Seattle Human Services Coalition

11/06/2025

Join SHSC and our member agencies from across Seattle to give public comment tomorrow, 11/6. Virtual comment will be held at 1, and in-person comment, at 5. Register for Public Comment via the link in our bio.

Meet us in the lobby of city hall at 4pm to get your Support Human Services Red Scarf, water, and snacks prior to comment!

You’re limited to 1.5 min for public comment, so we encourage you to share that you support all SHSC’s budget priorities and pick 1-2 of these items that resonate most with your experience to highlight in your public comment:

-Restore funding for senior centers. We appreciate that some funding for senior centers was included in the balancing package. However, the reduction to half of the originally requested $500,000 is deeply disappointing. Support Amendment HSD-047-B-1 and add an additional $250,000 to address the growing needs of the senior community and support the 15 senior centers across our city.
-Protect existing housing and services. Our region risks losing tens of millions in federal funds that keep thousands housed. Prioritize maintaining current housing, shelter, and human services so that no one who is housed today is pushed back into homelessness tomorrow.
-Support survivors of gender-based violence. Gender-based violence is a major driver of housing instability and health crises. Support Amendments HSD-061-A-1, HSD-062-A-1, and HSD-064-A-1 to ensure stable, trauma-informed services for survivors.
-Increase the reserve for federal funding cuts. Support Chair Strauss’ proposal to strengthen the Mayor’s reserve to prevent major disruptions to housing and human services.
-Tenant services to prevent evictions are needed now more than ever, to help people stay housed and weather this storm. Fully restore funding for tenant services that was cut in 2025, with an amendment for an additional $500,000.
-Ensure everyone can put food on the table. While families are cut off of SNAP, we need to protect investments in our food banks and meal programs.
-Stabilize the human services workforce. The sector is facing severe strain. Protect investments in wage equity to help retain skilled staff and strengthen the entire sector.

10/16/2025

Video from last week's packed candidate forum is up! Unsure who to vote for? Watch the video below to learn more about the candidates for Seattle Mayor, City Attorney, and City Council. Make your voice heard by casting an informed vote!

SHSC held its Human Services Candidate Forum at El Centro de la Raza’s Centilia Cultural Center in Beacon Hill on October 9, 2025. The forum was free and open to everyone. It offered voters an opportunity to learn where each candidate stands on important community issues, including homelessness, housing, food insecurity, healthcare access, support for youth and seniors, and ending gender-based violence, among others.

Marcia Wright-Soika, Executive Director of FamilyWorks and co-chair of SHSC’s City Budget Task Force, served as the event’s moderator, guiding the discussion and keeping the conversation focused on key issues. SHSC member organizations prepared questions, and the audience also asked the candidates a handful of questions.

FareStart provided food for the event, and a voter registration table was also on-site.

SHSC thanks its generous sponsors: Ballard Food Bank, Chinese Information and Service Center, Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence, Crisis Connections, El Centro De La Raza, OPEIU Local 8, Pike Market Senior Center and Food Bank, Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, Seattle Women’s Commission, Rainier Valley Food Bank, and University District Food Bank.

SHSC also thanks the wonderful audience members, who were so engaged and provided many of the night’s candidate questions. And thanks to our sign language interpreters, David Smith and Anne Del Vecchio, timekeeper Yamila Sterling, childcare providers B and Kelsey, the many volunteers, including Mockingbird Society Youth, SHSC Co-Chairs Jen Muzia and Amarinthia Torres, and lastly, the incredible Candidate Forum Committee, who spent months organizing the forum.

Lastly, thank you to all the candidates who joined us and shared their visions for a just and thriving Seattle!

*All candidates for the above races were invited to participate*

**As a nonprofit organization, SHSC does not make candidate endorsements or show preference toward any candidate. This effort constitutes nonpartisan voter education allowed under state and federal law to help you evaluate each candidate according to their articulation of their beliefs, policy priorities, and solutions to the challenges of helping Seattle residents reach their full potential.**

SHSC held its Human Services Candidate Forum at El Centro de la Raza’s Centilia Cultural Center in Beacon Hill, on October 9, 2025. The event featured candid...

10/09/2025

Join us TODAY, Oct. 9, for SHSC’s Candidate Forum!

This in-person, human-services-focused candidate forum will feature those running for:

Seattle Mayor | Seattle City Attorney | Seattle City Council D2, P8, and P9 

This public forum is a key opportunity to learn where candidates stand on critical issues impacting our communities. We will be taking audience questions and engaging on the issues that matter most to our members! 

