Name: Bellingham City Council - Public Health, Safety, Justice, and Equity Committee meeting, Mar 23, 2026
Start: 2026-03-23
End: 2026-03-23
Location: City of Bellingham

City Council - Public Health, Safety, Justice, and Equity Committee

Mon, March 23, 2026

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City Council – Public Health, Safety, Justice, and Equity Committee — March 23, 2026

This was a committee meeting chaired by Council Member Dan Hammill, joined by Council Members Skip Williams and Hollie Huthman. The committee considered a single ordinance and voted to forward it to the full council.

Ordinance: Temporary Alley Closures for Public Health and Safety

What it is: The proposed ordinance would grant the Public Works Director authority to temporarily close downtown alleys upon recommendation of the Police Chief, for the purpose of disrupting entrenched drug dealing and associated criminal activity. Unauthorized entry after closure would be a misdemeanor, though city staff emphasized that citations are not the goal — they expect the mere presence of gates and signage to deter activity, as has been observed in similar efforts in Seattle.

The problem it addresses: Deputy Administrator Forest Longman presented data showing that in 2025, a three-block section of downtown alleys saw 108 incidents of violence, 342 drug-related calls, and 89 overdoses. The city's Solid Waste Division spent $234,000 cleaning downtown last year, with roughly $185,000 — about 80% — spent on just two sections of alleyway. Staff identified the alleys between Railroad and Cornwall, and between Holly and Magnolia, as the most problematic. Deputy Police Chief Jay Hart, with 26 years on the force, said conditions are currently the worst he has seen, despite continuous enforcement presence.

How it would work: Gates would be installed and, where possible, left unlocked so that authorized users — businesses, property owners, delivery drivers, sanitation workers, utilities, and emergency personnel — can still access the alleys. The program is explicitly described as experimental and temporary. City staff committed to meeting every two weeks to monitor outcomes and said they would remove gates if unintended consequences outweigh benefits. The longer-term goal is to use the closure period to assess and implement Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) improvements such as lighting and cameras, so that once gates come down the conditions that enabled drug activity do not return.

Key discussion points: Council Member Huthman asked about coordination with SSC (the solid waste hauler); Longman said SSC has responded positively, noting their crews have worried about injuring people near dumpsters, and that the closure period may also allow the city to reduce the number of cans and bins in those alleys. Council Member Lisa Anderson (attending but not a committee member) raised concerns about displacement — the possibility that closing one alley simply moves activity a block away. Longman acknowledged that risk openly, saying the city does not know what will happen and will monitor it closely, but noted that the specific alleys targeted have had deeply entrenched, well-known drug markets for years, and that disrupting those particular nodes may change behavior more broadly. Council Member Stone asked whether alley closure was truly necessary before undertaking CPTED improvements like lighting and cameras, or whether those could go in first. Mayor Kim Lund responded that based on what employees and business owners are reporting — including workers in recovery who are re-traumatized by daily conditions — a respite from the current environment is needed before that kind of assessment work can be done safely and effectively. She also stressed that the enforcement target is predatory drug dealing, not people experiencing homelessness or substance use disorder.

Council Member Williams drew on personal family experience to speak to the importance of disrupting entrenched behavior as a potential pathway toward treatment and recovery, and characterized the measure as consistent with the approach taken with the prior fentanyl ordinance — aimed at disruption rather than mass incarceration. Council Member Huthman offered an extensive list of parallel long-term investments the city has made, including two Portland Loo restrooms downtown, the Way Station hygiene center, the Duwéliχ Wellness Center mobile medical unit, community court and mental health court programs, an upcoming year-round day shelter funded in part by $1 million in state funds, and $15 million in annual housing services spending — framing the alley closure as one short-term, experimental component of a much larger strategy.

Public comment: No public comment was received during the committee meeting (the transcript reflects none was taken at this stage).

Vote: Moved by Council Member Williams, seconded implicitly by the committee. The motion to recommend the ordinance to the full council passed 3–0, with no abstentions or recusals. Council Member Hammill noted it would be brought before the full council that evening.

Key Takeaways

The ordinance gives the city a new tool to temporarily close specific downtown alleys — most immediately two blocks between Railroad/Cornwall and Holly/Magnolia — by gating them off, with access retained for businesses, workers, and emergency personnel.

