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Focus Group - The Landing Colleen: So, this is Colleen, and I am here at The Landing with a group of five young adults that are staying here right now. I’ve just given them a little bit of background about the task force and I’m going to start with some questions. So the first questions are where are you from and why are you here? And whoever wants to start. Raven: I’ll start. My name is Raven. I was born in Jersey, but I’ve stayed in Seattle for a couple of years now. My mom lives in Bellevue. Basically, I’m here because I went to Job Corps and graduated. I studied medical administration, but when I came back from Job Corps, I was not on my mom’s lease. So, basically, it was either you find a place to stay or, if you continue to stay here, then you and your sibling are going to be out in the street, which is my younger sibling. So, I had friends and family I could stay with, but I heard going through a shelter was a lot faster so that’s the reason why I’m here. Colleen: Faster for what? Raven: Faster to get your own place, as far as getting into transitional, because my plan is to go back to school. I hear trying to juggle work and school is really hard. So I figured going into transitional and finishing school, then I’ll be able to get on my feet. So, that’s basically why I’m here. I don’t do drugs. I don’t drink. It’s just I’m in a crappy situation where I need to get on my feet. Colleen: How long have you been here, Raven? Raven: It’s been about four months and I’ve been working every day. Colleen: Do you mind saying how old you are? Raven: I’m twenty-one. Brandon: My name is Brandon. I’ve been here for about a month. This is my second stay at The Landing. I’m here because back in 2013, I was taking a vacation here and got all of my property stolen; my belongings, my clothing, my cash, my money. I was staying at the [blank], and it just got stolen. Instead of going home, which at the time was Minnesota, I decided to make the best of it, and try to get housing and get a job, stay in the Seattle, King County area. So that’s what I decided to do. And from two different [inaudible], I’ve got through the transitional program once, but I wasn’t able to keep that housing, so here I am. Colleen: Do you mind saying how old you are? ---PAGE BREAK--- Brandon: I’m twenty-four. So, I age out of the program in two months; July 31st. Dillon: My name’s Dillon. I’ve been here for about three months now. A couple things that led to my demise were I got evicted. A guy like moved out on lease, our apartment or our duplex and so I got evicted. Then, in turn kind of I lost my job because, and I stayed with friends, all that stuff. Lost my job, went through jail for a little while and ended up coming here because I didn’t want to keep bothering friends and stuff. I used to be the guy to let everyone stay at my place, so I understand how it pressures people. So I feel like I’m here because I want to get on my feet on my own. I don’t want to be an extra pressure on people like I’ve seen be to me. So just get back on my feet, and try and get all my jobs lined up, so I can get multiple part time’s together and save my money. So it’s a good place to save money. A lot of other people spend money on hotels and stuff, and some of us have jobs. Some of us can spend money on that stuff. But it really goes backwards for them because then they can’t save up for a place. I mean, getting out of homelessness is like saving up for first/last deposit. And for my house, that costs me $4,700 when I moved into my house and that wasn’t even a nice house. That was $1,300 a month for a three bedroom in Kirkland, but that costs a lot of money to move into. So, you need that and we’re usually in debt. It’s nice to be able to stay somewhere and actually fed [sic], that saves money, like have a place to sleep; that saves $69 a night for a hotel. Colleen: How long have you been here, Dillon? Dillon: Three months. Colleen: Do you mind saying how old you are? Dillon: Twenty-three years old. Jason: I’m Jason. I’m twenty-three. I’ve been staying here for like a little over six months. The reason I’m here is I’ve been struggling with heroin addiction since I was seventeen, eighteen years old. I worked full time for two and a half years. I had my own place. I had a car. But sooner or later that just becomes unmanageable when you’re spending all your money on drugs. So, I was staying in my brother’s room on his floor when my mom had her apartment in Bothell. We were selling drugs and so they evicted my mom from her apartment. So, she’s staying with my brother in a one bedroom apartment. So, me and my younger brother became homeless. When I first started staying here, I was still using, but then, I went to detox and I’m in outpatient now. I’ve been clean ---PAGE BREAK--- since the 10th of last month. Yeah, I don’t know where I’d be without this place, like honestly, I really don’t know. Colleen: Did you grow up in Bothell? Jason: I grew up in Woodinville. I lived in Bothell too for about a year and I lived in Northgate, Seattle for about a year. Yeah, this place is awesome. Raven: It’s a good job with the sobriety, Jason. Jason: Thank you. Colleen: Yeah, congratulations. Jason: Yeah, you should have seen me like a few months ago. I was completely different. Lucas: Well my name is Lucas. I just turned twenty on the 29th of May. And I actually left my parents’ house, following a domestic violence incident with my mother on the 24th of April. I’ve been staying here intermittently since the 25th of April. Basically, I’m here because I need a little extra support to get back on my feet. I just got a job so, hopefully, I can keep that job and that will bring me the income I need to find somewhere to live besides here. But every apartment owner and leasee [sic] and so forth that I’ve talked to requires proof of income before you can move in. So, unless I have a job, then I can’t find anywhere to stay. But I do have, fortunately, a little bit of money saved up so I can get out of here as soon as I do have income. Colleen: Where was your home? Lucas: In Snohomish. Colleen: Some of you have started touching on some of this, but how did you hear about The Landing? Jason: My mom told me. Yeah, like almost a year ago. I didn’t actually start coming until like a couple of months later. Colleen: So she thought this might be a good place for you to come? Is that why she told you? Jason: Yeah, she did. Raven: I heard from 211, pretty much. ---PAGE BREAK--- Male: What’s that? Raven: It’s basically the number you call, 211, and they give you like information on the shelters and whatnot that’s in your area. Lucas: Yeah, it’s a social services number. Dillon: [inaudible words] the job after I was staying on Capitol Hill for a week, I just Google searched. Somebody told me about shelters and I just performed a Google search for shelters in the Seattle area and this one came up. So, I checked it out. Colleen: Did you check out any in Seattle? Dillon: I checked out the Men’s Shelter, the Union Gospel Mission, and I checked out a couple different shelters. I checked out Roots in the University District. I don’t think that [inaudible