.

We also provide case management, behavioral health services, outreach, mostly in the city of Bellevue and 100 units of supportive housing.

The majority of the men we serve are from Bellevue.

We ask them when they come, where their last place of residence was, and more than half um originate from the city of Bellevue.

In 2025, we helped nearly 100 men um find and and secure housing as well as find employment.

As you also know from meeting with us, we were hit pretty hard last year by the federal cuts, nearly 500,000 thousand dollars our increased ask this year reflects that and the work we do to keep Bellevue safe and livable for all residents especially men without a roof over their head as you can imagine trying to fill that gap solely with philanthropy and corporation funding is harder for an organization serving adult men than it is for serving women children and families um that's why we rely so much more heavily on government funding um men who are experiencing homelessness in particular the ones who are visible um are often seen as um the the most challenging um people that exist in our society and the work that we do is to help them get back on their feet and to try and help them reintegrate into society with housing employment and social contacts and we appreciate any help you can provide um that will allow the increases this year to make up for what was lost in the federal funding thank you again and please let me know if you have any questions for us um as you deliberate thank you thank you our next speaker is Miriam Clothera with Mary's Place Seattle oh sure it's also a mic there but that might be easier thank you hi everyone um my name is Miriam Clithrow I use she her pronouns um and thank you so much commissioners for having me I'm submitting this statement on behalf of Mary's place which is an organization um addressing the crisis of family homelessness in King County through a three-prong approach of emergency shelter mobile outreach and homelessness prevention so together these services ensure that families with children have a safety net at every stage of a housing crisis from prevention to stabilization Mary's place operated uh an emergency family shelter in Bellevue for several several years providing a safe haven for families experiencing homelessness when they had nowhere else to go while that shelter has closed our commitment to Bellevue families has not we continue to serve families in uh and from Bellevue through mobile outreach and our homelessness prevention services meeting them where they are is our goal and helping them avoid the trauma of homelessness.

Families with children represent one of the most vulnerable and growing populations experiencing homelessness.

They really need targeted specialized services not just individualized or individual shelter beds but also uh family centered crisis response diversion support and eviction prevention resources that keep children from ever entering the shelter system we know that the most significant indicator of future homelessness is a past experience of homelessness and um we also know that homelessness that is experienced during early childhood is harmful to uh children's growth and development and your investments today will have a far reaching and positive impacts so thank you so much should I turn it off sure and I'll just know thank you thank you, Miriam.

Our next speech speaker is Rachel Bergman, Friends of youth.

Hello, my name is Rachel Bergman.

I use she, her pronouns, and I'm the director of government and community grants with Friends of youth.

For over 75 years, our organization has supported children, youth, and families in East King County, including countless Bellevue residents.

Every day, we work alongside young people who are facing a range of difficult experiences, including homelessness, foster care, and behavioral health challenges.

Our programs ensure that youth can access high-quality wraparound support services right here in the Eastside communities they call home.

Our organization is a grateful recipient of City of Bellevue human services funds.

These vitally needed dollars support a range of Friends of Youth programs, including mental health services, emergency shelters, transitional living programs, parent education support, and more.

As you know, our organization recently applied for renewed support within the 2027 2028 biennium.

This application cycle comes at a time when organizations like ours are facing an ever increasing demand for services combined with funding uncertainty related to changing federal priorities and strained local budgets.

For example, Friends of Youth operates the only youth-specific shelters in East King County.

This includes the Willows Youth Services Center, which provides wraparound support to young adults ages 18 to 24 who are experiencing homelessness.

Year over year, between 2024 and 2025, the Willows experienced a 13% increase in shelter bed utilization and nearly 27% increase in drop-in visits.

This rising local need for services does not appear to be slowing as Friends of Youth programs have continued to see high service utilization throughout the first half of 2026.

At Friends of Youth, every engagement we have with a young person represents an opportunity to make real meaningful impact.

By accessing services at our shelter and housing programs, young people increase their stability and make progress toward their self-identified goals.

By engaging with our team of behavioral health providers, young people improve their emotional well-being and take meaningful steps in their recovery and treatment journeys.

Young people are experiencing real growth and real change through their time with Friends of Youth, and we are grateful for your partnership in this work.

We would like to thank the City of Bellevue Human Services Commission as it continues to ensure that critically needed services are consistently available.

In partnership with the city, Friends of Youth will remain a trusted resource for Bellevue Youth and Families, ensuring community members can access meaningful comprehensive support across our full range of programs.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Gina Finley online with Don Rising.

So we'll promote her.

Thank you.

Good evening, Chair and Commissioners.

My name is Gina Fintley, and I serve as the executive director of the Domestic Abuse Women's Network, otherwise known as Dawn.

I also have one of my board members in the audience tonight, so please wave elusion.

We both want to thank you for the opportunity to share tonight and for your continued support and leadership supporting human services in Bellevue.

Dawn was honored to begin receiving funding from the City of Bellevue in 2025.

That investment has already helped expand access to critical life-saving services for survivors in your community.

And here we are today to request continued and growing support.

Each year, Dawn serves over 1,600 survivors of domestic violence across King County, providing shelter, advocacy, legal support, and crisis intervention.

We receive about 4,300 crisis and support line calls each year.

These numbers represent real people, many of whom are navigating some of the most dangerous and uncertain moments in their life.

Importantly, for the commission, Bellevue represents one of the highest areas of demand in our service area.

Our community service office or CSO advocacy data consistently shows Bellevue as the largest source of referrals and caseload in King County, underscoring the critical need for services on the East Side.

In response, Dawn has intentionally expanded our presence in Bellevue, including our on-site advocacy at Bellevue College and increase accessibility for Eastside residents.

We are meeting survivors where they are, geographically and culturally.

Here's a quick story from a Bellevue CSO advocate.

Her name is Annette, our advocate's name is Annette.