The data is stark: those two alleyway sections accounted for $185,000 of the city's $234,000 annual downtown cleanup cost, along with 89 overdoses and 108 violent incidents in 2025 alone.

The program is explicitly experimental: staff acknowledged they do not know whether activity will disperse or simply move elsewhere, and committed to biweekly monitoring with the option to reverse course.

Displacement is the central unresolved risk: the committee and staff openly acknowledged that closing these alleys could push drug activity to adjacent areas, and that Bellingham's smaller downtown geography means less room for dispersal than in Seattle.

The committee unanimously supports the measure as one piece of a broader strategy that includes significant investments in housing, services, and treatment — not as a standalone solution to the fentanyl and homelessness crises.

AI-generated summary from voice-to-text transcript. Not the official record. Verify important details with the source documents linked above.

What happened at this meeting

An ordinance regarding temporary alley closures for public health and safety

# Summary: Ordinance Regarding Temporary Alley Closures for Public Health and Safety

Deputy Administrator Forest Longman presented an ordinance to grant the public works director authority to temporarily close alleys in downtown Bellingham (between Railroad and Cornwall, and Holly and Magnolia) on recommendation of the chief of police to disrupt entrenched drug dealing and criminal activity, citing 2025 data showing 108 incidents of violence, 342 drug-related calls including 89 overdoses, and $185,000 of the city's $234,000 annual downtown cleanup costs concentrated in just two alley sections. The proposal includes gated closures retaining access for businesses, property owners, utilities, sanitation, and emergency personnel, with plans to clean and assess alleys and implement crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) improvements such as increased lighting and video cameras; staff intends zero citations through education rather than enforcement. Council members raised concerns about displacement of illegal activity to other areas and questioned whether less restrictive interventions like lighting and cameras could be tried first, but Deputy Chief Jay Hart emphasized the closures are necessary given 26 years of persistent crime despite existing enforcement efforts, while staff acknowledged they would monitor for unintended consequences and do not intend to close multiple alleys sequentially. Council Member Hudman framed the closure as one part of a broader, multi-faceted approach including the Way Station, mobile medical units, community court, and a forthcoming year-round day shelter, with the committee approving the motion unanimously (3-0) to bring it forward to the full council meeting.

Agenda items (1)

Procedural (1)

24867ProceduralAn ordinance regarding temporary alley closures for public health and safety

The city is updating its rules to allow temporary closures of alleys when needed for public health and safety reasons. This ordinance sets out the process and conditions for when alleys can be temporarily blocked off.

What happened

Additional votes recorded in minutes

Recommend approval of ordinance regarding temporary alley closures for public health and safety

aye 3

Daniel Hammillaye

Edwin H. "Skip" Williamsaye

Hollie Huthmanaye

Verbatim transcript available

109 transcript segments indexed

City of Bellingham Public Health, Safety, Justice, and Equity Committee minutes March 23, 2026, 1:00 PM Chair: Daniel Hammill Phone: 360-778-8200 Members: Hollie Huthman, Edwin H. "Skip" Williams Email: ccmail@cob.org Web: cob.org/council City Council committee meetings Standing committee members receive reports and information, ask questions, and vote on a recommended action for consideration by the full Council at the regular meeting.

Good afternoon and welcome back to the Bellingham City Council committee meetings. We're going to start this afternoon with the Public Health, Safety, Justice, and Equity Committee. That committee is chaired by Council Member Hamill.

There is no public comment period during committee sessions. Call to order and roll call Council President Stone called the meeting to order at 1 p.m. Present: Committee Chair Daniel Hammill, Third Ward Committee Member Hollie Huthman, Second Ward Committee Member Edwin H.

So, I'll turn it over to him at this time. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Um, I am joined this afternoon by council members, uh, Skip Williams and, um, Holly Huffman. And we have one item before us.

This is an ordinance regarding temporary alley closures for public health and safety. This ordinance would grant the public works director the authority to close alleys on the recommendation of the chief of police to prevent criminal activity.

"Skip" Williams, Fourth Ward Public Health, Safety, Justice, and Equity 24867 1. An ordinance regarding temporary alley closures for public health and safety Summary: Forrest Longman, Deputy Administrator, presented the ordinance, which allows the public works director to temporarily close alleys at the recommendation of the chief of police to disrupt criminal activity.