words] once, but kind of evaluating and doing my own self little “research”, and I’d say that with air quotes for the people reading this. This was by far the smallest option, the most isolated option, the safest option that I’ve seen. I mean, Roots has about forty-five spots. I’m not sure. When I was staying there maybe that’s increased. Orion Center has about twenty-five to thirty, and maybe that’s increased with the funding that they’ve received from public resources. Friends of Youth has also increased about five spots. But this is still by far one of the safest, one of the friendliest environments, one of the environments that will provide for you, that will actually help you get on your feet and work with you. And have compassion and understanding, which is the main thing, I think, some of those other places lack is a little bit of compassion and understanding. Brandon: You don’t have to worry about your stuff getting stolen here. Jason: The outreach here is amazing. Like outreach actually outside of this business and outreach amongst clients. Colleen: Is that how you found out about it? Jason: I found out about it because I’ve just known of people. I used to just know a lot of people around Redmond and Kirkland, and stuff, since you know, the things that we used to all do or I did back in my bad days. So then, I just knew kids throughout the years that would stay here. Maybe I’d go up there, and then I kind of remembered that. One night after I tried sneaking my parrot into Roots, and I successfully snuck my parrot into Roots. ---PAGE BREAK--- And then the next day, someone snitched on me and said that I had this parrot on me, so they’re going to search me. And I had it inside this huge jacket, like this jacket and I was like shit. So I had to do that, and I was like well, let’s go to Friends of Youth and see. And then I was so [inaudible], but they’re sneaking in Friends of Youth, and like maybe they won’t… Dillon: Can I just make a comment on the funny, but serious issue? Colleen: Yeah. Dillon: If you have a pet, or if you have a pet or if you don’t have an ID, part of the reason that some people aren’t allowed to stay here is because if you don’t have an identification card, either a driver’s license or a form of ID, you’re not even allowed to access services in the first place. Jason: I could make my parrot a service pet. I can do it for like a therapy bird. Dillon: Like if you can’t have an ID to even get the dog. Colleen: So there are some barriers you’re saying to accessing. Dillon: There are some barriers. We are some of the lucky few that are able to access their services. I mean, the fact that… Colleen: Do you need an ID to get in here? Dillon: You do need an ID to get into services at Friends of Youth, at the Orion Center, at Roots, any [speaking simultaneously - inaudible]. Colleen: If you approach for services and you don’t have an ID, will someone help you get an ID? Dillon: You can stay for one night here. You can stay for one night at the other shelters. After that one night, Roots is five nights? Lucas: Five nights, yes. Jason: But if the case manager vouches for you, right? If they send a letter to wherever, your case manager from wherever you’re at, they’ll let you stay as long, because then they’ll help you. Well, I don’t know about the other places, but here they’re on top of it. I know of at least five, six people, that Victoria or somebody, they right, eight in the morning drive, they say just get a voucher for $5 to get an ID. Drive the ID [inaudible] with them, and she’ll make sure she… Colleen: Do what? I’m sorry, I’m not… ---PAGE BREAK--- Jason: She helps you, Victoria, the case manager here, will help somebody without an ID, get their ID and I’ve seen it like seven times over, which is the start of something that you need. I got all my stuff stolen, my wallet and my ID. She helped me get that. My EBT card; got that. She helped me get my new debit card, credit card sent here. I mean, she helped me get my wallet together and that’s necessary for; I got two jobs because of all that stuff she got me. Took care of my warrants because of that stuff she got me. Have a decent income and potentially [inaudible words] because it’s the little things starting out. Then they stay invested like that the whole time. Sitting there at the DOL for two hours and she’ll do it with all her clients. Dillon: So if I could just play the devil’s advocate. That’s only part of this though because there still is a waiting period for that ID. So if you’re not a strong willed individual who’s not able to access services, you still might have quite a few barriers. Even if you’re doing everything you can do to get that ID, you still need certain services while you don’t access to that. So, there’s some of us… Jason: But you don’t need anything to get an ID. What do you mean to get resources? If she drives you there, you’re [speaking simultaneously - inaudible]. Dillon: Well, because you still have to wait for her. I mean, because what if you don’t have the documentation? I mean, you… Jason: You don’t need a documentation. Just you say, hey, my name is Dillon. I just got my wallet stolen. That’s what I mean. They’re like, oh okay. Well, we trust you. We’re going to give you this voucher, and it says like Dillon’s lost his stuff. And you bring it from DSHS and you only pay You bring it to DOL, and DOL has a picture of you, unless you have are a brand new resident, and they say, okay and then they give you an ID. So you don’t need any resources. You need which Victoria provides and she starts you back up on your feet. Colleen: So that’s how it worked for you, it sounds like. Maybe it doesn’t work that way for everybody? Dillon: Yeah, I had to have my birth certificate, and another form of identifying documentation. And maybe that’s because you were born here, and I wasn’t. Jason: My license, I had an ID. It was simple. I had to have proof for… Colleen: You had something in this state before? ---PAGE BREAK--- Woman: Right. If you already have a Washington State ID card or license, it’s easy. But if you don’t, then it can be very difficult. Sometimes [inaudible]. I’ve had to send people back to their state, on a bus, to get ID’d before because if you don’t have Washington State ID and you lose your wallet here, it can be a real [speaking simultaneously]. Dillon: I mean I was lucky that I had my home identification card, but if I didn’t have that, I mean I wouldn’t be here. Colleen: Lucas, you’ve been trying… Lucas: I just want to make a comment of requiring identification to access services. From what I’ve seen the drop-in on Monday through Friday, I’m sorry. