City of Tacoma Washington sent this bulletin at 11/30/2022 03:03 PM PST
Introduction
Good afternoon,
This past month we have had a great time getting together with one another in our district. It started with Proctor Treats and ended with the Tacoma Turkey Trot, with too many events to name in between. Fall remains my favorite season and this has been a good one.
As always, please feel free to reach out to me to share your thoughts and concerns. I also invite you to tune in to the City Council’s noon Study Sessions or 5 PM Council Meetings on Tuesdays via TV Tacoma, Facebook LIVE, or ZOOM. Access details are available at cityoftacoma.org/councilmeetings.
The removal of encampments began near the newly opened site at S. 35th Street and Pacific Avenue, where we have 50 additional available spaces for people experiencing homelessness. The City will then move through the other buffer areas offering shelter to those living in encampments.
While I will be going deeper into the budget later in this newsletter, I am proud that we are adding two full-time employees to our Homelessness Engagement and Alternative Liaison (HEAL) Team, bringing the total number of staff to six. This will further support our outreach efforts at homeless encampments throughout Tacoma.
With the weather growing colder, it becomes even more important to move people out of encampments and into shelter. The City has over 125 additional beds during freezing weather, and I hope that we are seeing more people moving off the streets and into shelter. For more information on inclement weather resources, please visit cityoftacoma.org/inclementresources.
As I said in my letter to the News Tribune and in my comments at Council, no one is happy with the status quo and this camping ordinance is just a first step. It is a moment where we re-examine our approach to homelessness, and determine where we are as well as how we move forward. If you are interested in hearing more, I would encourage you to listen my CityLine interview with Amanda Westbrooke from November 10.
Budget Highlights
On November 22, the City adopted the 2023 – 2024 Biennial Budget. This came after numerous presentations, discussions and public hearings about the priorities of our residents. I was very happy about some of the new and continued efforts of the City and I wanted to highlight how some of my priorities were reflected in the budget.
Supporting Community Safety
Throughout the last year, I have heard from many of you regarding your concerns about safety. In approaching this budget, I was committed to ensuring that we continued to have the first responders in our police and fire department needed to keep our community safe. In order to achieve this, the adopted budget maintains and expands funding for the Tacoma Police Department staffing and adds further investments in training, recruitment, and investigations. The adopted budget also expands Tacoma Fire Department staffing which will allow us to continue our expansion of our Basic Life Transportation services without reducing our ability to respond to health emergencies or fires.
I have heard from many of you who are interested in a non-police response to those experiencing mental health crises and for non-emergency criminal activity. To address this, the adopted budget included adding a Behavioral Health Response Unit pilot in the Tacoma Fire Department to address calls for mental health crises, funding for community safety officers, and an alternative response for the library with a dedicated social worker.
Addressing Homelessness and Affordable Housing
Along with my work to address encampments earlier this year, I am also proud of the investments the City is making in addressing homelessness and supporting the creation of affordable housing. As I said from the beginning, removing encampments could not be examined in isolation and required shelter and housing to accommodate those moving out of encampments. This budget includes continuing support of our current shelters and a broader range of options, including increasing permanent shelter capacity at the Tacoma Rescue Mission.
The 2023-2024 adopted budget includes over $101M for programs related to the priority area of Affordable Housing and Homelessness. Of this, $21.96M is included in new proposals to support the City’s Affordable Housing Action Strategy. This includes sheltering and homeless service investments as well as $3.8M to acquire land or buildings, help Tacoma residents with down payment assistance, and support affordable housing infrastructure projects.
Taking Care of our Streets and Infrastructure
Since before I joined the Council, I have heard from many of you about the condition of our streets, from potholes and broken sidewalks to litter and graffiti. If I am extra proud of any part of the budget, it is the investments we are making to keep Tacoma beautiful.
This includes funding for making Tidy-Up Tacoma permanent and further addressing litter and trash in our community. I am also proud of the investments in Vision Zero, Safe Routes to Schools, and addressing unfit and unsafe sidewalks.
As more funding is coming from the federal government, I am also proud that we have included a Public Works grants match so that we can be more competitive as we address larger road and bridge projects.
Fiscal Responsibility and High Quality Services
Finally, I am a firm believer in being fiscally responsible with our taxpayer dollars. As part of this budget, I have worked to make sure we have a fully funded reserve to address potential economic downturns or emergencies. I am also proud that we have made an investment in addressing the backlog and deferred maintenance of our municipal facilities that support our ability to effectively serve our community.
As a start of this, we have included a re-imagining of the Main Library. Libraries continued to be a valuable part of our community and we need to make sure they are well positioned to respond in an innovative way to Tacoma’s evolving needs.
Catching Up With Council Member Hines
Student Government Day
The City recently hosted high school students from across Tacoma to learn more about our municipal government. It was great to sit and talk with the students, answer their questions, and play the role of the public as they simulated running a City Council meeting. I was very impressed by the students and I would feel very proud to have any of them serve on our Council in the years ahead.
Visit to Silas High School
Additionally, this past month, I was a guest speaker at Silas High School to discuss the Camping Ordinance that I sponsored. I was also deeply impressed with their research and insightful questions about how we address homelessness in Tacoma. As a former high school civics teacher, I was happy to be part of their classes. Like the students on Student Government Day, I look forward to seeing all that they are able to accomplish in the years ahead in Tacoma and beyond.
National League of Cities
As many of you know, I serve on the Finance, Administration and Intergovernmental Relations Committee (FAIR) for the National League of Cities (NLC). This year, the annual conference was held in Kansas City, Missouri, and I was proud to serve as a discussion panelist in a session called “Improving Equity and Livability with Transit-Oriented Development” which provided me with the opportunity to discuss the link between my work on the City Council and as a Pierce Transit Commissioner.
The conference was a great opportunity to meet council members from across the country and I learned of the many innovative ways other cities have invested in the communities they serve.
Please be sure to check out cityoftacoma.org for City updates and resources and, as always, please email me directly at john.hines@cityoftacoma.org and do not reply to this email. You can also call me at (253) 312-5620 if you have questions.