Council Members discussed and asked questions. Action: Edwin H. "Skip" Williams moved to recommend approval of the ordinance. MOTION CARRIED 3-0. Adjournment There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 1:34 p.m.

Some alleys present challenges for enforcement um actions against criminal activity because they are narrow, have limited access, and have various impediments to line of sight. This ordinance would provide an additional tool to disrupt the drug dealing and other illegal activity that has become entrenched in some alleys.

And here to take us through is deputy administrator Forest Longman. >> Thank you. Um I have a brief presentation here for you. So, uh, the intent of this alley closure ordinance is, um, to provide the framework for an experimental, targeted, and temporary measure to disrupt the pattern of drug activity that's made some of these alleyways un uh, harmful for everyone, including the people that spend time there.

It's not intended to be punitive towards the people that use that space. It's to remove conditions that allow the dangerous behaviors to take hold and persist. It also provides a respit to the people who work and live adjacent adjacent to these spaces and need to access them on a daily basis.

Wrong keyboard. Um we are pursuing this as an additional tool in our toolbox. Um the mayor's executive order uh it directed staff to address the fentanyl crisis and try and create safe and welcoming spaces in our downtown.

And despite significant investments in our downtown core, um data shows that some of these alleys remain uh areas of high incidence of drug dealing and of overdose overdoses. And the employees who have to be in these areas, the small the people that need to be in these areas, the small business employees, the delivery drivers, um sanitary service drivers are regular exposed to dangerous and threatening activity.

This uh this shows a map of uh of downtown. This is our bike patrol heat map for calls. You can see really hot spots here around the the some of these alleyways uh of most concern. And we also see uh on the right hand side these are cclick fix calls tickets made.

I will note that in 2025 there were 108 incidents of violence in um in a threeb block section of alleyways and 342 drugrelated calls and including 89 overdoses. Additionally, on the on the public works side, last year public works spent $234,000 cleaning uh downtown through our solid waste division.

80% of that or about $185,000 was spent just cleaning up two sections of alleyway. Year-to- date for those sections, um the city spent over $40,000. So again, the goals of this this um new program is to disrupt the entrenched drug dealing and drug use in these specific alleys to provide respit to those business owners and employees who are exposed to those the dangerous conditions and then ultimately to provide a stable environmental alley environment for us to pursue a crime prevention through environmental design or septed improvements uh throughout these alleyways.

Excuse me. Um the ordinance itself allows an alley co closure um at the request of the chief of police to the public works director to then close the alley. It does provide for access to be retained for businesses um for property owners, for vendors, utility, sanitation workers as well as government and emergency personnel.

Um and it makes unauthorized entry a misdemeanor. But the intent of this program is is to be used sparingly. Um, we're not looking to close every single alleyway in downtown, just those where the activities are most critical.

Uh, we would gate and sign these where possible to prevent access. Uh, the gates would ideally, we are hopeful we'll just be able to leave them unlocked so that it people that need to get in, uh, workers or otherwise would just be able to get in without having to deal with a lock.

This is not an intent to criminalize this explicitly. We're hopeful that this would result in zero citations once the gates are closed. Um, you know, when if Seattle has done something similar and when we've traveled and seen in those alleyways, there's just no one in there.

Um, because the people understand when there's gates and fences that those areas are closed. So, you know, ideally, we expect no one to be cited from this to just begin with a um an education campaign when folks are in there.

and we'll be undertaking an ongoing assessment by the staff to monitor these impacts. Uh you know we we don't know exactly what is going to be the outcome of this. This is why we've sort of framing this as an experimental uh undertaking this program.

Um but we want to try something new and this gives us a tool to do so. So, we'll continue to monitor crime rates in these specific alleyways and downtown in general. We're going to be seeking qualitative feedback from businesses, outrage outreach proiders, um, and other downtown stakeholders on a regular basis.

Our team is going to commit to meet, um, every two weeks or so to keep an eye on what's going on down there. I mean, if this the outcome of this is is not what we intended, um, or we're seeing too many unintended consequences, we may have to just change tac and and open the gates back up and take them down.

