All right, good afternoon, everyone.

Um the May 13th, 2026 meeting of the Housing Arts and Civil Rights Committee will come to order.

It is 202 p.m.

I'm Dion Foster, Chair of the Housing Arts and Civil Rights Committee.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll?

Council President Hollingsworth.

Council President Hollingsworth.

I'm here.

Councilmember Juarez.

Here.

Councilmember Rink.

Present.

Vice Chair Lynn.

Present.

And Chair Foster.

Thank you, Clerk.

Clerk, will you please call Vice Chair Lynn one more time?

Vice Chair Lynn.

President.

Right.

There are four five members present.

Thank you so much.

All right.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We will now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda or within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

Currently we have eight in-person speakers, and there are two remote speakers.

Okay, fantastic.

So with that number of speakers, each speaker will have two minutes.

We will start with in-person speakers first.

Clerk, can you please read the public public comment instructions?

The public comment period is up to 60 minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they are registered.

We'll begin with in-person speakers and then move to remote speakers.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call in the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open.

We'll begin with the first speaker on the list.

And the first speaker is Sharon Nyrie Williams, and she'll be followed by Melissa Palehorpe.

Good afternoon.

Thanks for having me.

So many friendly faces.

Hey Auntie Warez.

Hey girl.

Hi, I would like to speak on behalf of the arts and cultural districts, Georgetown and Columbia Hillman.

As well.

I have been a I am the leader, a co-chair of the historic central area arts and cultural district.

And I don't have to tell you, you know that arts is everywhere and we do everything, but we also the holders as arts and cultural districts of the past and the present.

The central district was started, the arts and cultural district for the central area was started in the midst of gentrification.

Everything, everybody was moving out, and we were asked to hold that space to hold on to our past while moving into our future.

Georgetown, Columbia Georgetown, you could say they're not already an arts and cultural district.

When you hit the block, come on now.

And when you hit Coleman and uh in Hillman City, Columbia City and Hillman, you like, wait a minute, this is nothing but arts and culture.

So I would like to say on behalf of the historic central area arts and cultural district, please vote yes for these districts because it's not just about making art or creating art, it's about bringing community together in different kind of ways, bringing arts, bringing business, uh, being the liaison between the Office of Arts and Culture to our districts and saving what we know makes Seattle the best place in the world to live, and that's arts and culture and its people and community.

So thank you very much.

I'll give back the rest of my time.

How about that?

See ya later.

Amen.

All right, Melissa Pillthorpe is our next speaker, followed by Kira Jane Hobson.

Good afternoon, my name's Melissa Palep, and I'm here representing Watershed Community Development.

We're a project to establish more than 600 units of housing in the Georgetown neighborhood over the next 10 years.

So here to streak speak um firmly in support of the arts district.

Uh it will help us do our work.

Um we need to focus on creating housing in a district where there are about 2,900 units of housing for a workforce of 29,000.

So uh we're very much an arts forward organization seeking to create housing that artists can afford as well as the workers who are already in Georgetown.

So establishing this district will help us accomplish our work and hope you'll of course support it.

Thank you.

Alright, our next speaker is Kyra Jane Hobson, followed by Virginia Wright.

Oh, good afternoon.

Uh, my name is Syra Jane Hobson, and I am the president and co-founder of the Georgetown Association of Arts and Culture.

I am a surrealist stone carver myself, and I run a stone carving studio out of Georgetown's Equinox studios.

And my work is in galleries across Seattle and homes across the Pacific Northwest.

I found my creative home in Georgetown 15 years ago as part of a collective blacksmith group.

While I've lived all over the city, Georgetown is where I choose to work and volunteer because it is a neighborhood full of people who share my dedication to the arts.

People who work hard, who push to better themselves and contribute to their community, and who are passionate about the arts and its ability to uplift society.

It's also one of the only places in Seattle with both affordable studio places for artists to work and a culture that celebrates and enables the arts.

Because of this, our district is growing, home to a huge number of studio collectives, art fabrication companies, galleries, creative schools, and specialty supply stores.

More of these businesses are moving to Georgetown every year.

We are also close to breaking ground on the watershed project, the affordable housing project geared specifically toward arts and industry workers.

The significant influx of artists and creative businesses provides us with the opportunity to build a more solid creative economy that can serve to support and preserve Georgetown's unique culture and help it continue to thrive as an affordable place for us to live and work.

The Georgetown Association of Arts and Culture is dedicated to working with the Office of Arts and Culture, other city departments, and our fellow neighborhood associations through this process.

We are building working relationships with the other arts and cultural districts as well, contributing to a citywide network of support for the arts in Seattle.

I support Georgetown's designation as one of Seattle's arts and cultural districts and look forward to our continued collaborations.

Thank you very much.

All right, our next speaker is Virginia Wright, followed by Heather Kearney.

Thank you.

And just before we welcome Virginia, just a reminder, bring the mic closer just to make sure we're hearing you and we're catching you for Seattle Channel.

Thank you.

Is that better?

Yeah, it's closer than you might think.

Thank you.

Okay.

My name is Virginia Wright.

