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Hello Neighbors,
Thank you to those who caught our error in the survey link we sent to you in yesterday’s email. Since feedback from our constituents is our top priority, we are sending a new survey link here, and invite your input. Please fill out the survey at your convenience.
Some of you also requested that, in addition to updates from the past couple of weeks (see yesterday’s email here), you’d like an email that lists what my office has been working on over the past year. We are honoring that request by providing you the broader update below.
Lastly, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the horrifying mass shooting that took place in Texas yesterday. Our collective hearts are with the children and teachers who lost their lives, as well as with their families. We dedicate ourselves to and double down on our work to eliminate gun violence and create a safe community for everyone, especially our youth.
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What We’ve Been Working on This Past Year
My office has been working tirelessly this past year to address some of our region’s most pressing challenges. We secured major investments in housing, infrastructure, and community centers. We addressed several public safety concerns, protected people from the pandemic, and designed solutions to address gun violence and homelessness. I write this to provide you a progress report on what we’ve been working on, not to suggest that these huge and complex problems have been solved.
As we move into the biennial budget planning this year, I will continue to prioritize public safety, ending homelessness, and recovering from the pandemic. We will keep working hard for you and we invite you to partner with us on building the King County we all want to see.
As requested, here are some highlights on thing we’ve been working on over the past year:
- Supported and co-sponsored the Health through Housing initiative, which directs the County to buy existing hotels and motels to bring indoors 1,600 chronically unhoused people and provide them housing and supportive services
- Protected thousands of tenants by passing a suite of historic Tenant Protections and Just Cause Eviction legislation to increase housing stability and reduce homelessness during the pandemic
- Provided housing to dozens of unhoused Skyway residents by helping to establish the first Tiny House Village outside Seattle
- Sponsored and passed the Surplus Land for Community ordinance to ensure King County makes available unused buildings and land for housing and other community facilities
- Led the funding and creation of a $2 million community-based gun violence prevention program
- Championed Ranked Choice Voting and other voting reform efforts
- Trained hundreds of new leaders by launching Build the Bench, an initiative that prepares the next generation of progressive elected leaders
- Launched the Youth Achievement Center campaign to build a housing and jobs center for unhoused youth in South Seattle, which led to a $500,000 donation from the Seahawks
- Worked with the Council to allocate billions of federal relief dollars to protect residents from COVID, provide millions in rental assistance, and expand transit and infrastructure projects around the region
- Supported small businesses by establishing a $5 million economic development program in unincorporated King County
- Initiated negotiations to buy a building for a Skyway Community Center using $10 million we secured in last year’s budget
- Delivered a report on mental health crisis response systems to lay the groundwork for alternative emergency responders, after leading the charge on Charter Amendment 6
- Advocated for the creation of a $10 million Participatory Budget to have community decide how funds are spent in unincorporated King County
- Donated 8 minivans to organizations serving people who are elderly, disabled, or low-income
- Established the Joint Aircraft Emissions Task Force to advance greenhouse gas reduction strategies and tactics, for which my team was honored with a Climate Justice Award from the Beacon Hill Council
- Organized decision-makers and resources to promote public safety in key neighborhoods like Mt. Baker, Rainier Beach, and Little Saigon
- Expanded public transit options for residents of Skyway and other South King County neighborhoods by helping to secure $6 million for Via on-demand van service
- Promoted digital equity by funding internet services for marginalized communities and initiating a committee report to map King County’s journey toward public broadband
- Sponsored and passed a motion committing the County to equity in contracting and calling on the Governor to repeal laws that prevent equity
- Worked with US Bank and community to get US Bank to donate its building to Skyway for a Skyway Resource Center
- Organized decision-makers to support refugee resettlement efforts from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Ukraine, and other countries experiencing crisis
- Co-created an Equitable Development Initiative to ensure King County supports development while preventing displacement of communities
- Began drafting Extreme Weather Adaptation legislation to ensure King County creates a network of indoor options for people to escape extreme heat, cold, and wildfire smoke
- Began pursuing strategies to dramatically increase our region’s behavioral healthcare capacity, by expanding mobile response and indoor recovery centers.
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Help us grow our reach!
My team and I send email updates like the one you’re currently reading every couple of weeks and we want to ensure we’re reaching as many of you in our community as possible. If you know anyone who would like to receive these updates, please be sure to send them over to our County Council website to sign up!
And as always, for more frequent and daily updates, you can check out our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter pages. For the latest news, resources, and opportunities to engage with your King County government, follow me on the social media channels of your choice:
Facebook: facebook.com/Councilmember.Girmay
Instagram: @councilmember.girmay
Twitter: @CMGirmayZahilay
Sincerely,
Councilmember Girmay Zahilay
King County Council
District 2
206-477-1002
girmay.zahilay@kingcounty.gov
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