Um, but ultimately, ideally, we'll we'll be successful in in breaking up this activity uh for a period of time to give a break to those property owners, you know, or those business owners and their employees.

We're hearing that we may be re reaching a tipping point with some of the business owners along these corridors where it's it's so dangerous and feels so unsustainable to them that they may be considering closing their businesses.

And you know, we put a lot of effort into making our downtown um a vibrant place with these amazing small businesses that bring so much to our community and it would just be a real shame to lose them um because they don't feel safe right behind their buildings.

And while the alleys are closed, our intent is to do uh get them back to a ground zero a um nice safe environment and then undertake an assessment to do septed improvements. That could be increased lighting.

Um it could be video cameras. It could be a number of things that we have not yet determined, but we want to get them clear and safe so we can do that assessment um without uh without a bunch of disruption around that.

Um, Deputy Longman, could you just clarify that acronym? >> Sorry. Yeah, I said it early, but yeah, that's the crime prevention through uh environmental design. Yes, thank you. And so, um, that's that's the broad strokes of what we're presenting.

Um, I'm happy to answer any questions. We have some of our our police staff here and I think some of the other team that's been working on this. This has been an effort uh across the our our city team to pull this together.

So, we're happy to answer any questions. Okay, thanks for the presentation. Uh, committee members, council member Huffman, >> thank you. Um, what has the communication been like with SSC or any other providers of services down the alleyway?

Um, how are they reacting to to the um the gates and being able to use the alley still? Yeah, we've we've we have communicated with SSC and they're excited about the prospect of, you know, a big concern for those um SSC is, you know, is there someone in the dumpster when they're trying to empty it out?

Worried someone's going to dart out and they're going to run somebody over. Um and so from what we've heard from them has been very positive feedback. Um and we're working with them to how to make it easier to to um have access.

Maybe a couple of the alleyways we've considered having a little space for them to pull in. Um because of the way that the buildings are adjusted, we might have them go the wrong ways down the alley. Um and so in general, we're hearing very positive things on that.

We've also we hope to take the time of the alley closures to also work with them on trying to do some combined uh billing so we can reduce the number of cans and dumpsters in the alleys. >> Marene, any other questions?

>> Council member Hoffman, >> how often have um our public works staff been cleaning those most problematic alleyways? >> I believe that they clean them weekly. They I mean daily they have a plan deep clean weekly, right?

And then they're in there basically every day responding to CL clicks issues. Yeah. >> Council questions. Council member Anderson. >> So if this gets approved, um we know which ones were strategically looking at because of the um incidents that are happening.

The assumption that I've heard from some of the public is that it's just going to move over a block or another location. Do you have a plan in place um in order to just not move this to another section that other businesses will then have the same outcome?

>> So, we don't know what's going to happen and we're very open about that. Um we've we've talked to some service providers. We've talked to uh our bike patrol. There's a lot of different opinions about what might happen.

Um, and so that's one of those reasons that we're going to keep meeting really regularly to keep an eye on what those unintended consequences are. I can tell you this, we do not intend to just go closing alley after alley after alley downtown.

um you know the specific alleys I think you know between railroad and um Cornwall uh and Holly and a Magnolia there those alleyways have been this entrenched um drug dealing in these areas for quite some time now and part of the issue is just that it's so well known um that we think if we just disrupt that for a period of time um it may change some change some habits um in terms terms of of where people go for that and we don't know where that might be.

Um but we're hopeful that it will at least lessen the impacts for these two blocks and and it may create a major problem somewhere else and if that's the case we'll have to evaluate that when it comes through.

Yeah. I think we also recognize that this doesn't this isn't a problem solver, right? Like we don't think this is going to solve drug problems. It's it's it's creating that respit. Um and it's it's just trying to change some entrenched um illegal activity.

>> Go ahead and follow >> just to follow up. Um one of the thoughts um as we if we go forward with this and close off and then it gives us an opportunity to do an analysis of you know lighting and other strategic to try to not have it return to that area.

Will we be expanding that envelope and looking at other alleys for those strategic uh crime reduction methods in order to make sure the whole alley downtown will benefit? >> Yeah, absolutely. And you know, we've been actively doing that in other alleys as well.

You know, I can point to uh all the great work that's gone into the sunset alley and those murals and the lighting associated with that, the activation. And we'd love to see something like this in our alleys that aren't activated, something like that.