Um, I'm an art gallery owner in Georgetown, and I've also been associated with the Georgetown Association of Arts and Culture for the last couple years and been working on this whole project, and I'm very excited to see us reach this point.

And I um appreciate the support and the recognition, and I'm looking forward to how this can move us forward as an organization and as a neighborhood, and to see how we can grow and sustain and uh be our unique arts and cultural uh areas within the city of Seattle.

Thank you.

All right, our next speaker is Heather Carney, followed by Nathan Wall.

Hi, my name's Heather Carney, and I live in Georgetown for eight years now.

I am coming here today to be a representative for the Georgetown Community Council.

So the GCC, we um I serve as the chair, and our organization is made up of neighbors and community members who really care deeply about Georgetown and its future.

We are so excited to support the designation of Georgetown as an official arts district because the arts are already deeply woven, as you've just heard, into the identity of our neighborhood.

Georgetown has long been welcoming, a welcoming home for artists, musicians, performers, creative small businesses, makers, all types of people.

And creativity is not something that's added to Georgetown, it's something that already exists here every day in our streets, businesses, murals, community spaces.

I could just go on.

So what makes Georgetown special is the authenticity that you feel there.

It's a place where different artistic disciplines coexist alongside industrial business, historic spaces, and a strong sense of community.

The art really helps create connection, brings people together, and contributes to the unique character that both residents and visitors value.

We believe this designation would provide important recognition for the creative culture that has existed in Georgetown for decades.

It also creates opportunities for future partnerships, cultural investment, tourism, economic support, and preservation of the neighborhood's creative spirit as Seattle continues to grow and change.

On behalf of the Georgetown Community Council, we respectfully encourage the housing arts and Civil Rights committee to support this proposal and officially designate Georgetown as an arts district.

Thank you.

All right, our next speaker is Nathan Wall, followed by Tiffany McCoy.

All right.

It's the best LD in the state.

I think Dion and Eddie, and I think Joey would probably agree with me on that too.

Um, so in my neighborhood, it's really dangerous for kids.

A lot of kids end up writing on electric scooters because there's nothing to do.

And I don't need to tell you that that's really dangerous.

We actually had a 10-year-old die in my neighborhood, and that's really difficult to even really think about.

So I think something like this, I don't want to say that it would have prevented this, but we need more things to do in the South End.

And I would point out that from New Holly, um, both of these cultural centers would be walkable.

Like I can walk to Georgetown and I can walk to Hillman City from my house.

So just in general, the South End needs more investment.

Um, you know, we need to all like all across the South End, and I think we would agree on that.

Sorry, I'm not really talking into the mic very well.

Um, something else that I think is in the preview of this committee.

Um, I think we need to remember that an important civil right is the right to engage in protected speech at government meetings.

Um that speech can be critical and that speech can be targeted, but as long as it is not it does not violate the bounds of what constitutes free speech, harassment, threats of violence, it should be protected.

If we're banning if if we're um if we're gonna be talking about people being disrespectful and making personal attacks, we wouldn't be allowing David Haynes to speak, and he is allowed to speak, unfortunately.

Um I feel that Mr.

Howard Gill was discriminated against because of his views yesterday by Councilmember Strauss, and I would like to see more consistency from Councilmember Strauss for the council members that he stands up for.

Um again, free speech is protected speech, even if you don't like it.

Thank you.

All right, uh next speaker is Tiffany McCoy, followed by Jeff Paul.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Tiffany McCoy.

I'm the interim CEO for the Social Housing Developer.

I'm here to speak in favor of the charter changes coming forward before you.

Um, just want to say that there's still tremendous support in the city of Seattle for uh permanently affordable publicly owned social housing.

Um, we are going to be bringing forward um to you all 16 charter changes.

A majority of those are technical changes, but there are a few um buckets that I do want to highlight for the public.

Um, there are four I'm gonna go into for the biggest changes.

One is um we never intended for us to not be able to put up our buildings as collateral for debt financing, um, but apparently that is what is in the charter, so we want to clarify that so that we can put those buildings up to accelerate the production of social housing.

Uh, bucket two, I would say is that um given community input, since I have been um the interim CEO, is we want to have the ability for a privately owned commercial condo space for community-based organizations on the bottom floor.

We are still looking to make in some safeguards on that, such as a right-of-first refusal.

Should that private commercial owner in the future, we would be able to, as a social housing developer buy that.

Um, and then also potentially putting in some index pricing so we're also not baking in speculation to that commercial space being sold.

The third is we want to ensure that the current renters appointed by the Seattle Renters Commission get to serve out their term prior to residents having elections.

And then the fourth, I would say is we want some time to create a strong container for resident governance before we launch our resident constituency and our resident governance council.

So we want to pass some bylaws for them prior to those taking effect.

I want to thank you to Sage Lawrence and Councilmember Fauster's office and Jennifer LeBrec for from Council Central staff for your partnership these past few months while we navigated evolving uh charter changes and discussions, and then thank you, Councilmember Foster, for your partnership and for opening up space in the committee for these really needed changes.

And thank you all.

Let me know if you have any questions.

All right.

Our next speaker is Jeff Paul, followed by our first online speaker, Deborah Braz.

Uh good afternoon, council.