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday does not require identification. So you can access that without identification. But as you’ve said, getting into shelter here does require that identification. Colleen: So that’s a good segway to my next question which is, how do you spend your time during the day when, The Landing I understand is 8:30 at night till eight in the morning. Is that right? And so then… Male: 7:35. Colleen: You can leave your stuff here during the day? Or you can’t? You can’t. Brandon: There’s kind of a differentiation. If you have a case manager, or if you have a job, or if you have a program called Step Up, you are able to leave your stuff here. But if you’re just a regular patron and using services without a case manager, or who’s not receiving services… Colleen: If you haven’t really signed into the whole program yet kind of thing? Brandon: If you’re not interested in the services, for whatever reason, then you don’t have a place to keep your stuff. Just this morning, and I’m not sure of the girl’s name. But she asked to keep her stuff here, so she could go to work. Some people are able to keep their stuff here, if you’re using services or you’re able to have a case manager. If all the lockers aren’t filled, you have an option to keep your stuff here. But that’s not the case for everybody. Raven: Basically, Step Up is a program to where if you’re working or in school, I think about twenty hours, then you get a permanent spot, and you get a locker to put your things in, obviously, because you have to work and go to school. So, basically, if you’re doing those things and being productive, and those type of things, then you’re able to access things that you need, as far as lockers and case managers are free and whatnot. ---PAGE BREAK--- Colleen: So by permanent spot, you mean you don’t have to do the lottery when you come to sleep at night? Raven: Yeah, you don’t have to worry about, yeah. Colleen: You know you’ve got a place to stay. Raven: Exactly. Colleen: Let me get Lucas real quick. Lucas: Well, if you have extenuating circumstances. In my case, I had a job interview and I just couldn’t take all that stuff with me to my interview. So they did allow me to store something temporarily. But I did have to move it out afterwards. Colleen: So situational. It sounds like they’ll work with you a little bit on that. So, how do each of you spend your time during the days when The Landing is not really accessible here? Jason: I do outpatient rehab three days a week. I go to three meetings a week. Colleen: Where do you go for those things? Jason: Bellevue. I skateboard a lot and that’s about it right now. Raven: Basically, I work, which is forty hours a week most of the time. And when I’m not at work, I normally go to the gym or I go see family, or something like that normally, or I’ll go to the library. But most of the time, it’s either work or the gym, basically. Colleen: Lucas? Lucas: I spend as much time as I can trying to set up either interviews or meetings with people who could rent a place to me. And when I don’t have interviews or meetings, I will go to the library and sit down at my computer and look up more ways to do that. Colleen: Did you say you just got a job? Lucas: I did, yes. Colleen: How many hours are you going to have? Lucas: It’s a full time position. It’s about forty-four hours a week. ---PAGE BREAK--- Colleen: Good for you. Male: Oh, where? Lucas: It’s marketing. It’s in Tukwila. Jason: Oh wow, that’s a big drive. Raven: There’s a bus ride. Lucas: A bit of a drive, yeah. I’m sorry, not a drive. I don’t have a car. Colleen: Dillon and Brandon? Brandon: I do have a job. It’s a temporary service on [blank]. I won’t lie and say I go to work all the time. I have the ability to go to work every single morning. I do have to wake up at about 4 a.m., take the 5:45 there, wait for a couple hours, maybe get a job. If I don’t get a job, then I’ll sit at the library. I consider myself an aspiring writer or whatever. So, most of my time is spent working on novels or journal writing, or something of my own personal project. If I am working, then I work a general labor construction job and sometimes get off get maybe $40 or $50 a day, $35 if it’s kind of a slow day. But then again, I don’t have food stamps. So there’s money, and stuff that I pay for. I do use recreational marijuana; I’m not going to lie. That’s where some of my money goes towards, but I’m saving money to try to get myself out of this situation. I’m considering going back to Oklahoma to stay with my mom, but at the same time, that’s not always been the most safest and protective environment. Maybe I share similar issues with Lucas, but maybe that time has passed. So, I won’t lie and say I go to work every day, but I have the passion to go to work every day, but I do do it. Colleen: Dillon? Dillon: I try to do exactly what I do if I had an apartment. And when I moved into an apartment recently, I ended up moving back in here. I do the same things. I play less video games and watch less movies and stuff, but I play in sports. I like longboarding. I’m trying to get another one because I’ll longboard ten, twenty miles a day amongst other things using it as transportation, but that’s a big added for me. I play basketball. I usually try to have at least one job, if not two. Colleen: Right now, you have two? Dillon: Yes. It was supposed to be potentially three, but the painting didn’t come through. But if I work, fifty hours a week, playing basketball. I like reading. ---PAGE BREAK--- Sometimes, I go to the library and catch up on a show or whatever. But I just do what any normal person would do. I try to. That’s the trick is getting yourself out of the loop. If you wake up and wait for the library to open and you get in the [inaudible words] and I’ve done it, then you just don’t [inaudible words]. You don’t get motivated because waking up here, it can either be [inaudible] where it’s depressing, and you like feel you can’t get out of a hole. I mean, that’s what they’re good at now is lining us, resources is motivating you and getting you moving forward. Once you know you can get that step in front of the other, like you get a job. For me, I got one job and thanks to Trevor [sp], Trevor got me to the interview, or to the first day. Because that was my first job. I went from [blank] and then I started working [blank] and doing some painting. And then, I moved up to [blank], and I worked at [blank] for seven months. And now, I moved up to a better restaurant. And it’s just once you have the motivation, you’re rolling with it. Colleen: Were you going to add something, Lucas? Lucas: Oh, I was just going to add a comment. I typically spend the two hours, two hours fifteen minutes before the library opens if I need to use the library, I’m biking around the city. I really appreciate all the bike lanes. It really is a bike friendly city. Colleen: I know some people who will appreciate that comment. Are all of you in the situation of having a guaranteed spot because of your participation? Raven is. Only Raven? Dillon: And Dillon. Lucas: Only those on the Step Up program will have that guaranteed spot. Colleen: So every night, you come and… Brandon: I guess this is a question for Raven. Isn’t Step Up only twelve weeks? Raven: Yes, but that’s if you have to get it renewed. Brandon: Okay. So you have the opportunity to get it renewed. Raven: Exactly. You still have to have proof of obviously, you’re working and whatnot. Colleen: So the rest of you take your chances of an overnight. Lucas: Yes, that’s correct. ---PAGE BREAK--- Colleen: What’s been the situation lately? Have there been enough spots that you haven’t had to worry about it? Or, are people getting turned away? Jason: I