📍El Centro de la Raza – Centilia Cultural Center, Beacon Hill
⏰ October 9, 2025, doors open at 5:30p

✅ Complimentary food & beverages provided by FareStart 

✅ Free childcare for 1-12 yr old

✅ Raffle for a $50 gift card to Tacos Chukis! (Must be present to win!)

✅ Just steps from the light rail station!

✅ ASL interpretation services provided

✅ Voter registration and community resources

We’re thrilled to announce that this year’s forum will be moderated by Marcia Wright-Soika, Executive Director of FamilyWorks, and co-chair of SHSC’s City Budget Task Force.

Thank you to our generous sponsors: Ballard Food Bank, Chinese Information and Service Center, Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence, Crisis Connections, El Centro De La Raza, OPEIU Local 8, Pike Market Senior Center and Food Bank, Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, Seattle Women’s Commission, Rainier Valley Food Bank, and University District Food Bank.

Please RSVP in advance (link in bio) to help us plan for food, childcare, and seating. If you can’t RSVP, you’re very welcome to walk in and join us.

Invite your friends, colleagues, and networks. Every attendee helps inform our community—help spread the word about the candidate forum on Oct. 9!

As a nonprofit organization, SHSC does not make candidate endorsements or show preference toward any candidate. This effort constitutes nonpartisan voter education allowed under state and federal law to help you evaluate each candidate according to their articulation of their beliefs, policy priorities, and solutions to the challenges of helping Seattle residents reach their full potential.

—

Address:
El Centro de la Raza’s
Centilia Cultural Center in Beacon Hill
1660 South Roberto Maestas Festival Street

10/08/2025

THIS THURSDAY, Oct. 9, Human Services Candidate Forum. RSVP today!

This in-person, human-services-focused candidate forum will feature those running for:

Seattle Mayor | Seattle City Attorney | Seattle City Council D2, P8, and P9

This public forum is a key opportunity to learn where candidates stand on critical issues impacting our communities. We will be taking audience questions and engaging on the issues that matter most to our members!

📍El Centro de la Raza – Centilia Cultural Center, Beacon Hill

⏰ October 9, 2025, doors open at 5:30 PM

✅ Complimentary food & beverages provided by FareStart

✅ Free childcare for 1-12 yr old

✅ Voter registration and community resources

We’re thrilled to announce that this year’s forum will be moderated by Marcia Wright-Soika, Executive Director of FamilyWorks, and co-chair of SHSC’s City Budget Task Force.

Thank you to our generous sponsors: Ballard Food Bank, Chinese Information and Service Center, Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence, Crisis Connections, El Centro De La Raza, OPEIU Local 8, Pike Market Senior Center and Food Bank, Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, Seattle Women’s Commission, Rainier Valley Food Bank, and University District Food Bank.

Please RSVP in advance to help us plan for food, childcare, and seating. If you can't RSVP, you are still welcome to walk in and join us.

Invite your friends, colleagues, and networks. Every attendee helps inform our community. Please help spread the word about the candidate forum on Oct. 9.

As a nonprofit organization, SHSC does not make candidate endorsements or show preference toward any candidate. This effort constitutes nonpartisan voter education allowed under state and federal law to help you evaluate each candidate according to their articulation of their beliefs, policy priorities, and solutions to the challenges of helping Seattle residents reach their full potential.

—

Address:
Centilia Cultural Center in Beacon Hill
1660 South Roberto Maestas Festival Street

The Seattle Human Services Coalition officially invites you to the 2025 Human Services Candidate Forum on Thursday, October 9th!

09/22/2025

Join us on October 9 for our Human Services Candidate Forum, where we will host candidates for Mayor, City Attorney, and City Council. RSVP today!

Questions for the forum have been prepared by our member organizations, but we are also encouraging questions from the audience.

Food will be provided by FareStart. Childcare services and sign language interpretation will be available, and a voter registration table will be on-site.

This event is free and open to the public and helps educate voters about each candidate’s positions on the issues facing our communities. These issues include homelessness, housing, food insecurity, access to quality healthcare, support for youth and seniors, and ending gender-based violence, among others.

The forum will be moderated by Marcia Wright-Soika, Executive Director of FamilyWorks, and co-chair of SHSC’s City Budget Task Force.

Thank you to our generous sponsors: Crisis Connections, Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence, Ballard Food Bank, University District Food Bank, Pike Market Senior Center and Food Bank, Chinese Information and Service Center, Rainier Valley Food Bank, and El Centro De La Raza.

Address:
El Centro de la Raza’s
Centilia Cultural Center in Beacon Hill
1660 South Roberto Maestas Festival Street

Doors open at 5:30 PM; the program runs from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.