My name is Jeff Paul.

I am the interim coexecutive director of House Our Neighbors.

Uh, here to speak about the charter changes to the social housing developer.

Uh, as you all know, House Our Neighbors uh is the organization that uh ran two initiatives to create and fund the social housing developer.

We're the organization that wrote the charter that we're talking about today.

Uh so we care about it a lot.

Uh, it's where we baked in all of our values and our vision for what social housing means here in Seattle.

Um, so we take the process of opening it up and making changes to it very seriously, um, which is why we've been really excited to work so closely with your office, Councilmember Foster, uh, and so closely with the social housing developer to come up with uh a set of charter changes that will really support our vision and make sure that we can actually deliver social housing to the people of Seattle quickly and get this done well so we can show people that social housing uh is this incredible um tool uh that Seattle now has at its disposal uh to address our housing affordability crisis.

So I just appreciate all of your time today.

Um, very excited.

How's our neighbors fully supports these?

And we look forward to getting this done.

Thank you all so much.

All right, we'll now move on to our first remote speaker, who is Deborah Braz.

Please press star six when you hear the prompt uh that you have been muted.

Unmuted, I should say.

Deborah, are you unmuted?

Can you hear us?

Not hearing you.

Well, we'll jump to the next uh speaker and then come back to you.

Uh next speaker is David Haynes.

Uh you're now unmuted and press uh star six.

All right, David Ang.

We're not supposed to use tax dollars to pay politically connected housing speculators looking to dump their dilapidated inflated real estate onto the social housing developer.

The social housing developer is supposed to be developing new homes, not changing all these rules and laws to guarantee certain privileges of acquisitioning, run down real estate.

Do you really does the social housing developer literally say actually think that somebody making a six-figure salary wants to pay 30% of their rent to cover everybody else living next to transit oriented housing that's been purchased by the housing developer because they can't they're not qualified to build anything?

Do you really think they want to live there and didn't decide to turn in your car and use transit?

You all are lying to yourself.

You know, the social housing developer could be literally getting like 20 pieces of land off the fire chief's list of all those condemned buildings.

You all could be developing like really fast if you really put forth the effort and had qualified developers, but instead y'all want to change the laws, payment with like guarantees for a certain BIPOC community on the commercial real estate floor, but yet we're not gonna get any 21st century first world quality housing with the actual livable amenities that make life enjoyable inside the building.

It's gonna be like, oh, we've gotten all this housing that we've just purchased from some politically connected developer who's looking to flip their rundown real estate on everybody else so we can put six meter salaries on the side of the road, listening to the bus in the trade non-stop.

I'm telling you, there's a whole bunch of land to be banked from all the buildings that have been like abandoned that is on the fire chief.

Watch your KV McCoy get to the fire chief and say, give it a list.

We're gonna confiscate these lands and start building some homes, some housing, you know, but it's good y'all are looking to change the rules on the original intent so that you're all things for like council member Foster can help her uh I think associates, affiliates, and supporters get this social housing money, but you can find real estate.

Now run down real estate.

You are looking to run the projects of politically connected, non-profit voters, and I'm with a one-down building.

That's not is it a problem?

All right, our next speaker is Deborah Braz.

You're unmuted and press star six when you hear the prompt.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Can you hear me?

Yep.

Wonderful.

Okay, it didn't work last time.

Great.

Thank you.

I'm calling to voice my support for designating the Georgetown neighborhood as an arts and cultural district.

I'm the director of the Georgetown Business Association.

I'm also a sculptor and an art restorer myself with a studio in Georgetown.

And I know the economic and social impact the arts have in making Georgetown the thriving neighborhood we see today.

The creative spirit in this neighborhood has long been the heart of it.

And this designation would both recognize all the past work of the artists and cultural practitioners and ensure the future health and growth of the creative economy in Georgetown.

Georgetown's a historically underserved community where the arts have thrived in the face of many challenges, and it only makes sense that Georgetown be officially named as an arts and cultural district.

Our artists have sustained the neighborhood and made it a wonderful, unique place to live and work, and we deserve this recognition.

I'd also just like to recognize the work that my colleagues at the Art Georgetown Association of Arts and Culture have put into this initiative to bring us here today.

So please give us this designation.

It's such a wonderful neighborhood.

I encourage you to come visit Georgetown.

We have our annual Georgetown Carnival coming up on June 13th.

So you can come check out all the arts and culture in our neighborhood that we have to offer.

Thank you so much for your time.

All right, our final online speaker is Sarah Everett.

Please press star six when you hear the prompt.

Hello, um, can you hear me?

Yep, you're good to go.

Excellent.

I'm Sarah Everett, and um I am calling in to support my uh to add to uh many comments of support for uh Georgetown being officially designated as a uh Seattle Arts District.

I'm also in support of Columbia Hillman getting that official designation as well.

Um, I currently serve um as the treasurer on the board for the Uptown Art District.

I'm an artist and an art organizer myself, and I uh have a history of also having a studio in Georgetown in my artistic past, so it's a neighborhood that's close to my heart.

Um, Georgetown has long been a rich and diverse epicenter for artists, fabricators, performers, and musicians.

