Tuesday, October 25, 2011

DESC: Public Funding Meeting with King County

Update:
King County has voted to postpone the funding request for the DESC Delridge Supportive Housing facility.  This time will be used to address community concerns about the fitness of the North Delridge neighborhood.  Six North Delridge residents attended this meeting and expressed their concerns. 

Decisions from the City, County, and State regarding funding applications for the DESC project on Delridge will be made within the next week or so.  This afternoon, Delridge Community Forum learned the following information regarding ways that neighbors can express support or concerns about the project to these decision makers and/or express requests regarding conditions that neighbors would like to see added to the funding contracts:

Public Meeting:
There is a King County meeting this Thursday morning where officials will be making funding recommendations for County funds.  We are told there will be room for some public comment and neighbors should feel welcome attending to express their opinions and to follow this decision process.

When:            Thursday, October 27 at 9:30 am
                       This is a two hour meeting.  Funding is on the agenda from approx.  9:40 - 11:00 am

Where:          Mercer Island Community and Event Center (a.k.a. Mercer View Community Center)
                       8236 SE 24th Street
                       Mercer Island, WA 98040
                       (206) 275-7609
                       Calkins Room #103
                       Directions

Note:  If you cannot attend, but still desire to express yourself, you can email your thoughts to the County prior to the meeting on Thursday (see below for details).

Delridge Community Forum will try to find out if there are also public meetings for the City and State funding decisions.  In the meantime, you may also email these decisions makers (see below for details).

Lastly, the County said that if funding does go through, neighbors can make requests about conditions they want to see written into the funding contracts.  These contracts won’t be written for some time (timeline unknown presently), so there will be more time for neighbors to make these requests.

Email the City, County and State Funding Decision Makers:
Email your thoughts (support, concerns, etc.) to the following people.  Neighbors can send one email to all three representatives at the same time.  Note that email content becomes public record. 

Washington State
Janet Masella, Department of Commerce
janet.masella@commerce.wa.gov

City of Seattle
Rick Hooper, Director, Office of Housing
rick.hooper@seattle.gov

King County
Cheryl Markham, Program Manager, Housing and Community Development
cheryl.markham@kingcounty.gov

cc: 
John DeChadenedes*
Coordinator of King County Funding
 john.dechadenedes@kingcounty.gov

Delridge Community Forum**
 delridgeforum@gmail.com

Note:  Cheryl Markham and Rick Hooper attended the recent neighborhood meeting on this topic.

*John DeChadenedes works under Cheryl Markham and asked to be copied on neighbors’ emails so he can be aware of our feedback.  He works closely with the City and the State as well.  John relayed that the funders want to hear from neighbors and community input is encouraged.

**Delridge Community Forum would like to be copied on neighbors’ emails as a means to track the community’s dialogue on this topic.