It is my pleasure to share our tremendous success as we worked to secure critical funding for both District 5 and citywide priorities in our 2020 budget.

As your representative for District 5, I sponsored $3.1 million in priorities to be added to the budget. I am excited to share that I secured 89% of what I requested. We also achieved a 94.6% success rate for new investments in District 5!

Today, The City Council voted to approve the 2020 City Budget after more than two months of deliberations and public meetings. Some highlights:

Building District 5

• $210,000 for flexible homeless outreach services connecting people experiencing homelessness in North Seattle with appropriate services

• $150,000 for an Aurora/Licton Springs Community Center feasibility study

• $50,000 in capital investments for the new Coyote North cultural and arts center in Lake City that will provide creative space and classes for low-income children

• $500,000 for an interim Fire Station so that our Fire Fighters can continue to serve D5 while we plan the replacement Fire Station 31 near Northgate

Pedestrian Safety

• $200,000 for a new sidewalk on 132^nd near Broadview-Thomson K-8 School

• $350,000 to continue the “Home Zones” pilot program in 2020, a new idea to calm traffic, keeping kids and pedestrians safe from cars speeding and cutting through neighborhood streets.

• Hiring an Active Transportation Coordinator at Seattle Public Schools, to help ensure that our children can safely get to and from school

Caring for Our Neighbors

• $1 million to increase the number of tiny house villages and 24/7 shelter beds, in order to shelter our homeless neighbors.

• $750,000 for a rental assistance pilot for individuals age 50 or older who have income limited to federal disability benefits and are at risk of or are currently experiencing homelessness.

• $1 million to support Chief Seattle Club’s services for indigenous peoples who are experiencing homelessness.

• $150,000 to support the culturally relevant programming of Rise Above, a mentorship program for indigenous youth.

• $75,000 to supply menstrual hygiene products and diapers in all emergency shelters.

• $124,000 for a sex industry workers diversion program, and $140,000 to HSD for an outreach program for sex workers

Protecting Seattle

• A transformative $3.5M additional investment in the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program. This support will fund case managers assigned to at-risk individuals referred by police officers. This program has been proven by multiple studies to prevent and reduce crime.

• A liaison assigned to work with Native communities regarding Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) cases

• $87,000 to an expert organization, such as the Seattle Indian Health Board, to advise the City on steps that should be taken to address the MMIWG crisis

• $600,000 to increase the size of the next Fire Department recruitment class by 30% in order to fill vacancies more quickly.  

Funding Maintained

The Seattle City Council passes a two-year budget in even-numbered years. In odd-numbered years, the Council revisits what was passed the previous year and adjusts as needed. Funding that was previously proposed and endorsed always has the potential to be cut. I worked hard to protect our previous budget wins, including:

• $8 million for the Lake City Community Center

• Funding to continue Seattle Police Department’s “Emphasis Patrols”

• Hiring 40 additional officers and 12 Community Service Officers

• More than $1 million for local non-profits like Aurora Commons, North Helpline, and God’s Little Acre

• Expanding the Navigation Team and adding more mental health specialists

• More than $1 million for pedestrian improvements along Lake City Way

I wish to thank all those who took the time to come down to City Hall, write a letter to the City Council, or work with a community group in order to advocate on behalf of their neighborhood priorities. Your engagement is a huge reason why we had a 94.6 percent success rate in our District 5 budget requests. I am also grateful to Council Budget Chair Sally Bagshaw, who led an efficient and substantive budget deliberation process.

In the nearly two months since Mayor Durkan delivered her proposed budget to the city council on September 24th, 2018, I have worked every day fighting for funding for crucial projects in District 5. As part of my commitment to bring City Hall to you, I worked with the D5 Community Network to put on an in-depth Budget Forum with the head of the City Budget Office, Ben Noble, and the Director of the City Council’s Central Staff, Kirstan Arestad. I met with countless constituents and community organizations and my office read thousands of your emails in order to hear your needs and ensure that the City Council not only listened, but responded.

The following budget items are ones that I championed and worked with other councilmembers to include in the final budget that was passed on November 19th, 2018:

Building District 5

• $8 million for replacing the Lake City Community Center, bringing the total amount of dedicated funding for a brand new building to $16 million.

• Funding to complete the Pedestrian Bike Bridge that will cross I-5 to connect the Northgate and Licton Springs neighborhoods when light rail arrives in 2021.

• $128,000 for a feasibility study of a new Apprenticeship Program at North Seattle College, with the goal of making sure that our students can obtain good-paying jobs and stay in Seattle.