One of our, as one of our many resources available for clients, mental health is always a high demand.

I had a client who expressed that she has made attempts to speak with a therapist about their experiences with intimate partner violence.

They disclose that the therapists who does not specialize in trauma-informed care have left her feeling uneasy and even re-traumatized.

One client expressed that she felt extremely uncomfortable, comfortable and supported by our team of therapists.

We have two.

They showed a great level of care that created a space for open discussions when her and I discussed the goals.

Her main goal was to find therapy services that benefit her.

And during our update, she was able to cross that goal off her leads her list of needs.

Our work is also strengthened by our deep partnerships and mutual referrals.

We collaborate closely with organizations such as LifeWire, Interim CDA, The More We Love, Mother Africa, YWCA, and Eastide Legal Assistance Program.

Together we are building a coordinated, culturally responsive system that reduces barriers and ensures survivors receive comprehensive support.

Dawn is known throughout the region as responsive, collaborative, and trauma informed partner.

Our survivor reaches out, whether in crisis or seeking long-term stability, they are met with immediate support, expertise, and connection.

Continued funding from the City of Bellevue will allow us to not only sustain this critical work, but deepen our reach on the east side, serving more survivors, strengthening partnerships, and ensuring that no one seeking safety is turned away.

Thank you for your commitment to the Bellevue community and for your partnership.

And I want to give a special shout out to your staff.

Christy is amazing, so I'm so enjoyed working with her.

Thank you all for your support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tina.

Our next speaker is also online, Jack Edgerton with KidVantage.

Good evening, Commissioners.

My name is Jack Edgerton.

I am the executive director of Kid Vantage.

Kids Vantage is Washington's oldest and largest basic needs bank.

As a basic needs bank, we work to reduce the effects of poverty and inequity in our communities by ensuring that families with children birthed to 12 years old and pregnant moms are supplied with critical health and safety needs needed to thrive.

These items, such as diapers, wipes, car seats, clothing, hygiene and school supplies, keep children healthier, happier, and reduce financial stress on families, benefiting over 19,000 children a year.

Kidvantage has been proud to partner with the City of Bellevue for many years, working with strategic partners in Bellevue to make sure that families and children most in need receive essential goods throughout the year.

Unfortunately, the need is growing.

Each week, on average, Kidvantage provides basic needs goods for over 1500 children.

For the first quarter of this year, this is an 18% increase over the first quarter of 2025.

Our distribution of diapers is up 10% year over year, and wipes and baby formula are up 12% year over year.

These important health goods, along with clothing and hygiene products, are some of the most important items and most in need by and impacted by tariffs and inflation.

To meet this need, Kidvantage harnesses the energy of over 5600 community volunteers working at our three warehouse locations.

Through our network of 80 partner organizations with over 200 distribution sites.

Some of those are in the room today with us.

Kidvantage reaches underserved and low-income families in Bellevue and beyond to help create stronger, more equitable communities.

I would like to thank the Commission and the City of Bellevue for recognizing that children need their basic needs met to go to school, to play, and to participate fully with family and community.

Your support is essential to making sure every member of our community thrives.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Deatra McCormick Martin from Family La Casa.

That's it.

Okay.

Hi, I'm Deedra.

I'm the executive director at Family La Casa of King County.

And our mission is to advance intersectional equity by providing free advocacy services for children in family law cases, by connecting families to support services, and driving transformational systems change.

We serve all of King County and including Bellevue, and we have been doing that since 2002.

And we currently uh right now serve 15 residents in six cases in Bellevue, including nine children.

What we do is we really step in to shine an objective light on the realities in the homes of these children and ensure their voices and experiences are understood by a family court that is understaffed and overburdened with so many cases, they don't have the time to fully understand a complex custody case in a family situation without our support.

Um we're the only ones that represent in cases like these.

We're the voice for the children in the courtroom and our volunteer causes, who are overseen by our experienced staff and attorney, are conducting careful investigations in a trauma-informed, unbiased and strengths-based way to ensure that both parents have a relationship with their children, but the children are safe.

As part of our commitment to providing equitable services, we use interpreters when a family speaks a different language and as their first language to ensure that we can fully capture the nuances of complicated cases.

For example, one of our Bellevue cases, which just closed, involved a family that speaks Russian.

And this case involved three children living with the mother in Bellevue.

And there were allegations of domestic violence and physical abuse, where the father had abused the children and also the mother.

There was domestic violence and coercive control involved.

And it was our job to go in and figure out what is really happening and tell the judge about it.

It lasted almost two years, this case, just dragged on and on, which isn't really not great for kids, as you can probably guess.

And our advocate and legal team filed two reports and then there was a trial and we testified at the trial.

And that just finished last month, and we got the final orders, and our recommendations were a critical part of the proceedings, and the judge ruled in favor of our recommendations that father the father gets domestic violence treatment and the children live with their mother.

Um, and then when he gets his treatment, then he can start seeing them with professional supervised visitation.

So all really important things that are in place now as a result of our work.

And it wouldn't be possible for the judge to have all the information and make a solid determination if it wasn't for the involvement of Family La Casa.

We provide the service for free, and we're the only ones who do it in the country.

Um so we're hopeful to continue partnering with Bellevue through the Service Human Services Commission funding in 27 and 28 in order to keep providing this vital service to families in Bellevue and create more stable homes and healthy kids in our community.

Thank you so much for your public service.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Lucian Tavet.

Oh, okay, no problem.

Okay, we will move on.

Um our next speaker is Vijay McAllister.

Hi.

This is my first time at a Human Services Commission meeting.

So it's great.

Welcome.

My name is Vidie McAllister.

Um, I'm a Bellevue resident and serve on the board of directors for the Sophia Way, um, based out of Bellevue.

If you aren't aware of the Sophia Way, it's a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending homelessness for women in East King County through shelter, housing, and supportive services.