And Georgetown has, you know, I won't repeat, there's been so many great comments already.

I won't repeat some of the things that people have already points they've already made, but a point I would like to add is that Georgetown has already been an active participant in the all districts art meetings.

Um we have been gathering about once a quarter for a number of years as a collective of of representative representatives from all the districts to come together and talk about cross promotion and opportunities and ways that we can lift each other up.

And Georgetown has already been participating for a several years.

So they've already been bringing their experience, ingenuity, and grassroots creativity to the table.

So I really strongly believe that acknowledging Georgetown as an official city arts district will only just enrich and expand the art district program, which will in turn further opportunities and access for the arts in Seattle at large.

That's all.

Thank you.

All right, there are no additional registered speakers.

Thank you.

All right, thank you so much, Clerk, and thank you to our public commenters for joining us in chambers today or online.

Um we are now going to move on to our first item of business.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Agenda item one, resolution 32201.

A resolution creating an arts and cultural district in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle for briefing discussion and a possible vote.

Fantastic.

And we are welcoming up to the table Kelly Davidson and Pinky Estelle with the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture.

As they are getting settled and pulling their slides up, I'm gonna just take a quick moment to speak on this item.

Um we are today uh considering resolution 32201, and after that, we will be hearing resolution 3200.

The first, which would formally establish Georgetown Arts and Cultural District, and the second, which would reconfirm the Columbia Hillman Arts and Cultural District.

We heard a lot from our public commenters today, and thank you for sharing so many artists, cultural workers, business owners, Georgetown residents, about your experience.

I got a fantastic email from a constituent that said, Georgetown isn't just for artists, it was built by artists.

And I think it's a really exemplary to the social fabric in the community between the folks who live there, the folks who work there, and those of us who come and visit because it's such a fantastic place for arts and culture, and it's such a distinctive neighborhood where we have so many elements that come together in a way that's quite unique to our city.

Ensuring that we make an impact for Southeast Seattle.

So I want to first thank and acknowledge the work of the Georgetown Association of Arts and Culture, as well as the Office of Arts and Culture for bringing these resolutions and this work forward.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about what this designation will mean in practice, how we can support in implementation, and what lessons this process offers for our broader cultural districts citywide.

With that, welcome to the table.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Please introduce yourselves.

Hi, thank you, everyone.

Um, Kelly Davidson, I'm the deputy director of the Office of Arts and Culture, and with me is our project manager for cultural space programming.

Hi, I'm Pinky Estill.

I am the Cultural Space Project Manager, and we're excited to be here today.

Okay.

So we're here today to review cultural districts that are legislated that require legislated action for designated approval, Georgetown and Columbia Home and Neighborhoods.

Destination is not just a label.

It creates structure for collaboration and makes it easier for the city to respond to neighborhood-specific cultural needs.

Key features of all the cultural districts, they are community-led with distinct coalitions.

There's city partnership and visibility.

They have access to planning and advocacy resources, and there are opportunities for special funding initiatives and programs.

Districts work best when they are community defined, geographically specific, and program.

The program gives neighbors a platform.

The local coalition gives the platform meaning.

These districts create a citywide network supporting Seattle's creative economy and cultural diversity.

Economic and place-based benefits and cultural districts include encouraging cultural tourism and local visitation, supporting small business connected to arts activity, activating public spaces through events, performances, and exhibitions, and helping retain cultural spaces amid development pressures.

San Francisco is a useful example because the cultural districts are set up as a city-sponsored strategy to help preserve cultural communities facing displacement and gentrification.

Today there are 10 districts in total in San Francisco.

One of the major differences is the allocation of three million dollars to these districts annually, whereas Seattle provides only 110,000, an average of 25,000 per district, San Francisco 300,000.

Another important feature of their model is that districts prepare their own plans specifically around cultural history, housing, and economic sustainability.

The Office of Arts and Culture is looking to evaluate how this can be part of our model as well.

Okay.

We would like to share some of the exciting work of the two cultural districts coming to you for review today, starting with the Georgetown neighborhood.

So Georgetown, home to a lot of things, six neighborhood associations, seven art collectives, eleven design studios and centers, seven creative fabrication companies, seven galleries, two museums, eight creative schools, five performing performance and venue spaces, 13 annual neighborhood festivals, collectively contributing to the culture, economic, and community vitality of this neighborhood.

Distinct landmarks include the brick corridor along Airport Way, Oxbows Park, Hatton Booth Sculpture, the steam plant, and the presence of the nearby Boeing Field.

Prior to settlement, there were numerous indigenous villages and longhouses in the area.

Communities lived along the Jowamish River for millennia.

The community group seeking to establish the cultural district reached out to the Duamish Longhouse with an invitation to engage.

They have not received response, however, there will be future events and programming that the district will be doing and will continue to seek out a connections.

Georgetown was annexed to the city of Seattle in 1910, becoming a major industrial center.

The neighborhood has a small residential population of approximately 1,500 residents, with about 37% of that as people of color.

The neighborhood was recognized as a King County community of opportunity.

Georgetown is home to a strong arts economy, including studios, fabrication shops, galleries, and design firms.