Um but the current conditions just don't allow for that. >> Before I call uh committee members, mayor, go ahead. You know, I think um Deputy Longman has done a a good job laying out some of the basics, but I also think, you know, a lot of our investments downtown, those activation grants that have gone into Sunset Alley and our partnerships, um, you know, with Setting Sun Productions and Paper Whale there.

Um, that is because of our fundamental belief in downtown and our commitment to it as being everyone's neighborhood. And this is also one tool that we see that may be helpful. We will know. We'll be paying attention.

Um but making sure that our public spaces are accessible to all. And that commitment to that neighborhood being everyone's neighborhood. We know the data is very clear in the heat map. The costs for the solid waste removal in that se section of alley.

that is not a space that's accessible for all right now. Um and so part of our goal is is bigger and um in that alignment about our belief in wanting to make sure that downtown feels like it's it's everyone's neighborhood.

>> Thanks, Mayor. Uh Council Member Huffman and then Williams. >> Thanks. Um, is there anything else that you can tell me uh tell us about the experiences that Seattle has had with these programs? Like the concerns about unintended consequences, um, problems moving to other areas of the city, how long they've needed to use um, fencing like this, if it's they've successfully been able to remove it in areas, if there's been followup with with some SEPTAD improvements as you've mentioned.

Um, I don't know anything about their program, so there isn't anything else you can tell us. Yeah, I'll admit we've had a little trouble getting a hold of anybody down there on the on the issue, but I can say from our observations, we've seen that there have been um alleys that have been closed and then reopened.

Um and much of the activity seems to have been dissuaded um from just our non uh our anecdotal experience of of observing that through our team. Um, I will also say that, you know, Seattle's much bigger.

So, when they disrupt an area, you know, that there's a lot of options, more options than than downtown Bellingham for people to go, right? So, uh, that disruption may be less noticeable as being fixated in just another spot.

It may just have more ability to disperse a little bit more. So, we'll see how that manifests itself in in Bellingham. Council member Stone. >> Yeah. One of my questions, I guess, is getting to this point.

If you can speak at all to what other options have been, right, explored that got us to this point because it I mean, we're talking about disrupting really the criminal activity that's taking place. You would hope that, right, law enforcement has tools that um yeah, that they're utilizing to do that work.

And so I think maybe we haven't been brought along on that right journey if there is other things that have been explored prior to getting to this point. >> Yeah. And I'll let maybe our our um police department speak to what activities have been done to try and disrupt um criminal activity down there.

Um I will say from like a a response perspective, you know, we've uh we worked with to get that mobile um opioid treatment center downtown. We helped find that site from them. We've worked really closely with them.

We have the way station that's moved in right downtown. We have we we work we know that our our city funded response teams um are in there in a nearly or outreach teams are in there on a nearly daily basis trying to help uh people find and choose resources.

Um but from a criminal perspective, I'll I'll pass it over to Deputy Chief here. >> Afternoon. Jay Hart, deputy chief of operations for our police department. Um, we believe that this is a very important and necessary step towards increasing public safety downtown.

Um, I've been here for 26 years and in those 26 years, there are alleys downtown that um that have seen high rates of crime continuously and no matter what we've done to try to stop that from happening, it just continues.

um uh we try to be visible and present in those areas and our bike patrol and our officers that work downtown do a very good job of preventing crime and and um and and and stopping crime from happening when they're there.

Uh the problem is is that we can't be there all the time. And so we see this as a really important step towards um towards increasing that safety. >> Committee members, um I'll just add a couple of items here.

So, um, thank you for that that report out. I've actually ridden with the the bike patrol um before men and have been in that alley. I've also walked that alley with outreach workers many times um including DUA each um the mobile uh um unit there that's on floor in Unity.

I just uh texted the um the person who operates that and their census right now is 20 people that actively use that for methadone and suboxone treatment and they have a um a higher census of 40 clients that periodically will access those services there.

Um Mr. Long, you brought up um the way station also point out that Unity Care their main campus is about a block and a half from the end of the alley as we as we know it. Um, what I saw when I walked with the outreach workers was a sort of a mixed reception.