Uh, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you.

And I respectfully request the committee's recommendation for continued support by the City of Bellevue.

If you're interested, I've also brought a few copies of our 2025 impact report and our updated five-year strategic plan.

These documents highlight both the impact we're having today and our vision for how the Sophia Way will continue to evolve to meet the needs of women experiencing homelessness and serve our community in the years ahead.

For more than 15 years, the Sophia Way has served women experiencing homelessness through East King County.

In the past year alone, more than 500 women have accessed our services, and over 140 women have moved into stable housing.

These are women facing extremely low incomes, trauma, and significant barriers to housing, who with the right support are able to regain housing stability.

Today, the Sophia Way provides a continuum of care that includes an emergency shelter, a resource center, vehicle outreach, transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing.

Our goal is simple to help women move from crisis to stability and ultimately to permanent housing.

What I think makes the Sophia Way so special is having a personalized case management to help each woman tackle their individual path with the goal of permanent stable housing.

We know that homelessness is not confined to city boundaries.

It's a regional challenge that requires regional solutions.

Bellevue has been a leader in recognizing this reality and investing in programs that serve women across East King County.

Bellevue's investment directly supports the emergency shelter of Helen's Place and more extended stay shelter of Sophia's Place, helping ensure that women have access to safe shelter, housing navigation, and critical support services when they need them most.

We're grateful for the commission support in the last funding cycle and for your continued commitment to solutions that work.

As we look ahead, we respectfully request consideration for the next funding cycle.

Based on our projections, this support would directly help us serve the approximately 25% of women who access our shelters and vehicle outreach programs that are from Bellevue, while helping sustain the regional shelter system that so many women rely upon.

Particularly, we've seen changes in levels of need with other shelters closing in the area.

Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your continued partnership.

We appreciate your consideration to support the Sophia Way's programs and hope that together we can continue serving women throughout Bellevue and East King County and help them regain stability and independence.

Thank you.

I'll leave these here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And our next speaker is online, Dr.

Janice Clark.

Support safe homes.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you.

Okay, sorry about that.

You are good.

Go ahead.

Okay, here we go.

Um good evening, commissioners, and thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Dr.

Janice Clark, founder and visionary of Safe Homes, and our women's veterans division.

And today we truly celebrate our 31st birthday today.

I'm here to speak on behalf of a population that is often overlooked at human services plannings, yet deeply impacted by the very issues this commission is working to address.

Women veterans, especially those who have survived military sexual trauma, domestic violence, homelessness, food insecurity, and behavioral health challenges.

Women veterans experience higher rates of homelessness, trauma, and economic instability than their male counterparts.

Many are single mothers raising children while navigating trauma.

Many face digital access barriers that prevent them from completing housing applications, accessing benefits, or securing employment.

And many do not qualify for traditional veteran programs because those systems were not built with their needs in mind.

The Safe Homes Women Veterans Division directly supports Bellevue's human services priorities by providing a comprehensive trauma-informed continuum of care that addresses the most significant gaps and disparities facing low and income moderate income residents because of the limited time.

I'll just jump down.

These services we provide is directly aligned with Bellevue priorities around basic needs, behavior health, child care and early learning, homelessness prevention, and equitable access for this marginalized community.

Women veterans are a small population with disproportionately high needs.

And when they fall through the cracks, their children fall with them.

But when they stabilize, entire families and entire communities stabilize.

Bellevue has a long-standing demonstrated leadership in supporting low and moderate income residents.

I respectfully ask that the commission also recognize women veterans as a priority population, one that has served our country yet remains underserved in civilian life.

Safe Homes Division stand ready to partner with the city of Bellevue to ensure that every woman veteran has access to safety, stability, healing, and opportunity.

Thank you for the time, and I look forward to your commitment to continue to thrive for equitable Bellevue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And our next speaker is Mark Omen, Nami Eastside.

Good evening, commissioners.

I'm Mark Umman.

I'm the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness for East King County.

I want to thank you and the City of Bellevue for your ongoing commitment and investment in the mental health and well-being of Bellevue residents.

Our communities face an ongoing mental health crisis impacting our youth, friends, neighbors, and families.

For too many, access to mental health support is a privilege.

For 25 years, NAMIE SIDE has helped fill that gap by empowering residents to participate in recovery and build community mental health resiliency.

Last year alone, NAMI side served over a thousand Bellevue residents through our youth and education programs and support groups.

Tonight I want to tell you why that, why, why, uh, what makes that work different and why it matters.

Every program we run is grounded in lived experience.

It reaches people who may have already who may have already decided clinical services aren't for them.

Maybe they're too ashamed to call a therapist, or they're struggling and face losing their housing, their job, or their kids' trust.

Our programs create space for people to connect and find hope.

One Bellevue resident who attends the support group, put it simply, just knowing I'm not alone.

What makes that space unique is that the person facilitating that group has been there, not a clinician, but as a peer, someone who's walked in those shoes.

For youth that is especially urgent.

More than half of eighth and tenth graders reported anxiety in the most recent healthy youth survey.

Roughly one in eight seriously considered suicide.

The clinical system is not going to see most of these kids.

Programs like our ending the silence presentation put youth peer presenters in Bellevue classrooms to help reduce stigma and share resources.

A Bellevue student who attended a presentation last fall shared, I really appreciated the story from someone who went through the disorder rather than someone who knows of it.

Hearing someone's courageous story of recovery and hope helps break down the stigma that too often leads to the tragic results we see regularly.

Sharing the stories of peers and family members is prevention.

That is what your investment makes possible.

On the housing side, housing instability and mental health are deeply intertwined.

Each making the other harder to address.

Support from the commission has allowed us to increase investment in prevention, training our neighbors, community partners, and family members in mental health first aid, and de-escalation workshop shops so that more residents have the capacity to support one another as they navigate complicated systems and circumstances.