got lottoed the night before last. Colleen: And lottoed means you didn’t get in? Jason: Yeah. That was the first time though in almost two months. I’ve been pretty lucky, I guess. Colleen: What did you do that night? Jason: I had to stay at my buddy Russell’s house. He lives in Redmond. But, you know, he uses heroin, so. Colleen: So that was not a good place for you to be. Jason: No, oh my God, it was ridiculous. I don’t even want to get into it. Colleen: Brandon? Brandon: I was just going to say, there’s almost been a lotto every night this week except for maybe one or two. I haven’t got lottoed recently, except the first night I stayed here. Colleen: The first night you tried to stay here? Brandon: The second night in trying to stay here and I went to Gas Works. Colleen: You went to Gas Works? Brandon: Yeah, I went to Gas Works. I have a friend who lives in Seattle who lets me stay every now and then. But he works for [blank] and he’s very busy. To be honest, I’m very reluctant to use anything he gives me because he’s very condescending of that. He makes jokes about it. He makes jokes about me, as a homeless person, as a homeless youth. So, I mean, maybe it’s a little stubborn. Maybe it’s a little prideful, but I’m reluctant to access services from somebody who’s constantly putting down my situation. I don’t even know he’s conscious that he does it, which is the funny thing about it. It’s funny to him, because this is what he’s been seeing his entire life. So, as a person who’s maybe not from the area, I spent teenage years in Seattle, but I didn’t spend my entire life here. It’s frustrating when I understand the situation, and maybe he does too, but somebody can still make a joke out of it. ---PAGE BREAK--- So I would rather come to the Friends of Youth and a supporting environment, versus maybe stay with a friend or couch surf when people are understanding and I don’t have those opportunities [inaudible words] for the same resources. Colleen: Do you have something to add? Dillon: Before I got on this program, if you don’t make it in, this is kind of going off of what we’ve been talking about. Colleen: If you don’t make it into the One Step? Dillon: If you don’t make it into The Landing because there’s more than twenty, if there’s lotto’s, The Landing reaches out and there’s different things they’ll do. They’ll call Roots, and they’ll reserve you a spot, something that you can’t do by yourself. If you call them, and they’ll say, you need to be here by this time. And we won’t be able to make it there. But then here, they’ll actually reserve a spot. You get [inaudible words] and you go [inaudible words] get there or [inaudible]. Or there’s another shelter in Bellevue during the winter, they will wait, they’ll give us food and they’ll drive us to Bellevue Shelter and check us in. So they have a lot more reach and power and [inaudible] than just the twenty. It’ll be twenty-four some nights because they’ll still have the four people; they used to provide sleeping bags and stuff, but that wasn’t great for the community. So they do everything else and help us out. Provide us food still, if we don’t make it in, they’ll pack us up food. They’ll give us bus tickets and they’ll provide as much help as they can. Colleen: some of you have touched on this, but what’s your plan? What’s the next thing? How long do you think it’s going to take? What are your biggest challenges to making that happen? Raven: So basically, I recently got accepted into transitional housing. So I’m really, really excited because… Colleen: Where? Raven: It’s in Kirkland, downtown Kirkland. So I finally get to have my own room, and kind of go from there, which is a lot less stressful because I don’t have to worry about sleeping on a mat. But from then, my plan is to work all summer and then go back to school in the fall. Colleen: So when do you get your place? Raven: I meet the landlord I think Monday with my case manager and pretty much lay down the rules, and what they expect of me and kind of like go from there. ---PAGE BREAK--- Colleen: Good for you, that’s great. Brandon: I’ve recently been offered a full time position through [blank], the temp service that I’ve been working through recently. But I will admit I’m a little reluctant to accept it. Just because I’m not sure of my situation of staying in Seattle if it’s going to give me the better opportunity to get a full time place to live versus going home, seeing my mother and trying to stay with her in an unstable environment. Because if I do relocate, and my parents have always been kind of nomadic and reluctant to stay in one spot, and I think that’s carried on me, I don’t want to move to the wrong place and miss out on an opportunity for work when I might have had a better opportunity to stay than go. So I have opportunities for work. I think I’m just taking things day by day, and weighing my options as to what’s going to help me in the long run because I’ve already been through the transitional housing system and it didn’t necessarily work for me. So, I’m reluctant to go back into that system again. I think it has to be different for me this time. I’m not saying that that system doesn’t work for anybody else, but that was my opinion. Colleen: Fair enough. Dillon: I’ve been trying to get my income up, my hourly wage. My wages have been garnished. I didn’t know that. So now I’ve switched jobs to work for tips. So, I finally got up to a wage that it’s not good, but it’s good enough to save up fifty hours a week, and save up for a place. When you’re in debt, and you’ve got an eviction, or a little bit of debt from tickets and stuff, it’s hard to get out of the hole here. So, I’m kind of working with that kind of credit. So you have to have cash, like I said, you have to have first, last, and deposit and the transitional living, I believe does not work either, but that’s also kind of personal. So I’m actually back, because of that, too. I moved into a transitional living place. I had a decent job and everything, but ended up moving back in here so I could do it kind of same thing as Brandon. We all want our own place, not something that’s in-between a shelter and your own place. So yeah, I have two jobs and through these tips and everything so I can get back on my feet. The trick is when you’re homeless though, you spend money on food, on things like experiences [sounds like] because you’re out, and if you have a good job, you can enjoy life while being homeless. But that’s the problem, is you’re trying to enjoy life and it’s harder to save up. When you’re like well, [inaudible words] we had recently, too. So, I have extra income and ---PAGE BREAK--- I have money that I can save up. So I think I can do both. But being motivated and everything helps. Jason: What was the question again? Colleen: What’s your plan from here? How long do you think it’s going to take? And what are your biggest challenges or hurdles? Jason: I filled out one of those housing assessments a couple months ago, maybe a little longer. I’m waiting to hear back on that. Once I finish these couple court cases and my community service that I have to do, I’m going to look for a job. Colleen: Can you get a job, and keep your