We encourage you to RSVP, but walk-ins are welcome.

We invite you to bring friends and networks and help spread the word for the Oct. 9 candidate forum!

The Seattle Human Services Coalition officially invites you to the 2025 Human Services Candidate Forum on Thursday, October 9th!

07/22/2025

Election news: City of Seattle Candidates Respond to Human Services Survey — SHSC to Host General Election Candidate Forum.

In early July, SHSC sent a 20-question human services-focused survey to candidates running for Seattle Mayor, City Attorney, and City Council. Our 2025 Candidate Questionnaire allows candidates to share their views on important human services issues in Seattle, helping residents make informed decisions when they cast their votes. Visit the link below to read the candidates’ responses.

And, mark your calendars! With the help and support of our sponsors, , , , , , and , SHSC will host candidates running in the general election at our 2025 Candidate Forum. The event will be held on October 9, 2025, at El Centro de la Raza’s Centilia Cultural Center in Beacon Hill. Audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions related to human services and social justice.

This will be a live, in-person event where the top two candidates from each race, who advance past the primary, will connect with voters and share their vision for human services in Seattle.

If you or your organization is interested in co-sponsoring this event, please message us.

https://www.shscoalition.org/2025-candidate-forum-questionnaire?fbclid=PAQ0xDSwLs2k9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABp1T6s1wzCLW8_6NW-XY4_bYCz_y0N030Y9zdosZ157alUVpgyN6d8tu6dcXl_aem_I0VmYsNNfJOG9G88ml-QHg

07/02/2025

“As the City of Seattle currently faces a $251 million budget deficit and the Trump administration proposes further cuts to the social safety net, the Seattle Shield Initiative seeks to preserve critical funding for essential human service programs, including food access and gender-based violence services.

See what providers at , , , and have to say about the progressive revenue proposal announced last week.” - Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck.

(Reposted - thank you, .amr !)

06/17/2025

Join us this month, June 20, for our quarterly book club!

We are reading Ruin Their Crops on the Ground, by Andrea Freeman. The first and definitive history of the use of food in American law and politics as a weapon of conquest and control, a Fast Food Nation for the Black Lives Matter era.

In 1789, to subjugate Indigenous tribes, George Washington ordered his troops to “ruin their crops on the ground and prevent them planting more.” Destroying the sources of food is just one way that the United States has used nourishment as a political tool.

Please mark your calendars for this important discussion! RSVP via this link: https://linktr.ee/seattlehumanservicescoalition?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=27ba5ab6-899a-439e-a174-435a87e20076

06/17/2025

You’re Invited: June General Membership Meeting! RSVP for the June 25th meeting here: https://linktr.ee/seattlehumanservicescoalition?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=27ba5ab6-899a-439e-a174-435a87e20076

We will be joined by members of the City Budget Task Force and learn about the budget process, how we work alongside HSD, and other important updates to SHSC.

You are a vital part of the work we do and how we do it, and it is important that we hear from you! Join us IN PERSON on June 25, from 10:00AM-12:00PM at the Ballard Library.

This meeting is open to all member organizations of SHSC. If you are a member of one of our member coalitions, your organization qualifies for membership in SHSC. Please RSVP via the link in our bio, so we know how many to expect!

06/11/2025

We need your voices for our Federal Funding Loss Survey! Visit the link below to add yours today.

We are working in tandem with city, county, and statewide partners to develop a comprehensive picture of the effects of threatened federal funding cuts to the human service agencies in our region. Part of this effort will be to gather the information regarding how much each agency relies on direct federal funding, and how much is pass through or indirect funding, as well as non-funding resources such as volunteers, housing vouchers, etc.

We need your voices to be the centerpiece of this effort, which will culminate in a presentation to the Seattle City Council Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes on July 18.

This data will be used to do the following:

1. To advocate for increases in funding at the city, county, and state levels to offset the losses we experience from the federal level.

2. To prepare our sector for the eventual impacts of this funding loss, to develop mutual partnerships and opportunities for cross-agency collaboration that may lessen the severity of these impacts.

Please follow the link below to fill out the survey no later than June 27. It will ask for you to give an overview of the amount of funding you receive from federal direct funding sources, as well as the percentage of funding from other sources. This will help put together a overall picture of the funding in our region, and where gaps will exist if the threatened federal cuts are enacted.

Your voices are vital to protecting human service investments in our community.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNI1g-nF-Tk1z24PsvpHdzzQLYe5XMMKLR9jfeorrf9gCjHw/viewform