Bellevue has been a leader in investing in human services and is building something special here.

We are grateful to be a part of it and hope to continue this partnership for years to come.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

And our next speaker is online.

We have Debbie Halella with Eastside Services.

You can go ahead, Debbie.

Okay, sorry, I couldn't hear.

Are you able to hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Well, good evening.

My name is Debbie Halila, and I serve as the director of the agency-based counseling program at Youth Eastside Services.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here at the Human Service Commission meeting.

For more than 55 years, Youth Eastside Services, also known as YES, has been providing critical behavioral health services to children, youth, and families on the East Side.

Our mission has always been grounded in meeting young people where they are, whether that's schools, teen centers, community spaces, or in our offices.

At YES, we are deeply committed to removing barriers to care.

We recognize that access to behavioral health services should never be limited by language, culture, or financial circumstances.

Today, 57% of our direct service staff speak a second language other than English.

And we provide services in 12 languages.

This allows us to truly reflect this and serve the diverse communities on the east side.

Our approach is rooted in trauma-informed care and integrated service delivery.

We look at the whole person, understanding that mental health is deeply connected to social determinants like family stability, education, and community support.

When we support a young person in crisis, the impact extends beyond that individual and strengthens families and in many cases creates positive change for generations to come.

A key part of our work is continuously improving how families access care.

For example, we offer intake assessments and counseling services in Mandarin, Spanish, and English.

We've also recently created a new position to support our open access model by hiring a bilingual Spanish cultural navigator.

The cultural navigator will work alongside our clinical team to guide families through the process, connect them to additional resources, and partner with schools and community organizations to streamline referrals.

This will help reduce wait times, improve engagement, and ensure that care is equitable, respectful, and truly client-centered.

We also remain committed to delivering the highest quality evidence-based care.

Our clinicians are trained in a range of proven interventions, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, parent-child interaction therapy, EMDR, and a number of others.

So this allows us to tailor the treatment that we provide to the neat unique needs of each young person and family.

And we ensure that these effective treatment modalities are available to all who seek our services, regardless of ability to pay.

Through our three integrated pathways, we provide services in the agency, in schools, and in the community, and coordinate our approach to provide the most comprehensive care that removes barriers.

Finally, we are incredibly grateful to the ongoing support of the City of Bellevue.

Your partnership makes it possible for us to carry forward this important work and continue serving youth and families in our community.

Thank you.

And our next speaker is Sierra Madden from Plymouth Housing.

Good evening, commissioners and staff.

My name is Kira Madden.

I'm the external engagement coordinator for Plymouth Housing.

Plymouth provides permanent supportive housing to nearly 1500 people who have successfully put homelessness behind them.

Across our 18 buildings in King County, including our newest building in Kirkland, we've been providing homes, healing, and hope since 1980.

We urge you to center housing and homelessness as core priorities of the upcoming biannual funding recommendations, including safe parking, permanent shelter, and permanent supportive housing.

Plymouth opened our Bellevue Building, Plymouth Crossing nearly three years ago.

And we are proud to bring the first permanent supportive housing on the east side to this city.

Plymouth Crossing is home to 92 residents who rely on us for wraparound stability services, including case management, support for chronic conditions, but most importantly, permanent housing they can afford.

As you all know from a few months back, when the commission presented its 2025 Human Services Needs update to council, housing and homelessness continue to be among the most urgent and pressing needs in Bellevue.

Nearly a quarter of Bellevue households are low in moderate income, and nearly a third are housing cost burdened.

We know from our work that rising cost of living, job loss, and limited affordable housing options are currently and pushing people into homelessness.

And while there's certainly good work being done in Bellevue, we've heard from a lot of great people today by local organizations and the city's own initiatives.

We also know that we're collectively not moving fast enough.

Need and instability is growing, and we are not scaling capacity fast enough.

At Plymouth, we've long believed that safe, stable housing is the first and most critical step to addressing other challenges.

As you consider your recommendations, we ask that you first consider where will people lay their heads tonight?

How many of us here took a shower this morning without even knowing about it, thinking about it?

And for the other many real and serious issues affecting community health.

How many can be seriously addressed without a safe, stable place to call home?

Thank you for your important work and for hosting this public hearing tonight.

Again, we encourage you to prioritize housing and homelessness in your upcoming biannual funding recommendations, including safe parking, permanent shelter, and permanent supportive housing.

We must invest in system capacity to respond to the need we see every day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Our next speaker is online, and we have Nock Newen from ELA.

Hi, can you hear me?

We can hear you.

You can go ahead.

Great, thank you.

Good evening, commissioners.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Nock Wynn, and I am the Chief of Staff at East Side Legal Assistance Program, also known as ELAP.

Thank you for your funding last year.

We're asking for your support again.

ELAP is a nonprofit organization.

We offer about 30 clinics a month addressing family law, employment, disability, immigration, you name it.

We basically cover it.

We also have three attorneys in-house that help with housing stability issues and three attorneys that work with domestic violence survivors.

We are also do legal advocacy, which changes depending on the political landscape.

So during the pandemic, we informed people about evictions, the eviction moratorium, what it meant for them.

And then right now we are focusing on safety planning, which means we get paperwork ready for parents or guardians in case they are picked up by ice so that there's something in place for their children's and minors.

I want you to imagine that you're a renter in an apartment that has mold infestation.

You let your landlord know you're expecting them to clean it up, and it's an important health issue that needs to be immediately recognized and attended to.

Your children start to feel sick, and you can't afford to break your lease and lose your deposit.

Or imagine if you're a neighbor with a young you have a neighbor with who is a young mother with two small children experiencing domestic violence.

She's afraid to leave her marriage.

She's afraid she's going to lose custody of her children because her family, her husband controls all the family's finances.

He's getting increasingly angry and controlling.

What do you tell her?