Some people would would take the outreach cards and want to learn more about the the services that the that DeWalt each provides. They also have a facility up on Division Street as well that sees almost probably double that amount of uh clientele.

Um so I I guess there these approaches in terms of enforcement on one side and um trying to provide services uh for those that are immunable to to those services on the other. I I just try to get out of that sort of siloed thinking.

I don't think it's one or the other. I think it's both. we need to be doing um provide as many opportunities um for folks to um to depart from that um that physical location of the alleys because the the drugs are very prevalent there.

Um I guess one of the questions I would have is when you had talked about being here for the duration that you'd been here for 20 plus years, 26 years, how long has that alley been active um in the way that we know it currently?

Currently, it's probably the worst that I've seen. Um, it's always been active, but it's it's it's not good right now. So, we just drove through this morning, in fact, and evidence of drug use and and trash and um it's not not good.

>> Okay. Council member Stone. So I guess as a followup um have there been I guess is the alley closure necessary for I understand there may be additional analysis needed for the you know septed um options or you know design strategies but you think about lighting and cameras and I mean those pieces of infrastructure being able to go up are there things that have prevented us from being able to take those steps in advance to see if there's any impact or is that part of a broader analysis of you know that area.

I'm just wondering if there are other right incremental steps that can be taken in the interim or if the alley closure is necessary and to actually um decide what those next steps are. I would say when we listen to the um businesses and the employees that need um by necessity to receive deliveries, to open up their place of work, um to take out trash or composting during a shift that the closure is necessary for them to like disrupt that entrenched behavior so that that kind of septed work can flow.

right now. I think if we took um you know if we really listen to what we're hearing about what that experience is like, we know we've heard from employees that are in recovery themselves and there's employees um that have had their own traumas in their life um high ACE scores and it's a very challenging place for them to navigate um as they go about trying to do their roles um just trying to um be a good employee or a good small local business owner.

And so I think we're really wanting to be receptive to what we're hearing right now. We've had many years of um you know service providers working um to provide compassionate care um to the people who are spending time in that alleyway and we still see these impacts and what we're hearing is we're at a tipping point where that is not sustainable.

the pace of impacts um for those for those businesses and their employees or the people who live downtown um and navigate that space. Um a respbit is what they're calling for and and we do concur and that creates the space.

Um and our focus when we talk about enforcement, it's enforcement on predatory drug dealing. I want to be clear. This is not about people that are navigating the challenges of substance use disorder. This is not about people who are unhoused.

And I don't want to conflate. This is really the epicenter of illegal and illicit criminal drug dealing in our community. Um it is entrenched and it's also because it's been there so long in such a public invisible way.

It's also where um we know that people are accessing these illegal very harmful substances for the first time. It's clear where you would go if you wanted to um be a customer for the first time in our community.

So we are trying to disrupt that cycle through this action the committee first and then go ahead. The way that I see this is just as you are explaining it. A lot of the feedback that I've gotten or that we have gotten through through the email system and everything else is saying things like this is a sweep.

This is uh this is um taking away their only uh victim's only place of getting any any comfort or what have you. But being a person that has experienced this in my family, I also know that disrupting the behavior and being consistent so that the the um person that is abusing drugs or using drugs can go to somewhere to get the help they need is very very important.

And from what we're hearing and what the mayor has uh just said and everything else, this isn't just like when we passed the fentanyl um ordinance a few years ago. The purpose of that was more to disrupt the behavior, not to put people in jail per se, not to uh take away anything other than we're going to disrupt the behavior and may maybe it will lead to some resolution to some of this.

Um, and I know that's what I heard from all of the businesses back then of um what what they said about the history. The the the history was, "Yeah, we've known people were down here. We knew who they were.

We even sometimes fed them, gave them something, supported some way. But they really drew a picture of how this situation we're in now is so different than 20 years ago or 25 years ago. And when I read this and I hear everything, all this is is a disruption of the behavior.

This isn't we're going to put people in jail unless that is totally necessary or arrest them. So, um I think that it's a it's a pos it it's a good move. It hopefully will lead to some um um resolution and treatment of people who are suffering through these issues.

And it's not going to reach all of them, but some hopefully. So, that's all I need to say about this. And are are we ready to make a motion to accept? I I would move that we um recommend this ordinance.

