Seattle City Councilmember Tanya Woo is drumming up community support with a slew of new budget amendments for 2025-26, putting a spotlight on improving drug diversion services, sanitation, and library resources, among others. Woo, proudly representing Position 8, praised Budget Chair Dan Strauss for his collaborative efforts, emphasizing the importance of addressing the 'unmet needs' of communities, according to a statement from the Seattle City Council's official announcement.
In a notable community-centric push, the CO-MADE program, short for Community Organizing, Mutual Aid, and De-Escalation, is set to receive $279K, drawing from Woo's experiences in CID to foster neighborhood-based safety initiatives, the program will lean on locals to bolster security through training and best practices – offering a grassroots solution to an oft-cited concern, the announcement outlined a comprehensive array of achievements advocated by Woo's office that includes a hefty $4 million slated for youth affordable housing, earmarked particularly for tenant improvements at YouthCare’s Constellation Center on Capitol Hill to serve recently unhoused youth.
Public safety also gets a $1 million nod, with Woo's proposed amendments set to expand drug-diversion services and appoint safety ambassadors to protect commuting children and elders in communities like CID and Little Saigon, not to mention the additional $238K for targeted sanitation in Little Saigon and another $100K boosting drug diversion and outreach. The Councilmember has not overlooked the arts, securing a $500K fund to support Bumbershoot's Workforce Development program for young adults in the music industry, in tandem with ensuring that Admissions Tax funding remains within the Office of Arts & Culture, safeguarding arts programs' future funding opportunities.
The budget decisions extend further into community support, channeling $800K into workforce and small business development in the Duwamish Valley, $300K to empower refugee women through organizations like Lake City’s Refugee Artisan Initiative; and establishing measures to protect legacy homeowners from predatory real-estate practices. Libraries too are beneficiaries in Woo's vision, with a proposed $30K amendment designed to prevent cuts to Seattle Public Libraries, particularly in their acquisitions of magazines, newspaper subscriptions, and reference books, a move that may foster more informed communities engaged with the broader narrative of our times.
