The Kirkland City Council met on June 17, 2025, beginning with a study session at 5:30 p.m. and the regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. The meeting included a draft Homelessness Continuum of Care Action Plan study session, honors and proclamations, a public hearing on a King County parks levy, a special presentation on the Connections Kirkland Crisis Response Center, and several business items including middle housing zoning amendments, unit lot subdivisions, and mid-year budget adjustments. The meeting adjourned at 11:03 p.m.
Madam Mayor, your mic's not on. I'm so sorry to interrupt you. Thank you. I'll start over. Um I'd like to call to order so much better. The city council meeting of June 17, 2025. I think I said 26 last time. Before the role is called, I'd like to note that Councilmember Falcone is unable to join us. She may join us later this evening, may have a motion to excuse Councilmember Falcon. So moved to second. Motion carry. Councilmember Tim Chisholm. Here. Councilmember Black. Here. Councilmember Sweet. Here. Councilmember Pascal. Here. Deputy Mayor Arnold. Here. Mayor Curtis. Here. Our study session tonight is on the discussion of the draft homeless continuum care action plan. We expect to reconvene our regular meeting at 7.30, City Manager. Okay. So thank you. Madam Mayor, Deputy Mayor members of the Council. So it's been a long time coming. Very excited to be here tonight to talk to you about our draft homeless action plan. A couple key thank yous before we dive in. So first, thank you to the extraordinary team we have here at the table. We had sort of team outside, which was Jim Lopez and Lana Hancock, who've conducted some extraordinary outreach, which is all summarized in your memo. We also had sort of team inside, which was Jen Boone and Juliana de Cruz. All of them together helped write all of the documents that you have. And I just want to say thank you. It's been months and months of truly uh difficult and challenging work, and they've done extraordinary job putting it together. So uh good job, team. So because there was a lot we had to figure out exactly how to structure the study session. We have 90 minutes to talk about this as your first exposure to the plan. Um so we're trying to focus mostly on the proposed actions. We're not gonna cover everything that was included in all the attachments, but we welcome questions on any of it. So I want to start off first with a reminder of the guiding principles that we've used for the plan. So you can see those up on the screen. These came out of the resolution that we passed last year. Um the idea first and foremost to keep Kirkland safe, welcoming and economically vibrant. But that's safe and welcoming for everyone, including those who um are unhoused. Um our triple of making homelessness in Kirkland rare, brief and non-recurring, both with our programs and also with the regional programs. We'll talk about that. Um fostering a balanced person centered approach, never forgetting that these are our neighbors and we want to help them.