A tense debate over youth homelessness

Things got unusually tense at Thursday's City Council meeting. CM Ryan Alter essentially accused Homeless Strategy Officer David Gray of lying to him.

At issue is a wide-ranging resolution sponsored by Alter and several other CMs that asked city staff to do a number of things. There was a lot of interesting stuff in there, but the only part that prompted debate was a clause directing staff to devote 15% of homelessness spending to "youth homelessness," which includes children and young adults up to age 26.

Here is the relevant language in the resolution:

Mayor Kirk Watson took the lead in pouring cold water on the idea, expressing concerns that the resolution would inhibit the Homeless Strategy Office's flexibility.

"We are making such great progress in part because we now have a homeless strategy office, we now have a plan that the Homeless Strategy Officer is putting into play, it's a systemic plan and not one that breaks out different groups in a way that I worry this resolution does," he said.

(Whether the city is making "great progress" on homelessness is a matter of debate, but it's true that the number of people being housed has increased)

Watson also suggested that there had been ample time to make budget policy during the recently-concluded budget process:

“I’m very uncomfortable with a policy of us going through a lengthy budget process, a detailed budget process, and then literally at the very next meeting of the Council, we’re taking up budget items again, many of which were items that were part of the budget process."

Responding to questions from Watson, Gray agreed with the mayor, saying that tying a certain percentage of his department's funds to a particular sub-population would "hinder our ability to be flexible and to be truly data-led."

Gray's responses infuriated Alter.

"I'm going to confess I'm pretty disappointed right now," he said after an audible sigh. "When you and I worked together," he said, pointing at Gray, "you told me something very different from what you're telling the body today."

Alter claimed Gray had said the language in the resolution allowed his department enough discretion, since it only directed staff to "target" 15%.

"You told me this works," Alter continued. "And I hate to do this right now, but how can I bring something forward if you're going to tell me something different than you're telling this body? We're trying to ensure that we don't see another 4x growth in this population in the next four years? And that that is somehow troubling, or disappointing? I'm beyond myself."

Then things got Biblical:

"I was going to come in here and talk about a quote that's been in my head all week: Joy cometh in the morning. You won't hear me quote scripture very often but it's been on my mind and this was our opportunity to say joy cometh in the morning for our kids on the street, some of them with kids. And somehow that's problematic? I'm just going to leave it there."

It's not unusual for council members to express disappointment or frustration in staff, but I don't think I've seen someone besides crazy Don Zimmerman level a charge of dishonesty.

Other Council members sought to de-escalate, stressing they understood both sides of the argument. And City Manager T.C. Broadnax reassured Alter that staff's goal was to fulfill Council's wishes.

"It's unfortunate that you feel some kind of way today," said Broadnax. "I would hope that you would appreciate us always trying to get where Council's trying to get."

Gray said, "I want to apologize for the frustration that I have caused. It was never my intent to mislead you."

The dais ultimately split on the resolution: Alter was joined by Vanessa Fuentes, José Velásquez, Krista Laine and Mike Siegel in support, one short of the six needed for a majority. Watson, March Duchen and Chito Vela voted against, while Paige Ellis and Natasha Harper-Madison abstained. Zo Qadri, who is on paternity leave (!), was absent.

What about the rest of the resolution?

Like I said, the resolution dealt with a number of subjects but youth homelessness was the only one that got talked about. I don't understand why the sponsors of the resolution didn't just take a knee on that one issue to get the rest of the resolution passed. The measure also:

• Instructed the city manager to send any property taxes generated from formerly publicly-owned lands to the Housing Trust Fund (this has been the policy since 2018, but Broadnax took money from the HTF to balance the budget this year)
• Directed HSO to make "targeted investments" aimed at homeless veterans
• Directed the city to set up a grant program within the Homeless Strategy Office aimed at crisis housing for homeless transgender people (a recommendation from the LGBTQ Quality of Life Commission)
• Directed the city manager to select a site and do a cost estimate for "the metropolitan splash park"
• Directed the city manager to "identity duties" currently being performed by police officers that could be done by non-cops and to launch a pilot program to test it out

So, a lot of different stuff. The only one that really sticks out to me (no offense, splash park) is the last one.

Long-term, it's really important for the city to figure out a way to deliver public safety services more affordably. There is a place in every society for armed police, but tasking cops with dealing with the mental health/addiction crisis that is the cause of so much of public safety angst simply doesn't make sense. And yet that is what the city's police force spends much of its time doing.

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