>> Okay. Uh committee, go ahead. >> Um thank you. I'll be supporting the motion. Uh like DC Hart, I've been witnessing those spots downtown for about 25 years as a frequent downtown person. um day and night.

There's a specific piece of the alley there by the horseshoe that's always been a problem. Um and you know when you have a business or work downtown, you expect a certain level of shenanigans, difficult situations.

Um and we all still love the downtown despite that or sometimes for it. But um this has been particularly rough these last couple years looking down those alleys almost every day. Um I surprised to hear that we're cleaning it every day because it's it doesn't look like it.

Um and deep cleaning once a week. That's that's pretty astounding to hear. Um, I I have talked to over the last couple years actually, I've talked to quite a few employees that work in the businesses along that alley and I've heard some pretty horrific stories.

Weapons, aggressive behavior, biohazards, um, really nothing that people who are working in a food and beverage or downtown retail store should be encountering. Um, not fair to those folks for sure. and and that's really at the forefront of my mind when I'm thinking about um the potential for for how this might give those folks some reprief.

As the mayor mentioned, um they are getting more than their fair share of the challenging situations in our downtown right now for sure. Um, I'm certainly not disillusioned and think that this is going to solve um some of these deeply ingrained societal problems that we're experiencing.

Um, and you know, I I think that sometimes when we're when we're posed a a a um decision like this, um, many people see it as a decision that's made in a silo. And as uh Council Member Williams stated and and you know we've heard a little bit from others, this is really one part of a multitude of tools to address these challenges.

And I think that it's important to remind folks that there are also long-term solutions that we're working on as a community. Um this is a very short-term band-aid solution. It's stated it's temporary.

Um it is stated that it's experimental. It is stated that we know that this this you know the benefits to this are small. Um maybe for the folks that are working in those businesses and alleys, they don't see the benefits as small, but the larger scheme of things.

Um you know, we're we're talking about really big problems here to tackle. And so, you know, thinking about this, I was thinking over some of the things that I've seen improved in my time as a council member um to address those bigger challenges in a more long-term and effective way.

Um we have two Portland Lu's that we have um put into our downtown public restrooms accessible to anybody downtown. the way station um which has hygiene facilities, restrooms, laundry, showers that the um that the county uh has put downtown.

We have um the the partnership with the Dualik Wellness Center um for mobile medical units uh to help address our fentanyl crisis, those experiencing fentanyl or fentanyl opiate addiction um which now they have two locations in Bellingham, one of them being in our downtown.

Um we have the creation of our community court uh which is a therapeutic court in addition to our mental health court. Um that's a new program. We have our partners at the um Czechet health foundation um facilitating the all hands walk opioid summit which has happened the last several years.

a several day gathering of people who have interest and do work in this area um coming together to problem solve and find solutions and move together as a community. Um we have upcoming uh potential day shelter that the city will be standing up which we've received um word that we'll get $1 million from the state for.

So, a year-round day shelter. Um, you know, this not to mention all of the, you know, the $15 million of funding that we spend on housing services and all of the work as outlined in the executive order on housing, the whole other large body of work.

Um, so this is one part of that bigger picture. We can do short-term, we can do long-term at the same time. um 10 $10,000 sounds like a lot to you and me, but in the larger scheme of things, that's not very much when we're talking about some of these much bigger programs and the money that's going towards those and other things that we spend money on in the city.

Um I think that it it's fair for a temporary and experimental solution that will probably mean a whole lot again to the people that are that are working in those businesses along these alleys. So, all this to say, I'll I'll be supporting the motion.

>> Thank you. >> Council President, did you have a comment? >> Um, I can wait till this evening. I know we're at time. >> Further discussion from committee. Uh, mayor, go ahead. >> I just wanted to uh express appreciation for Council Member Hudman's comments just now.

and just making it very clear to the community how we've layered in additional and important supports that we remain committed to. Um those investments and everything that you just identified remain um and those will be in place while um this temporary closure is in effect.

and we remain committed partners and helping um advance work for more upstream solutions. This is just one one thing that we're going to try for um for our downtown right now and we will be paying attention to how it works.

>> Committee further discussion. Motion's been made by Council Member Williams. Um all those in favor signify by saying I. I >> I opposed abstensions, recusals. Motion carries 300. I'll bring it forward tonight.