To King County Executive Dow Constantine and County Council Members,
The Chinatown International District (CID) is familiar with the lack of government involvement and accountability in publicly funded projects. The Seattle Navigation Center is a prime example that still affects CID today, especially Little Saigon.
As a local community organization, Friends of Little Saigon (FLS) first received news of the SODO Enhanced Shelter via email in late March. The email includes a fact sheet and instructions for distribution. There has been no further communication after this. When the information reached the CID Public Safety Committee, they asked King County to attend monthly meetings to present the project. The meeting took place in June. Despite conversations and questions, it’s unclear how the county will interact with the wider community.
Earlier this year, the FLS joined the city, county and state to convene community members to work together on immediate and long-term solutions to the violence and crime on the corner of South 12th Avenue and South Jackson Street. We meet every other week to discuss issues, concerns and recommend solutions. One of the outcomes of the bi-weekly Little Saigon Safety Conference is the Community Safety Model. This model focuses on community collaboration, coordinated outreach and service, and partnership among all stakeholders, including government. But at none of these meetings, we heard about the expanded shelter, nor about the services planned for a few blocks down the street.
Little Saigon community, voters in your area are frustrated by the lack of attention and coordination in this SODO enhanced shelter. This makes us question the months of engagement and relationship we have done with the various agencies involved, especially King County.
As a community, we recognize the need for an urgent response during this health and safety crisis, but it needs to be done in a culturally competent, effective and collaborative way.
To date, the process has not taken into account the communities it is affecting and has only exacerbated the problem. A community that is further deprived of the ability to emerge from this cycle of poverty and thrive due to a large concentration of crime and homelessness, coupled with the lack of access to culturally competent services for low-income seniors, families, and small businesses .
We align with community members who are calling for broader community engagement in the county and discussions on mitigating community impacts. The Navigation Center Community Response Plan, completed in 2017, is a starting point. CID has been through this before and continues to see the damage it does to communities when our local government chooses to bypass a deliberate process. The response plan demonstrates the level of community engagement required, articulates the project’s issues and concerns, highlights the impact on the community, and provides recommendations for mitigation.
The FLS is asking the county to work to repair these relationships in CID, acknowledge the concerns and harms the project has done to the community, and work to develop strategies to mitigate the effects of CID.
Sincerely,
— Quynh Pham
executive Director
Friends of Little Saigon