How do you help in such a desperate and scary situation?

These are just two examples of the many reasons why civil legal aid is essential.

ELAP is one of the only organizations in the region providing free legal help for a wide variety of issues that people face.

We use more interpretation services than any other nonprofit legal aid organizations in Washington, with 35 languages served last year.

You may not even know that your residents are already receiving services from ELAP.

Last year Bellevue residents received 560, 578 hours through our housing stability program and 304 hours through our legal clinic programs.

In total, we served more than 200 Bellevue residents.

Our work is critical and essential.

Thank you for all the work that you do and for your time and consideration.

Thank you, Nock.

Uh next we have Dawn McGeorge online.

Good evening.

My name is Dawn McGeorge, and I'm a board member of Family Law CASA of King County, and I'm here to share briefly about the work that we do to help families with low income in Bellevue and across the county.

Family Law Casa is committed to positive long-term outcomes for children, families, and community communities, navigating economic injustice across King County.

We advance intersectional equity by providing free advocacy services for children involved in family law cases, connecting families to support services, and driving transformational system change.

Each year we advocate for hundreds of children's, hundreds of children involved in high-risk custody cases across the county.

As Deedra had mentioned earlier, in 2025, we served 18 residents in six cases in Bellevue.

And in the first quarter of 2026, we have been working on six cases with 15 residents.

With that, we are trending toward a 25% increase in cases located in Bellevue for 2026.

Now, for a moment, imagine a child caught in the middle of a complex custody case, being exposed to conflict, domestic violence, neglect, or abuse.

These situations are not just heartbreaking.

They have long-lasting consequences.

Imagine their parents struggling with their own challenges and traumas, trying to figure out how to navigate a very complex court system with no knowledge or resources.

In King County, over half of parents involved in family law cases can't afford legal representation.

This means judges are making critical decisions about a child's future without fully understanding their needs, the situation, or the child's best interest.

They also don't understand the complexities of the parents' situation.

We also know from extensive research that exposure to trauma arising from intense conflict, domestic violence or abuse can change brain development and have lifelong harmful impacts on health, academic abilities, and opportunities.

With that, I want to thank you for the support that support that you have provided the past two years, and we are hopeful to continue partnering with Bellevue through your human service commission funding for the 2027 through 2028 in order to keep providing this vital service to families to create more stable homes and healthy kids in our community.

So thank you for your time.

And please feel free to ask me or Deedra any questions you have as you deliberate.

Thank you and have a good evening.

Thank you.

Next, we have Liz Aggie from ICHS.

Thank you for the opportunity to address the commission tonight.

My name is Liz Atchy, and I'm the policy and advocacy administrator with International Community Health Services.

I'm here to ask for your support for ICHS's medical, dental, and behavioral health funding requests that were submitted through the Human Services Funding Collaborative Process.

ICHS is a nonprofit organization and community health center that provides comprehensive primary medical care, dental care, and behavioral health services to over 36,000 patients within the region.

Current funding from the city of Bellevue has actually helped us to serve nearly 4,500 patients in Bellevue residence alone.

At ICHS, we welcome everybody, regardless of their ability to pay or their insurance status, and we offer free interpretation to our patients who last year spoke more than 90 languages and dialects.

We will make sure that you are able to speak the language that you are most comfortable expressing yourself in in order to get your health care.

ICHS has four full-service clinics, including our Bellevue Medical and Dental Clinic.

We also operate the only school-based health center in the Bellevue School District and offer mobile medical and dental clinics that visit schools throughout the city.

This is another way that we are just trying to make sure that everybody gets care in the way that is easiest for them to access to maximize what they're able to, what they need.

Unfortunately, Medicaid funding cuts dramatically increased health insurance premiums and immigration enforcement fears are just a few of the many barriers that our patients must overcome to access primary health care services.

Maintaining our 2025-2026 behavioral health and dental funding supports our ongoing work with these underserved communities, and providing new medical funding addresses the shortage of medical services for low-income individuals.

One of the things that makes ICHS unique is that our care model lets us connect primary care patients with behavioral health specialists from within our clinic to support them with their treatment from within the primary care setting itself.

This increases access and reduces stigma.

Additionally, last year we became a licensed behavioral health agency and can now provide long-term therapy and medication management in-house.

All of these things are critical steps in addressing the behavioral health access gap, especially for patients with Medicaid or limited financial resources.

Unfortunately, the reality that we're facing right now is that more people are finding health care unaffordable in a lot of ways, but that does not decrease the need for people to access services.

ICHS will be there for everybody, and we hope we can count on the city of Bellevue to continue to be a strong partner in supporting and making sure that everybody has access to the healthcare that they need.

Thank you, and uh thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Armando Estrada with Rainier Athletes.

Good evening, Commissioners.

My name is Armando Strada, and I'm on the mentor development manager at Renium Athletes, a Bellview-based nonprofit serving students further from economic and social justice.

Across 15 Bellevue schools, 100% of our A students qualify for free reduced price launch.

80% speak a language other than English at home, and over 70% identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino.

I'm here to support Reni Athletes' application for Bellevue Human Services Funding.

At Reni Athletes, we believe mentorship is the strongest when young people can see themselves in the adults walking alongside them.

Students benefit with their mentor understand their culture, their family experience, and speak the language that students probably speak when they feel most themselves.

That is why our work is intentionally culturally responsive and language specific.

In our application, we share that our materials, family communications, and information sessions are offered in Spanish, and that we intentionally match Latino students with Latino mentors who share language, cultural, culture and lived experience.

We also share that 100% of our directive service staff identify themselves as a BIPOC.

Five out of six identify as Hispanic Latino, and we ensure that bilingual staff and mentors are present in many student and family facing roles.

My role as the mentor development manager of Reni Athletes is to recruit, train, and ultimately support our amazing mentors.