It hosts the Art Attack Art Walks every second Saturday of the month, attracting visitors year-round.

Major neighborhood festivals include the Georgetown Carnival, Hunkfest, the San Janeiro Festival, and Rainier Days.

The community has spent the last six years working towards this designation.

The Georgetown Association of Arts and Culture was formed in 2023.

Earlier this year, they got their full designation as a nonprofit status.

They serve as the neighborhood wide coalition for creative entities, represent Georgetown at the city's arts and cultural district program.

Their formation was guided by public meetings, stakeholder input, ensuring strategies reflect the community's priorities, strengthening Georgetown's creative network.

They are governed by a board of directors comprised of artists, galleries, curators, event producers, residents, creative business owners who meet monthly, lead communities, and participate in community events.

According to the 2025 budget report issued from Arts Fund, the creative sector within the zip codes encompassing Georgetown generated more than 6 million in earned revenue and received just over 13 million in contributed revenue, underscoring the substantial economic and community impacts of arts and cultural activity in the district.

Affordable housing units planned for the area are being driven by the neighborhood creative sector.

The up-and-coming development has ownership of 18 properties along Fourth Avenue with plans to develop and afford into affordable housing storefronts and community space.

While seeking process details for previously legislated districts, we discovered the Columbia Hillman legislated documents for review.

However, were not confirmed for the legislation, was never formally approved through this process.

The group has been operating as a cultural district successfully and receiving resources as a formalized district, and we are now seeking to finalize that legislation.

Since 2018, the district has been actively uh committed to programming and advocacy for the neighborhood.

There is work towards acquisition of buildings, having secured one and looking to secure another soon in the same neighborhood.

The process is turning the block of Rainier Ave between Orica Street and Finley into a creative hub for the acquisition of these buildings.

They are currently in that same area working on alleyway activation.

Yeah.

Okay.

If we want districts to preserve culture, to support local economy, to advance neighborhood equity, we need to move forward from recognition towards sustained implementation and program support, the development of supporting policies, and increased financial investment to empower the districts further.

The Office of Arts and Culture will be working toward developing policy, seeking added resources, and establishing other tools to assist the cultural districts in meeting their goals.

We believe this program can help address larger issues communities are facing.

Our department is hiring a full-time cultural space project manager that will reside in the newly formed creative placemaking division.

We appreciate your time today, and we welcome any questions.

Thank you so much for that fantastic presentation.

I have to just start off by saying uh this is actually the second time in council chambers today that Hatton Boots has been mentioned.

Um I don't know if that's happened before, but I just want to say twice in one day.

Uh so uh shout out to Georgetown and to Hatton Boots for getting two council mentions in one day.

I worked on Hatton Boots when I was with the parks department.

That's fantastic.

I you know what?

We knew Kelly that you have uh or deputy Director Davidson that you have a depth of experience, but now we got three times for Hatton Boots.

So we may have to come back next year and do a proclamation proclamation for Hatton Boots Day.

So for folks who don't know what I'm talking about, it's a fantastic sculpture uh piece of art um in Georgetown that's really really fun to visit.

So anyway, thank you for that presentation and um really love the mention of all of the fantastic galleries and festivals and um and really excited to have this opportunity to make sure that we are not just um uh creating the formal arts and cultural district in Georgetown, but that we are doing the proper recognition uh for the Hillman City, uh the Columbia Hillman Arts District.

And I know they've uh recently started 98118 Fest, and which has also just been a really exciting addition to all of the fantastic local cultural events that we have here in Seattle.

Um okay, with that, I will turn to my colleagues uh to ask if you have questions for our panelists today.

All right.

Seeing none, I will just ask.

Um I'll ask a quick question.

I want to make sure that we have awareness just in terms of what does the city commit to with this designation and what remains community led?

And Pinky, you already spoke a little bit about the differences between Seattle's approach and San Francisco's, but just want to make sure we highlight that for folks as awareness.

Uh yeah, so right now, and hopes to grow more support, um, we do provide, as I said, funding.

Um, we provide a staff person to help support them, especially when they run into different uh challenges along other city departments, which are permitting gives us uh them a guideline to have a staff person to directly connect and link to and give them guide rails on what to do research on and what to pay attention to in terms of changing landscape here in the city.

Um, relatively beyond that, it's about uplifting their voices and making sure that they're in the right rooms, whether that is private or uh public.

I will just add it's this is definitely a program that um we've had a lot of conversations with our our new director Wynne about how we can grow this to really um provide even more connections, resources around working through city processes, um so it is definitely something we we hope to continue to build on what the community the what the communities that are engaged in this program have access to.

Fantastic, thank you.

And I'll just ask one more question before I uh take us to a vote, which is can you just um remind us again?

I know we talked about the support that goes to the cultural districts.

Can you just remind us again the the level of support given all?

I mean, you you spoke to this deputy director Davidson, the uh economic generation that comes from some of these communities, and I think it's a relatively modest level of support that's provided to the arts and cultural districts um for the output that they create.

Can you remind us of that?

Uh the amount, yeah, the amount.

So what now uh annually we contribute 110,000 dollars?

Um we try to give 25 to each district with adding Georgetown.

