City West Seattle Vaccination Clinic Opening Friday, October 29
The City of Seattle will be opening a vaccination hub in West Seattle beginning on Friday, October 29, at Neighborhood House (6400 Sylvan Way SW) in the High Point neighborhood. The City is partnering with Neighborhood House and Pliable mobile nursing teams for clinic operations. Pliable is the woman-owned mobile health-care service started by two West Seattle nurse practitioners.
I’m thrilled residents in District 1 will again have access to a city-run vaccination site, here on the peninsula. With boosters available now for many, and vaccines for children under 12 nearly in sight, this vaccination hub is coming at a perfect time. Whether you need your first shot or your booster, now you’ll be able to get it from our own, trusted, City-run site. I’m deeply grateful to Neighborhood House leadership and staff for providing the location for this hub. And thanks to the Mayor’s Office for understanding the unique mobility needs we have and making sure District 1 residents aren’t left behind.
- Vaccination is always free and available, regardless of citizenship status.
- Free rides to and from your vaccination are offered by Lyft and Hopelink Mobility at (425) 943-6706.
- Free childcare is available for vaccination appointments and recuperation from KinderCare at (866) 337-3105, the Learning Care Group at (833) 459-3557, and the YMCA. (Contact your local YMCA to learn more.)
Beginning on Friday, October 29, eligible vaccinated individuals can receive booster shots of Pfizer, Moderna, and the Johnson and Johnson (J&J) vaccines. Upon federal and state approval of eligibility, children ages 5-11 will be able to receive first and second Pfizer doses at City sites.
The new West Seattle Vaccination Clinic will operate Fridays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Details, including hours of operation and the vaccines offered, are available at www.seattle.gov/vaccine. The website contains vaccination information in seven languages, and in-language assistance is also available over the phone.
King County Vaccine Verification Toolkit for Businesses
KC Vax Verified, a partnership of Public Health—Seattle & King County and the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and other business and community organizations across King County, has announced a business toolkit for the vaccine verification requirement that went into effect for businesses and indoor events on October 25th.
The toolkit includes where the order applies; who must comply; what counts as verification; signage; training guidance, and scenario planning.
You can download the toolkit here. It is available in English here.
You can go here to get the toolkit in other languages, including Amharic, Arabic, Farsi, French, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Oromo, Punjabi, Russian, Samoan, Somali, Chinese simplified, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrinya, Chinese Traditional, Ukranian, and Vietnamese.
Seattle Relief Fund Launched
The Seattle Relief Fund is $16 million of funding for direct cash assistance to Seattle’s most vulnerable low-income residents and their households who have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Award amounts are between $1,000 and $3,000 depending on household size.
This includes households that were unable to access state unemployment, had no health insurance, didn’t receive federal stimulus payments, or experienced housing instability or mental health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Applications are open from October 25 through November 15 and will be reviewed from November 16 through 29. Decisions on payments will be made from November 29 through December 6, and payments sent after December 9.
The fund is open to all eligible Seattle residents regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. Eligible applicants must be 18 years old or older and have incomes under 50 percent of Seattle’s area median income (less than $40,500 for an individual or $57,850 for a family of four).
Applications are available in eight languages.
Thank you to the numerous community partner organizations listed at the end of this press release.
Small Business Stabilization Fund Applications Open
The Small Business Stabilization Fund is accepting new applications through November 9th.
The Office of Economic Development is investing an additional $4 million to stabilize micro and small businesses negatively impacted by COVID-19 by providing cash grants through the Small Business Stabilization Fund. Funded by the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (CLFR) established under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the Stabilization Fund will provide $5,000, $10,000 and $20,000 grants to be used on operational expenses such as rent, wages, equipment and more.
Applications are open to businesses within the City limits that have been impacted by COVID-19 and the related health and safety restrictions, such as business interruptions or closures incurred because of the pandemic; have up to 50 full time equivalent employees; are current open for business, and began operating prior to October 19, 2019, and other criteria listed here.
Also eligible are nonprofit entities that are performing arts, cultural institutions or business technical assistance organizations that have active nonprofit status with the Washington Secretary of State.
If you need assistance to complete the online application, language access services, accommodations or accessibility information, please contact the Seattle Office of Economic Development at (206) 684-8090 or oed@seattle.gov.
You can apply here, in several languages.
This Week in the Budget
This week the Budget Committee met over the course of three days to hear potential Councilmember amendments to the Mayor’s proposed budget.
The next step in the budget process is for Budget Chair Mosqueda to develop a balancing package that incorporates some of these amendments. This will take place over the next week and into the following week, so there will be no Budget Committee meetings next week.