As a Mexican immigrant myself, I know how meaningful it is to have mentors who can truly relate.

For RA, we think about cultural relevance as a critical component to everything we do.

In order for programs to be the lever for our Latino students, it's also important that they are delivered by staff and through systems that are built by those who can relate to this lived experiences of RA students and families.

In my role recruiting mentors, my outreach has been tailored to identify mentors who have relatable experience navigating the systems.

Our Latino students are also navigating.

We have formed partnerships with networks like Corporate Pero Latinos and Alpha, our region's largest Latino affinity groups, and corporate employee resources groups, too, like such as Amazon Latinos and Brooks Juntos Group to engage mentors who best reflect the students we serve.

This work is real for us.

It shapes how we recruit, how we partner, how we raise funds, and how we support families.

When the students see themselves in their leaders, their educators and their mentors, they build trust, they feel belonging, and their future is theirs to own.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Okay, and our next speaker is Amanda Lopez Castañon with Help Blink.

Good evening, everybody.

I don't know if I'm gonna need a microphone.

I'm a loud speaker, but I'll use it.

I'm Amanda Lopez Castañan and I serve as director of food programs at Hope Link.

I'd like to begin first by thanking everyone on the council for your support always.

Thank you very much.

It's really hard to put it into words, but your commitment to investing in people and community-based services makes a real difference for thousands of residents who rely on programs like ours every day.

As you are aware, many people are facing hardship, and the need continues to grow in our communities.

In 2025, we served over 74,000 people across our community services and transportation programs.

In community services alone, we serve 36,500 people, including over 6,000 Bellevue residents.

Our food programs are experiencing record numbers with over 10,000 people visiting Hopelink's food markets each month.

This is the equivalent to almost 100,000 meals provided to the 2700 Bellevue residents who come into the market every month.

In our financial resiliency programs across all cities, we are turning away 14 households for every one we serve.

The current living wage, I won't say that.

Every week we encounter individuals who have recently become unemployed or working very hard, but still struggling to meet their basic needs.

Seniors who must choose between medication and rent, parents trying to keep the lights on or foregoing their own meals so their children can eat, and young people facing barriers to getting started on their own journeys.

The demand for housing assistance, energy support, food access, and employment services is at an all-time high.

We take pride in being stewards of public funds in our record of accountability, transparency, and results.

The city funding we receive accounts for only 25% of our program funding.

Our programs are designed to stretch every dollar for maximum impact, whether it's helping a household avoid eviction, whether rising a home for energy savings, connecting residents to long term stability through education and case management, or despite tariffs and rising inflation, continuously finding affordable food resources to keep the market shelf stocked and the panic that food insecurity causes at B.

We recognize that no single organization can accomplish this alone.

It takes ongoing collaboration with all the people sitting behind me and us and with the city and community partners and residents to build a stronger, more equitable future for everyone in Bellevue.

We want to thank you for again for your continued support and humbly ask for that support to continue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is online.

We have Tia Kennebrew with CCS.

Give us a moment to over.

Okay.

Samara Mirfayez with New American Alliance for Policy and Research.

Good evening.

Thank you so much for this opportunity to speak to you today and tell you a little bit about a New American Alliance for Policy and Research.

So I believe what we do in life is because of our lived experiences.

Positive and negative.

More than 25 years.

And I was the previous executive director at Refugee Women're only putting band-aid on serious issues facing our low-income refugees and immigrants.

You will see in the application our mission statement, so I won't go into details about that.

But what I see every day, a typical family that we serve, and that's my experience too.

That is a refugee, which most often in the United States we don't distinguish them from immigrants.

They are not counted in any census data.

So we don't have good data about their numbers.

They arrive here, some have very good English language abilities, many don't.

Many are professionals.

But when they come here, they are literally nobody.

They are stigmatized and cast aside, and as you see in the media, referred to as terrorists or a burden on the community.

And that already creates trauma for individuals who have been all of a sudden.

This is different than immigrants, just torn apart from their countries.

Look at the Afghan experience and how they arrived here.

They want to find jobs, but because of English and limited employment vacancies, they cannot.

Their children are lost, and the whole family gets sucked into intergenerational poverty in addition to trauma.

So our application is really about how do we change that?

How we ensure that we partner with our refugees in their journey to prosperity and also inclusion and influence.

And I ask that you support that journey and um favorable application consideration of our application.

Thank you so much for your time.

I know you have a very arduous task ahead of you, many applications.

Thank you.

Let me help you.

We're gonna try Tia again.

Tia, if you'd like to speak, um you will need to accept online.

Okay, that's Mira.

That's okay.

Hello.

Hi Tia, we can hear you, can go ahead.

Okay, perfect.

Hi, my name is Tia Kennebrew.

I'm the program director for New Bethlehem Programs, which is in Kirkland.

We service families.

Um, any dynamic, any demographic on the east side.

We are one of the only family shelters um that services families on these side.

We have 24-hour seven, 24-7 wraparound services, 24-7 care.

We provide meals, we provide one-on-one case management for families, and we provide day center access for anyone on the east side to come in and get meals, um, to shower and also meet with the case manager to address um any barriers they may be having for housing or any employment um needs that they may need.

Um, we would like to thank the city of Bellevue for their continued support.

Um, they have supported us over the years, and we are just here to basically share our story, share our outcomes, what we are doing on the east side for the families that have been faced with um displacement without a safe space to um to sleep.

Um, this over this past year, we have housed 32 families that have accessed um our shelter and our day center, which include 132 children that had a safe space to sleep this year and were able to stay in school and continue school and not be able and to be able to go to school with clothing and um being bathed and not being um bullied um due to the services that we provide and that we give um at New Bethlehem programs.

So we would like to um thank you for your continued support and ask for your continued support so we can continue to serve the east side um families and to give people stable um housing and to help them overcome the barriers to get into permanent housing.

