City of Tacoma Washington sent this bulletin at 10/31/2025 10:30 AM PDT
Hello District 1,
Fall is here in full force! The leaves are turning, the rain is falling, and the sun is setting earlier each evening. Even with the darker days, I hope this season finds you in good spirits. The Hines family has been keeping busy, especially with one of our favorite holidays, Halloween, happening today! From pumpkins to costumes, it’s a fun time of year in our house.
I’m also happy to share some exciting news from City Hall. Earlier this month, the Tacoma City Council voted to reauthorize Tacoma Creates for another seven years. This program helps fund local arts and cultural organizations like the Hilltop Artists and the Asia Pacific Cultural Center. Supporting Tacoma Creates has always been very important to me because I believe in the power of the arts to bring people together, tell stories, and inspire our youth. I’m proud that Tacoma was the first city in Washington to launch this kind of cultural access program and now we are the first to renew it through a City Council vote.
Another highlight this fall is the return of Pothole Palooza for its second year! Potholes can be frustrating and even dangerous, especially during the rainy season. Pothole Palooza is a way for the City to raise awareness and highlight the great work our Street Operations teams do all year long to keep our roads safe. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, that fixing potholes should always be a top priority for local government.
As always, thank you for being engaged and caring about our community. I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you around town this fall.
Scenes from the City of Destiny
Passing the Mid-Biennium Budget Updates
I am very pleased to share that the City Council passed our mid-biennium budget modifications for 2025-2026 on October 28. We focused the modifications on strategic investments in public safety, community health, and housing, while simultaneously promoting new grant funding and internal efficiencies to continue responsibly navigating our budget. I take seriously the charge to effectively manage our resources and hope you will continue to share your thoughts with me about our funding priorities. You can learn more about our mid-biennium modifications here: Biennial Budget Development | City of Tacoma.
Updating the Multi-Family Tax Exemption Program
As Chair of the Government Performance and Finance Committee, I have worked hard this past year to review and update our Multi-Family Tax Exemption (MFTE) Program. I am so pleased that on October 7, we passed a set of updates that will continue to enhance housing density, expand affordable housing, bolster housing stability for lower income renters, and further nurture economic development and investment in Tacoma. Community input from stakeholders was vital during this process and I appreciated the opportunity to sit down with so many in our community to hear your perspective on the MFTE program. We will launch another review in 2028 and continue making sure this program is meeting our goals.
Updating our Camping Ordinance
Since I joined the City Council, I have been working hard to address the need for more housing in our city and the need to ensure that our public spaces are safe, accessible, and open to everyone. From my time serving as a Library Board Trustee to spearheading Pothole Palooza, investing in Tacoma’s public spaces and infrastructure has long been one of my top priorities.
Recently, we have seen a return of encampments in areas where they were once prohibited. The original camping ordinance that I led on in 2022 prohibited camping and the storage of personal property within a ten-block radius of temporary shelters. As some of those shelters have concluded operations as planned, we lost serval of the buffer zones in our community. To remedy this problem, I proposed updating the areas where camping would be prohibited to include public parks, public schools, and public libraries, as well as protected waterways and our shelters.
On October 21, the City Council adopted this new ordinance to maintain access to our public spaces for everyone. I am especially pleased that the new legislation also stresses that individuals who violate the law and who are qualified be considered for referral to therapeutic court. Tacoma has launched two therapeutic courts, including a Mental Health Court and a Community Court, where participants can be connected to treatment services and community resources, while maintaining a high level of accountability.
I have travelled all over the state and our country to understand how cities are grappling with the problem of homelessness in their communities. What I have learned is that we must have a multifaceted approach. We need to continue to implement our 2022-2028 Homelessness Strategy and secure more resources to provide support for mental health and substance abuse, but we also must ensure that encampments do not cause public health, public safety, or public access concerns for the rest of our community. In Tacoma, we have incredible resources like our HEAL Team that help us connect people to services. We will continue all of our hard work to help those who need housing and other resources--and we will continue to lead with compassion.
I would like to also highlight that we are making progress creating more housing in Tacoma. From January 2019 to June 2025, we created nearly 2,000 units of new affordable housing with more than 700 coming online soon. In the same timeframe, we spent more than $50 million to help more than 84,000 households stay in their current housing. From January 2020 to June 2025, we also have helped nearly 4,000 people experiencing homelessness successfully exit to housing.
I am proud of the City’s work, and I think it is important that we do not disregard our successes just because more work is needed. Housing, homelessness, and responsibly caring for our public spaces and infrastructure remain priorities for me and I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas about more steps we can take.
