McGinn: Protecting funding for health and human services will be a priority for me in setting a budget for the city of Seattle. We also need to work smart and do more with programs that are already established. By creating a more effective human services department we should be able to expand the services being provided without adding additional funds. The SHARE/WHEEL program, for example, provides services through ‘self-run” shelters and has been able to do so effectively at less cost.

We can work boost neighborhood-level participation in this area. I have a record of effectively engaging communities at Great City, the nonprofit I founded. Projects like the Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP) demonstrate the impressive efforts that can happen within the community even without large sums of money. Neighborhoods can organize to address problems, and the city needs to be an active partner to support community efforts.

McGinn: On a personal level I've gained an appreciation of the value of supporting young families with children from the work of my mother, Joyce McGinn, who was an educator on Long Island. She developed and ran programs for early childhood education and after-school programs. I saw the effects and benefits provided to young children and families. One of my workplan items would be to shape a future Families and Education levy renewal that strengthens support for early childhood education.

Seattle’s host of programs, such Community Learning Centers, school-based after school programs, programs for culturally relevant support for children, and various childcare support programs, can all be helpful for working families. Making sure that the right people have access to these programs is important, and the strong partnership with nonprofits is what makes these programs work. The City’s role is to continue to support these programs, while keeping an eye towards improving and innovating on what is already in place.

Mallahan: Not only is domestic violence the leading cause of women’s trips to the emergency room, but accounts for one-half of homeless women and children.  Tackling domestic violence requires short term emergency sheltering and long-term stable housing, job support and counseling for both parents and children who have been victims of domestic violence. As Mayor, I will ensure these needs are well-funded.

Again, a well-staffed police force is critical for protecting parents and children from domestic violence. If restraining orders are to be enforced, and if perpetrators are to take seriously the consequences of their actions, we must have the feet on the street to stand side by side with threatened parents and children in every instance.

McGinn: Domestic violence and sexual assault are crimes that affect not only the victim but also the entire community. One way to address this issue would be to work with the City Attorney to create a “batterer’s fund” similar to the “john fund” connected with prostitution prosecution. By attaching this additional fine we would be able to generate more funds for the domestic violence shelters, while providing an additional disincentive for those that are perpetrating the crimes.

Secondly, I would like to explore the idea of establishing a Family Justice Center (similar to the one in San Diego) in Seattle. Victims of these crimes have been through enough trauma and would greatly benefit from having all of the services (family courts, detectives, resource referrals, etc.) located in the same building. Not only does this aid them in getting through the various legal hurdles, but it gives them a since of security in a supervised building.

Finally, expand the Seattle Police Victim Support Team (a volunteer agency that works with the Police department to provide immediate assistance to domestic violence victims). They work as the frontline transition from the abrupt legal side of the community (the police) back into a community that is ready and willing to help them.

While there are many ways to attack poverty in our community, I believe that one of the primary goals of the Mayor of Seattle should be to create an environment for job growth and to stand up with the working poor to advocate for living wage jobs. I will partner with business, labor, and community activists to pursue that goal.

McGinn: We have different reasons for homelessness, and our solutions must speak to those reasons. Some are homeless because of significant mental health or drug abuse problems. Others are homeless because they've gone through the system and exhausted the social support systems that can connect them to jobs or housing.

For those that are able to work we need to provide inexpensive and stable housing. I will support efforts to create more local jobs for Seattleites and make these available to all people. For those that need better connections to human services, we need to provide them. It is also important to expand the programs that help to prevent families from becoming homeless in the first place. If we are to make any headway on ending homelessness we first have to stop the steady stream of families finding themselves on the street.
One way to be more effective as a whole community is to create a better web of communication between of the non-profit agencies that receive city funding. Often times shelter openings are missed or unknown simply because the two agencies have never met. By creating a better means of communication between the agencies (using more advanced technology-sharing, for example) we will be able to provide services more efficiently.

Finally, the previous Mayor was able to put Seattle on the national stage for the environment. If we truly want to end homelessness then we need to acknowledge a national movement of a similar scale will be required. I would like Seattle to provide a model for innovation and effectiveness for homelessness issues and to help lead the nation on this issue.

Mallahan: I fully support the Housing Levy that will be on the ballot this November, which focuses largely on creating permanent affordable housing.

Still, Seattle needs to do more to assist with short term emergency needs, connecting people in crisis with the service continuum that prevents homelessness from occurring and helps those who have fallen into homelessness to transition into permanent homes.

McGinn: The efforts to implement the Ten Year Plan have shown an ability to dramatically change the lives of people who are homeless and reduce the cost of supporting them in other systems. Much remains to be done, however. As we grapple with budget constraints we have to evaluate the extent to which cuts in one area simply cause increases in others. At a time when more people are vulnerable to economic situations this is especially problematic.

For the Plan to be successful long-term, we do need more permanent and affordable housing. As it stands right now there is up to a two-year wait on housing, which is leaving many men and women stranded on the streets while they wait. This leads to complications like potentially developing drug addictions on the streets or a criminal background for merely sleeping outside. If we are truly going to achieve our goal of ending homelessness then we first need to meet these unfortunate individuals where they are rather than expect them to be ready on our timetable. We should make every effort to address this, and in fact, I think there are things the city can do (such as incentive zoning and other land use policies discussed in question number eight) that will enable us to create more affordable housing.

At the same time, I strongly believe we must make every effort not to cut funding for the emergency services that are perhaps needed now more than ever, and would prioritize these programs. I will do my best to work with state and regional entities and be creative about funding.