Thank you tia our next oh good our next speaker is Matthew Rowan and then okay we have you in person great thank you for your time and your consideration uh I'm Matthew Rowan and I am a member of uh Hero House Bellevue and I am here to talk about the things that we provide with the help of Bellevue and the funding that we receive from you.

I'm joined with uh by Tasha one of the staff of uh Belly Clubhouse um we offer many services to our membership uh but primarily we I'm going to talk about supportive housing and employment uh our supportive housing program is available to all in right enrolled participants and we are contracted with foundational community supports to provide supportive housing services to eligible Medicaid recipients and are also one of the first round of community based organizations selected to complete coordinated entry assessments.

Our supportive housing program encompasses much more than housing placements and nominations one of our pillars of Hero House Bellevue is recovery through community and real relationships.

So we are well positioned to support our participants in ancillary supportive services including budgeting financial navigation moving decision making from a foundation of trust and familiarity with individual situations housing and benefit benefits application and planning and resource coordination and connection we also have supported employment program through DVR uh we uh utilize an IPS individual placement support model which is directly tied to our strength based model of uh psychosocial rehabilitation um I've been a member of Clubhouse for two years um and it is uh there is no chance that I would uh be sitting here today if it were not for the providing the support they provided um for the mental health journey um the real communication friendships hope and uh just the space to exist and to not be perfect is uh invaluable uh to so many of us uh it is one of the few places where I have in my entire life felt like I belonged and with the services from the clubhouse I've received housing for the past year and a half which is soon ending uh in part because of funding cuts through the Medicaid and federal funding and uh we are uh I personally and Clubhouse in general is uh absolutely thankful for the support that you have all offered and continuing support hopefully please consider us and thank you for your time.

Thank you our next speaker is Derek Sheba with Vision House.

Hello, commissioners.

Where can I do my homework?

When will I have any privacy?

Do we have any food?

Where can I shower?

These are the kinds of questions posed by children who are in a time of homelessness with their parent or parents in our community.

Often families are living in cars, sometimes it's tents, often it's couch surfing week after week with no predictability.

My name's Derek Scuba.

I'm the CEO of Vision House, and for 36 years, Vision House has served families experiencing homelessness in our region with transitional housing, diversion services, and child care.

About 90% of families who participate in our transitional housing program move on to permanent housing.

I have not seen better stats than that.

Many families we serve are from Bellevue, with about 54 Bellevue families served last year alone.

That's nearly 200 parents and kids.

Through our diversion services, that is most of our families, about a thousand families a year, receive diversion services.

We support families with case management, showers, laundry services, food, job searches, housing searches, and counseling.

It's comprehensive.

Working through evictions and debt is a top need as helping clients create and keep viable budgets.

We need a plan, a real workable plan.

About 85% of the families we serve are comprised of moms and kids, and we serve many, many refugees and asylum seekers in our community.

Need is increasing year over year.

Our applications are up 60%, comparing May of 2025 to May of 2026.

60%, same month.

It is very troubling.

We have a track record of success because of the program.

It's not just housing.

Housing is critical, but because of the program, I believe, helping families solve problems, move into stable housing, and keep it.

And yet, funding is extremely challenging right now.

We serve many families here in Bellevue.

Please consider funding Vision House as we partner to move families beyond homelessness.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Bolivar Joy from CISC.

Oh, okay.

Okay, I don't want to.

Okay, let me just make sure it's not.

Okay.

And Tasha, we also had to sign up.

Were you just signing in for?

Okay.

And then the final person we have signed up is online, Melanie Fower with Upwards Care.

Hi, good evening, human service mentionizing team.

I'm Melanie Floor from Upwards.

I wanted to thank you for your investment in Bellevue's in-home child care providers and the Boost Program, which we're about to launch, an expanded version called Boost and Learn, which is designed to deepen the impact and strengthen long-term sustainability.

The Boost and Learn supports low-to-moderate income family child care providers in strengthening and growing their businesses.

Through personalized coaching, providers work one-on-one with the experienced care specialists to build a customized business action plan that covers areas such as marketing, enrollment, finances, staffing, and more.

They also have received free access to our child care management system and now our new learning management system, which is an on-demand resource library, which codifies the last seven years of best practices that we've been developing.

And it's important to note providers retain access to the CMS and LMS beyond the program here.

Thanks to your past support, we're currently supporting six LVU child care providers and have created two teaching assistant positions.

In our inaugural year, we supported 25 in-home providers and created seven teaching assistant jobs, adding 21 new child care slots in the first year alone.

While we've made progress, there's still more work to be done.

Nearly 25% of children under six lack access to licensed child care spot, which leaves over a thousand families, especially moms, single parents, and shift workers struggling to find care.

Meanwhile, home-based providers in Bellevue earn less than 20% an hour and face financial instability, unpredictable enrollment, and overwhelming administrative burdens.

This leads to high turnover and fewer child care slots.

Boost and Learn addresses these challenges by equipping providers with the skills, technology, and on-demand resources to manage finances, market their services, and streamline operations while supporting hiring to increase slots and available in the city.

By approving the uh, sorry.

Uh next year, we hope to support six new micro-enterprise daycare owners, create two new jobs, and help over 70 Bellevue families access higher quality care.

I'd like to um add that all families in Bellevue would have access to their own dedicated care specialists to help them find care that suits their unique needs, including emergency backup care, typically in less than 24 hours.

Um I'll close with a testimonial from Celeste Watcher who said in 15 years of running my own program.

I've never had someone in my corner constantly ready to help, checking in to remind me I'm not alone.

You're making a difference every single day.

Thank you for supporting child care providers who are so critical to Belleviews working families and local economy.

I'm always happy to answer any questions, both as a representative of operates, but also as a parent who will forever be grateful for the teachers who cared for my little ones.

Thank you.

Thank you, Melanie.

Uh, that concludes everyone.