• $500,000 in additional funding for the Neighborhood Parks Street Fund, empowering residents to choose more projects for their neighborhood through the “Your Voice, Your Choice” program. D5 was awarded the most money in the city for the projects you voted for in 2018.

• $350,000 for a “Home Zones” pilot project, a new idea to calm traffic, keeping kids and pedestrians safe from cars speeding and cutting through neighborhood streets.

Caring for our Neighbors

• $200,000 to expand the hours for God’s Lil Acre, meaning that D5 will finally have an all-day hygiene center for our homeless neighbors to shower and wash their clothes.

• $575,000 for Seattle Helpline Coalition (including North Helpline) to expand homelessness prevention services, including financial assistance to prevent evictions and utility shut-offs, and assist with move-in deposits.

• $160,000 for important referral and navigation services on Aurora Avenue to assist people who are survivors of sex work, opioid addiction, or mental health disorders. Aurora Commons reports that 80% of the women they serve are homeless.

• $190,000 for Mother Nation, a non-profit providing culturally-informed healing, advocacy and homelessness prevention services for Native American and Alaska Native women. This funding couldn’t be more important in light of the recent study by the Urban Indian Health Institute that found Seattle had the highest number of murdered or missing indigenous women of the 71 urban cities surveyed.

• $269,500 from the Sweetened Beverage Tax dedicated to expanding food banks and their enhanced service centers in 2019.

Protecting Our Community

• Hiring 40 additional police officers, as well as 12 Community Service Officers so that the Seattle Police Department can strengthen its community outreach and community-based policing efforts.

• $1.2 million to expand the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program.

• Expanding the Navigation Team, including the addition of staff who will specialize in outreach for those living with mental health issues.

Thank you to everyone who contacted my office, reached out to other council offices to advocate for D5, and to the folks who came down to City Hall to give public comment. Because of this collaboration, I was proud to vote for a budget that addresses needs both in my district and across the entire city on issues ranging from public safety, neighborhood investments, and social services. I’d also like to thank Mayor Durkan and my colleagues, especially Budget Chair Sally Bagshaw, for their support of investment and services for District 5.

Thank you to Sandy Motzer, Susanna Cunningham, Ann Forrest for all of their hard work to share Stop the Bleed training and tools in North Seattle! They installed life-saving “Stop the Bleed” stations in the Lake City Community Center and the Meadowbrook Community Center, thanks to a $5,000 Neighborhood Matching Fund award they applied for and won from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.

#StopTheBleed is a nationwide campaign to train bystanders how to prevent people from bleeding to death in an emergency situation such as a shooting, car crash, or earthquake. I hope you never have to use the training, but it’s so important. In such a situation, bystanders become the first line of defense when an injured person might not be able to access trained medical professionals in time. Considering that a person can bleed to death in less than five minutes, this training is just a crucial as learning CPR.

“The more people who know how to prevent themselves from being a victim and the more people who know what to do to help stop life-threatening bleeding, the better.” I couldn’t agree more, Sandy!

Interested in attending a training? Find out more from the Lake City Emergency Communications Hub here: http://lcstb.blogspot.com/

You can also find Stop the Bleed trainings across Seattle and King County: https://bit.ly/2zCEzwF

The trainings are put on by many partners, including Seattle Office of Emergency Management, UW Medicine Harborview Medical Center, Public Health – Seattle & King County, Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center. #SurviveInD5 #D5 #Seattle

Hello D5,

Yesterday Mayor Durkan released her 2019-2020 Proposed Budget. While I am excited that many of the District 5 investments we have advocated for are included in this budget proposal, I will be working over the next few weeks to address a few crucial gaps in services and program funding for our neighborhoods.

I will be speaking tomorrow night at the D5 Community Network Budget Forum on a panel that also includes the Director of the Legislative Department Kirstan Arestad and the Director of the City Budget Office Ben Noble. I invite you to join me in learning about the city’s budget process as well as our priorities for this budget.

With gratitude,

Debora Juarez

Hello D5,

Over the last few weeks my office has received about thirty emails and calls regarding unauthorized homeless encampments at the Lake City Post Office/Grocery Outlet and the Kingfisher Natural Area along Thornton Creek.

On behalf of my constituents I have reached out to the City’s Navigation Team, and they have responded to both of these locations. The City is now conducting intensive outreach to both of these locations with the goal of housing and sheltering their occupants, and will be removing human waste and debris from these areas as well.