treatment going, your meetings and everything? Jason: Yeah, I’ll just be getting like a part time job. Dillon: With me, bro, I’m going to hook it up. We’re going to go [inaudible words]. Colleen: How about you, Lucas? Lucas: Well, since I have a full time job, as soon as I actually get some income from that, I can go to any of the four people that have expressed interest in having me rent from them and say hey, look, I have proof of income. Now I can move in. But until that, I’m here and one of my challenges, actually I think this is a perfect moment to talk about Redmond because, I don’t know how true this is. But I'm just basing off of Wikipedia's job number and population, [blank] employs about 57% of the City of Redmond. And that means there's a very obvious market which all the housing providers in the area are looking for. So, those who don't make [blank] money, find it more difficult to find a place. I mean that's, there's nothing wrong with that. That's just market forces working on each other, but. Colleen: It leaves it difficult for some people. Jason: I think that raises the cost of living around here. Lucas: That does, yeah. That does have an effect on [speaking simultaneously- inaudible] Jason: They make six, my buddy just got hired out. He didn't know what he was doing in [blank], doing some accounting classes. I checked in with him like three years later. He'd just gotten out of UW doing four year, got his Bachelor's, got hired in [blank] at six figures. And he's not even, that's not ---PAGE BREAK--- even a high-up position. I mean, trying to move into places that are requiring for first, last, deposit and for a single bedroom starting at $1,200, $1,300. The front page of the newspaper yesterday was talking about the raising prices of rentals on the east side. That's going to increase that percentage you talked about initially about the number of homeless sticking around. When you're saving that $18 an hour even, it… Dillon: Saving up $5,000 is still pretty tricky. Woman: Brandon? Brandon: I'm looking at the archhousing.org renter's PDF. It's available on the City of Redmond’s website. I just went in to look at the [blank] apartment complex on [blank]. Out of the 128 total units there, only 12 of those units are affordable housing units. Which they did require at least 30% of housing, and I found this out yesterday, of housing units to be qualified for low-income individuals. At the same time, like they said, you still need three times the rent. So even if you're only making $22,000, $23,000 a year in which case $22,000 a year compared to $1,600 a month when your rent is $1.300, doesn't give you a lot of room for leeway. So you might not even qualify. Even if you can afford the rent, they might not approve you for the rental amount because you make enough money to pay for rent, but you don't make enough money for the cost of living. And those are two completely different things. I wanted to make just known and aware. I mean even, I think, some of the issues with trying to build affordable housing, and they’ve been getting a little off track, is that we are competing with such, not only are we competing with people from [blank] who have proof of income. They can afford the median income, 80% to 100% live in an apartment versus us who are working at [blank]. I can understand how affordable housing on the east side in Bellevue and Redmond, Issaquah, Snohomish, Kirkland, Woodinville; I can understand how some of these places are getting phased out because the truth of the matter is they have more money than us. Private buildings and private commercialized, who want to build the land, can provide it for people who can pay for it. It's not a financial incentive for them to provide housing for us when they're going to be fronting the majority, at least a good portion of those rental costs for the first three, six, maybe even nine months to a year that we might be staying at these places. I think that it's definitely seen as an investment. Housing for low-income individuals and families is definitely seen as an investment. But it maybe should be more seen as a priority if people are worried about their safety in a public community. ---PAGE BREAK--- Jason: Increasing rentals, the amount of rentals has been somewhat, in the city of Redmond would help a lot too, because there are a lot of people that transitional living is necessary and helpful. Then there are some of us that can't handle, we [inaudible] and we can afford month, let's say we can afford month-to-month. Maybe we only make double what we pay rent, but we'll do it. I know a kid lives in East [inaudible]. It's $900 for a single bedroom and he works at [blank], and for the record, [blank] can't be transcribed in this online or else I'll get fired. So just everyone blank out [speaking simultaneously- inaudible] I should have realized [inaudible words] they're like you can't even mention [blank] to anyone. Dillon: So, that’s kind of an issue in itself. Not being able to use the employer that you work for in an example of this magnitude is sort of an issue in itself. [speaking simultaneously-inaudible] Jason: It brings politics into it. It's not that it has anything to do with the bias versus, it’s just their PR doesn't want to deal with the liability. But, anyways… Colleen: So that's a good segue. I have two more questions for you and then I just want to hear what you think it's important for us to hear, but one is, you started to talk about it with the idea of rental assistance, Dillon. So, your thoughts about what's the biggest gap in whatever would be helpful to you guys getting to the next thing you're trying to get to? Are you getting everything you need to get there? Is there a gap that could be filled that would help? Dillon: I believe there is in a sense because there are different types of people at shelters. This city, especially a lot of cops view this shelter as, let's say, less productive or just more of a volatile crowd. And there's a crowd that, like I said once again, the transitional versus there’s different steps we're at and if we’re trying to get on a certain plane and keep us there. Then, like I said, the idea of rental assistance, the idea of resources, just accommodating people that want a higher standard. That seems judgmental, I don't mean what I said, but just want to get further and there's not much, I've been waiting for three months for rental assistance. And this whole three months, literally that's the amount of time they offer it, I'm going to take it up because I mean that's one or two paychecks versus eight. And that's the difference [inaudible] for a year or two. Because as I said, once again, I said when you're homeless you spend more money to even if you’re going to save [inaudible words]. Brandon: Could you just rephrase the question again? Colleen: Are there any big gaps in what's available to you guys from a service point of view that are really making it difficult for you to get from here to where you're trying to go? ---PAGE BREAK--- Brandon: Well, I mean, there's just not enough space. I think I would echo… Woman: Not enough space? Brandon: Well, not enough. Yeah, this is [inaudible]. I just don't believe