(Image: DESC)

Work to improve wages for human services workers in the city has paid off with boosted pay thanks to the JumpStart tax, according to a report to the Seattle City Council’s budget committee.

Monday’s committee meeting is hearing from Downtown Emergency Service Center officials about a report (PDF) showing that the DESC has been able to boost pay by 48% since last year to $29/hour — or $56,500 a year.

Last year, city officials including council budget chair Teresa Mosqueda set out to provide more funding to human service contractors like DESC to better stabilize wages for workers in the sector as providers struggled to fill positions and staff important services in Seattle’s efforts to address homelessness, addiction, and mental health.

Mosqueda along with representatives from DESC, SEIU 1199, human services providers, the Housing Development Consortium, El Centro de la Raza, Puget Sound Sage and Mazaska were slated to be part of Monday’s committee session discussing the importance of JumpStart revenue in improving the ability for providers to pay adequate wages.

The meeting comes as the council is in the middle of shaping amendments to the city’s 2024 budget plan in the face of a looming shortfall in the next two-year budget period.

Earlier this year, a workgroup convened to brainstorm possible “alternative revenue” sources proposed options including capital gains, vacancy, and congestion pricing taxes. For now, the city is working with what it has including its more than $200 million a year JumpStart tax on its largest employers like Amazon and Starbucks.

(Image: DESC)

Pressure, meanwhile, builds to use JumpStart funding to help path other budget holes beyond its original intentions to provide “progressive revenue” for affordable housing, and social programs.

Mosqueda, meanwhile, is also busy in her run to join the King County Council. She says she would be happy to stay with the city council if she loses this race. A special election will be triggered if she wins.

UPDATE: A briefing on Monday’s meeting included other elements discussed related to impacts from the JumpStart tax revenue.

• Human Services Provider Wage Stability: The Downtown Emergency Services Center and SEIU 1199 reported on how JumpStart has helped stabilize their workforce. To help address huge turnover rates and understaffing, JumpStart has helped the DESC raise it wage floor 48 percent since January 1, 2022 allowing them to make significant progress on addressing the issue.  
• Affordable Housing: JumpStart has become the single largest source of funding for affordable housing in Seattle, accounting for $240 million of the Office of Housing budget between 2022 and 2023. El Centro de la Raza reported on how JumpStart funding has helped them begin construction on the Four Amigos, Beloved Community project in Columbia City. That project will create 87 units of affordable housing, an Early Child Development Center, and other cultural spaces.  
• Equitable Development: Puget Sound Sage reported on the nearly 35 community projects that have received funding through JumpStart Equitable Development Initiative dollars between 2022 and 2023. That included funding for Somali Health Board, Friends of Little Saigon, Estelita’s Library, Tubman Health Center, Nehemiah Initiative, and more projects that help root community in place, create greater cohesion, and lift up community entrepreneurship and community-driven development to fight displacement and create greater shared prosperity. 
• Green New Deal: Representatives from the Green New Deal Oversight Board reported on how JumpStart allowed them to guide the investment of $6.5 million in 2022 and more than $20 million in 2023. That funding went directly to programs that focus on a just transition address climate change.

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