I have attached my email correspondence from Fred Podesta, the head of the Navigation Team, to this post. I look forward to working with Mr. Podesta and others around our city to improve our homelessness crisis response. This issue will remain a top priority of my office.

Fred Podesta Correspondence

I am pleased to announce that today, January 22nd, the Seattle City Council passed Council Bill 119150 and Council Bill 119146 to authorize the expansion of the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park. The beautifully designed Art Deco building in which the SAAM is housed has been a fixture of Volunteer Park and the SAM for over 85 years, but extensive renovations and an expansion have been needed for a long time. Today’s vote was the finalization of plans 10 years in the making to renovate the SAAM and increase its education and exhibit capacities. The public benefits of this expansion will include:

• A partnership with Seattle Public Schools which includes 7 in-school education programs and 75 free school group field trips annually.
• Eight workshops, 3 day-camps, and 15 free lectures and panel discussions
• A $50,000 scholarship assistance fund with annual escalation
• An annual public cultural event

I and my peers on the Council are proud to support public art and art education, and I hope you will join me in my excitement for the future re-opening of the beautifully renovated and expanded SAAM. Thank you for your correspondence and support for this bill and I hope you will continue to speak up on matters that are important to you.

See you at the re-opening!

Hello District 5 Community,

Monday, November 20th, the City Council voted to approve the 2018 City budget. I am excited to report the final 2018 City Budget and what it means for D5! Working with my colleagues, I was able to secure funding for District 5 priorities and citywide priorities. I have included a selection of those new investments below. Overall, we had an 86% success rate for investments I worked to achieve in this budget and a 96% success rate for new investments in District 5!

District 5 – New Investments = $6,274,910

$5,000,000 – Lake City Community Center Rebuild

$35,000 – Hubbard Homestead Park neighborhood planning

$60,000 – Sound Generation: Expansion of the Lake City and Northgate “Senior Center Without Wall”

$60,000 – Aurora Commons: Expansion of outreach and drop-in services

$369,910 – Sweetened Beverage Tax – Increase funding for food banks (Some of this funding will also be used to support food banks in other Council Districts)

$750,000 – Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) Expansion to SPD North Precinct

Citywide/Multi-District – New and Continuing Investments = $11,100,000

$100,000 – Chief Seattle Club pre-design funds for future affordable housing project

$11,000,000 – Maintain commitment to North Precinct Police Station

SLI – Worker Retention and Job Security Initiative

Collaborations = $1,875,000 (these investments include programs and projects that were sponsored by other Councilmembers and that require investment from other government and/or nonprofit partners)

$1,300,000 – Community Health Engagement Locations

$500,000 – Youth Opportunity Center and Housing Project

$75,000 – Home and Hope – Housing pre-development (Northgate & Citywide)

This budget also includes funding for pedestrian improvements throughout our community through the Move Seattle Vision Zero initiative:

A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to write in, call and show up to provide public comment to support these critical investments. District 5 has long needed enhanced investments and I will continue to advocate for our communities. I am very proud of the work we were able to accomplish this budget session.

Thank you to those that have been writing in, calling our office and coming out to the budget public hearings. We have had great success in the first round of the budget review and I could not have done it without you!

I have put together a list of all the budget actions that have been included in the Initial Balancing Package. Please keep in mind this is only the first round of budget reviews. Council will be making more changes and I am dedicated to holding on to all the funds that have been allocated so far! In this Initial Balancing Package, we have secured $6,524,910 with $6,205,000 going directly to new District 5 investments! Those new investments include:

• $5,000,000 for the Lake City Community Center – these funds are the foundation for a larger capital campaign to raise all the money we will need to build a brand new Lake City Community Center. (The Mayors budget also includes $270,000 for staff to manage the current center)
• **$1,000,000 for Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) expansion into the North Precinct – these funds would pay for case managers, a base of operations, a nurse and outreach workers in the North Precinct**
• $60,000 for senior services – these funds will add another day of service in Lake City and start a new program in Northgate
• $35,000 for Hubbard Homestead Park – these funds will be for community planning to identify new park improvements to be made in the upcoming years
• **$60,000 for Aurora Commons to provide services along Aurora Ave North – these funds will go to support low-barrier drop-in services along Aurora to help people find support and stability**
• $369,910 for food banks citywide – these funds, from the Sweetened Beverage Tax, will go to support food banks across the City including programs like Family Works and North Helpline in District 5
• Worker Retention – Statement of Legislative Intent – This report back will be used to build worker retention policy for the City of Seattle. I want to make sure workers are protected and have a right to stability when jobs are transferred or subcontracted