This means we will be in a deficit.

We do have a plans to how we will navigate that in this budget cycle, uh, but we'll have to address that as we move forward.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

All right.

Committee members, just one more check to see if there's any questions with those comments from our committers or our committers, our uh presenters, and otherwise they'll be taking us to a vote.

Okay, thank you so much.

Clerk, um, can I ask that you where am I?

I move that the I move to the committee recommend adoption of resolution three two two zero one.

Is there a second?

Second.

It is moved and seconded to recommend adoption of the resolution.

Are there any further comments?

Will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendation to adopt resolution three two two zero one?

Council President Hollingsworth.

Yes, Councilmember Juarez.

Councilmember Rink.

Yes.

Vice Chair Lynn.

Yes.

Uh Chair Foster.

Yes.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and none opposed.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the resolution will be adopted, will be sent to the May 19th, 2026 City Seattle City Council meeting.

We will next we move we will move on to our next item of business, um, which is the vote on the um resolution creating an arts and cultural district in Columbia City.

Um, will the clerk please read item two into the record?

Agenda item two, resolution three two two two zero zero resolution creating an arts and cultural district in the Columbia Hillman City neighborhood of Seattle for briefing discussion and possible vote thank you uh do committee members have any questions regarding the Columbia Hillman City uh cultural district seeing none I move that the committee recommend adoption of resolution three two two zero zero is there a second second it is moved and seconded to recommend adoption of the resolution are there any further comments will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendation to adopt resolution 3220.

Council President Hollingsworth yes council member Juarez Councilmember rink yes vice chair Lynn yes chair foster yes there are five votes in favor and none opposed all right the motion carries and the committee recommendation that the resolution be adopted will be sent to the May 19th 2026 Seattle city council meeting thank you so much to for joining us today thank you all for having us okay with that we will now move on to agenda item three will the clerk please read item three into the record agenda item three social housing developer charter change for briefing and discussion fantastic so um we are for this conversation as we move on um to a discussion of the Seattle Social Housing Developer Charter change we are going to be joined by Jen LeBrec from Council Central staff who is joining us virtually um and before I pass it over to Jen I'm just gonna say a few words about uh what we are bringing forward um we're bringing this forward for discussion today so I'm really excited to be discussing these changes um to the charter of the social housing developer as they are working quickly to deliver on the promise of permanently affordable housing and planning to make acquisitions um and as we've already heard from some of our public commenters earlier today these are changes that um my office has been working closely with the developer on to ensure that they have all the tools necessary at their disposal to bring forth the vision of social housing.

The need for this update in the charter was first identified uh by the previous CEO and was reinforced as but as a necessary change by interim CEO Tiffany McCoy and her team after identifying the need for this update and engaging closely with potential leaders uh the the Seattle Social Housing developer identified several changes to the charter that are necessary to successfully align with the values and goals that voters approved when they overwhelmingly voted in support of initiative one thirty I 135 as we uh have this discussion today we'll talk a little bit about the process regarding um regarding approving these changes uh we will be voting on a in the future my office brings will be bringing forward a resolution to affirm the changes that the CEO of the social housing developer has already brought to the Social Housing Developer Board so a bit of a different process for my colleagues so you'll be hearing from Jen on there I want to make sure that we understand that so um Jen is going to talk us through the that process and we just want to make sure that folks understand both the changes that we are talking about as well as the process that we will be moving forward.

So with that I'm really excited I believe that what we're talking about are just smart technical changes for the developer.

I will be handing it over to Jen.

Thank you.

Hi and Jennifer LeBrec.

I am oh my video seems a little funky so I think I'm gonna turn that off okay hi I'm Jennifer LeBrec I'm a city council central staff and I am going to go ahead and share this presentation for you today.

Okay can everyone see that we can see thank you jen great all right so um today's uh today's presentation is on proposed changes to the Seattle Social Housing development charter, Developer charter um uh chair Foster just alluded to this, but this um the proposed changes and the accompanying resolution are um on the agenda as an information item.

They haven't been introduced yet um and that is because we are waiting for the Social Housing Developer Board to make uh to approve one final technical tweak to the charter before we go forward and introduce it.

And I'll talk more about why that is and why that's important later on in this presentation.

Just a little bit of background.

Initiative measure number 135, otherwise known as I 135, was passed by voters in February of 2023, and it created the Seattle Social Housing Developer, whose mission is to develop, acquire, and operate social housing in the city of Seattle.

I 135 included a charter for the Seattle Social Housing Developer, which was essentially exhibit A to I 135.

Under that charter, while the Social Housing Developer Board can recommend changes to the charter, City Council approval is needed to make any final revisions to the charter.

The Social Housing Developer Board did vote last week to recommend all the proposed changes to the charter that you see and essentially the charter that was attached to this agenda as an information item.

There's one small exception.

We need to make one more small tweak to the definition section, really a technical change, and the Social Housing Developer Board will be voting next week to make that technical change.

So the version that is attached to the agenda essentially assumes that the board will make that technical change next week and already reflects it.

I am now going to talk through the proposed changes to the charter and their purpose.

