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Hello Tacoma Family!
I hope you had a wonderful summer and are enjoying the start of our beautiful fall. I’ve been busy this summer working to advance youth issues, community safety, and affordable housing. I know these issues are just as important to you as they are to me, and I’m excited to share some of the progress we are making. We have a lot more work to do, but I know we are on the right track.
Helping Young People Thrive
I am so inspired by our young people. Earlier this summer, I had the chance to meet with Montgomery Hawkins (that's us in the picture!) to chat about his new ideas for addressing homelessness and his model for a lightweight and portable shelter. We have such creative and smart young people in our city, with so much passion for helping our community. We must ensure they have the skills, opportunities, and support they need to thrive.
When I was growing up in Tacoma, youth programming played a critical role in helping to set my friends and I on a path toward constructive engagement in our community. Knowing first-hand how important it is to engage young people, I made advancing youth programming one of my key goals this summer.
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I am incredibly proud of the work I led with Mayor Victoria Woodards to pass Resolution 41197 and provide $300,000 in support of twelve Summer Teen Late Night locations for our young people, as well as youth violence prevention programming with Tacoma Public Schools, Metro Parks, and numerous community partners. As I shared in an op-ed published earlier this summer, this work grew from our collaboration with representatives from the City of Tacoma, Tacoma Public Schools, Metro Parks Tacoma, Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, Pierce County Juvenile Court, Puyallup Tribe of Indians, and other key agencies that are also seeking to tackle the issue of youth violence.
More than one thousand young people registered for Summer Teen Late Nights, and I have no doubt that this program contributed to the dramatic decline in youth victims of gun violence in Tacoma this summer. I plan to spend the coming months working to find ways we can implement similar programs during the school year and next summer to keep our young people safe!
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 In addition to the Summer Teen Late Nights program, I provided support and City funding for a new Summer Coding Workshop at Tacoma Public Libraries. This coding workshop gave young people the opportunity to learn how to use a new block-based coding app. The app allows users to take photos and record sounds, and then bring them to life with code. These types of skills are so important for young people to learn and will help open doors to new careers and opportunities. I look forward to seeing what the young people who participated in this program will go on to do in the years to come!
If you know a young person who wants to get involved in public service, the Community’s Police Advisory Committee (CPAC) is recruiting for a new member to fill the youth seat! CPAC is also recruiting for District 1, 2, 3 and an at-large member. CPAC is a policy-focused board that helps to ensure transparency and accountability in the way that the City of Tacoma Police Department operates. When I was younger, I served on this Committee, and it helped spark my passion for public service!
CPAC's duties include:
- Review police policy, procedures, rules, training, completed investigations, and programs at the request of the City Council, City Manager, or Chief of Police.
- Provide advice and recommendations to the City Council, the City Manager, and the Chief of Police on police policy, procedures, rules, training, and programs.
- Foster understanding between Tacoma Police Department and the community, and promote TPD services and resources.
- Promote awareness of the public complaint process, and review policy and conduct complaints by members of the public.
- Review completed internal affairs investigations to evaluate needs and effectiveness of policies, training, and programs.
- Convene community conversations on services, programs, policy, procedures, rules, training, and issues of public safety.
Applications are due September 24. To learn more and apply go to: Community’s Police Advisory Committee Application.
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Building Community Safety
The City Council received an update from Tacoma Police Department Chief Avery Moore on the Violent Crime Reduction Plan earlier this summer. This plan is a product of work by Tacoma Police Department analysts and experienced criminologists from the University of Texas, San Antonio. Tacoma has a lot of work to do reducing violent crime, but I was pleased to hear that the plan is working and violent crime in our city is trending down.
Our City is also making great progress with exciting new alternative emergency response models. This includes the Holistic Outreach Promoting Engagement (HOPE) team, which is an emergency response team that will support community members impacted by mental health, substance use, and co-occurring disorders.
In addition, we are moving forward with developing our new unarmed Community Service Officer program. Community Service Officers will work within the Tacoma Police Department to respond to a wide range of non-violent, non-emergency, and low-risk calls. This team is centered around providing a holistic approach to community safety that decreases both priority and non-priority call response times and enhances the police department’s responsiveness to community needs.
I am encouraged by our work to stand up these teams and look forward to sharing more news about their work in the months ahead!
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 Creating More Affordable Housing
Our city is growing, and I am very excited about the opportunities that new growth will bring. But, as our city grows, we need to make sure that we maintain affordable housing, especially for our most vulnerable residents. Home In Tacoma is the City’s multi-year effort to update Tacoma’s residential zoning to increase housing supply, choice, and affordability. This summer we did a tremendous amount of work engaging the community on Home in Tacoma Phase 2. I was excited to meet many of you during one of our open houses! If you were unable to attend an open house this summer, you can still share your perspective through our Home in Tacoma Engagement Form.
Home in Tacoma is also part of the City’s Affordable Housing Action Strategy (AHAS). The AHAS is an initiative to address our housing affordability crisis through 27 strategic actions defined by the City and our stakeholders. These strategic actions are aimed at creating affordable housing, reducing or eliminating housing displacement and homelessness, and stabilizing housing for families in Tacoma through policies, protections, and development incentives. You can see the latest AHAS presentation here: Study Session AHAS presentation.
I had the opportunity to meet with Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge and Representative Adam Smith in Seattle to discuss the Black Home Initiative and share Tacoma's experience with affordable housing. It was a great conversation and I'm looking forward to continuing to advocate for Tacoma's needs with HUD leaders!
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While Home in Tacoma is incredibly important for managing growth and ensuring housing affordability in our city, I am also focused on our rental housing code. The City Council passed Amended Substitute Ordinance 28894 in July, strengthening requirements around notices to increase rent, shared housing standards, standardized tenant screening criteria, standards for fees and deposits, rental agreement regulations, and much more. This work was an important first step in updating our rental housing code, and I plan to continue advocating for additional updates that help renters across Tacoma.
You can learn more about our updates to the rental housing code here: Rental Housing Code Updates.
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I hope you reach out to me if you have any questions or want to share your perspective! I can be reached at kdaniels@cityoftacoma.org.
Please also join us for our City Council Study Session and Council Meetings held on Tuesdays. You can find more information about attending Council sessions in person or virtually here: City Council Meetings - City of Tacoma.
Love our city!
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Thank you,
 Tacoma City Council Member Kiara Daniels -- At-Large Position 6
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