there's not enough, there isn't enough housing to go around. With the continuation of Seattle becoming an emerging popular city, I think population in King County and Seattle has increased every year since, I don't know. Every year it's increasing. It's growing. Population is growing in King County and Seattle, it's not going down. With a mixture of homelessness and young adults and then regular adults, and non-youth, there's competition between us and the transitional housing market about one-fourth, I'm quoting the ARCH. This is from the Seattle Times yesterday. The ARCH members cities targeted creation of 445 new units between 1993 and 2012 for low-income residents, but only built 110. So I think, in my opinion, not only is there not enough housing being built, there might not be enough space for it to be built; there's competition with certain commercial residencies or private investors versus the ARCH, A Regional Housing Coalition. We're getting bought out for, there's not enough housing and I think that… Colleen: So that's the biggest gap, is just not enough affordable housing? Brandon: I think there has to be a little bit of transparency amongst the community. And I think there has to be a little bit of transparency amongst the City of Redmond, city governments themselves and the community and the homeless community ourselves. There has to be more transparency. We have to have more meetings. There has to be more leeway for both of us. We have to know what to expect when going into housing. To be honest, we might understand what it takes, that it takes three times your income to even rent an apartment, but for most people in here, they have no idea that that's the case. They might know, okay, if I get a job I get a little bit of money in my pocket. Somebody's going to help me out and I'm able to get an apartment. When they find out that that may be not the case, that may be, like Dillon said, it's going to take you six, nine, two, three, you get extremely discouraged. You get a lot more discouraged than you normally would have in going to work every day. Not only having to survive for your basic needs, but remember, when you go into a company like X, Y, Z restaurant services that you don't get to eat any of that food. You get a 50% discount. So looking at the food you're serving to the people who see you as a maskless, faceless mob of ne'er-do-wells or people who are worried about their safety, it gets harder and harder to remain vigilant in what you're trying to do. It gets ---PAGE BREAK--- harder and harder to keep your goal. I've had to firsthand experience that myself, as a person who maybe didn't want to go to work all the time, maybe hasn't put the fact that I'm not getting out of this situation anytime soon is the ultimate decider and the ultimate factor which helped me get out of it and yet, here I am. So I think more transparency amongst the communities of both homeless and city governments. Colleen: And by transparency you mean communication, or… Brandon: Communication, expectations. Jason: Understanding. Brandon: Understanding and leeway within what we're trying to achieve. They know we're trying to achieve housing to only help ourselves and to help the community [inaudible] through them help you. Dillon: I think it would be easy to say that's ignorant. Like these people around here, there's safety even around here because [inaudible words]. People judge so much that they can actually effect where we're going, what we're doing. If you maybe feel like you're homeless like you're someone else down below, literally, you'll wake up here and waking up here is another reality that hits you. Then you see these people that treat you like shit and the cops in Redmond, they did that. They beat the crap out of me about a month and a half ago and there's proof. At the hospital I had blood like all, I had hair pulled out right in front of the cop station, when I was trying to go to work, it made me miss work and stuff. They did that and they're like you're probably staying at The Landing, aren't you? They said that while they slammed me off the curb. I mean these guys; I've gone up to cops and explained to them. I was like if these people, these stabbings, those people actually I know who they were. They never stayed here and they were like, well, doesn't, they said this to me directly, one of the captains he said doesn't matter. The Landing brings people. So they're blaming me for attracting other homeless people that are and crazy and stabbing people. Now they hate us because there's violence. They profiled me as a sexual predator, also a month and a half ago. Right here eating a burger in nice slacks and stuff, they said I looked, I asked them, I was like I look like someone that's sexually assaulted a girl right here? And you think that I might be that person? And they said yes. And I was like, wow. ---PAGE BREAK--- Brandon: If I could just make a comment. If you're worried about your safety in the community, if you talk to us, you will very quickly find out who it is and who it is not that you can talk to and who it is not that you can trust amongst us. When you have people look at us as a gang, as a group, as a coalition of people. If you would sit and take the time to talk to us about what we're doing, you will learn that we are either safe, or we are either not safe to talk to you. You have the police on your side, you have the police force on your side. You have community members on your side who will take your position over ours every single time based on the way we look. If that's your worry, if your worry is about community safety, then you need it, you have to be the change you want to see in the world, quoting Gandhi. Taking that chance to talk to us as an individual and find out our story, you will feel safer after having that conversation with us. You only perpetuate the system that you continue to live in if you ignore it. Jason: I have something else say like I would have to estimate that like 95% of the people that stay here don't steal stuff. They don't, they're… Brandon: And, sorry to cut you off, that 5% is only a product of the society. Colleen: Okay, Brandon. Let Jason finish. Jason: Yeah, I would have to say that like 95% of the people that stay here are for the most part good people that don't create problems in the community. Like, for example, me and my brother woke up, my little brother stays here, too. We woke up in the morning. Went to [blank] and then we went to the Redmond transit center to take the bus to Bellevue. We were sitting at the bus stop smoking a cigarette and there was nobody else at the bus stop. A cop walked up to us and said you're supposed to be twenty-five feet away from the bus stop when you smoke a cigarette. I was like, oh, sorry, dude and I put it out. Then he asked us what we were doing, where we came from. And we said we just woke up. We were staying at The Landing and we're taking the bus to Bellevue. And after that his demeanor completely changed. I have his card, too. Officer [blank] is his name. His demeanor completely changed, and then he asked me for my ID. So, for whatever reason I gave it to him, even though… Brandon: You weren't obligated