I think just taking a step back, overall, the purpose of the changes are to help the social housing developer be able to accomplish its mission of acquiring, developing, and operating social housing in the city of Seattle, and especially in some cases, just to facilitate them being able to do real estate transactions.

The first change allows the social housing developer to form a single purpose entity, such as a limited liability corporation.

But I think a key thing here, the Seattle Social Housing Developer would have to retain control over the housing, even if it was owned by a single purpose entity.

And this is a fairly common thing in real estate where you would set up an LLC in order to develop a property in order to provide some protection if something happened against other assets that the social housing developer might own.

In order to allow for cross subsidization across buildings.

So for example, maybe one building has more affordable units, another building that had higher market rate rents could be used to cross-subsidize the building with the lower rents, or would allow the use of building revenue to support bond payments.

The social housing developer was concerned that as the charter is currently written, it was a little too restrictive, which seemed to imply that building revenue could just be used to support the operations of a specific building and wouldn't allow them to accomplish some of the other objectives that they had.

The changes facilitate the Seattle Social Housing Developer being able to use properties as collateral for debt.

This is a key change.

There is language in the charter that says that the properties must be owned into perpetuity by the social housing developer, and banks found that language problematic because essentially it meant that they couldn't foreclose on a property, should uh the debt not, you know, should the um social housing developer go into foreclosure.

So this essentially allows the social housing developer uh to use a property as collateral and um eases a concern of banks that was preventing them from being able to take on debt.

It also allows the social housing developer to execute regulatory agreements.

One example for that, for example, might be the mandatory housing affordability performance agreement if that's a path that they wanted to go down uh another key change and I think uh this was alluded to during public comment is that essentially the charter changes allow the social housing developer to conduize a property so to form a condo and to sell that would have a residential portion of the condo which would they would continue to own they have to own and control any residential or housing portion of a building but they would be able to sell the commercial portion and this would allow them for example to partner uh with the community or organization um who might be interested in uh you know who might own land for example um and be interested in working with the social housing developer to develop the property uh but would want to own the commercial portion for their own community uses um also alluded to during public comment there are some protections around that commercial portion so the social housing developer would have a right of first refusal for the commercial portion of the building would it um were it to be sold um and there would be a limit um to the uh essentially to the resale price of the um that the commercial condominium owner could make off any sale um whether it went to the social housing developer or they said they weren't interested and it went to a private party there would just be a limit on the profit that could be made continuing on currently uh seven out of the 13 board positions are appointed by the renters commission um under the charter as the social housing developer begins to own and operate buildings they will have what is called the constituency uh which is comprised of residents living within the social housing developments and eventually under the charter um it is the constituency who will appoint seven board members um and those will replace essentially uh the board members that are currently appointed by the renters commission previously the charter had been very silent about what that process would look like um and if the board members appointed by the renters commission would finish out their terms so this just adds some clarity to the process um including stating that there does have to be uh constituency rules and regulations in place before anyone before essentially um board members would be appointed by the constituency um it also eliminates the requirement that the constituency select an independent auditor I just want to know um this is kind of a technical change um it's there because uh the social housing developer has to be audited by the state auditor so there's really no choice um in selection of an independent auditor um and I also just want to note that um the social housing developer is still required to provide audited financial statements to the city clerk annually it adds a new section related to definitions um and then there are just some other miscellaneous changes for purpose of clarity I want to take a moment to talk about timeline and also why this particular piece of legislation is a little unique in terms of amendments I'll talk about timeline first.

We're here today June 2nd the resolution and attached charter will be on the IRC the introduction and referral committee calendar sorry that's a typo June 10th there will be another discussion and potential vote at committee and then June 16th is the first available date at council this is where I just want to talk about sort of the unique position we're in.

This after the board votes next week the social housing developer votes next week on that one technical change essentially the um changes that are attached to this resolution that are in the proposed charter will match exactly what the board has recommended and because there's a match there essentially because council is adopting exactly the changes that the board recommended um we can do this through a resolution which is currently um which is how it's being done.

If council wanted to make further changes via amendments, you know, they said, Well, we want to do more than just the board wanted to do, we want to make other changes to the charter.

Um, an ordinance would actually be necessary instead.

So that would essentially require a different and new piece of legislation.

I am going to stop there and see if there are any questions.

Thank you so much.

Yep, go you're recognized.

Go ahead, Councilmember Juarez.

I apologize for not getting my little hand up quick enough.

I just had a quick little uh clarification on the summary and fiscal note, Jennifer.

Just so I'm clear because I want to make sure it's not me because you know, elder status here.

Um, in the beginning, you had the resolution would amend the Seattle Social Housing Developer Charter.

All proposed charter changes were recommended by the Seattle Social Housing Developer Board at their May 5th, and May 21st, 2026 meeting.

I'm guessing that's not correct on the 21st, because it hasn't happened yet.

Um thank you for calling that out.

Um they would that's the on May 21st.

They will be making uh the Social Housing Developer Board will be making a technical tweak um in order to align the proposed changes um that are attached to the resolution to what they recommended, but you are correct that hasn't happened yet.

We are not anticipating any uses or any issues, um, and I am working closely with the social housing developer and coordinating that, but you are correct that that is not occurred yet.

