2021/03/03 Council Agenda Packet

Marista Jorve From: Deb Williams Sent: Monday, March 1, 2021 8:54 AM To: Thomas Robey; DL-Council Cc: Sharon Fuller; Marista Jorve; Anna Pankevich Subject: RE: CB2102-06 Public Comment Hello Thank you for your comments. I have forwarded your comments to clerk to be part of the permanent record. We appreciate your taking the time to be engaged and involved in your community. Sincerely, Deb Williams Executive Assistant to Council From: Thomas Robey <scienceandmedicine@gmail.com> Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2021 9:07 PM To: DL-Council <Council@everettwa.gov> Subject: CB2102-06 Public Comment Dear Everett City Council, This letter is regarding proposed Council Bill CB 2102-06 which would criminalize sitting, standing or laying in the vicinity of the Everett Gospel Mission. The stated goal is to manage the issue of crowded sidewalks in this area. We believe there are alternative approaches to this problem that would be more practical, more likely to result in good outcomes for your homeless constituents, more equitable, less likely to worsen COVID-19 infection in the city, and less likely to invite litigation against the City of Everett. We are physicians with extensive experience in caring for patients experiencing homelessness and are hopeful that our perspective may be of help as you consider this bill. For the last nine years, Dr. Reddy has been a primary care physician focused on homeless health. He teaches on this subject through the University of Washington Department of Medicine, and in 2019 was named the American Public Health Association Caucus on Homelessness Clinician of the Year. Dr. Robey is a locally recognized emergency medicine physician in Everett, consulted for the successful medical respite program at the Everett Gospel Mission, and is a regional leader in treating opioid addiction in the emergency department. Our entire region is struggling with an affordable housing crisis that has contributed to a homelessness crisis. With resources often too strained to deal with root causes, some municipalities have chosen to focus on reducing the visibility of the issue through vagrancy laws or other criminalization. These laws are now widely understood to be counterproductive. They disrupt tenuous stability, increase trauma, cycle vulnerable people into the criminal justice system, and add debt that makes eventual housing even more difficult. As just one example, after the displacement of one small encampment to which he'd been doing outreach, Dr. Reddy found the event had directly led to two hospital admissions, one drug relapse, and one lost opportunity to achieve permanent housing when the prospective tenant could not be found. i