I'm excited to share that we have completed our study on potential future uses for the historic Cushman and Adams Substation sites and building! You can now view the report here.
While Tacoma Public Utilities is still actively using and maintaining the building, they plan to vacate and surplus it by 2027, following construction of an off-site replacement facility. We spent the summer and fall of 2024 asking community to envision future uses for these unique locations and the ideas you came up with are very exciting. I'm looking forward to continuing the discussions!
Launching a Middle Housing Permitting Pilot
On October 21, the City Council received a presentation from our Planning and Development Services Department about an exciting new pilot program they intend to launch. The pilot program aims to help reduce permitting review timelines and transform the permitting process for Home in Tacoma projects. Finding ways to conduct our permit reviews in a more efficient manner and to enhance communication with applicants is vital for ensuring that our process is not a barrier to development. This pilot program launches in January 2026, and I am excited to see how goes. You can learn more here.
Preparing Tacoma’s State and Federal Legislative Agenda
Every year, we prepare a set of priorities to champion in Olympia and Washington D.C. At the top of our list this year, we are seeking to advance affordable housing and homeownership opportunities, enhance community safety, improve infrastructure, support human dignity, including immigration reform, and preserve critical funding for residents, such as Medicaid. To learn more, you can view the latest Study Session presentation here. I would love to hear from you if you have additional priorities that we should be advocating for with our state and federal delegations.
Trash Talk
Celebrating Oscar’s Enemies 5-Year Anniversary
I wanted to take a moment in this month’s newsletter to celebrate the 5-year anniversary of Oscar's Enemies and all the community cleanup groups out there! Starting in 2021, Oscar’s Enemies began coordinating all-volunteer litter cleanups across our city and has since grown into a truly remarkable community-driven effort to keep Tacoma beautiful.
Thank you everyone who has joined a litter cleanup with Oscar’s Enemies in the past five years—and to all those looking forward to participating in the years ahead. We need your help more than ever!
Building Our Urban Forest
Don’t forget to join us on November 3 for an update from Council Member Kristina Walker at the North End Neighborhood Council on the City’s work regarding our urban forest!
Catching Up with Council Member Hines
Help us find our next City Manager
We have officially launched our search for the next City Manager of Tacoma—and we are inviting you to play a direct role in the process. Please take a moment to fill out this survey so that you can weigh in on what professional skills, leadership qualities, and experience you believe are vital for this key City leadership role. The brief, four-question survey takes approximately five minutes to complete, and the input gathered will inform the City Council’s selection of a City Manager and ensure that they reflect the values, priorities, and needs of our Tacoma community. The survey will be available until November 14.
Student Government Day Success
As a former high school teacher, you know I always get excited to see young people engaging with local government! On October 21, we hosted a series of events for Tacoma Public School students in grades 9-12. Students were able to meet with the Mayor, City Council Members, city executives, and staff to talk about important issues and learn about services provided by city government. They also had a chance to play the role of the Mayor and City Council Members in a mock City Council meeting and tour some of our City facilities. I think these types of experiences help show our young people that they can be leaders in our community and learn about the issues local government takes on.
Time to Vote for Your Honorary Pet Mayor
It has been thrilling to watch our community participate in the honorary Pet Mayor contest hosted by the Humane Society of Tacoma and Pierce County in partnership with the City of Tacoma. We have already raised more than $10,000 to help support low cost spay and neuter efforts and trap-neuter-release efforts for community cats! Voting is open until November 4 so there is still time to get involved and help support efforts to manage animal overpopulation in our city.
I had the pleasure of spending some time this month at the incredible Tacoma Community House. For 110 years, the Tacoma Community House has been helping countless individuals gain the skills they need to transition out of poverty, navigate a new culture, and find personal and professional success. They offer programs and services for immigrants, refugees, and long-time South Sound residents seeking enrichment and pathways to self-sufficiency. Hearing from Executive Director Aimee Khuu and students from around the world who were on site improving their English language skills was inspiring. Check out how Tacoma Community House is helping our community and fostering hope for so many at Home | Tacoma Community House. There are lots of great volunteer opportunities too if you are looking for a chance to get involved!
Please be sure to check out tacoma.gov for City updates and resources and, as always, please feel free to share your thoughts and concerns with me directly at john.hines@tacoma.gov. You can also call me at (253) 312-5620 if you have questions.
I invite you to tune in to the City Council’s Study Session or Council meetings every week on Tuesdays via TV Tacoma or Zoom. Access information is available at City Council Meetings | City of Tacoma.
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