Okay, I just want to make sure because I thought if they had two board meetings, but you say that they had one and then they're anticipating on the 21st to make it final.

Okay, that's all the clarification I need.

Thank you, Jennifer.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Juarez.

Colleagues, I will uh pause to see if there are other questions.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you for bringing this.

Just a quick question, Jennifer.

Um sorry, now I spent all my time telling people to speak into the mic, and the fact that you had to remind me is very embarrassing.

Can you go to page four, please?

Uh Jennifer.

Just wanted to get the timeline down.

So just to reiterate, when would amendments be due?

Or there's no amendments.

There's no amendments as under as a resolution, council can only adopt exactly what the board recommended.

So it can be a yes or no.

Yes, exactly.

Okay, so so up or down vote, and uh that is um okay.

Good to know.

Thank you.

That was my only question.

So there's no changes that can be made.

If a council member wanted to make changes above and beyond what the board recommended, they would have to introduce a new piece of legislation and it would have to be an ordinance rather than a resolution.

So I want to be clear, council always has the authority and the ability to make changes above and beyond what the social housing developer board recommends, and they can do that at any time, they're not dependent on the board to initiate changes.

Um, but we just need a different vehicle if council does that, and the vehicle is an ordinance as compared to a resolution.

Understood, okay.

That's good clarity.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much, Council President.

Um, colleagues, other questions from committee members for the board at this time regarding any of the proposed uh changes to the charter.

Okay, and um I will just quickly ask Jen, um, can you just elaborate for us about the technical changes that the board is going to be considering under the uh at their later meeting on the 21st?

I just want to make sure colleagues here um know what to expect and have a sense of you know, these are relatively minor uh tweaks.

Oh, sure.

Um and they are already reflected in the version that is shared.

It's all to do with the definition section.

Um, I think that the what the board originally um voted on, a couple things.

One, um, they're changing the definition of restorative justice, but what the board voted on accidentally referenced a part of the charter that doesn't exist, and so we're just making sure that that new definition of restorative justice ends up in the definition section, um, which is a part of the charter.

Um, and then uh there was just a little bit of clarity about um lack of clarity about they restated a couple definitions, so they're different than what's in I 135, and we just added some clarity that the definitions are being restated for the purposes of the charter, um, but that we're not trying to amend I 135 in any way, and also adding some clarity about sort of which definitions take precedence in which in which situation.

So, truly technical.

Thank you for that, Jen.

And then just reiterating that what we put forward uh in the um that we uploaded into legislature and what colleagues have in front of us reflects the changes uh that we anticipate the board voting on in that meeting later on this month, which is also part of the reason why, as you noted, Councilmember Juarez, who catches every detail uh with a fine-tooth comb said it's not May 21st yet.

Uh, we wanted to go ahead and reflect the version that we anticipate the board voting on so that colleagues you had the opportunity in this briefing and discussion to be reading and engaging and asking questions around that version.

So that's the that's why that that date uh changes there, and um we wanted to make sure that was reflected clearly.

Um, and I will just say I know there's not a ton more of questions from the committee.

Uh, you know, uh Sage has been really working from my office and working closely with the developer on this.

If there are any questions about the changes or the implementation, um, our office or Jen is happy to work closely with folks and Jen, we really appreciate all the hard work that you did as well as the hard work coming from the developer and the partnership to figure out how we can make uh these technical tweaks to ensure that the developer can be successful in the coming months and years.

Chair.

Oh, sorry, I didn't see your hand.

Yes, Councilmember Rink.

Sure, I just wanted to I I don't have any questions for today.

I know I've had a chance to review and get my questions answered uh ahead of this meeting, and so I just wanted to take a moment to thank you and your office for your work alongside the social housing developer and just off offer a couple of comments for this moment that we're in because I think it's important to note that Seattle voters continue to affirm their support for the social housing developer.

Prop 1A passed with 63% of the vote, and I believe the actions from the developer since that vote really speak to the intent to make sure that the social housing developer as a body delivers, including the board taking necessary action for important leadership changes, including the hiring of uh housing development experts, uh staff the developer that I know you've brought into committee to hear directly from, um, and now proposing these technical changes uh to the charter, which I believe will help enable the developer to deliver on social housing.

And I I offer that context as also a reminder that we're engaging in something new, and uh when my office uh hosted a local progress just about a month ago, we had folks from other cities around the country coming to learn from us on how our social housing developers doing, how we've we've done this, and so this is really a learning opportunity.

We're figuring things out as we go, and I think I just want to take that moment to voice my support for these technical uh amendments and changes to the charter as we are really uh carving out a new path forward, and folks are eager to learn from us on how we're doing this, and so wanted to offer those comments for today and um thank you again for bringing this before us.

Fantastic, thank you so much, Councilmember Rink.

Um, I appreciate that.

And seeing no further questions or comments from colleagues, um, thanks again, uh Jen for your time and your leadership on this.

Um, is there any further business to come before committee today?

All right, seeing none, this concludes the May 13th, 2026 meeting of the Housing Arts and Civil Rights Committee.

Our next scheduled meeting is on May 27th.

Thank you for attending.

It is three o'clock, and we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you.