The next meeting will be a public hearing on November 10 at 5:30 p.m. The balancing package is expected to be released by then; it will be formally presented at the Budget Committee on November 12th.
Below are links to the proposed budget amendments, arranged by department. In addition, a few “walk on” amendments were added to the agenda and aren’t listed here.
October 26 items
- Introduction and Proposed Budget Amendments Overview
- Finance General (FG)
- Department of Finance and Administrative Services (FAS)
- Legislative Department (LEG)
- Mayor’s Office (MO)
- Office of City Auditor (AUD)
- Seattle Information Technology Department (ITD)
- Seattle Public Utilities (SPU)
- Seattle Public Library (SPL)
- Department of Education and Early Learning (DEEL)
- Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS)
- Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA)
- Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI)
- Office of Planning & Community Development (OPCD)
- Department of Neighborhoods (DON)
- Office of Economic Development (OED)
- Office of Sustainability & Environment (OSE)
- Office of Labor Standards (OLS)
October 27 items
- Office of Housing (OH)
- Homelessness Response (HOM)
- Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR)
- Seattle Police Department (SPD)
- Community Safety and Communications Center (CSCC)
- Seattle Fire Department (SFD)
- Office of the Inspector General for Public Safety (OIG)
- Seattle Municipal Court (SMC)
- Law Department (LAW)
- Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
- City Budget Office (CBO)
October 28 items
The budget meeting schedule is available at the Select Budget Committee webpage. You can download the budget calendar here.
Budget Committee meetings have public comment for 30 minutes at the beginning of the morning session. You can sign up to speak at the link.
Sound Transit Light Rail Draft EIS Coming in Early 2022
We recently received an update from Sound Transit about the timeline for publication of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the West Seattle/Ballard light rail line. Sound Transit now expects to publish the Draft EIS in early 2022. Previously the target date was late 2021. There will be a public comment period after publication.
Here’s a link to Sound Transit’s public engagement page for the project, which includes information about the EIS process, how to comment, and alternatives studied in the EIS.
After public comment, the Sound Transit Board will select the options to be studied in the Final EIS, which Sound Transit expects to publish in 2023.
In addition, Sound Transit has extended the deadline to apply to the Community Advisory Groups for the West Seattle and Ballard light rail project through November 1 at 5 p.m.. Information about applying is available from Sound Transit here. Interest forms are also available in Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese and Somali and they are accepting applications in-language.
Seattle University 7th Annual Public Safety Survey
Seattle University has begun administering its 7th Annual Citywide Seattle Public Safety Survey, collecting qualitative and quantitative data about perceptions of crime and safety from those who live and work in Seattle.
The survey is accessible at publicsafetysurvey.org and is available in Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, English, Korean, Oromo, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrinya and Vietnamese.
A report on the survey results will be provided to the Seattle Police Department as the neighborhood’s safety and security concerns as expressed by the people participating in the survey. More information on the Seattle Public Safety Survey can be found here.
SPD’s work with Seattle University led to the development of the Seattle Police Department’s Micro Community Policing Plans, which have guided SPD’s precinct-level priorities.
The survey is open through November 30. Previous results are available here.
Loans For Fire-Impacted White Center Businesses
Though it’s neither in Seattle District 1 nor the Seattle city limits, White Center is just across the street in an area where many residents of District 1 visit. For that reason, I wanted to share this update about help coming to White Center. Local businesses and organizations impacted by the July 5 fire in White Center can now apply for low-interest loans of up to $2 million if they have suffered from “substantial economic injury.” The federal government defines substantial economic injury based on whether a business is unable to meet its obligations and pay its ordinary and necessary operating expenses.
With multiple devastating fires in the core of White Center this summer, the U.S. Small Business Administration has declared an Economic Injury Disaster, opening the door for businesses to apply for loans to help rebuild the local economy. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) made a declaration of an Economic Injury Disaster this week, opening a loan application process for businesses and organizations that suffered substantial economic injury.
Applicants may apply online, receive additional disaster assistance information, and download applications at https://disasterloanassistance.sba.gov/. Applicants may also call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov for more information on SBA disaster assistance. Individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing may call (800) 877-8339.
The deadline to apply for economic injury is July 26, 2022.
The Washington Small Business Development Center is also offering free, personalized counseling to help affected businesses in their recovery. Businesses may contact the Washington SBDC office by emailing washington@wsbdc.org, calling (833) 492-7232, or visiting their website at https://www.wsbdc.org.