I am so proud of this first step and I will be working hard to make sure all these investments make it into the final budget. Below I have listed some additional budget actions I was proud to co-sponsor, and I hope these actions made it into the final budget as well:

• $150,000 to restore funding for the Summer Parkways Program
• $500,000 for pedestrian improvements in South Park
• $69,000 to open up all wading pools during the summer months
• $138,353 to add 3 staff at Magnuson Community Center
• $200,000 for Tenant’s Union to conduct tenant education and outreach
• **$400,000 for Childcare Resource’s homeless childcare program**
• $200,000 to support teacher workforce diversity and bilingual teacher pipeline
• **$500,000 for the Youth Opportunity Center and Housing Project in Capitol Hill**
• $75,000 for the Home and Hope project to identify future affordable housing and early learning locations in Northgate and citywide
• **$161,000 to fund an additional prescriber for addiction recovery medication at Public Health facilities**
• $150,000 for a Navigation Team nurse
• **$550,000 for Community Health Engagement Locations to support people struggling with addiction**
• **$200,000 for emergency shelter and support services for survivors of domestic violence**
• $150,000 to assist parents to regaining custody of their children
• **$400,000 for additional services to survivors or domestic violence and sexual assault**
• $450,000 to support authorized encampments and tiny house villages

Thank you again for all your support so far. Please continue to write us letters and attend Council meetings to advocate for what is important to you and District 5. The next round of budget reviews begins November 7^th. The final vote on the budget will be on November 20^th and December 11^th.

**The funds for these budget additions are from the potential proceeds from the proposed employee hours/employee head tax which has not yet been approved by the Council or the Mayor.

Council Bill 119093 is scheduled for a Full Council vote on Monday Oct. 3^rd at 2pm in Council Chambers at City Hall.

The purpose of this legislation is to encourage more housing and pedestrian friendly development in the C1, C2 and NC3 designations within the boundaries of the Aurora Licton Urban Village (ALUV). The goals of this legislation are consistent with the 2035 Comprehensive Plan, the Aurora Licton Urban Village neighborhood plan and the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) citywide re-zones, all of which have had community and council review over the last several years, with more review to come in 2018.

The legislation will disallow certain types of heavy commercial being developed inside the ALUV boundaries. No businesses will be asked to leave or relocate as a result of the legislation. Any new business development that has recently been permitted or is in the permitting process will still move forward.

When the new upzones go into effect (expected in 2018) these heavy commercial uses will no long be allowed in ALUV anyway, so this is trying to build a bridge. Housing and more pedestrian friendly development will still be allowed on those lots and we are hoping this will encourage those owners, if they plan to develop, to do so by creating housing and/or pedestrian friendly commercial spaces.

The ALUV community has been welcoming to potential dense zoning changing and more pedestrian friendly development. However, since they are part of the citywide re-zone they will have to wait, and this is a way for us to not lose too much development capacity with things that are incompatible with the vision for that neighborhood and will be legally incompatible in the future.

Local News Coverage:

http://komonews.com/news/local/wide-range-of-businesses-could-be-banned-from-aurora-ave

https://sccinsight.com/2017/09/25/juarez-proposing-emergency-moratorium-commercial-development-aurora-licton-springs/

https://www.theurbanist.org/2017/09/25/councilmember-juarez-seeks-freeze-heavy-commercial-development-aurora-licton-springs/

Yesterday the Seattle City Council voted unanimously in favor of Council Bill 118971, legislation I was proud to co-sponsor in response to community requests to reform our city’s vacant building regulations. Seattle has seen a significant uptick in hazardous vacant buildings, which can pose serious risks to neighbors, transient occupants, and the first responders who must enter these buildings in the event of an emergency.  Vacant building complaints have increased by 58% city-wide in the in the last five years. District 5 alone has seen over 200 vacant building complaints in the last three years. This legislation will strengthen property owners’ obligation to secure their vacant buildings, hasten the process for removing trash and debris from vacant buildings, and creates a brand-new expedited system for the demolishing of vacant buildings identified as public nuisances.

In committee, I introduced a successful amendment to halve the waiting period prior to demolition from one year to six months. Every month a building lays vacant there is a significant impact on public safety and health of transient occupants and neighbors. This legislation represents a huge step forward in holding property owners accountable as well as addressing our city’s public health and safety needs.

I would like to extend my thanks to the constituents who wrote in to my office regarding these regulations. We couldn’t have done this work without your support!