We have signed up online and uh on the list.

But if there's anyone else that would like to speak during the public hearing, please raise your hand in the room or um via Zoom.

Okay.

Go ahead.

Now it's green.

Good evening, everybody.

My name is Dan Fai, and I'm an associate dean at Bellevue College, and I oversee the college's Center for Career Connections.

And I wanted to take a moment today to describe to you why I think this the Center for Career Connections is really vital to the East Side communities and our residents, and talk about with your funding why it's a differentiator for uh all sorts of job seekers in our community, and it makes our uh Center for Career Connections really sing.

Um I'm about jobs.

All right, my team is about jobs.

We do uh customized resume development with job seekers, uh interview prep.

A lot of our job seekers have never done an interview um before, and we let them do mock interviews with our team as often as they need it till they feel comfortable.

Uh we do social media and branding.

We offer free professional headshots for all of our job seekers so they don't have to pay a photo studio to look good online.

Um we also offer a uh supportive job club for job seekers who are having difficulty finding jobs, and they can come and meet with my team and other job seekers until supported.

Um we offer it at Bellevue College.

I'll just make a note, we are uh Bellevue College is the third largest institution of higher education in the state.

We are uh by orders of magnitude larger than most community and technical colleges, and our career center, which I'm speaking to you about right now, uh rivals the size scope and scale of the University of Washington's career center.

We serve over 4,000 job seekers a year.

We serve age ranges from 16 to 60.

We offer evening hours as well, and we're on every major bus line that call comes to the college.

I'm proud of all those things.

But here's the deal.

Here's a differentiator.

Um, without your funding support, of which we've had the good fortune of having for um a number of years now.

I can only offer all those services I just described to you to enrolled Bellevue College students, students who've come, who are paying tuition, who have a student ID number.

I'd like to do more for our community, and with our your help, I've been able to do that.

With your funding, we're able to serve all job seekers on the Greater East Side to come in and get the services uh for job placement, resume development, job search and interviewing skills.

Um, and I think that's just it's wonderful for us at the college to be able to offer that to not just students, but to people that are dislocated from the world of work, people who are just finding a first job, a caregiver or a mom and dad, or any of the individuals enrolled in any of the agencies that spoke to you uh earlier in in the meeting.

We can offer free of charge job placement and job assistance service for them.

That's differentiator number one, 20 seconds left.

Um, lastly, I think I'd just make a note that work source uh Redmond, which was the publicly funded work source center on the east side, closed over a year ago, and without our help service at Bellevue Community College, our job seekers need to go to Rainer Avenue in Seattle or down in Auburn to get good career placement help.

So I'm here to ask for your continued support and thank you for your time.

And if there's anybody online that would like to speak, if you could raise your hand.

Okay, um, I don't see anyone else signed up.

Um, so with that concludes the speakers we have for the public hearing.

I'll pass it over to you, Chair.

Okay, thank you.

If there are no more speakers, is there a motion to close the public meeting?

I will motion to close the public hearing.

A second.

I second.

All those in favor say aye.

All those opposed say nay.

Okay, the public hearing is now closed.

Thank you to those that spoke during the public hearing and for your valuable feedback.

Um, do we want to go back to staff reports?

Are there any staff reports?

No.

Okay.

New business.

Ruth mentioned a few meetings ago.

In accordance with our newly approved bylaws, we will be holding a second election of officers this year.

Moving forward, we will hold elections in June of each year.

The election process shall be in accordance with Roberts' rules of order newly revised.

This process identifies that.

Nominees will be voted on in the order in which they were presented.

As soon as one of the nominees receives a majority vote, which is four votes, the current chair will declare that person elected.

No votes will be taken on the remaining nominees for the office of chair.

Commission members must cast their vote, either I or no for each nominee.

Failure to cast a vote means that your vote will be counted in the affirmative.

Okay, so now we're gonna do nominations for chair.

So are there any nominations for chair?

I nominate Angela Fan for K.

Okay.

Commissioners, Angela Fan.

Any others been nominated for chair?

And Jennifer.

Okay.

Hearing no further nominations, nominations for commissioner chair are now closed.

We will vote on the nominees in the order in which they have presented.

Please signify your vote by saying aye or no when the question is called.

The first nominee is commissioner member Angela Fan.

This is weird.

I'm talking about myself in third person.

Okay.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, please say no.

Okay.

The vote is in favor, all against.

All or me, not against me.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, and I have to say that the eyes have it.

Commissioner member fan is elected chair.

Thank you.

Thanks.

I'm excited to continue my reign.

Okay.

Now we don't have any more nominees.

So now we're gonna do vice chair.

Um, do I have any nominations for vice chair?

I nominate vice chair Hayes as vice chair.

Are there any other okay?

Um, hearing no further nominations.

Nominations for vice chair are now closed.

We will vote on the nominees in the order that they have presented.

Okay.

The first and only nominee is Commissioner Member Hayes.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, please say no.

The ayes have it.

Congratulations.

You can continue.

You're reign as vice chair.

Okay.

Um this concludes officer elections and tonight's business.

Thank you all, commissioners.

Oh, our next commission meeting will be a special meeting on Monday, June 15th, 2026 from six to nine.

Remember, six to nine, y'all.

Um, we're gonna be in room one e one two one and we'll be in person with no remote option.

This will be the first night of funding deliberations.

And it says here in bold, your attendance is vital.

Okay.

We are adjourning at seven forty PM.

Oh, Donna, yeah.

See, I should have done staff reports.

And um, so they don't have direct access, but I will be consolidating them into a PDF and there are several, so we ask that you read all of them.

Um they they're they are valued the same as all the comments we received today at the meeting.

Okay.

I was wondering we didn't get an email yet.

Yes.

It's just too many, Jimmy.

Okay, any any other staff updates report now?

Okay, now I'm gonna adjourn it at 741.