Seattle has only eight senior centers throughout the city, so support for these senior centers is particularly important. Studies show that seniors often visit a senior center because of the friendliness and availability of the senior center’s director. Too often Seattle’s senior center directors have to spend the majority of their time on fundraising activities to keep the senior center open instead of on the great services senior centers provide. I’m committed to finding ways to for the City of Seattle to provide additional monetary assistance to these centers.

Staying active and physically fit helps ward off the aches and pains of growing older. Seniors are advised to engage in physical activity for at least half an hour a day, at least five days a week. Yet, King County reports less than half of the people in the region who are 65 and older meet the recommended levels of physical activity. And, at the time of their report, nearly one quarter of those who were 75 years of age or older reported no physical activity at all during the last month of when they were asked.

Despite the clear need to provide more physical activity opportunities for seniors, only one half of one percent of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department is used to fund recreational activities for older adults. This would change under my administration. Seattle’s seniors have spent a lifetime giving to those around them, contributing to society and their community, and paying taxes that help fund services the rest of us enjoy.

Many seniors are challenged with our struggling economy, rising health care costs and knowing retirement dollars will have to stretch farther. To meet these challenges, many seniors find themselves wanting to continue working after retirement. Nationally, 81 percent of aging boomers say they expect to work beyond the age of 65.

In Seattle, 35 percent of seniors between the ages of 65 and 74 have an income of less than $25,000 a year. Nearly 50 percent of seniors 75 and older receive less than $25,000 annually.

In 2003, nearly five percent of people in King County over the age of 65 said they were skipping meals or cutting food portion sizes due to a lack of money. The City of Seattle needs to do more to address these issues.

The City’s Age 55+ Employment Resource Center helps people with computer classes and other skills training to help seniors stay active in the workforce if they want to. Last year, the center helped fewer than 500 seniors find jobs and part time community service employment. But, with our senior population expected to reach 120,000 people in two years, we will have to do more to help seniors find employment if they want to continue working.

The answer to fixing government problems shouldn’t always be to throw more money at it. I will partner with more private businesses to increase employment training and job opportunities for seniors who want to remain in the workforce.

McGinn: Seattle's population of people 60 and above is growing from 18% at present and projected to exceed 20% by 2011. Since the Seattle/King County Aging & Disability Services Agency reports to Seattle's Mayor, the Mayor also has a responsibility to care more broadly for the concerns of older adults countywide.

One of the greatest needs is in ensuring the ability of seniors to “age in place”. Like any of my generation I had to go through the difficult passage of losing one’s parent. I understand the values placed by seniors on being able to stay in one's house and one's community. As president of the Greenwood Community Council I had the opportunity to understand how strong the combination of walkable neighborhoods, good transit, and in-home services and ways for older adults to engage in their community enhances the quality of their life, and of the community.

The Mayor of Seattle should coordinate these efforts:

• Work with the King County Executive to implement the Area Plan on Aging (2008-2011)
• Ensure that each of the City's agency directors assesses their services with respect to the aging community.
• Employ principles of asset-based community development that enable older adults to make bolder contributions to the future of the city.
• Create a city scorecard with objective and subjective performance measures regarding how the city is addressing older adult needs.
• Lay foundations that enable us to meet the challenges of the continued rise in older adult population as part of the demographic shift.

The Mayor can also encourage many specific actions, such as:

• Increase walkability by eliminating sidewalk trip hazards, making it safer to cross streets, and addressing personal safety concerns.
• Protect funding in the City Budget for Aging & Disability Services programs.
• Encourage initiatives that break down social isolation, including multi-generational and inter-generational education programs.
• Conduct regular listening sessions with leaders important to the older adult community.

Ensuring affordable housing and a range of housing options requires a multi-faceted approach. Here are several different tactics:

1. Subsidies to ensure that our low-income residents have a place to live. We need to work with the State and especially the County to prevent any cuts from the funding they provide for housing.

2. Continue to provide and expand incentives to developers (in the form of more development capacity) in exchange for creating a certain portion of the extra capacity for affordable housing.

3. Remove barriers to creating more affordable housing through other incentives to the private market. I support cottage housing. I support the lowering of parking minimums (or the creation of a parking maximum) so more space can be used for housing and retail. I support revising zoning and the permit process to provide more flexibility in utilizing more of the space for lower-priced units. We need to provide more “rungs” on the affordable

housing ladder and ensure that there are no gaps in housing prices. It is important to include not just housing for people at 80% of median income but housing for people at 50% and 30% as well.

4. Transportation costs are the second highest cost of living. By creating livable, walkable, bikeable neighborhoods with access to transit, we will reduce transportation and the cost of living in general. We should quantify both of these costs (transportation and housing) when talking about housing costs.

5. We also need to encourage more mixed income developments such as West Seattle’s High Point. By expanding the use of incentives we can create more of these wonderful mixed communities.

I will ensure that funding for food banks and other nutrition programs is a priority for the City of Seattle and as mayor, I will be an active promoter of Seattle residents’ charitable giving to such programs.

Another tactic is to encourage zoning for places, like the Delridge Neighborhood, that has a lack of access to healthy food. When city-owned property (like the Louisa Boren school site in Delridge) may be available for use the city should work with developers to create a development that suits the neighborhood’s food access needs.

I also believe that Seattle’s overall inadequate level of housing stock is driving rental and home ownership prices up too quickly.   It strikes me that in the past two decades, professionals have begun to acquire what was traditionally workforce housing in our city. We need to find a way to allow robust growth of housing stock while preserving the unique character of our neighborhoods.  As Mayor, I will partner with community groups, housing advocates, and developers to fashion a vision for smart housing growth.