to. Dillon: It’s totally prejudice, yeah. Jake: Well, technically, he did have a reason to stop me and ask for my ID because it is technically, I think it’s technically illegal, I don’t know if it’s illegal. Colleen: [inaudible] ordinance or something, the smoking thing? ---PAGE BREAK--- Jason: It’s a citation thing. Yeah, Officer [blank] he took my ID and then he came back and was like, and I honestly had no, actually this is actually, no, this was a different time. So this time he asked for my ID, he came back, he said I had a warrant for my arrest, took me to jail. He said that I missed a court date on the 21st of last month, but my court date wasn’t till the 21st of the next month. Lucas: So he sent you up for no reason? Jason: Absolutely, no reason. Lucas: Yeah, because of the prejudice, because yeah. Brandon: Well, we don’t have a stop and identify statue in this state, so, I mean if he’s not stopping your for some reason the... Jason: Unless you’re breaking a law. Brandon: Right, of course. But I think Brenda does make a good point that safety of people who aren’t homeless against those who are homeless is sort of a phantom menace here in Redmond. Because I’ve never seen a more well patrolled city and if you do talk to those who are homeless, you will find that the vast majority of them are not dangerous and do not intend to hurt you. Dillon: They might intend to hurt each other, but not you. Brandon: Yes, they might, they might, but... Jason: Hurt each other and that scares people into thinking that [speaking simultaneously]. Brandon: Yeah, you’ll find that they’re not nearly as dangerous as you think. Are we still on the gap in services? Colleen: I just wanted to see if Raven [sp] wanted to add anything to this because you’re nodding your head a bunch. Raven: It just so many emotions that are really kind of going through my head. I just feel like, I mean I don’t come from a background of violence and I’m definitely not a violent person, I’m really friendly. I’m just here to kind a do what I have to do to get on my feet. But being in this community I’ve never been so judged ever in my entire life, you know what I mean? I just feel like it’s all about value, you know what I mean? I feel like somebody can look at you and if they don’t see the value in you, then they don’t want to be around you. I feel like that has a lot, I don’t know if I’m making sense, but I feel like that has a lot to do with us and like the shelter. You know what I mean? You rarely see people come up to us, hi, what’s your name? What’s your story instead of oh, well; they look at us, why are you sitting on a bench? You know what I mean, for an example? Why are you here? They don’t think about the reason for it. You know what I mean? Our story, you know what I mean? They just see us as just somebody that’s there, that’s a waste of space, that’s a waste of. ---PAGE BREAK--- Because we don’t have value, we don’t have money, we don’t; you know what I mean? That’s just really what I feel like it’s about. They say that their safe, but or unsafe, there’s so many police officers, it’s like what are we doing that makes you want to treat us like we’re less than garbage? You know what I mean? We’re human beings. Colleen: I’m going to get a few more and then we have a little bit of a time limit, so Brandon than Lucas. Brandon: Jason mentioned that 95% of the homeless community here are safe and that 5% of those people aren’t safe. If I could go back to those those are the people that you need to be targeting. I’m sorry if I’m a little bit upset. I’ve been called the word in this city more times than I’ve been called the word anywhere else in the country, in the City of Redmond. As an African American male, that is not only shocking, but extremely, extremely illuminating. Why is that the issue if this is one of the most progressive cities in the country? Look at the look, you look at them stealing, you look at them trying to do drugs, when you look at them shooting up, those are the people you need to be offerings services to because those are the people who have hit rock bottom, who don’t have the motivation to keep going. We are the ones who are still fighting for what we want and for what we believe in. Those are the people who have no motivation, who have no will, who have given up, who are going to be in our community for the next fifty, seventy-five, a hundred years and those are the people who are going to using the resources and your tax dollars. So it’s not up to us to help you, it’s up to you to help us if you want to see us leave. That is your incentive I pledge to you. Dillon: Instead of helping them, you judge them, I totally agree. Brandon: I’m sorry I do apologize for any tone of voice. Collee: Lucas, did you want to say anything? Lucas: I just wanted to say there’s a horrific gap in services that no one is mentioning. There’s no bike rack at City Hall. So whenever I go into City Hall I latch my bike to a tree and that’s horrible. It makes me feel so bad, there should really be a bike rack at City Hall. Colleen: We’ll get on that. Brandon: But what happens if you get your bike stolen? That your means of transportation stolen, then you don’t have the needs to get to work, then you don’t have [speaking simultaneously - inaudible] services... Lucas: Right, I try to bike ten miles a day, I couldn’t do that. Brandon: …that’s something that we need to make more of, if somebody gets their ability to work, then you’re really taking away their transportation, then you’re really taking away their resource to go to work and then you’re really ---PAGE BREAK--- stunning their growth. So yes, there needs to be a bike rack, but that’s a very minor issue or part [speaking simultaneously - inaudible]. Lucas: No, it’s a very serious issue, don’t understate the... Brandon: But it’s not considered a serious issue; it’s very much considered a minor issue. Lucas: Well, no one raises a stink about it. Brandon: It’s not a major issue because... Colleen: Finish up with anything you think is really important for the task force to hear from you or know from your perspective that we haven’t already talked about. We’ve already talked about it, great, but if there’s something else, let’s get it in there. Raven? Raven: In closing, I would just say that I’ve never been homeless before in my live, this is my first time I’ve ever been homeless. I’ve never felt more safe. This place provides a place for us to come and just be ourselves. You know what I mean? It’s not about race, it’s not about color, it’s not about none of that. It’s about us coming and gathering and having a mutual understanding of where we are at this time. I just felt like if we didn’t have that, I don’t know where be like Jason say, I don’t know where I’d be if Friends of Youth was not here. I’m so grateful for not only like the youth that’s around me, because I’m made great friends being here and I’ve learned not to judge people from just what they look like because there’s a story behind every face. I’m just really thankful and I feel like this is the best program I’ve ever been in and felt so much at home, yet it’s not my home. That’s what I would say about that. Brandon: If you’ll allow me