(Image: City of Seattle)

Lame duck Mayor Jenny Durkan has hopes of delivering on a major $30 million chunk of her “$100 million pledge” to the Black Lives Matter movement in Seattle before her term ends at the end of the year.

The administration announced Monday it has transmitted legislation to the Seattle City Council for $30 million in “upstream BIPOC community investments” recommended by Durkan’s 26-member Equitable Communities Initiative task force.

The city council controls the purse strings on the package and will decide if a proviso on the $30 million in spending can be lifted. A council committee is slated to take up the legislation beginning on Tuesday, July 20. The city will also begin “developing” formal requests for proposals in coming weeks “with a surge of investments landing in the community by the end of 2021,” the administration said in an announcement on the legislation.

CHS reported here on Durkan’s $100 million pledge made last year as the mayor attempted to address unrest and demonstrations following the police killing of George Floyd.

The result is a complicated, four-part mix including new programs and counting previously existing initiatives toward her $100 million total. Though the Durkan administration isn’t driving the effort, their $100 million pledge includes an initiative around participatory budgeting that could end up the the strongest new investment in the mix with its own $30 million package of spending beneath the Office of Civil Rights to shape a community driven social and service plan. But that package has a longer, more complicated path to real spending.

City officials say the Equitable Communities Initiative task force investments should come faster with line items organized under recommendations and strategies formed by BIPOC community and business leaders:

$7.5 Million – Building Opportunity through Small Business Support 

• Provide Equitable Small and Micro Business Capital
• Offer Small Business Technical Assistance on Financial Health, Digital Tools, and Construction Support

$7.5 Million – Developing Diverse and Culturally Competent Educators and Education Opportunities 

• Fund Culturally Supportive Re-entry Programs for Formerly Incarcerated BIPOC
• Support Equity in Education with Students
• Provide Cultural Education for BIPOC youth

$8.8 Million – Accessing Affordable Housing, Land Acquisition and Generational Wealth 

• Establish a Generational Wealth Education Program and Resource Portal
• Identify Housing Strategies for Low- and Middle-Income Apprentices and Pre-Apprentices
• Broaden Priority Hire and WMBE Support
• Create Homeownership Supports and Development Opportunities
• Study the Feasibility of a Lease to Own Program
• Provide Ownership Retention Resources for BIPOC Families to Remain in Their Homes

$6.2 Million – Improving Positive Health Outcomes 

• Provide Holistic Culturally Responsive & Inclusive Healthcare
• Improve Access to Culturally Responsive & Inclusive Healthcare
• Sustain a Healthy Food Fund for Community-Led Projects Focused on Food Security
• Increase Farm to Table Access with a BIPOC Emphasis
• Support an Environmental Justice Fund for Community-Led Projects
• Address Barriers to BIPOC Professionals Entering the Healthcare Workforce
• Enhance Youth Career Exploration in the Healthcare Industry

“As we closely examined generational wealth, we found that many BIPOC communities not only don’t have access to housing, but they also don’t have access to the same financial support that many White-led businesses do,” task force member Donna Moodie, owner of Capitol Hill’s Marjorie, said in the mayor’s office announcement.

Moodie says the task force “wanted to create opportunities for BIPOC business owners to work with colleagues who resemble those they serve.”

“Through Technical Assistance, we are providing a deeper level of support while they are at the table applying for funding, helping them analyze how much they need, and assist in completing applications,” Moodie said. “We can invite them to turn a loan into a forgivable loan simply by attending Technical Assistance classes that would improve their business acumen. This is a win-win create esteemed people in our communities whose business behavior and success can be modeled.”

In the announcement, Durkan administration officials emphasized the effort to make the $100 million in funding available “during a historic shortfall” including dedicating $73 million from the city’s emergency reserves, $20 million in reductions to the Seattle Police Department, a wage freeze for “non-represented employees,” redirecting voter-approved levy dollars to support basic city operations, federal relief assistance, and “new city revenues” like the city’s JumpStart tax on large businesses.

The Durkan administration says its commitment to equity will continue even as Mayor Durkan is ready to step aside. Her last budget proposal, the office says, will include another $100 million its proposed 2022 budget “to further address systemic inequities facing BIPOC communities.”

Task Force Members

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