to come in one more time, if this place wasn’t here, we’d be at the library, [blank], we’d be at [blank]. We’d be at more public places... Jason: Drug infested places. Brandon: ...if this place doesn’t exist. If you remove this place, if you take this place away, you’re not helping us, you’re only including us in more of your public areas that you don’t want to see us in. Raven: Exactly. Dillon: People think of it as a nuisances, but it’s a lot more positive than I think. So I try to get back here and I try to, I’m down the hill [inaudible words] around here. I try to give insight to Brittney [sp] and Trevor [sp] and stuff about certain things that as a client you just have more awareness of just because the situation in that they can’t always get communication fully between clients. I try to give back. I think this town is on its way up and it’s like he said, I believe it is one of the most progressive, and I think, in the country. I think morally and ethically should step it up as a city because judgment and prejudice is so counterproductive in this situation. Literally, it can be someone being called ---PAGE BREAK--- the word. Someone being put down once because they’re homeless can be a difference of them never getting off the streets. I mean, literally, there’s certain people that I always see them, they don’t do anything, they don’t want to do anything. They can do something and I’m going to judge them because I think they can do something, but they can’t because they’re so down inside. They just don’t have what they should because they’re put down constantly and if they are already down, it’s not going to go up. When you’re homeless out in the street and there’s judgment, judgment, we need to judgment to God and we need to like help them. I’m realizing that, I’m trying to help out in the community. Just because I’m homeless, people help me out and doing drugs and being a selfish bastard over these years has taught me, has gotten to a point where I feel like I need to give back and also, I’m helped so much by the resources that Redmond provides. I just want the community to understand that it is a big help and there’s certain little things, there’s going to be side effects. There’s always going to be homeless people and by ending resources that seem to aid and maybe contribute to, but they don’t, it’s a really good thing. The other option without it, is a bad option. They are not going to disappear, they’re not just all going to go to Seattle. It’s Redmond, but you can’t, you’re not above, I mean, it’s not above everything and there’s going to be people sleeping on the benches making people feel uncomfortable. They used to give out tents here and that was a learning experience. They gave out tents, sleeping bags to aid the people that didn’t make it in. Well, that was contributing to problems because there’s tents and stuff and the city let you know. So [inaudible words] well, [inaudible words] you can’t promote violence on the Slew because there’s tents and stuff. We try and it’s communication that’s going to be our number one tool and [inaudible words] so I respect that. Colleen: I think Lucas was next and then Jason. Lucas: I just quick question for you. I know that the public Council meetings start at 7:30, do you know how long those typically last? Colleen: Anywhere from one to three hours, depends on the... Lucas: Is it alright to leave in the middle of a Council meeting? Colleen: Yes, it is. Lucas: Okay, I’ll be there. Raven: Where are they held? Colleen: Council Chambers in City Hall. Jason? Jason: One thing I’d like to say is 99%, maybe like 95%, of the bad stuff that happens around Redmond is committed by people who don’t even stay here and I know that for a fact because I know lots of people, I talk to lots of people. ---PAGE BREAK--- Lucas: Know who knows who does what and they don’t stay here. So, you hear anything it’s obvious who does what. I could name you every single name of the [inaudible words] and guess what, I could tell you [blank] never stayed here. Polly: I’m Polly and I work here and I just want to say first thank you all for coming, you’re thoughts are so important and your points of view are really helpful and everything you said was so right on, it’s really great to be working here with you. I want to say I thought what Jason said about 95% of homeless people are being good people was really interesting to me because you know, 5% of rich people are dangerous too. If you don’t believe that, you can talk to some of the young women who have worked as prostitutes in this town. So we’re all human beings here and most of us are good people and the number one solution to homelessness is providing affordable housing, I think you’re on with that. The second most important thing that we can do as a community is to treat each other like human beings. Raven: Exactly. Brandon: This is not a black and white issue. We understand that and we would hope the community understands that. Solving homelessness over a short period of time and over a long period of time is not a black and white issue and it is not going to be solved tomorrow. That being said, I would like to see more transparency. Maybe let a homeless person in on the task force, let them be an intern, make sure he is there at every meeting, make sure he’s able to account for what’s being said about the community. So if there are misconceptions, if there are judgments being made, he can say, hey, I don’t think that’s completely fair. I’m saying he, he or she or a transgender person can say hey, I don’t think that’s completely fair, this is what really happens or hey, you’re right on. We need to do more of that. There has to be more transparency between these communities. A weekly meeting between the people who feel unsafe and the homeless community. A bi-weekly meeting, a statement, send out letters, something more than judge us from afar. Judge us to our faces and get further than we’re getting right now. Raven: It’s not only that, a lot of us are survivors. We come from backgrounds that most people can’t even imagine. That we’re just trying to get out of it and do better for ourselves. I met all kinds of people and before I would have not like, most people here, to be to honest, I probably wouldn’t have talked to because the first thing you think of is oh, they a druggie or they’re homeless, I don’t want anything to do with them. But there’s a story behind that and that’s where you learn like not to judge. I’ve met tons of people come from rape backgrounds and running from abusive families and drug families and all ---PAGE BREAK--- types of crazy things. They’re here because they want to do better and move on with their lives. I myself can speak from that because that’s why I’m here. Colleen: One last thing, then we’ll wrap up. Lucas: Just one last comments, if we haven’t already, let’s add in something we talked about before we turned on the recorder which is the number of people using services is going up, clearly, but is the number, is the percentage of people who need those services also going up because that’s a more important metric. Colleen: Okay I’m going to turn off the recorder, I’m going to stay for a minute after that.